Some will at this point complain that it is just a fetus and not a baby. Technically while they are grasping at straws they are correct. A fetus is an unborn mammal. A baby is often not called a baby until after he or she is born. Many of us had to dissect fetal pigs when we were in school. They were in effect pig abortions. They were fetuses and not babies, yet none of us doubted what they were, they were pigs. The fetuses being aborted from human women are humans.
They are different from already born babies in several ways.
They are different in size. The fetus is smaller than an already born baby, but an already born baby is smaller than a toddler, and a toddler is smaller than a professional basketball player. But is the toddler any less human than the basketball player? No, size makes no difference in how human someone is. The toddler has just as much right to live as a basketball player, and so does the fetus.
Level of development
A fetus has a different level of development than an already born baby, but a 6-year-old child is at a different developmental level than a 25-year-old adult, yet the child has as much right to live as a 25-year-old adult.
I used to spend a lot of time in a neonatal intensive care unit. Many of the babies were in there because they were born early and were underdeveloped, but they were clearly human at that stage of development and were taken care of by the staff the same way adult humans are taken care of. Babies that were born at twenty-two weeks gestation have survived, but at 24 weeks their chance of survival goes up to as much as 70%
So at the very least, we should allow them to have their rights as humans at that stage. if not sooner.
They are also dependant on a different environment than an already born baby, but we are all dependant on one environment or another. If you put any naked human outside during the Alaskan winter that person won’t survive long without help either. In fact, ancient people in at least some cultures would put unwanted newborns outside so that the environment would kill them. Luckily most of us today recognize how wrong this is, and have created programs in every state that will allow moms to abandon their children in safe places that won’t endanger the child; hospitals, fire stations, police stations, your local government may have even more places. If the child is valuable enough that he or she deserves saving at 9 months gestation, why is it not worth saving earlier than that?
They are also different in level of dependancy. Yes, a fetal human needs their mom 24/7, but they are also needy when they are 15, but they still have the right to live and throwing them out of the home isn’t an option. Should they have not had that same right all along?
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