Would you contend that a fetus at 8 and one half months is not an "innocent human life"?
In 1992, there were 320 abortions after 26 weeks gestation in the United States. You can bet none of those were undertaken lightly, because there's about 1 place in the US where they can be done at that stage. You might like to compare that with this table, and contemplate how much you worry about these particular "innocent human lives", which have nothing to do with abortion.
Table 2. Fetal Deaths, 1992
Gestational age Number
20-23 weeks 8,152
24-27 weeks 4,567
28-31 weeks 3,635
32-35 weeks 4,107
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics of the United States, 1992:
Vol. II—Mortality, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1997 (in press). agi-usa.org
90% of abortions are at 12 weeks or earlier. But Ashcroft and the pro-life movement are, as near as I can tell, mostly pushing big time for "life begins at conception", only slightly removed from the good Catholic "every sperm is sacred" position, which in turn dates all the way back to the 1800's. You can claim it has nothing to do with religion all you want. |
