women who have or have had an abortion are aware that they "might potentially be killing a human life." They don't need you or anyone to tell them that. They're not stupid enough to not realize that without the abortion, in 9 months that "growth" would be a "baby" and in 18 years that "baby" would be a "person". We're women, not idiots.

Where the irrelevancy comes in is, the question of whether a 4 week fetus is a "person" or not is a matter of PERSONAL BELIEF. Yes, it's "human" - it's composed of human cells. If you did DNA analysis after removal of that fetus, you could determine whether it was GENETICALLY male or female. But a genetically female ball of 32 cells is not a woman, or even a little girl.

Many anti-abortion/pro-life people BELIEVE "life begins at conception." This is, for most of them, a RELIGIOUS construction. They believe that ball of 32 cells has a soul, and has had one from the time it was ONE cell composed of an egg and sperm mashed together. Since this cannot in any way be PROVEN (there is no genetic, chemical, or litmus test for "immortal soul") it falls under the realm of BELIEF.

And, here is the important part - laws such as this should not be decided on the basis of BELIEFS not shared by all people.

I am a woman. I have never had an abortion. Like Messy, I do just fine with contraceptives and being careful, and have for the entirity of my sexually active life. Now that I am married, I cannot forsee a circumstance under which I would need or want to have an abortion. However. I do not believe that life begins at conception. I do not believe that causing the failure to grow or removal of a ball of undifferentiated human cells that could eventually become a baby is equivalent to murder. And it is because of people like me that abortion should not be illegal - someone else's religious beliefs have no business governing my body.

After all, we have religious freedom in this country and have since day 1. If I can't dictate to you what religion you are, because you are free to choose, why can you dictate to me BASED ON your religion what I do with my body? That's a mighty interesting double standard, I have to say...