[Liberty4eva]

Originally Posted by angus58

Absolutely! The upper limit should be reduced down to around 16 weeks ideally, but anything over 20 weeks is really not on, considering that by that time a woman has had ample time to make an informed decision. As I've said before, I would NEVER ever have considered an abortion for myself, whatever the circumstances, but I would not presume to inflict my beliefs and opinions on other women, whose lives and circumstances I know nothing about.

But you just did. For a woman 21 weeks into gestation you would be inflicting your opinions and beliefs on them because of what you think should be the "upper limit". What if they want the baby and then 21 weeks into it they change their mind? If it was up to you, they wouldn't have the power to do it. So how is that not inflicting your opinions and beliefs on them?

And frankly I do think it is rather arrogant (and, again, playing god) when people pick and choose an arbitrary time when the right to life of the baby outweights the bodily rights of the woman (in your case, 16 weeks). As a mathematician interested in political issues, I spend a lot of time thinking about the small details of this issue and others. I do not believe I or anyone else has the right (or knowledge) to declare the moment when a clump of cells becomes a life, so I refuse to do it and I think everyone else should.

People here are telling me that abortion is not a black and white issue but I actually agree. The grey area is whether it is a human with a right to life or whether it is not. If it is not a life, the worst thing that will happen is the woman will lose 9 months of bodily freedom but she can adopt it immediately after. But if it is a life, it is murder of the innocent. So, which one is worse: the loss of 9 months of bodily freedom by a woman who knew exactly what may happen when she slept with that guy or the murder of the innocent? If there is any doubt, whatsoever, whether it is a life or not any civilized person ought to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that it is life. And so the "upper limit" ought to be 0 in any civilized country.