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From: js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag)
Newsgroups: net.abortion
Subject: Re: Response to Gary's  (a pro-choicer's mind is changed (slightly))
Message-ID: <530@mhuxt.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 14:35:29 EST
Article-I.D.: mhuxt.530
Posted: Thu Jan 17 14:35:29 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 02:46:49 EST
References: <3300@alice.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 38

> > And do you mean that you would support a law forbidding third
> > trimester abortions?  (Definitely not a rhetorical question).
> 
> My answer to that is "maybe."  Such a law would have to be based
> on medical evidence that a third-trimester fetus is (probably)
> capable of thought, and that there are no other overriding philosophical
> aguments.

    I'm another pro-choicer who wouldn't be upset by such a law.  Some      
arbitrary line must divide between fertilized eggs and babies, in terms of
when they are accorded the legal status of human beings.  Currently, that
arbitrary line has been drawn by our society at birth; anti-abortionists
want to draw the line much earlier.                               
    Where SHOULD the line be?  Well, a lot of people are unhappy with the
each of the naturally occuring dividing lines, conception and birth.  Maybe
we should consider a compromise?  I'm sure that there exists no compromise
which would satisfy everyone;  I'm sure there IS a compromise which satisfies
more people than either endpoint would.
    After all, if someone accidentally gets pregnant, they should be able to
find out about it within 8 weeks, even in the worst of circumstances.  A four
month limit should be enough time for anyone who needs an abortion to find
that out, decide what to do, and arrange an abortion if that is what they 
decide to do.  This wouldn't be interfering with anyone's freedom (much),  
and would prevent the abortion of fetuses which have developed enough that
tney MAY be capable of concious thought.
    I don't really know enough about the stages of human developement here.
Perhaps someone could post some (undistorted) information relating time since
conception with fetal development.  
    Well, how about it?  Are there any anti-abortionists who would be satisfied
with a 6 or 5 or 4 month limit?  Are there any pro-choicers who would be
satisfied with such a compromise?

-- 
Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
    "Know thou, O rash and foolish mortal, that this is none other than the
     infamous subterranean abode of Zazamanc the Archmage.  Abandon hope,
     all ye who linger here."