La Shawn asked an interesting question this morning. If you were arguing for (or against) the ban on abortion, what arguments would you put forth to defend your case?

I would LOVE to see all of your thoughts on this! (I gave my answer in her comment section and copied them below the “more” over here if you’re curious.) Head on over there now and put in your two bits, mmkay?

Oh wow. I don’t know how accurate my legalese will be this early in the morning. I do think it’s important to remember that before Roe, abortion was legal, to various degrees, depending upon the laws of the state you lived in. In NY, for example, the laws were extremely liberal, where as in TX (where Roe began) the law stated that abortion was only an option when medical experts verified that the life of the mother was in danger.

Linda Coffee and Sarah Weddington argued that if a woman wanted to kill her child, she shouldn’t have to stand in front of a panel of medical experts to do so.

The court decided that though the constitution never mentions a “right to privacy” exactly, surely the founding fathers meant to put it in there. Seeing as how they had written rights to all this other stuff. (perhaps they just forgot.)

They also decided that the word “person” does not apply to someone who has not passed through the birth canal yet. (there by creating the idea that a someone’s person-hood can be defined by their geography.)

Roe also had all sorts of thoughts about “viability” and so forth. They decided that, because, at that time, a child couldn’t survive outside of it’s mother before a certain stage, that the child should be allowed to be killed if the mother saw fit to do so. Of course, medical technology being what it is, “viability” is being defined earlier and earlier in the pregnancy. (correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the earliest a child has been born and survived was at 18 weeks gestation. During the time of Roe, that age was around 24 weeks.)

These days, of course, even abortionists will admit that life begins at conception. However, in their mind, “that tiny little life” is not worth saving if the mother decides “she needs” the abortion.

Doe vs Bolton later expanded on these definitions of person-hood and gave us ladies the right to kill a child all the way up until birth. The so called “right to privacy” apparently means that even if a child’s last little toe is still inside the mother’s body, the baby is not legally a “person” and can therefore be killed. But as soon as the baby is fully removed (there’s that geography thing again) then the baby is (supposedly) entitled to all rights and privileges of a full fledged adult.

yea for infanticide.