A Texas appeals court upholds a conviction for fetal murder, asserting that Texas law does not contradict federal abortion precedents by considering a fetus to be a human being with legal rights. The case involves a double murder of mother and unborn child.

The decision itself makes little sense in the broader context — the personhood of an unborn child apparently depends on what the mother thinks of it. The Supreme Court’s test for barring state involvement in protecting life in the womb, wrote Judge Sharon Keller,

…has no application to a statute that prohibits a third party from causing the death of the woman’s unborn child against her will,” Presiding Judge Sharon Keller wrote.

But neither does our federal abortion precedent make any sense, in which the most contentious issue of our day is off-limits for the democratic process.

As a culture, we’re all engaging in a bit of doublethink right now on the issue of abortion. A fetus is not not a human life, but many can’t bring themselves to the logical (and scientific) conclusion that it is a human life.