They are not children. They do not have developed "brains", and are not viable for life. Heart muscles can beat on their own in a petri-dish, is that "alive"? What about ectopic pregnancies? Ever hear about "ancephaly"? There are fetuses that develop a heart beat but never have their neural tubes close. You'd force a woman to bring that thing to term, risking her own life and going through the pains of labor for it? There a many many conditions that produce inviable fetuses, or medical conditions that put a woman's life at risk if they continue pregnancy. Some rare ones are not found until the later stages of pregnancy. Are we going to start prosecuting women for miscarriages (has already happened in Texas)? It's no one's goddam business, and if you don't have a medical degree, you should not be telling women what they should or should not do with their pregnancy. It's a health decision. You want the government to start poking their noses into these private discussions between a woman and her Doctor? You would force an 11 year old child to give birth? Are we going to start prosecuting people who use heroine and meth during pregnancy and force them to carry babies to term that they don't want? News flash, they won't stop using drugs when they are pregnant. Banning abortion doesn't save "babies", it kills women. Are we going to start to be able to sign our fetuses up for life-insurance (since they are people now)? Can we give fetuses social security cards? Can we claim them as dependents on our taxes? Do we celebrate conception days like birthdays? If a woman punches her own stomach, or smokes a cigarrete, or eats raw fish when she is pegnant, or has a miscarriage for any reason, can she be prosecuted for "child abuse"? The answer is no because the law does not recognize them as being "alive". If it's in your religious belief that life begins at conception, great for you, I will protect your right to have religious freedom and believe what you want to believe. You cannot force others to share that belief in this country and our government must be separate from those religious beliefs, that is one of our inaliable rights/freedoms. Some people claim this is a "christian" nation, no it is a nation of religious freedom which includes freedom from religion I.E. I have the right to live my life without following someone else's religious doctrine or rules. If we do not as a nation recognize the fetus as being "alive", then it is the woman's choice to end the pregnancy without Government interference and with private conversations with her Doctor, no one else gets to be involved, period.
