> If you accept as true the premise that a healthy > 12 week fetus with a healthy mother is a human life that must be protected I'd be curious about your basis

> If you accept as true the premise that a healthy > 12 week fetus with a healthy mother is a human life that must be protected I'd be curious about your basis for that premise: + If the premise is axiomatic, then it seems to be purely a personal metaphysical- or religious belief, so it would seem hard to justify imposing that belief on others except from a might-makes-right worldview. + If the premise is based on the hypothesized mental capacity of such a fetus, do you hold the same belief about killing, say, already-born chimpanzees and other primates — whose mental capacity I would imagine is far superior to that of a >12-week fetus? + If the premise is based on the potential of a fetus, unlike a chimpanzee, to develop into a full-fledged human, then why not ban all abortions and post-fertilization contraceptives, e.g., Plan B and IUDs? + If (with a nod to Blackmun in Roe) the fetus's potential for further development must be balanced with the impact of pregnancy and motherhood on the mother, then why draw a one-size-fits-all line at 12 weeks, or for that matter any time before viability? + Finally: Before viability, it seems like the best idea to give the responsibility for making the decision to the mother who is "on the scene" — much as when a front-line squad leader in combat, not the general in the rear, must decide which of his- or her troops to send to attack a machine gun and likely be killed in the process. (I've long thought the "pro-choice" people should frame their arguments not as the woman's right to choose but as her terrible duty to choose.) + Relatedly, as a bad analogy that should strike a chord with you from your clerking stint: Appellate judges generally don't second-guess trial judges about how the latter run their cases except for abuse of discretion, on the theory that the trial judge is closest to the scene and in the best position to make judgment calls. Before viability, the same could be said about the mother.