Are we losing our freedom of religion in America? Freedom of religion is not just for people you more or less agree with or else it is restriction of religion and belief. The religious belief that "personhood" begins with conception is just that, a religious opinion. It fits neither a scientific nor a legal definition. If one wishes to believe that, that's fine, but it does not entitle one, let alone the state, to force that opinion upon others under threat of fines, jail, and in some people's conviction a possible death penalty. The threatened overturning of Roe v. Wade is not just about the loss of a woman's right to choose, it is also a threat to the fundamental freedom of belief.
"Everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and opinions, but no one is entitled to their own facts. Nor, above all, to insist their unsubstantiated errors are facts."
Traditional anonymous
Variations exist as quoted by Bernard Baruch, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Rayburn H. Carrell, James R. Schlesinger and Alan Greenspan?
Yeah. It's hard to believe that's where we are but a study of history reminds us that it's common. It was just that it happened to them. Pretty much every lifetime is likely to see it happen, though, because it's cycular. Comes to such a power play about every 70 years and the freedom side doesn't always win. Freedom was in short supply for a number of years during Eisenhower's time (and he said little about it).
The problem is that reality does not agree with personhood starting with conception. Identical twins start as a single fertilized egg, but the multicelled blastocyst becomes divided (for whatever reason) to become two blastocysts with genetically identical personhoods. The same issue for allophenic people. In that case two genetically different blastocysts fuse to become a single blastocyst with two different genetic complements.
On the other hand, one could make the argument that the fetus is not even human, recalling that embryogenesis replays all the genetic coding developed for more primitive forms, and that the actual exclusively human coding doesn't kick in until fairly late in development.
Our brain doesn't fully "seal" until around 35 and we've damaged it pretty good by then.
@LenHazell53 That's what I learned in High School. If it's wrong then that's a fine example of why I pay zero attention to the propaganda about the importance of schools.
@rainmanjr It was a joke, a pun on the word seal, hence the "seal" meme