xssve
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It's a complicated question, there is little doubt that is a religious, specifically Christian belief that abortion is wrong at any point in the gestational cycle, in contrast to the secular view that it is wrong after a certain point, and gets "wronger" the later it is.
i.e., it's also clear that there are also secular objections but they tend to be ruled more by practical considerations than theological ones.
Practically, at 20 weeks which is the outside limit for abortions that do not threaten the life of the mother, the fetus has not developed any significant higher brain function, although the nervous system has begun to develop, the brain is smooth tissue, and neural growth hasn't yet begun - I think that starts at about 26 weeks, neurons begin to multiply, and the brain begins to develop the characteristic folds that facilitate it's complexity (that's why brain size matters far less than the complexity of the folds, which are more indicative of complex intelligence, and even creature with relatively tiny brains are capable of complex behaviors), this particular aspect of fetal development would seem to negate the characterization of first Trimester abortion as "infanticide", it isn't an infant, it's more of a larvae.
Thus, the idea of "personhood" for a batch of germinating fetal cells is pretty clearly a religious belief, even if we all agree that that batch of fetal cells does at some point, become human.
The factor that this religious belief introduces to complicate things, is the notion of a soul, and the underlying motivations of the personhood movement seem much more centered on preserving this hypothetical soul than any considerations of the quality of life for either mother or child if the fetus is carried to term.
Again, this reflects religious beliefs that the outcome is the result of the will of a hypothetical deity, rather than the responsibility of the community of mankind which it will have to inhabit.
Secular systems have belief systems too, that often overlap the religious, but in the final analysis, secular value assignments are based on non relativistic confirmable empirical evidence rather than relativistic, non-confirmable belief (other religious belief systems in the past have justified infanticide, including the Jewish religion (Genesis 22) and some early Christians - see Tertullian's Apologia), for reasons both religious and practical apparently.
Another empirically demonstrable phenomena is quite simply, women can and do get pregnant when they don't want to, always have, and presumably always will, and there has always been a steady demand for early termination of unwanted pregnancy, a secular society, more concerned with the health and well being of people already born and raised or being born than with the hypothetical soul of a blastosyst, is necessarily charged with making sure this happens in a safe manner when it is deemed necessary.
Ultimately, from a point of view of beliefs, both religious and secular, it is my belief that the packaging and combination of opposition to prophylactic measures that have led to lower incidences of abortions, that accompanies opposition to abortion, equal in vehemence if not rhetorical exaggerations, undermines any theological arguments considerably, and places it much more firmly in a context of secular objection to women's right to engage in sexual intercourse with partners of their choosing for whatever reason, which is on much more fragile theological ground.
Taken in macrocosm, personhood grants personhood to the hypothetical soul of a fertilized egg at the expense of the personhood of the fully grown and enfranchised mother, who's humanity is otherwise established by law beyond question and debate, and taken to it's logical conclusion, all women by extension,
The theological argument for this disenfranchisement and dehumanization is that woman is merely a piece of man (the rib) and something more like a peripheral or vestigial organ, reduced to the status of a breeding animal, rather than an independent and self determinant consciousness.
I think they'll find that a tough sell as it's unmistakably a case of theological establishment.
< Message edited by xssve -- 4/17/2012 9:46:36 AM >
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