Many readers have complained that in last night’s post I unfairly lumped
together under the label “pro-choice” those who believe abortion is
permissible at all stages in pregnancy according to the desire of the
mother, and those whose qualms kick in at the third trimester. My point,
made clumsily, perhaps, is that seeing one’s own baby sucking her thumb at
34 weeks illustrates the astonishing continuum of fetal development. The
infant who I saw yesterday yawning and scrubbing her face with tiny hands is
exactly the same infant who has passed earlier milestones of gestation: 8
weeks, 12 weeks, 20 weeks, 24 weeks, whatever. A baby in the second
trimester is but a brief time from being in the third trimester, and thus
weeks away from breathing the same air we do; it is not possible logically
to argue that there is a difference of kind rather than merely of degree.