Six states have passed “heartbeat bills” to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detectable, approximately six weeks after conception. Such bills are, indeed, unconstitutional given the court’s Roe ukase that abortion cannot be restricted before a fetus is viable outside the womb — which means, presumably, before the fetus is a child. Viable means capable of surviving outside the womb, which no infant can do without constant help that others must give. Rather, the debates concerned two other questions: Would national policy stigmatize slavery as a tragic legacy and a moral wrong? Temperate pro-life advocates, practicing Lincolnesque prudence, consider the abortion debate akin to the slavery debates for three reasons: Abortion shrinks the scope of the concept of personhood.

Source: Washington Post May 03, 2019 20:48 UTC