Ok, we've already covered how much science can tell us about when life begins and what that means on abortion

There is no clear scientific consensus on when a fetus becomes a person. I suspect we will never agree on when that is

When creating laws and public policies, the question is when a fetus gains rights. That has to be based on the ethics of minimizing harm for all parties involved.

Not so fast

The desire to embrace a simple solution like that is appealing, but reality is far too complex

There are all sorts of issues that crop up if we decide that a fetus should have the same rights as a person.

For instance, jailing a pregnant person would deprive the fetus of their own freedom. That is unworkable in reality

At the heart of this issue is a basic human right. A pregnant person must have the right to refuse to carry a pregnancy to term, for any reason

There are a lot of myths around the idea that a ton of people are getting abortions out of convenience

It's incredibly rare, and even more so the later we get into a pregnancy

And it is still their right to do so.

No one else gets to decide what reasons are valid enough, except the person who is pregnant

And there are so many other ethical considerations when talking about harm reduction

Like rape, incest, coercion, trafficking, and the risk to the expectant person. These are not rare factors, especially later in the pregnancy

Great! But when it comes to decisions on this issue, it shouldn't come down to a bunch of legal exceptions.

It should be a decision made by the pregnant person, with medical advice from their doctor

If we as a society want to further reduce harm, we'd improve social services for single parents

We'd consider the challenges that a single parent may have to face for the rest of their lives

We'd devote our efforts to strengthening social safety nets

We'd offer free birth control options to everyone

We'd offer free daycare so that single parents are able to provide for their children

We'd introduce real sex ed classes across the entire nation

We'd honor anyone's wishes for contraception if they want it

We'd consider so many other factors than just the ~9 months of gestation.

Evidence-based actions like these have been correlated to reduced numbers of abortions

Sadly there is still a push for abortion bans, even though they do not reduce abortions.

They only reduce the number of safe abortions performed by trained medical staff

Abortion bans are only good at rallying religious folks around a political platform. They are rooted in religious extremism