An abortion is a pregnancy that is terminated before the fetus can survive outside the womb. For a large part of its history, the Catholic Church did not regard early term abortions as sinful.
In the book Freakonomics, the authors showed that giving women the ability to choose when to bring a baby into the world results in lower crime rates. The reason is that young adults (in their twenties) in lower socioeconomic classes are more likely to commit crimes. When women of this class have abortions, they reduce the number of potential criminals. Twenty years after the legalization of abortion, crime waves that were predicted never materialized.
Some religious people claim abortions are unacceptable for biblical reasons; some religions preach that miscarriages are abortions. In both cases, rational thought and reason is ignored in favor of superstition and fallacious appeals to tradition. Consider these circumstances:
Rape – A woman who is raped should not be forced to carry the rapist's spawn to term. (Women get raped by both strangers and people they know, including family.)
Genetic disorders – If the zygote shows signs of genetic deformity, it seems cruel to prevent a woman from ending the pregnancy. Kinder to allow her to attempt to conceive a healthier, viable offspring. (Sometimes, though, defects cannot be detected until too far into the pregnancy.)
Safety – Criminalizing abortion will not prevent women from getting abortions. It will make abortions more dangerous.
Complications – Pregnancies can endanger the woman's life; sometimes the only way to save her is by terminating the pregnancy.
As of 2010, statistically speaking, 24 weeks is the earliest age a fetus from a preterm birth has a greater than 50% chance of survival. An infant born in the 23rd or 24th week of gestation has a 16% chance of survival and 64% chance of serious disability (such as brain damage and blindness).
Amillia Taylor is reported as being born (on October 24th, 2006) after 21 weeks and 6 days. However, when her gestation period is calculated using the more common method—her mother's last menstrual period—she is no longer a statistical anomaly. Amillia was born after 23 weeks and 6 days of gestation; she is healthy.
The earliest premature baby in the world was born after 21 weeks and 5 days in gestation. James Elgin Gill survived and is healthy. Amillia and James were exceptional babies.
