in order to understand the absurdity and implications of this, lets start from the beginning with a refresher image of the not-so-fun part of getting pregnant:
so, let's talk about implications of a fertilized egg being considered a life (and thereby stopping that life would be murder, even if it means arresting my uterus):
1.) the graph doesn't mention that 50% of fertilized embryos fail to implant (i guess my uterus is paradoxically a baby killer AND a baby maker).
2.) note how many cells make up the zygote at day 3...after 2 rounds of replication, there are 4 cells...importantly, day 3 marks the limit to when you can use the "morning after" pill, plan b.
3.) hormonal birth control has a 3 pronged attack:
1. prevention of the release of the egg (see graph below)
2. the mucous over the cervix becomes thicker, providing a physical barrier
3. the uterine lining is altered to make implantation unlikely
that having been said, lets look at the diagram...oh wait, no egg, no fertilization, even if some soldiers break through the primary defense...no implantation either, even if ovulation occurs, bringing us back to the 50% implantation failure rate...if anything, taking a hormonal contraceptive DECREASES the loss of fertilized eggs, as their are less fertilized eggs in general.
so we've looked at the first few days after conception, so now lets look at the later and take a peek at what exactly is lost, whether prevented by birth control or expelled naturally...meet the blastocyst:
yes, it's hollow, and, yes, the outside is only 1 layer thick...the inner mass, or the embryoblast, is the source of embryonic stem cells.
now here's a little pop quiz...which of the following blastulae, according to the pro-lifers, has a soul?
if you guessed the top one, you would be correct! the middle is from a cow, and the bottom from a mouse (illuminated using GFP, or green fluorescent protein, an awesome and prolific tool whose inventors won the nobel in chemistry this year).
so these little bubbles of cells, indistinguishable from other species, are at the crux of the abortion/right to life debate.
now let me show you another picture human morulae (the step just before blastocyst):
6?! where did they get these? surely they must be making them to harvest stem cells!!
not quite...they're from a fertility clinic and used for in vitro fertilization...they're being incubated now, and then a few blastocysts (usually 2, though more can be used with older women) chosen for their promising-looking potential are implanted in the uterus.."just 2?" you say..."what happens to the other 4 in this batch?"...well, you can opt to have them frozen for future use, but anyone knows that frozen simply isn't as good as fresh...if not, they're chucked...yes...they wind up in a biohazard bin and eventually an incinerator.
you may be wondering why the pro-lifers are bombing planned parenthoods instead of fertility clinics...consider the moral associations that can be made if woman doesn't want to keep her child...she must be a whore, she must not be dedicated enough to her god-given role as a woman, or she doesn't have the will to sacrifice her life or months of her time to god's will...conversely, a fertility clinic is so hopeful! they want to create life! make more babies, even though the woman may not be physically able to carry to term a baby (talk about "ignoring the will of god/nature")...throwing away test tube embryos? sure...taking the morning after pill after being rape to ensure pregnancy won't occur? murder!
i want to simply touch on abortion without getting to much into it...clearly, the decision to define "life" as beginning before implantation carries the most ambiguity...truly, once implantation starts, you may as well hear the gun shot signifying the beginning of the race...this is illustrated in this really awesome image of the carnegie stages of development (which can be applied to all vertebrates but stops at 60 days):
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(this actually pretty damn close to scale, as 5 mm is roughly .2 in)
so, medical abortion, the kind where you get a shot and take a pill during the first visit and follow up with another pill later, can be done up to 8 weeks, which corresponds approximately to stages 22-23 (carnegie stages are determine by development, not days)...at 24 weeks, the fetus is generally thought to be able to survive outside the womb, and this is what a baby with only 24 weeks of gestation looks like:
it's a tiny, translucent little person, but still very much a baby that is a whole 13 weeks early...i can completely understand being opposed to abortion this late, but mostly because it's absurd and unnecessary...by 24 weeks, you've had a whole 6 months of time to decide on what to do, and by that point, you also have just 3 more months to go...i don't doubt that this baby is a baby and has a personality and a "self" (i'm loathe to use the word "soul"), though it was removed from the warm, dark, peaceful amniotic fluid into a world full of harsh stimuli...i imagine that it must have had that personality when in the womb, as i don't think it results from simply being removed and forced to breathe although they can't without assistance.
this begs the question: if i don't consider a blob of cells at 1 week to have a "self," but i consider a fetus of 24 weeks to have a "self," where is the transition point? i've always been a fan of EXACT moments, down to milliseconds, since i figure that there must be a very precise threshold that could be found, if we looked, past the most specific units of time we've devised...but i guess the point is that i don't know.
as far as abortion legality and availability, i believe that in an ideal world of readily available birth control, there would be no need for abortions, only at best plan b...an undesired fertilized egg would never even get the chance to implant and test the boundaries of abortion...this would mean that every woman must have access to plan b and must be informed and responsible enough to know when to take it, and that they have a plan if they do become pregnant (abortion, adoption, etc)...it also assumes that children aren't molested, or that rape victims will come forward immediately after it happened...the latter aren't realistic..also, there is the chance of contraceptive failure that may go unnoticed...but even in these cases, the woman has only been pregnant for a month when she finds out that she missed her period, and she can act immediately, or relatively immediately if you want to factor in time to make last minute decisions...an abortion after even 2 months seems a little unnecessary, unless it involves a victim that is too young or too intimidated or otherwise forced into an unwanted pregnancy...clearly the health of the mother should warrant an abortion, especially in cases of very young girls an..opic pregnancies.
but, yes, with proper education, the number of abortions past, oh, say, 5 weeks could be drastically reduced...legality for all forms of abortion is essential, though, for extraneous cases...requiring legal proof of rape/incest/imperiled health/etc could painfully drag out the process and may not even be possible to obtain, but legal proof in this instances would be required if they were to be legal exceptions to an otherwise illegal practice...valid medical (not faux medical, "abortion makes you infertile" bullshitters) counsel, at least an hour, should be required for any abortion, and references to other counseling resources should be given.
thats my personal view, and i'm glad that the amendment 28 in colorado was defeated...without a scientifically literate constituency, the possibility for absurd, scientifically nonsensical, or simply dangerous laws to come into effect is frighteningly high.
and in the next issue of "angry science rants," i'll discuss stem cells and the fact that they don't JUST come from embryos! haha...kidding...maybe
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