If You Want to Lose Readers, Don't Talk Politics, Religion...and what's that other one?

The bumper sticker "Abortion stops a beating heart" makes no sense to me as an appeal. So does making a roast beef sandwich, except in that case the heart is beating inside something that can experience emotions, fear and pain.

Also very few people on this planet will ever ask for an abortion as easily as they would a roast beef sandwich.

I was too young to have a child and my relationship with my boyfriend was rocky. That's the reason I had an abortion: I wasn't ready. The experience was painful and horrifying (and that was just walking into the clinic past the protestors harhahar) No, really, it was a bad time for me, and I swore that I wouldn't do it again. I haven't. No matter what my past, I know I can't make that choice for anyone else.

I still think about that baby-that-wasn't, usually to think "s/he would be xx years now. Wow." I hated that experience -- and have always known it was entirely the right thing to have done.

So away from the specific, which is still odd to admit in public, and back to the general. Back to the idea that ordering a roast beef sandwich is fine and making the choice to remove an embryo isn't. I don't understand, up to a certain point, why any other people would get involved in that decision. Why isn't it standard for the public to judge the start of life with the same criteria we judge the end of life?

"A sizable contingent would assert that life begins at 25 weeks. The rationale for this starting point is based on our definition of death. The definition of death is not disputed, and is considered the time when electroencephalography (EEG) activity ceases. EEG measures brain activity and must demonstrate regular wave patterns to be considered valid. Therefore, by this rule the onset of life would be the time when fetal brain activity begins to exhibit regular wave patterns, which occurs fairly consistently around week 25. Previous to that time, the EEG only shows small bursts of activity without sustained firing of neurons." (from brainblogger.com)

After that point, I doubt few people are comfortable with abortion on demand. When could abortion possibly be appropriate after 25 weeks? danger to the mother, no fetal brain activity? ...Otherwise? The answer to that does not lie in any solution produced by vote-hungry politicians who wouldn't know gray areas or complex situations if, and when, they're smacked in the face by said complexity, I do know that. Case by case? Doctors and patients--but also probably some kind of board? Including someone trained in medical ethics?

Any other people involved in deciding for the family facing late-term abortion? No. Just be thankful you don't face a tragic, unhappy situation. Not really our business and we should be grateful for that.

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