By Jonathan Tobin -
“More than two years ago, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that studies had proven that infants at 22 and 23 weeks of gestation have a decent chance of survival outside the womb if given adequate treatment. This was reported on the front page of the New York Times, and subsequent research will likely further lower the age of viability. But opponents of late-term abortion bans have stubbornly ignored these developments.
“Given the incontrovertible fact that babies who are still being legally aborted could live outside of the womb, the moral rationale for opposing late-term-abortion bans has disappeared. Nor is it reasonable to assert, as opponents of the ban continue to do, that a viable infant at that age would be incapable of feeling pain.
“In order to justify opposition to the 20-week ban, Democrats must not merely ignore the moral and religious arguments that motivate pro-life advocates. They must now also pretend that the revolution in neonatal care that has occurred since Roe never happened. More to the point, Democrats who have treated opposition to any limits on abortion as a litmus test of support for the rights of women must come to terms with the fact that their extremism on the issue has led them to defend not so much a right to ‘choose’ as a procedure indistinguishable from infanticide.” [National Review]
