I want to respond to this debate as I have a few ideas. However it is apparent to me that I need to be firmly educated on American law never mnind Canadian law.
At what point does abortion, which is legal, turn into infanticide subject to criminal penalty? Sixth month, seventh month…, natural exit from the womb or when the baby is breathing on its own? Or whatever?
Not looking for opinions, just the legal facts.
I want to respond to this debate as I have a few ideas. However it is apparent to me that I need to be firmly educated on American law never mnind Canadian law.
At what point does abortion, which is legal, turn into infanticide subject to criminal penalty? Sixth month, seventh month…, natural exit from the womb or when the baby is breathing on its own? Or whatever?
Not looking for opinions, just the legal facts.
http://www.tourolaw.edu/patch/Roe/
State criminal abortion laws, like those involved here, that except from criminality only a life-saving procedure on the mother’s behalf without regard to the stage of her pregnancy and other interests involved violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects against state action the right to privacy, including a woman’s qualified right to terminate her pregnancy. Though the State cannot override that right, it has legitimate interests in protecting both the pregnant woman’s health and the potentiality of human life, each of which interests grows and reaches a “compelling” point at various stages of the woman’s approach to term. Pp. 147-164.
(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman’s attending physician. Pp. 163, 164.
(b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. Pp. 163, 164.
© For the stage subsequent to viability the State, in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life, may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother. Pp. 163-164; 164-165.
WhyNot
March 1, 2006, 7:46pm
#3
The facts vary by state. Here is a great guide (PDF!)
Gestational Limits: 36 states prohibit abortions, generally except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health, after a specified point in pregnancy, most often fetal viability.
North Carolina prohibits abortion except in cases of life orhealth endangerment to the mother at or after 20 weeks.
FL, MA, NV, NY, PA, RI, and SD at or after 24 weeks.
GA, IA, SC, TX, VA at third trimester.
AL, AR, AR, CA, CT, IL< ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MI, MO, MT. ND, NE, OK, TN, WA, WI, WY after “Viability” - generally determined by the doctor. Most of these require an abortion done at or near viability to be performed in a hospital, not a clinic. Two doctors must perform the procedure, and life support for the “product of the abortion” must be in the room. If either doctor feels it is viable, it must be saved.
At what point does abortion, which is legal, turn into infanticide subject to criminal penalty? Sixth month, seventh month…, natural exit from the womb or when the baby is breathing on its own? Or whatever?
The Canadian Criminal Code uses this definition for when a child becomes a human being
**When child becomes human being
223.** (1) A child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother, whether or not
(a) it has breathed;
(b) it has an independent circulation; or
© the navel string is severed.
Killing child
(2) A person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being.
Note tht there is no prohibition on abortion in Canada.
Cliffy
March 1, 2006, 8:59pm
#5
Even when abortion is a crime, it sill isn’t infanticide. Infanticide is when you kill a baby. Fetuses aren’t babies.
–Cliffy