Re:Texas Banned Abortion. Then Sepsis Rates Soared
by sorryimgreen on Thursday February 20, 2025 @07:05PM
(#43122310)
How is this even an argument?
> This assumption doesn't match biology
Ok? How? Because you say so?
> It's not a proto-person
Ok? Again, just because you like to say so?
What is this mythical point of "viability" that you speak of? Let's say we develop sufficiently advanced tech that could incubate a baby from 6 weeks, then would it magically become a person? Back in the 1700s, when babies probably couldn't survive outside the womb if born prior to 32 weeks, was abortion okay until roughly that point?
Your argument is very mixed up.
What changed my mind here was the realization that this position comes out of Catholic doctrine that defines "a person" at the moment of conception. Once you made that assumption, it's reasonable to say that abortion ends a person's life (aka murder).
This assumption doesn't match biology, however. In the first trimester, it simply isn't a person yet. It's not a proto-person, and it's not simply a cake that needs to finish baking in the oven. Becoming a person takes active work by the mother's body that isn't completed until well into the pregnancy. You could call that point "viability", but it's not a precise instant in time.
If there's no person yet, then it's the mother's body and it's up to that person what they choose to do with their body, just like in every other instance of bodily autonomy.
It's obviously OK if you believe in the same doctrine, but then it's also not a simple case of ethics anymore.