(no subject)

[novapsyche]

White House Tries to Define Contraception As Abortion -- "The Department of Health and Human Services is dismissing medical experts and instead using a definition of pregnancy based on polling data." (seen several places; this link via davidfcooper)

Comments

[fadedpaladin.livejournal.com]

yeah,saw that already.
on the subject of reproductive rights... http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20080715/NEWS/807150335/1011/NEWS01

My reaction is "wtf, is that even POSSIBLE??? *facepalm*

[pgdudda.livejournal.com]

When did the religious right return to union with Rome? I thought they were mostly Protestants...

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

They've been courting Catholic conservatives for some time. Didn't you see the Fox headline when Benedict was being chosen: "We Have A Pope!"?

[airsucker.livejournal.com]

Have I mentioned lately that I hate and despise GW Bush? Seriously.

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

If you're going to try to define life as being human at some point before brain activity begins (although I think you could make cases for significantly later) as a moral issue, the only thing that would make any sort of sense would be conception. So, yes, an IUD would count as an abortion and somewhere around half of pregnancies would result in spontaneous abortion.

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

try 80%

something like 80% of fertilization events fail to implant all on their own.

That is why successful implantation is the sensible place to define the start of a pregnancy.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Thanks for crediting me, but my middle initial is "f" not "j."

[pstscrpt.livejournal.com]

Okay, 80%, whichever. Your conclusion doesn't follow from that, though, not if you're trying to find some milestone that would say "this thing deserves more ethical consideration than a wart". Implantation is just a mechanical step.

[blackwinterbyrd.livejournal.com]

not at all.
you could argue that implantation is an organism's first independent (or cooperative, to split hairs) act.
you could also argue the statistical bottleneck between fertilization event and implanted embryo is milestone enough.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

You know, I should know that by now. *smacks head*