The Supreme Court of India has just sentenced a man to life in prison because he forced his girlfriend to undergo an abortion.

According to a LifeNews.Com report, a man there impregnated his girlfriend. He insisted she abort the child. She refused. He then took the woman to a local pharmacist, a friend of his, during which visit the pharmacist put her under anesthesia and performed the abortion. What is particularly interesting about this story is that the charge leveled at the boyfriend was not performing an “illegal abortion” because the pharmacist was not a licensed abortionist. Rather, the life sentence was handed down for the specific crime of aborting a child without the mother’s consent.

Many of our readers may think this story extreme, perhaps on a couple levels. First, some might think a life sentence too harsh. Others might think that coercion really ought not be a crime in the first place, or that this instance of coercion is too extreme to serve as any kind of public policy guide for treating the problem of coercion.

We would disagree on both counts, and suggest that part of the problem is that the daily pummeling from a pro-abort media has twisted our sensibilities; even pro-Lifers are inclined to accept the embedded premise.

If, for example, we really believe abortion is the killing of an innocent human being, than why would a life sentence be extreme?

And why shouldn’t a person be prosecuted for forcing – either through physical or emotional abuse or economic pressure – a woman to participate in the killing of her own child?

Let’s take a look at the closely-related crime of extortion. A person uses verbal abuse, and threats of kicking out on the street, an elderly relative unless they sign over their life insurance benefits to that relative with whom they live. Anyone can spot the crime of extortion – and rightly conclude that such coercion is not just immoral, but illegal. It is theft by a different name.

Idaho law provides for the prosecution of such thievery. But no protection exists for the woman or girl threatened with any number of sanctions unless she agrees to kill her own child. And it happens more often than you might care to believe.

Could it be that we as a society value money more than the human victims, both baby and mother, pummeled by the employer or boyfriend or spouse?