Xequecal wrote:
Yes, it would. If you have a medical license, and perform the abortion according to established guidelines for late-term abortions, it's the crime of "providing an abortion after 24 weeks," IE not murder. If you don't have a license or don't adhere to the guidelines, it's murder. The first crime is the one they even charged his female assistant with. Of course, even if he had a license he's still be going away for life for all the other hygiene and practical issues, (a patient died in his office, remember) but the abortions would not be murder.
I think part of the issue here, is if he'd adhered to established guidelines for late-term abortions, many or most of these so-called "abortions" would never have been performed at all. He took cases other clinic were rejecting, because in most places you don't abort after a certain point in the pregnancy unless there is a clear threat to the mother's health, and have independant unaffilliated doctors signing off on it with you.