as the father of a 24 week premie who "made it" but was saddled with extreme and painful disabling health concerns for his entire (20 year) life, I can't imagine making the case that 20 weeks was any sort of "viability" marker.

EDIT TO ADD: I know you didn't say that 20 weeks = viability. You were expressing merely that some babies delivered at that stage have survived. (when my 24 week son was born, the outer known limit was 22 weeks, I believe, and that was in 1986, so things have, I guess, progressed.)

But there is an inference there that you think that some wonderful and fortunate successes with some small percentage of babies born at that terribly unlucky stage of fetal development (against the vast majority of such cases) should define the last date a pregnant woman is allowed autonomy over her body, and that seems wrong-headed to me.

[Post edited by southdenverhoo at 03/21/2024 11:10AM]