Abortion is a very controversial topic (or at least in America based on my experience). Now, I live in super liberal Massachusetts and I'm honestly conflicted between both Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. So I decided to dig deeper into and get to the reasoning.
Explaining Roe v. Wade
A lot of people have heard of the case of Roe v. Wade, essentially the US Supreme court "ruled that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether or not to have an abortion. However, it ruled that this right is not absolute, and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and protecting prenatal life." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)
The one thing I don't understand is how one's right to privacy has to do with abortions. Like I guess it's that the government has no right to impede on your private life (in this case, a woman's sexual life). That's how I interpret what the court ruled. The Court "first ruled that privacy was protected by the Constitution in Griswold v. Connecticut". (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourte...s_Constitution). Okay so now from my understanding, Roe v. Wade uses precedent to rule that abortions are protected by a right to privacy. This ruling was essentially upheld once again in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Pro-Life Argument
However, the pro-life side may say that abortion is murder and that the government should step in to do something about it. One's right to privacy obviously doesn't give you the right to murder. Some may say that the fetus has a right to live. Others may say that a fetus is not a person that's protected by the U.S. Constitution. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment in the US Constitution states that "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
Key phrases here are "nor shall any state deprive any person of life" and "nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws".
Conclusion
The US Supreme Court "found that there was no indication that the Constitution's uses of the word "person" were meant to include fetuses, and so it rejected Texas's argument that a fetus should be considered a "person" with a legal and constitutional right to life." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_v._Wade)
So I guess the question is when does life start? When does a fetus become a person? I've seen some arguments about when abortions should be allowed or not. The most recent point I saw was a youtube comment that basically said that the brain develops at at 6 weeks, and hey, we take people off life support if they're brain dead and that's seen as okay so. To verify this "Just four weeks after conception, the neural tube along your baby's back is closing. The baby's brain and spinal cord will develop from the neural tube. The heart and other organs also are starting to form." (Source: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-l...e/art-20045302) So I guess the argument is once a baby has a working brain, don't abort it.
However, upon further research, I learned that just because a baby has some form of a brain, doesn't mean it's actually working. "Even though the fetus is now developing areas that will become specific sections of the brain, not until the end of week 5 and into week 6 (usually around forty to forty-three days) does the first electrical brain activity begin to occur. This activity, however, is not coherent activity of the kind that underlies human consciousness, or even the coherent activity seen in a shrimp's nervous system. Just as neural activity is present in clinically brain-dead patients, early neural activity consists of unorganized neuron firing of a primitive kind." "The fact that it is clear that a human brain isn't viable until week 23, and only then with the aid of modern medical support"(Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/19/b...cal-brain.html)
TL;DR: THE BABY IS STILL BASICALLY BRAINDEAD UNTIL 23 WEEKS. Basically nearing the end of a woman's 2nd trimester.
Lastly, I must stress that after a brain goes brain dead, the person is essentially dead. However, a fetus's brain is in development. It will in the future work, which makes it different from someone who is brain dead.
SO: When should a fetus count as a person and be protected the US Constitution? What are your thoughts on abortion?