The more people talk about abortion the wilder the accusations get. The latest is that all conceptions end in a live birth that is then judged by a woman and doctor as to whether it's a keeper. A ridiculous accusation considering the resources that go into promoting a healthy pregnancy for both the mother and fetus as well as efforts of neonatal units to ensure the best start for infants. Every pregnancy ends; not all in a live birth even if it goes to full term.
It's a shame there's such magical thinking around pregnancy because there's some really fascinating stuff going on. We understand conception well enough to harvest oocytes, fertilize them and place embryos in the uterus with a success rate of ~40%. When I went through IVF the success rate was ~15%. Ultrasound monitoring can catch a lot of developmental problems that can help prepare parents for children that need extra attention or even perform fetal surgery!
Here's how we learned a lot about embryo development - parallel systems
The transition of fetus to infant is even more astounding (turns out there is quite a difference). A fetus lives in a sterile, fluid and is dependent on a woman circulatory system for all nutrients. An infant breathes air and turns on (for lack of better wording) their digestive and immune system. Sometimes development is incomplete and the infant can be helped in a neonatal unit and sometime the infant doesn't survive.
About that artificial uteri I've been waiting for. If it ever gets developed there would still be pregnancy failure but men who are so concerned for their offspring could have the embryo transplanted, bring them to term and raise them as single parents. In the mean time, insisting that women have to "take responsibility" for conceptions while ignoring the role of the man providing the sperm is an indicator of a group that considers women as subhuman entities only good for topping up the gene pool. For every 6 week heartbeat bill there should be a 6 week+1 day paternity test to split the cost of maternal health care and loss of earnings, child support and any disability incurred from pregnancy.
Canada doesn't have an abortion law because there is no reasonable argument for holding women hostage by the state if women have equal human rights. From the judgement
...the primary protection cited was women's right to “security of the person.” One of the judges also found that the abortion law violated women's rights to “freedom of conscience” and “liberty."...
Even so there termination rates are comparable to any developed country. Turns out sex education, family planning, pregnancy leave and child care support do a good job of reducing abortion rates without resorting to restrictive laws.
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