"Late-Term Abortion": The Reality

One cannot escape the false meme by Republican political candidates of "even at the time of birth" and "murder." Click on the following links for an in-depth analysis of "Late-Term Abortions":

There's no such thing as a "late-term abortion."

Less than 1% of abortions take place in the third trimester – here’s why people get them

Abortions Later in Pregnancy

The facts about late-term abortions from the OB-GYN Dept

Then again, there is the fact that Republicans get abortions at the same rate as the general population and, yet, are for unreasonable restrictions on such. One doesn't have to wonder why are Republicans missing the boat on reality regarding abortion. (link)

Conservative Violence

Since the Republican Party united with conservative Christians in recent decades, elected Trump, and took over local politics in several US states, they have organized efforts to deprive people of their fundamental reproductive, sex, and gender rights. Ironically, these conservatives have claimed, erroneously, that they have been more victimized by progressives than vice-versa. For example, this Fox News piece cites statistics by the discredited organization Crime Prevention Research Center.

Click on the links below for the truth:

House GOP Is Passing Bills Based on Outright Lies About “Pro-Choice Violence”

Violence against abortion providers continues to rise

How political rhetoric factors into the violence against the LGBTQ community

The Negative Effects Of "Pro-Life" Are Greater Than What Is Easily Apparent

"The South holds the sad distinction of having some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. Sharyn Alfonsi spoke to some of the women trying to improve maternal health care."

Click on the link below for a "60 minutes" segment exposing the harm of the Republican Party in the USA:

Inside the fight to slash the maternal mortality rate in the South

Bodily Autonomy Is THE Basic Human Right

ANOTHER PERSON'S BODY IS NOT YOURS

I have written several blog posts on the issue of abortion and bodily autonomy (link). As with many moral issues, reasonable people can disagree. The following links are the best I could find discussing this issue. 

I will not be posting on this issue again. My strong conclusion is that, since the case is made and supported that bodily autonomy is THE basic right, pro-choice is both the most moral and practical stance regarding abortion:

Seven Myths That Undermine Individual Rights And Freedoms

United Nations stance on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice

The Right's Bad Faith Argument About Bodily Autonomy

Whose Rights Are Most Right?

Pro-Life Folks Ignore It After Birth

"It was heralded as a game-changer for America's social safety net. It dramatically reduced child poverty. But, last month, the enhanced Child Tax Credit — a kind of "Social Security for kids" — expired, and millions of American children sank back into poverty."

A society's morality is based on how it treats the least among it. Children should be placed at the front of the line. Click on the link below for an expose of how bad the USA has become:

Why America Has Been So Stingy In Fighting Child Poverty

Challenging Anti-abortion Dogma

"Life begins at conception" is the major reason given by the anti-abortion folks to make it illegal. The following links are to sources challenging this unsupported dogma: (1)(2)

If you agree with these challenges but argue for the personhood of the fetus, this link, and this link, challenges that view.

THE BOTTOM LINE: 

• Virtually all opposition to Roe v. Wade is religiously motivated.
• Morality based on religious dogma is unconstitutional under the secular law of the USA.
• Rose v. Wade has strong precedence in US law.
• Morality clearly comes from biology and social interactions, not from religious dogma. It is complex with multiple effects from actions. Objective analysis clearly shows that less harm is done to society under Roe v. Wade.

UPDATES: 

• More on precedent
• No, the Supreme Court is not "neutral" on abortion (or any other human right)

An In-depth Look At Bodily Autonomy

• The concept of autonomy goes back to the Greek philosophers. With the European Enlightenment, autonomy comes to be widely understood as a property of persons.
• Most people would agree that autonomy is normatively important.
• An autonomous person has a right to determine their life without interference from social or political authorities or forms of paternalism.
• Autonomy is an important value to be taken into consideration in the abortion debate, although it is referenced in different ways. On the one hand, it is argued that some abortions are justified as an expression of a woman’s reproductive autonomy (see Overall 1990 and Fischer 2003). On the other hand, it could be argued that abortion is morally unacceptable, among other reasons, because it fails to respect the potential future autonomy of the aborted (for a related argument, see Marquis 1989).  Assuming that both of these autonomy-based arguments have weight, adjudicating this dispute requires–among other things–establishing and defending the relative weights of actual and potential autonomy, both in relation to particular choices and in relation to lives as wholes. (link)

Following are a few more links to articles and videos that clarify the controversial principle of "Bodily Autonomy":

A Defense of Abortion: The Violinist Analogy

Abortion Essay - The Bodily Autonomy Argument

My Body, My Choice: Why the Principle of Bodily Autonomy can Unite the Left

Woman, Womb, and Bodily Integrity

YouTube Link

YouTube Link

Why have we so enshrined our right to control our own bodies … unless you happen to be a woman?

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Also:

This link is for any so-called "Pro-lifer" who thinks the God of the Bible shares his or her opinion on abortion and the value of life in general.

This link presents the reality that "Privacy" is not the only support for abortion constitutionally.

Bodily autonomy for a woman who is pregnant is a legitimate point of discussion. However, I support this right to the point that if my mother, for ANY reason, thought that it would have been better for her to abort me, fine.

Pro-Life Harm At The Other End

Anyone who is a science-based thinker knows that the so-called "Pro-Life" movement is really "Pro-birth", with less attention to life after birth for those who are less fortunate.  However, there is less attention to prolonging life when the humane action is allowing death when the situation is hopeless or prolonging life leads to unnecessary suffering.  This article is an example of such.

(http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article210389519.html)

Torture Is A Pro-Life Issue

Fundamentalist Christians usually are dogmatic regarding the value of a growing, non-viable fetus and call their view "Pro-Life."  However, how many of the same folks work towards the welfare of the disadvantaged people in society who see few options instead of abortion? (link) In addition, these same folks are more apt to be for torture. (link) This article concerning Trump's nominee for the CIA Directorship position presents the evils of torture.

(Amnesty International)

Moral Dilemmas

Religious folks like to tout their dogmatic "morality" instead of realizing that morality really is not as "Black and White" as they believe.  A clear example of this gray area is the Trolley Car Problem. as well as the decisions made regarding going to war with "the other."  Now, consider the abortion debate and "Pro-life."  Here, there are two entities: an independent adult and a potential human person depending on the mother for its progress toward independent personhood.  The "Pro-life" folks just ignore biology and bodily autonomy to promulgate their dogma.  I am willing to wager that these same people would not agree to an answer to the trolley problem.  'Nuff said.

"Pro-Life" Dogma Is Not Part of Primate Reality

"The males among these large, gray-haired monkeys were killing their own colony’s infants; at the time, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, researchers thought the pressures of overcrowding were the cause. What Hrdy found, however, was that these langurs’ infanticidal tendencies were actually adaptive behavior—behavior that, she argues, one can also see in humans."

Why Primates Kill Their Offspring

The Hypocrisy Of "Pro-Life" Proponents

The following article highlights the incongruity of those religious dogmatists who rail against abortion but are insensitive to actual persons.  The fact is that there is a direct relationship between those who call themselves "pro-life" and those who actively work against providing life-saving healthcare for the poor.

If you are reading this with criticism, please consider the following points:

• The growing uterine life does not have all the features of a human person from the moment of conception, thus, is really a potential person throughout most of its uterine existence.
• The pregnant women has the right of bodily autonomy.
• There is no evidence for an un-embodied "soul", much less its presence at the moment of conception.
• The vast majority of fertilized eggs are flushed down the toilet.  If you believe the dogma of the religious conservatives, God is the greatest abortionist.

Poor die without N.C. Medicaid expansion

An honest look at abortion statistics

Catholic "Pro-Life" Dogma: The Harm

"Last month, 87-year-old Ian Shearer was in enormous pain for a variety of reasons and wanted to end life on his own terms. The problem is that he was at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, and none of the doctors would assist him.

"He spent the last several hours of his life trying to transfer to a new hospital — the ambulance was three hours late and the ride was bumpy enough to amplify his pain — where someone could take care of him because the taxpayer-funded Catholic institution had abdicated its responsibility."

Despite Legal Euthanasia, Canadian Catholic Doctors Did Nothing as an Old Man Suffered

So, When Is The "Soul" Created?

"Parthenogenotes behave somewhat similarly to non-reproductive cells in our body. As the authors put it, the fact that pseudo-egg cells can reprogram sperm “blurs functional distinctions” between the different cell types (reproductive, non-reproductive, embryonic) in our body."

Note to the anti-choice crowd:  the title of this post is a serious question.

Surprising Embryo Study Pushes the Limits of How Life Begins