The nature, meaning and availability of abortion as an elective “medical” procedure has been in a state of flux for several generations. Previously, it was, illegal, dangerous when undertaken, and morally repugnant to most everyone. The Hippocratic Oath only says “I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion”. Lawyers being lawyers, that was later construed to mean that doctors were completely free to abort pregnancies by any means other than a pessary.
By 1973, Roe v. Wade narrowly (and erroneously if the Constitution is rationally construed according to what words actually means, as opposed to what judges believe the Constitution ought to say) expanded a previously created right to “privacy”, whose penumbras encompassed a woman’s fundamental right to abortion. Never mind that we can no longer even define the word “woman”! The point here is that in only one generation abortion went from near universal repugnance to acquire sacramental status on the left. As with all zealotry, it became essential that no restrictions of abortion, whatsoever, be permitted, right up until the moment of birth.
It is worth a digression, here, into basic biology. A developing human embryo/fetus exists on a continuum beginning at fertilization and cleavage, continuing - somewhat arbitrarily it turns out - up until birth. Genetically, it becomes a unique genetic individual from the moment of fertilization; no doubt about that. The characterization of the embryo/fetus at various stages of development is what the left likes to say about everything whose existence vexes them - it is a “construct”. Reasonable people of good will might disagree on just when legal personhood and hence legal rights, attach to an embryo/fetus.
What they cannot disagree about, if they are either rational or “follow the science” (science is material only to those issues leftists say it is! it is otherwise irrelevant or ‘hate fact’) is the fact that “viability” cannot possibly be a determinant of a Constitutional right, since it depends wholly upon the state of the medical art at the moment! It may well be soon that a fertilized ovum (in vivo or even in vitro) may develop to “term” in an artificial womb - rendering all the emotion and artifice around birth as a milestone in human life - moot.
For example - in defending “partial birth” abortion as every bit as necessary as a six week abortion (and no more fraught with moral concern, lawyers being lawyers again, assert a legal person does not come into existence until the fetus is completely born - that the entire being must exit the birth canal in order to acquire human or Constitutional status as a person and rights rights. Translated, that means if the fetus’ head emerges from the birth canal (and it may take its first breath of air and even cry at that point), the " medical professional" may go right ahead, puncture the skull with a sharp instrument and suck out the brain - killing the living human infant - perfectly legally and morally! In fact, such dedicated folk are quick top assert they have just “saved the birthing person’s life”!
Now what overturning Roe v Wade (whose original plaintiff, Norma McCorvey, has subsequently recanted much of what she proffered) means is that the legality of of abortion is no longer determined as a matter of Constitutional right. Rather, since the issue is not addressed at all in the Constitution, it is reserved to the states and becomes (GASP!!) subject to the majoritarian Constitutional process of voting! What a shocking idea - that citizens get to decide what is legal and what is not. Who, then wants to save “Our Democracy™”? The new left? In other words, Roe v Wade was so contentious not only because it dealt with the leftist sacrament of abortion, but because it went to the very heart of how we govern ourselves. Do we decide by majoritarian democracy or do judges dictate to us? Do you suppose the Roe v Wade regimen had “disparate impact”?? Did anyone care?
At the human level, what has happened is a tragedy, almost beyond measure. I don’t know how many unique human beings have been aborted, but it likely ranges in the tens of millions in the US alone. The act is treated as a “life-saving” “medical procedure”, when, in fact, it is almost always a lifestyle decision, made with zero regard to it as even slightly a moral issue. There are exactly ZERO medical indications for a partial birth abortion. That is because the most dangerous part of any birth is passage of the head through the birth canal and that occurs with every partial birth abortion. It would have been safer for the “birthing person” to remove the fetus via Cesarean section. The “life-saving medical procedure” constitutes one of the growing examples of the BIG LIE. and is a moral stain on our society and the medical profession. So, where do I stand? You’re entitled to know.
In deciding what acts are to be punished as criminal, part of the determination is always “enforceability”. When it comes to abortion, it may well be that the lesser evil is obtained by not criminalizing very early abortions. I say this because attempts to enforce act which may now be done privately, in the home, without the assistance (and besmirching) of the medical profession. Policing that, IMO, would create serious, intolerable issues of state overreach. Which is not to say the state ought to be neutral (or encourage as it now does, overwhelmingly) as to abortion. The state ought to make clear that it ought to always remain a moral question, regardless of practicalities. It ought to be asserting the immorality of abortion - even where not criminal - with the same fervor now reserved for “global warming”. It should be repeated ad infinitum that abortion is NOT MERELY ANOTHER FORM OF BIRTH CONTROL! That this is the case - that many consider it to be that despite its overriding moral import - is a perhaps the most serious leading indicator of the impending collapse of what was once a decent and improving civilization.
How could it be considered birth control by any responsible "birthing person"when many, many methods are widely available and free to those who recklessly become pregnant and abort their children time and time again?
