Who's alive in there?

In the news today, "Controversial abortion motion defeated". Thank goodness. Why does it matter for the law or the government to decide on whether a fetus is a human before birth. Scientists, lawyers and mothers who want children vs the men and women who don't want the child will have a different opinion. It's not going to change or affect someone's decision to have an abortion or not.

For an expectant mother and her circle of family and friends, really excited about the arrival of a new baby, the beginning of that lifeform started at conception! If you're counting weeks, Day 1 is theoretically the date of the last period even before the sex happened!  I would personally be a bit offended if another human lifeform walked up to me at any point during my pregnancy before 22 weeks and said, "Hey your fetus is not a human yet, aka he's not technically alive yet (so you can get rid of it if you want to)".  Well hello, if some squishy thing with two eyes and heartbeat is kicking me all the time, someone is definitely alive inside me! 25 weeks is about the cut off mark for a baby that can be delivered with huge medical intervention to possibly survive after birth, therefore it wouldn't make sense to have an abortion after that point.

Image Source: her baby

As much as I support life, I'm really glad that controversial motion to reopen the debate was shot down. In fact, I actually support women's choice on the abortion issue, though hoping though that they would chose life. Think of the movie Juno. Think of Patty, Justin Bieber's mother who chose to keep her baby despite her own elders counselling her to get rid of it.

I have the opinion that the women who choose abortion were the ones who didn't want their baby for various reasons. They already acknowledge the baby is a life or a responsibility they don't want. The government deciding legally that the fetus is a human or not will not change it.  It's sad but they already know that they don't want that baby and they don't want to be a mommy. No amount of legal or societal pressure is going to convince them otherwise. A legal abortion within the first 22 weeks is actually more medically safe for everyone involved. Even if they outlawed it people are going to find their own way to do it, sometimes unsafe and costing even more resources, at the risk of the life of the mother.

On the flip side, is there a legal gap in the definition of a crime that involves injuring (or killing) a pregnant woman in Canada? In some States, taking the life of a pregnant woman would count as two murder charges, but not here in Canada. But what about a woman choosing to assault her own body with drugs and alcohol while being pregnant? But I wouldn't want someone to go to jail for that or having an abortion.

If someone is not going to be a good mommy, then how will they raise their child properly to be a good and law abiding citizen contributing to society? I know that my opinion goes against the popular opinion of my Christian religion, to actually support free choice. But I hope that they would choose life.  I think it would be productive for the government to support counselling and charities like Birthright that provide help to a teenage mom who's really scared or victim of a crime that resulted in an unwanted pregnancy.

I like the law in one of the States that mandates a medical description and actual ultrasound of the fetus and the heartbeat be shown to a woman seeking abortion at a licensed clinic, immediately before the procedure. However, hopefully this doesn't put too much of a burden on the technician to do counselling at this point.