His second reason is also extremely weak, and it gets to the heart of a deep-rooted hypocrisy within the mainstream prolife movement. Shapiro says these women don’t have the mens rea (Latin for “guilty mind”), or intent, that the prosecution must demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt. Is that really the case? Most states use the Model Penal Code to determine mens rea. Its first classification of intent is “acting purposely” where “the defendant had an underlying conscious object to act.”

Obviously, if abortion were to be legally categorized as murder, a mother who orders the hit on her preborn child fits this definition of intent. A minority of states do employ a “malice distinction,” where the stricter definition is “Express malice,” in which the crime is committed “with the deliberate intent to bring harm to the victim.” Here again, it seems clear that someone who commissions the destruction of a preborn person has demonstrated “express malice.”