Let patient decide

We should engage in deeper thinking than the simplistic rhetoric often surrounding abortion.

When does life begin? At fertilization? When the blastocyst attaches to the endometrium at four weeks gestation? Shortly thereafter when the blastocyst becomes an embryo?

When cardiac motion is detected in the primitive heart tube at six weeks? At nine to 10 weeks, when the embryo develops into a fetus and begins to show some human features?

When a fetus has sufficient neurodevelopment to experience pain, developing between 24 and 30 weeks? At 25 weeks when around a third of neonates would survive outside the uterus without impairment? And should a fetus ever have the same constitutional right to personhood as the pregnant person?

IVF is a grueling process, physically, hormonally, financially and emotionally. There are usually more embryos developed than used. Extra embryos, along with embryos that have genetic abnormalities, are most often discarded. If one maintains that embryos are children, how can one justify IVF over abortion?

Most Americans agree that abortions should be legal for pregnancies from rape or incest. If one maintains that embryos and fetuses are children, how can one justify abortions for these reasons but not others?

Apparently, the difference between IVF and abortion after rape vs. abortions after an unplanned pregnancy is the way a pregnant person’s sexual behavior is regarded, rather than the opinion on when life begins.

These issues are complex and should rely on an individual’s conscience, spirituality and religious beliefs, not those of minority viewpoints or politicians.