DianeG

I used to see that conservative claim as well. It really seems to ignore the rest of the content. Trump is constantly bragging, congratulating himself, reminding everyone how smart he is, how popular he is, how rich and successful he is. And he does this when it hardly seems relevant to the topic at hand - like in front of the CIA or when he was with Netanyahu. When Obama did use the I pronoun, often it was in the form of something like "I think..." which if anything allows for the possibility that others might reach a different conclusion and demonstrates a certain humility.

It does seem to me as well that the current legal position is largely correct and corresponds to how people actually behave in the real world. I think the conumdrum for religious people is also the lack of a perfect demarcation - if 20 weeks is your cut off, then what about 20 weeks and 1 day? People are not comfortable with processes that are a continuum, and resort to saying a fertilized egg is a person, because it seems more precise and just easier. And it probably seemed more precise and clearcut to people like Vice President Spence who argued that no birth defect, no matter how severe, justifies abortion at any time, rather than to allow a physician or patient to judge each situation individually.

One thing I've always found curious about the question of "when is a person a person" is that people who are pro choice and people who are anti-abortion react in strikingly similar ways to miscarriage. When a positive pregnancy test a few weeks after conception suddenly turns negative, no one attempts to salvage the embryo, buy a headstone, dress in black, put a an obituary in the paper, have a funeral. Even loss at the end of the first trimester might be sad or disappointing, but is not generally regarded as a "death". Which should be surprising if many genuinely believe a fertilized egg is every bit a person as full term baby. Both groups tend to respond to a loss of a fetus as if it were a death the closer one gets to viability or full term. This strangely seems to imply that the two groups are actually more alike in their philosophical beliefs than their political stances would suggest.