Settled science on beginning of life

Democrats advocate government policies to combat climate change, stating "the science is settled," referencing scientific consensus and promoting employing scientific fact to guide public policy. Democrats also tout constitutionally guaranteed human rights, e.g., the prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment in their opposition to the death penalty.

The above renders their position on abortion hypocritical. Rather than relying on science and constitutionally guaranteed rights to inform their abortion policy, they insist only a mother's decision matters throughout an entire pregnancy up to and including the last moment prior to natural birth, labeling it "a women's health care choice."

Yet medical science unanimously agrees that at between 18 and 20 weeks and as early as 16 weeks, a fetus is, for all intents and purposes, a human, responding to all manner of stimuli including recoiling from pain, laughing, crying and even dreaming. Indeed, a 19-month-old fetus was recently birthed and nursed to full health.

While "heart beat laws" are too stringent, given a heartbeat does not signify a cognizant "life", it is scientifically irrefutable that a brain, indeed a mind, developed to the point of consciousness constitutes a "unique and distinct life," a human. And as such, constitutionally guaranteed human rights attach.

The only scientifically and constitutionally consistent position is: a woman shall have 16 weeks to make a "proceed or terminate" decision on her pregnancy, after which the fetus is scientifically certified as a human to whom all constitutional rights accrue. The mother then has the legal responsibility, as all parents do, to care for that child and deliver it. After 16 weeks, only a qualified doctor and medical review board can decide on the necessity to terminate the pregnancy to save the life of the mother. Any other position renders its holder a "flat-earther."

John Kauck

Grayslake