ception but no earlier than the end of the embryonic stage. This
happens to be what the vast majority of people generally believes. (Newsweek Sept. 22,
1997, Pg.18) Because the abortion pill RU486 is only effective on an embryo up until the
ninth week of pregnancy, I have loudly supported its legalization for many
If we are to face facts, we must acknowledge that the human experience does not
suddenly begin the moment each of us is born. All medical experience shows that a fetus
has sensation (e.g. taste, hearing, touch, smell, and sight). (www.gale.com) More
importantly, , and has been proven to remember things (like the of its mother) after it is
born. We are all human beings, and as such are not property.(Newsweek Sept. 22, 1997,
Here are over a million abortions are reported each year in the United States, and
of these more than 12% occur after the thirteenth week. In other words, there are about
second trimester abortions in the United States each year. (www.gale.com) Common for
these delays in terminating a pregnancy include denial of pregnancy, menstrual irregularity
preceding pregnancy, physician delay, ambivalence towards termination, major or minor
fetal abnormality, and unexpected threats to maternal health or comfort.
It is sadly true that many women have been oppressed, forced into pregnancy,
forced out of pregnancy, beaten, pushed around, and generally subjugated in a vast
number of instances over the millennia. But does that entitle any woman to do the same
thing to the most helpless and innocent among us?
If a father encourages or assists a mother to have an unjustifiably late abortion,
then the father ought to be penalized as much as the mother for committing the crime, and
perhaps more severely given that he will not suffer the abortion procedure itself. It is
simply wrong to assert that abortion would be totally legal if men as well as women got
pregnant; the fact ...