Let’s put all the emotions and civil rights and religious issues aside and look at abortion clinically, dispassionately.
(1) Killing an infant one minute after birth or any time thereafter is first degree murder.
(2) It’s commonplace for children born up to six weeks premature to live a healthy life with no medical problems beyond the statistical norm. Thus, it would not be hard to make a legal case that performing an abortion on a child less that six weeks from birth is murder. For argument’s sake, we’ll call it second degree murder.
(3) Late term abortions are particularly gruesome because the doctor must use giant pincers to crush the child’s skull before it can be removed from the mother’s womb. I don’t think even the most ardent abortion rights advocates would say this is a good thing to do. We’ll call that third degree murder, and say this situation occurs roughly ten weeks before birth and thereafter.
(4) I think socially and ethically, nobody will argue that there’s something wrong with a woman who’s pregnant enough to be noticed (wearing supersized clothing, having physical symptoms, craving the sympathy we all give to expectant mothers) and who one day comes to work with a flat tummy and no birth announcement cigars or lollipops to hand out. Ethically and morally, this late an abortion is a misdemeanor.
(5) At the other end of the spectrum, it’s hard to fault a woman who doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until she misses a period. In this hectic day and age, two months is a maximum here, after inception.
(6) So, we are left with how to categorize months three, four and five. The first trimester is understandable, the last semester is criminal – in between is, in my personal view, far more than regrettable. The second trimester is when the fetus starts to actually take on a human shape. The nervous system is likely as developed to the extent of a full grown cat or dog.
(7) In many jurisdictions, it’s a misdemeanor to abandon or mistreat your pets. Nobody argues with that at any level. This is a de facto recognition that second trimester abortions need consequences – counseling, therapy, or probation.
(8) Which leaves only the first trimester to be decided by due process at the voting booth or in court.
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