Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Abortion - was Missouri Young Republicans?

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote:

> I see this issue as being as vital and important as the slavery issue 
> 150 years ago (an issue in which the Republicans also took the "right" 
> side against the Democrats).  Indeed it is interesting that such 
> reformers as Susan B. Anthony, as well as fighting for the rights of 
> women, were also strongly abolishonist, and pro-life, seeing all issues 
> as equally involving the rights of people (women, black people, unborn 
> babies respectively).

Interesting.


> What really brings home the abortion issue to me is a story I remember a 
> few years ago where some kids murdered their baby just after it was 
> born.  There was a great sense of outrage around the country as these 
> people were brought to justice.  On the other hand, if they had more 
> sense, they could have had a legal abortion a few weeks earlier, and 
> no-one apart from a few deomonstrators outside the abortion clinic would 
> have been bothered.  I can see no moral difference between aborting the 
> baby and waiting until it is born before killing it - yet the laws in 
> this country differ very widely.

I think we see the problem in much the same way but have different views. 
Looking at the end of gestation, there is obviously a major problem in 
distinguishing abortion from infanticide -- ultimately, they are the same 
thing!  At the early end of gestation, it is difficult to distinguish 
contraception (e.g., birth control pills) from abortions.  Where can lines 
be drawn and how can we make rational choices about laws?

Here's what I think (and I don't expect you to agree):  We can allow 
abortion before a fetus has reached the stage of viability (prior to 20 
weeks, say) because it is still fully dependent on the mother and not an 
independently-functioning being.  A woman should have the right to end her 
pregnancy.  After 20 weeks, the fetus is viable and should not be aborted 
unless it is seriously ill or deformed, or the life of the mother is in 
jeopardy.  Women who want abortions will have to have them early enough 
and if they wait too long, they will have to put their babies up for 
adoption if they don't want them.  That seems reasonable to me.  If we 
allow early deliveries of premature babies, we'll suffer a huge burden of 
medical costs and infant illness.

Mike
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