Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
There has to be a more defining definition of 'abortion.' Because we don't KNOW when the fetus becomes a human, I would argue that we should fall on the safe side, or at least try too, and create some sort of standard for late term abortions.
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For one thing, you're actually on the pro-choice side; you already think that abortion is acceptable, you're just quibbling on the details. If you think that people like you are representative of the pro-life/anti-abortion movement, I'm sorry but that is just wrong. Being personally against abortion but unwilling to force that opinion on other people IS being pro-choice - you feel that you don't have the right to decide for others.
For another, you are assuming that there is some definable moment when a fetus becomes a human being, but this is not something that happens in the sense of a phase change where one thing turns into another, and thus it is not that we don't KNOW - it's that it is unknowable and pretty well a meaningless question because "human" is not an inherent and objective quality but rather bound up in the point of view of a particular observer.
For the purposes of the state (the ultimate disinterested observer), a human is what the law defines as human. If I make the law that after 6 months, you are committing murder by abortion except in carefully defined situations, that is just as valid as your 4 month limit, or someone else's 7 or 5 or 0 month limit. We are not arguing about some "true" definition of human, we are arguing the justifications behind law, and in that sense it is indeed relevant to decry the attempt to force religious morality upon people who don't share that religion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure
Is there a reason, outside of risk to the mother....to abort a fetus anytime after 4 months assuming the mother knows she is pregnant at 3 months?
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Why does there have to be a reason? Does there have to be a reason at 3.5 months? What is the magic of the number 4? As I said previously, the only reason six months is a common term is that it is possible a fetus can survive after delivery then, and thus the line between fetus and baby is nothing more than location, which hardly seems a sufficient reason to deny the right to life.
For the record, I personally don't approve of abortion because I feel that it is a symptom of a society that does not value children appropriately - an ideal society would neither stigmatize unmarried mothers nor allow children to suffer for the mistakes of their parents. However, since we don't live (and aren't ever likely to live) in such a society, I understand that I have no right to impose my opinion on anyone who feels that abortion is necessary for her because I am not the one who has to deal with the consequences of that decision.