Thanks to James Hollinsworth for pointing out some obvious facts that are often overlooked in the debate on abortion, namely the view of women as chattel that the criminalization of abortion presupposes.

To Jim of Evans City: I agree that theft and drug abuse are major problems in Butler County that merit attention, but without a vigorous defense abortion rights will cease to be recognized (as evidenced by the recent law banning late term abortions).

Susie from Texas draws attention to the fact that all of us were fetuses once. Just because all people had to go through different physiological stages in their development into an individuated human being does not mean that at the stage of fetus and embryo, we had rights that superseded the rights of our mothers to their own bodies. Opponents of abortion rights seem to imply that to support abortion rights is akin to advocating all pregnancies end in abortion, hence their reminders that we were all fetuses at one point. That line of reasoning is a clear example of a"straw man" argument and is invalid.