This New York Times article from yesterday details a wing of the pro-life movement that is focusing on the ability of the baby to feel pain as a means of reducing the number of abortions. The idea is that, according to some research, a baby is able to feel pain after 20 weeks and therefore any abortions that remain legal should be conducted before that point.
What was particularly interesting, though, were these two comments that followed the article. They appear in the order in which they were printed, sans any redaction on my part:
Roger StensonBradenton FL
After 20 weeks gestation the unborn child has all the prerequisite anatomy, physiology, hormones, neurotransmitters, and electrical current to connect the loop and create the conditions need to perceive pain.
Aug. 2, 2013 at 11:08 p.m.
Joseph Bianco St. Louis
Animals feel pain but that doesn’t mean we can’t kill them for our convenience.
I mean, um, exactly. I’m not sure if Joseph is trying to make an indirect pro-life point, an animals-are-people vegan point, or simply a very brutal pro-abortion point, but he sure makes the first one very well. Last I checked, we aspired to treat human beings better than animals.
Seems pretty clear to me that his intention was #3, but you’re right, he accomplished #1 quite well. The strongest arguments against abortion come from the rhetoric of the professional abortion advocates. There is a world of difference between the average American on the pro-abortion side, who is simply creeped out by the issue and thinks that supporting abortion rights will make the issue go away, and the people who have really thought through the logic of abortion and accepted it. The anti-abortion movement scores the most victories when it forces the American people to see the logic of abortion, so that they will be more creeped out by the thought of not opposing it than by the thought of being involved in the issue at all.