I think if you asked them what the penalty should be for doctors who perform abortions you would get much more definitive responses with severe punitive recommendations. I doubt if they would extend that same Christian humility. One of the underlying rationales for banning abortion is that the women don't know what harm they do to themselves. But doctors, they will argue, should know better. It's patronizing.

...it should be capital punishment! ;-) (<-- since it seems people don't get it when I'm being ironical, this is a mark for it.)
I'd be interested to know, however, whether the same people who are opposed to abortion are in favour of capital punishment...

Just an example to toss out there - in "liberal" New York state, if a doctor performs an abortion on a woman in the third trimester and the abortion is not necessary to attempt to save the woman's life, it's a class D felony (Abortion in the First Degree).  Up to seven years in jail.  It's a crime if the woman performs a "self-abortion" on herself in similar circumstances, but only a misdemeanor.  Says interesting things about where they want to place blame.

And if the woman dies in such a case (regardless of malpractice or not), the doctor is guilty of first degree manslaughter.  That's the same crime if you catch your spouse in bed with someone else, freak out, and shoot him or her.  Decade plus in jail. 

wants to make abortions illegal, and the problem is to figure out the most applicable punishment for women who abort their pregnancy, Jill Filipovic asks:

If the anti-choice's argument is that a fetus is a person with full DNA etc., then abortion is technically murder, and isn't the punishment for murder often life in prison, sometimes even execution? Should we execute women who have abortions?

Dan Freeman commented above on the possible persecution of doctors who perform abortions. Filipovic addresses this issue:

Some anti-choicers argue that doctors should be punished, not women. So I'll ask this:

How much time should doctors do?

Do you support executing doctors who perform abortions?

Do you support jailing them for life? For a few decades?

Where does it end? 

If a fertilized egg is a full-fledged person under the law, what other legal activities -- other than abortion -- would have to go? We know that most "pro-life" groups already oppose fertility treatments and the use of contraception. Would we make those things illegal? What would the punishment be?
 

 im a hard core pro-life myself and i have to tell you that yes abortion is murder so i think the women should be held responsable for it... they are the ones asking to perform abortions on themselves right? and the doctors should be punished as well because they are actually performing the murder but with a lesser charge.. because it wasnt the doctor's idea... is like a hiring a hitman... so i would say for the woman who perform abortion the punishment should be like for murder life in prision or death penalty and for the doctors a couple years in prision for helping them in such a henious crime!! is just fair

I know that sometimes a women has abortion because they panic and or decieved into believing this is the only option for me. I doubt abortion doctor is going to even mention adoption has a option. I doubt George Tiller did because he made money off aborting unborn babies. George Tiller know very well that abortion is something that can scare women, mentally, physically and have health problems. He only wanted to make money. I'm strongly pro-life male but I also understand when a women panics and get a abortion there will be guilt for the rest of her life. Even if the women didn't panic and purposely wanted to get abortion, she may exerience regert and quilt. Sometimes she is pressuared by a male, family member to get a abortion. I'm so glad that there pregrency centers that offer post abortion consuelling to women that regret their decison. One center is care net. This is a christian organization that runs these centers. I'm sure are other centers that maybe ran by Jewish organizations, other religions or even religious affliation.  I understand that women sometimes panic so they get a abortion or use the abortion pill. They end regretting it lot. They are never told about adoption. Let's be real, you think abortion doctor is going to mention the idea of adoption automatically, no.

If a women is scared believing this there only option then sadly, she makes the wrong decison. If she was told about adoption then she would be more likely to put the child up for adoption. A woman goes to a pregrency, she is more likely to keep the child or put the child up for adoption. I'm disturbed by abortion and it is sickening to me unborn babies are aborted. It also sickening to the abortion industry lies to women about abortion being safe and having no mental affects if the procedure is perfomed by pill or surgical. A women who panics does not alway think rational and I doubt abortion provider like Planned Parenthood is automatically going to mention adoption has alternative. If adoption was heavy funded by the government so that Women where scared or panic would know that would be a better option. If abortion was illegal if for rare cases like Life death of mother, then adoption would need to be funded a lot so that women who panic about being pregreant would not result to back ally abortionists. We do need to push adoption a lot more. I have never heard a single women that regreted putting there child for adoption. I have heard and read a lot stories about women, who regret thier abortions whether it is the pill or surgical.

I'm not sure it would the best decison to throw a woman is prison or use the death pentaly on them even if it was illegal. They should be offered consuelling because maybe they regret. The doctor should be held accountable and so should abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

While we're at it, why don't we jail the man who inpregnated the female.  I mean, he obviously did or said something that drove the woman into the state where she thought the murder of her own child was something reasonable.  I say we give him 10 to life as well.  And if the woman's parents raised her in such a way that she had issues related to men and/or sex, put them away too!  We can have all these bad influences out there on our streets.  Our streets!  What about the children!?!