There is one question that tends to silence even the most vocal of abortion opponents:

“How much time should she do?”

An obvious question, but it’s seldom asked, and even less often answered. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, and abortion became a criminal act, there must be a penalty.

So, who is punished? And how much prison time?

Some states, including Ohio, have already attempted to pass an anti-abortion law that would send only the doctor to prison. This suggests that women who choose to end unplanned pregnancies are not really making decisions for their own lives but are just hapless victims of conniving evil-doers. What a creative twist in our long tradition of treating women as something less than fully human. We go from chattel to lemmings.

Nearly two dozen states already have laws that would outlaw abortion if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Almost none penalize the women who have the abortions. Small wonder. Lawmakers know that most Americans, including their voting constituents, could not stomach putting a woman behind bars for ending her pregnancy. Most understand that this is a deeply personal decision.

This reality of political life is illustrated in a YouTube video of interviews with protestors outside an abortion clinic in Libertyville, Ill. One after another the protestors are asked what the penalty should be for women who get abortions, and one after another, they stammer and stare.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I hadn’t thought about that,” one woman said.

“Just pray for them,” said another woman. “I don’t think they should be punished.”

“They are punished enough,” said yet another. “Their punishment is upon them.”

The protestors’ indecision is understandable. It’s also inexcusable if they’re insisting that abortion become illegal.

Doctors, scientists and theologians disagree on when life begins, so it’s doubtful we’ll ever reach a consensus. There is no wiggle room for fuzziness about the penalties, though, if abortion becomes a crime.

One pro-choice group has decided to force this conversation, and in Ohio and Wisconsin, it will be more difficult to avoid it. From now until Election Day, many television viewers will see a 30-second video in which one woman after another lines up for the flash of a police mug shot. The tagline reads: “How much time should she do?”

The ad is produced by the Winning Message Action Fund, and it is a jarring reminder of what is at stake for women in this presidential race. The next president will likely nominate at least two, probably more justices to the Supreme Court, and John McCain and Sarah Palin have vowed to make overturning Roe v. Wade a priority.

“We’re at a threshold,” the Fund’s director, Kelli Conlin, said. “The next president will nominate someone who either supports or opposes abortion rights. It’s a very stark choice. . . (M)any conservatives see a chance to actually overturn Roe, and they don’t want to talk about the penalties because there’s a disconnect. But there are ramifications for criminalizing the procedure.”

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio is one of the groups around the country helping to disseminate the video’s message. Executive director Kellie Copeland welcomes the ad campaign here. She has led the effort to defeat two proposed abortion bans in Ohio’s state legislature in the last three years, and she sees no end in sight.

“We have a pro-choice governor right now, but one man is not a good plan to keep abortion legal,” Copeland said. “For so long, abortion opponents have been able to say, ‘We want to overturn Roe v. Wade, end of conversation.’ But that’s not the end of the story.”

The final chapter in that story has to begin with one question:

How much time should she do?

To view the ad: www.howmuchtime.org.

To view the Libertyville video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6t_tdOkwo

Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and the author of two books from Random House: "Life Happens" and "… and His Lovely Wife." To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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