Fetuses are not Babies

A fetus is not the same thing as a baby. A fetus is attached to its mother and depends on that person for its very survival. A fetus takes its nutrition directly from the mother's body through the placenta. The mother cannot just hand it off if she is tired of nourishing it or if it is causing her nausea or causing her back pain. It is there 24/7 and it demands to be nurtured.

A baby is also dependent, but not necessarily on the mother that gave it birth. The birth mother can, if she doesn't want the baby, leave it at the hospital, or give it up for adoption. She can wash her hands of the whole baby affair. But while it is a fetus, she is stuck with it, regardless of what kind of hardship she must endure.

Now, one might argue that if she didn't want to put up with the hardship maybe she shouldn't have gotten pregnant. Maybe. But is that anyone else's call but her own? Is it your place to judge? More importantly, is it your place to mandate her choices? I don't think so.

For some reason that is hard to figure out, Republicans believe that they have the right, even the obligation, to make it as difficult as possible for women to be able to choose abortion. Small-government Republicans have passed more legislation that restricts personal choices over the past few years than Democratic lawmakers ever have. It is incredibly ironic.

I want one of these Republicans to explain to me in coherent English why it is they can espouse to be hands-off, small-government, even libertarian-leaning conservatives while at the same time dictating to women that they are not allowed to freely choose to have an abortion without government restriction. And I want them to explain it to me without using biblical morality as their reason. Because if that truly is their reason, they have to realize that it is an unconstitutional reason. That may not bother them much, seeing that most of them share a revisionist view of history. But history is what it is, and the Constitution is what it is. It won't change just because a vocal group of revisionist lunatics is uncomfortable with the facts.