The ‘science’ of abortion

Christine Flowers’ Sunday commentary on fake news contained this gem: “But when it comes to the science of pregnancy, [Democrats] put their fingers in their ears and go ‘la la la’. They refuse to consider the fetus as anything more than a sack of cells, one that becomes human only when mama says so.”

There is a reason that only 5 percent to 10 percent of actual working scientists identify as conservative. Let’s look at what Ms. Flowers says. To begin with a fetus is defined as not coming into existence until a minimum of 8.5 weeks after cell fertilization. Before then, it is a fertilized egg, or an embryo. Neither of which is a fetus.

Second, the overwhelming percentage of abortions — 65 percent — take place within the first eight weeks as measured by gestation time. Gestation time is measured from the start of the last menstrual period and is about two weeks greater than actual fetal age. Add those two weeks and you get that about 80 percent of abortions happen before the fetus exists.

So I am not sure if what exists before a fetus is “a sack of cells,” but it is not a fetus or a human. Now given the tendency of conservatives to play God on all sorts of matters — such as declaring corporations to be humans, and wanting to declare a fertilized egg a human — does that mean that when there is a spontaneous miscarriage that the state should initiate a homicide investigation?

Or how about this: Since we are protecting innocent unborn humans, why not track all menstruation periods and require women to have mandatory pregnancy tests every three weeks, given that most miscarriages happen before a woman knows that she is pregnant. After all we must protect the “innocent children.”