<< "So where do you draw the line Ornery? Third trimester? Second? Day of conception?"
No way around it, we have to err on the side of caution. I wouldn't attempt to draw a line... I ain't God! >>
Nor am I. But that's the thing. Without any sort of conclusive definition there will always be disagreement. What do you personally feel about "human being" fetuses created from rape or other non-consentual sex? How about a third-trimester fetus that will endanger the mother's life? What degree of endangerment is an acceptable risk? What about clones?
For me, it comes down to this... let's worry about the human beings already born before we worry about the ones as yet unborn.
<< The law is the law. Civil rights are civil rights. The ACLU trys to cram THAT down our throats every day. Soon, just as slavery was abolished, abortion will be too. Better than half our population supported the "right" to own slaves at one point in time. I bet more than a few people are happy that was made illegal! >>
Again, in principle, your argument looks sound. But the slaves were conscious beings with free will, living and breathing on their own... already born into the world (in a completely different country, no less). You can't say the same for a fetus or embryo.
Hey, don't get me wrong. I don't condone abortion, but I'm a realist... enough so to see it as a necessary "evil" (and I don't mean evil in a biblical sense). Lives are lost senselessly every single day. Homicides, suicides, wars... a moral victory in making abortion illegal isn't going to do anything beneficial about the desparation many humans already feel.
Again, I'll state this... address the underlying socialogical problems in society and you'll see a decrease in civil rights violations. Enable people to love and respect themselves, and voila they gain the capacity to love and respect other people.
Your solution might be easier, but when has prohibiting something every made it stop? My solution would be extraordinarily difficult, but at least it has a snoball's chance in hell at actually solving a problem.
l2c