Common ground on Abortion: Can we find it?

Abortion is clearly one of the most polarizing debates in American history. Is there common ground? I can guarantee the below debate will not sit well with 15% on the right and 15% on the left, but for most American’s it makes common sense and is better than the current situation we have right now.

Let’s start with a couple basic assumptions – 1) Children cannot be killed and 2) once a child exists, it has rights. If anyone does not agree with these assumptions, common ground cannot be achieved. However, if we assume a rational audience, the next step is to determine when a fetus becomes a child. To do this, we’ll look at the opposite end of the life spectrum – death. A person is pronounced dead when the heart stops beating for a sufficient period of time. Cells may still be “alive” and the body may even still have a temperature, but the body is pronounced dead. We should apply this logic to the birth of a child. When the heart starts beating, there is a child. Prior to the heart beating, it is a collection of cells with the ability to produce life, but a child does not yet exist. A beating heart will typically occur in the third or fourth month. A child exists at that point and has rights. The hardcore belief that life begins at inception is just not accurate in the context of true life. Life at conception is predominantly a religious based belief and should not be a determining factor for government policy.

Once there is a child, the last step is to determine if there are circumstances that would require the killing of the child. There are some circumstances that are worth debating, such as incest, rape, health of the mother, birth defects that were detected. I have my own opinion, but believe these specifics should be left to the state to decide individually.

I do believe that partial birth abortion is never a necessity and should never be performed. Anyone that believes otherwise falls into one of two categories: 1) They don’t understand the procedure, or 2) They are radically committed to abortion as a right with no regard for the child and are afraid of the proverbial “slippery slope” to include horrific destruction of a child.

The above concept will lend itself to be a policy in which abortion can occur legally in the first 3-4 months. After that point, it becomes a procedure that individual states can regulate on a rare exception basis, but only for a period of time that the child cannot sustain life outside the womb.