From Daily Kos:
by Flaming Liberal for Jesus
I got the title from a theory that because of the immaturity of an infant homo sapiens, there are really 6 trimesters of fetal development; three in the womb and 3 outside it.
Many mammals are much more mature at their time of birth. Horses, fawns and calves (bovine)can walk within hours after their birth. Baby marine mammals can swim as soon as they're born. Other scientists believe that babies are born three months too early. Because of their extreme immaturity, babies require a lot of care and resources.
First of all babies need warmth. Bein born to parents who don't make enough to pay rent wold be far more devastating to baby than an adult, as a homeless newborn would be much more suceptible to hypothermia than it's parents. Yet many of the same anti-abortion advocates who are so vocal are nowhere to be seen and never heard from when we debate affordable housing, section 8 and living wages.
Likewise, neonates are also more susceptible to overheating. LIHEAP and other progams that assist low-income folks in the winter (although they are frequently under funded) are not available in July and August when heat waves strike not the sunbelt, but also Philadelphia and Chicago. I wonder if there is a member of Right-to-Life or Operation Rescue who would set up an airconditioning fund for Newborn Geminis, Cancers, Leos and Virgos.
Even leases where heating is included in the rent don't alway include central air. In my building AC is provided by window units. The cost of these is found on the tenant's electricity bills.
Second of all babies need food. Formula can cost over a thousand dollars per year and it doesn't have the antibodies that are found in breast milk. As noted in anthropologist Meredith Small's book Our Babies, Ourselves
Even in Western Europe and North America, where sanitation is better than in other parts of the world, bottle-fed infants exhibit two to five times the number of respiratory infections that breast-fed infants do.
According to the World Health Organization only 1 out 0f 3 babies are exclusively breast-fed for the first six months. Part of the problem for Americans is the lack of maternity leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act only requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave. Many Western European countries legally require paid parental leave time. Yet the anti-abortion advocates are curiously silent when it comes to maternity leave and the rights of working parents.
Small notes elsewhere in the same book that
The(child's) brain grows to 7.5 times its size from birth.
this make human infants even more susceptible to environmental toxins and even more influenced by early training and education than other species. Yet the anti-abortion advocates don't generally seem to be concerned about either issue very much.
I'm glad the senate bill for Healthcare doesn't currently include something like the Stupak-Pitts amendment. If we're going to debate "sanctity of life" the debate would range far beyond abortion.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/30/114548/35I think the definition of fetal development needs to be expanded. I also think a few more items need to be added to the Stewpot-Shits amendment to insure the sanctity of life a lot longer.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
