Abortion news: Court Won’t Rule on Life’s Beginning

First post, I feel special. I just found this article through Denamlism blog. Court won't rule on life's begining.

A doctor is under no obligation to tell a pregnant woman that she is carrying “an existing human being” before performing an abortion, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today in a decision that had been eagerly awaited by both foes and supporters of abortion rights in this country.

Quite rightly so. I don't see how people can bring lawsuits like this. I don't know how she couldn't realise before the procedure that terminating her pregnancy would, well, terminate her pregnancy. I'd have thought it would be a no-brainer. The major thing that annoys me about these cases, though, is they're so patronising to the woman. I mean, both this and the law which reguires the woman to view an ultrasound before she aborts, presumes that a woman is so stupid she can't work out that pregnant=baby so needs to be told. I'm sure the vast majority of women who abort can concieve that the fetus is alive and will, barring miscarriage, become a human child if it is not tampered with, and they've decided they want to abort.

I think the fact alone that they have decided that abortion is what they want to do should be enough for anyone, really.

But this entire attitude, "If you knew what you were aborting you wouldn't do it", it's so patronising and, on top of that, plays into the entire woman=mother stereotype. Because we're women knowing that it's a zomg baby means we will want to care for it and nurture it, there's no way we can reject it if it's a baby. Is that it? Well, I've got news for them, there's plenty of women out there who are not baby making machines, who, shock horror, might not particularly like or want babies. Telling them it's a baby (in case they were too dense to work it out for themselves) will have zero effect.

I also have to agree with MarkH that the entire 'life begins' argument is so much bullshit. I've said it before in various forums, life doesn't begin, it's continuous. It's not the virtue of being alive that gives something value, we need to find some other basis to make legal decisions.