Matt Z wrote:
Elective third-trimester abortions may be rare, but they shouldn't happen at all.
Meanwhile, sperm may be alive, but it's not exactly human. It only has half as many chromosomes as a blood cell or skin cell.
Likewise, I wouldn't tell anyone what they can and can't do with their body. However, a fetus isn't a body part, it's a human life. The mother and fetus don't even share blood.
The problem is when late term abortion comes up, one side says ban them all, the other side says we need to allow for medical problems, the first side says that is a loop hole it's not acceptable. Nobody agrees so it dies. That's why it exists.
I really don't think having all the chromosomes is a good criteria. when the brain forms at the end of the first trimester might be a good criteria. Or maybe a little later when it is more developed.
Different people have a different belief about it. It's a personal thing.
When the child is in the woman's body she should have a choice about it. In the vast majority of cases, it is a young girl who can't raise a child, and she is very scared. Legislating this is not the way to go about this.
Sex education and contraceptives are the way to solve this. There also needs to be quick easy access to abortion so if a woman is going to do that, she does it early on.
Woman generally want to have the abortion as soon as they find out if that is what they want to do. The whole reason to do that rather than adopt, is because they know they don't want it and they don't want to be pregnant. Being pregnant for several months defeats the one of the main points for elective abortion.
Delay tactics are 1 small reason why abortions happen later. But the main reason is there is some kind of complication. It may be something that sounds like an acceptable risk to a lot of people, but maybe to this girl, it does not sound acceptable.
You also don't want to create a black market. That never works.
So like I said, legislation is not the answer. The answer is to prevent unwanted pregnancy with education and contraceptives.
Besides the abortion issue, kids need to know about sex and the sort of feelings they will start having. They need to learn about preventing disease, holding off until they are sure they are ready for sex and not just rushing into it. Keeping them in the dark and telling them to say no doesn't work. If it did our species would not be here be talking about this.