A fetus is distinctly different from a full-term newborn. I don't deny that a fetus is human, of course it is. A woman does not become pregnant with a cat or a salamander, but a human.
However, a fetus is incapable of sustaining its own life, in terms of having its own blood supply (meaning enough blood), getting nourishment, getting oxygen, etc., in terms of possessing the basic life systems enabling it to support and keep itself alive. This is deficient in comparison to a newborn that can breathe on its own, suckle and get food without inhaling and taking the food into its lungs. Hell, newborns even demonstrate they can move to reach a food source. Go to YouTube and search for "breast crawl." You'll find videos of newborns laid on their mother's stomachs crawling up her chest to her breasts and latching on to eat. In this sense, providing food for a newborn (breast or bottle) is very different than providing food for a severely premature infant, which requires medical intervention.
The earliest a fetus can be born and have even a 50/50 chance of survival is about 24 weeks gestation. Up to that point, there's nothing anyone can do, even the best neonatal doctors and hospitals in the world. In my view, up to this point the fetus is solely the mother's responsibility and burden. It is her decision to allow this life to grow and develop inside of her body, or not.
I'm all for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. I say unwanted instead of unplanned, because an unplanned pregnancy isn't necessarily an unwanted one. I am not in favor of women using abortion as a form of birth control. This is almost impossible to police, though. Women who have multiple abortions thinking there are no consequences are mistaken, a woman's future fertility and ability to carry a pregnancy to term is effected by receiving multiple abortions. However, all forms of contraception have some percentage of failure. This means, even in cases where a woman has had a tubal ligation, there are some women who will still be able to get pregnant. Women get pregnant on every form of birth control, including IUD's (which often leads to miscarriage). We need better contraception. I think a very promising form is currently being developed. It's a shot for men that causes their testes to stop making sperm. It's still in development though.
However, a fetus is incapable of sustaining its own life, in terms of having its own blood supply (meaning enough blood), getting nourishment, getting oxygen, etc., in terms of possessing the basic life systems enabling it to support and keep itself alive. This is deficient in comparison to a newborn that can breathe on its own, suckle and get food without inhaling and taking the food into its lungs. Hell, newborns even demonstrate they can move to reach a food source. Go to YouTube and search for "breast crawl." You'll find videos of newborns laid on their mother's stomachs crawling up her chest to her breasts and latching on to eat. In this sense, providing food for a newborn (breast or bottle) is very different than providing food for a severely premature infant, which requires medical intervention.
The earliest a fetus can be born and have even a 50/50 chance of survival is about 24 weeks gestation. Up to that point, there's nothing anyone can do, even the best neonatal doctors and hospitals in the world. In my view, up to this point the fetus is solely the mother's responsibility and burden. It is her decision to allow this life to grow and develop inside of her body, or not.
I'm all for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy. I say unwanted instead of unplanned, because an unplanned pregnancy isn't necessarily an unwanted one. I am not in favor of women using abortion as a form of birth control. This is almost impossible to police, though. Women who have multiple abortions thinking there are no consequences are mistaken, a woman's future fertility and ability to carry a pregnancy to term is effected by receiving multiple abortions. However, all forms of contraception have some percentage of failure. This means, even in cases where a woman has had a tubal ligation, there are some women who will still be able to get pregnant. Women get pregnant on every form of birth control, including IUD's (which often leads to miscarriage). We need better contraception. I think a very promising form is currently being developed. It's a shot for men that causes their testes to stop making sperm. It's still in development though.
