Attack at Planned Parenthood Clinic

[Mudhammam]

I certainly don't care what a woman does with her body, though at some point when her pregnancy is far enough along that the fetus is viable I do think there is an ethical dilemma.

And anti-choicers bank on that ethical dilemma when they force through legislation making it harder and harder for women to have abortions prior to fetal viability.  They close down clinics and implement ridiculous requirements for the remaining clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers and for physicians performing the procedures to have admitting privileges at hospitals as a way of making it difficult for women to get the procedure done before the fetus can survive outside the womb.  And once that magic line is crossed, they then demonize the woman for wanting to kill a baby that could survive if she would only just give birth to it.

Sure, but don't confuse fanatics who use religion or their bully pulpit with those who have legitimate concerns about the treatment of human life, particularly such that can be justifiably considered persons and may even deserve some protection - if not under the law, at least in the battle of ideas. If you think that a woman who carries the human being inside of her to the point of viability, and then decides to kill it, is guilty of a moral atrocity, then the issue is no more about demonization in that instance as it would be in any other wherein a person kills another person for some reason. If you think demonization would be appropriate in the case that a person killed another without justification, then you're special pleading by demanding that this one situation be excepted. 

United States Constitution
Amendment XIII

Section 1.

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

By telling women that by becoming pregnant they effective lose their right to make decisions about their own body, you are turning them into people under involuntary servitude to the baby growing inside them.  You are effectively turning them into slaves.

United States Constitution
Amendment XIV

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Unborn fetuses are not legally considered citizens of the United States, so when you say that a pregnant woman loses the right to make decisions about her own body once pregnant in deference to the baby growing inside her, you are taking rights away from a recognized citizen and giving rights to a baby who is not a citizen, has no legal standing and who, for 24-28 of the 40 weeks we're talking about, cannot even independently survive (depending on the developmental maturity of the baby)

If you don't want to have an abortion, don't have one.

If you think it's wrong to abort a pregnancy, fine, nobody is stopping you from having that opinion.

But do not shame women for having to make an incredibly difficult decision.  Do not take away their choice about what happens to them.  Do not shackle them to the medical consequences of a pregnancy against their will.  Don't tell them it's only nine months and they can put it up for adoption once its born like it's easy to go to work with morning sickness and fatigue, like it's easy to be a single pregnant woman or a married mother who knows she can't afford another child, like it's easy to be reminded every day that you were raped.

Women have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies.

Everyone has the right to decide what happens to their own bodies.

I have the right to decide what happens to my body.

Do not take my rights away.

When it comes to moral issues, I don't really care what legal status a person has. To kill a non-citizen without justification is not somehow less of a crime than it is to kill a legal citizen. If a fetus is developed to the point that it has all of the biological equipment required for its survival outside of the womb, then it's own body ought to be considered along with it's mother's, regardless if one has citizenship while the other doesn't. Of course an abortion for the vast majority constitutes an incredibly difficult decision, and since we are talking about terminating a human being in its early stages of development, that's absolutely the way it should be. That sexual intercourse practiced irresponsibly can easily result in the conception of a human life should also be taken seriously, and the decision to engage in such behavior without taking the necessary precautions such as birth control, the morning after pill, condoms, or - my favorite - the pullout method, should also be incredibly difficult for any person who has no desire to bring another life into the world. If it was all about you and your body, there would be no debate to be had. It's also about the child and his/her body. Don't take their rights away - and I don't mean the rights that depend on recognition from the state.