Is Post-Birth Abortion Wrong?

How is a baby or toddler different from a viable fetus?

Photo by Daniel Gregoire on Unsplash

Decent and well-intentioned advocates passionately argue for pro-Life and pro-Choice positions, but Abortion remains among the most controversial and fundamentally intractable issues we face.

I am intellectually pro-Choice but must admit that Abortion “feels” wrong, at least after the first trimester or so. I’ve let this internal conflict remain unresolved and relegated it to the following points.

• It is simply none of my business what women do with their bodies, as free individuals and citizens of the American Republic acting within the law of the land.
• There’s a boundary somewhere in the second trimester that’s crossed when the fetus can live on its own. But isn’t that boundary fuzzy and heavily affected by medical technology, or even economic circumstances?
• I shouldn’t think too much about this issue since it’s fundamentally intractable much like the tradeoff between Liberty versus Security, Individual versus Collective, Individual Rights versus Individual Responsibilities, Individual A’s Rights vs. Individual B’s Rights, and so on.

But the topic of Abortion is continuing to grow in prominence and fester in my mind. Why am I so conflicted between my intellect and…