When does personhood begin?
Okay then, why are you calling fetuses, babies then?
A big problem in the abortion debate is the lack of specific and accurate language when articulating your position. As I've already mentioned, intent is an important aspect of any argument. When anti-abortion advocates say things like "a fetus is a baby," it's easy to dismiss this with "a fetus is not a baby," but that doesn't really further the discussion. What do these statements mean, and what is the intent behind them?
The reason anti-abortion advocates don't get anywhere with this argument is because at face value, it doesn't encapsulate their true argument. Consider this example:
"A child is an adult."
This is demonstrably false. Both a child and an adult are humans, but they are at different points in the human growth process. A child is no more an adult than an adult is a baby. Therefore, when the anti-abortion advocates claim that "a fetus is a baby," it's easy to dismiss the argument as nonsense, because at face value, it is. However, if you're actually interested in having productive dialogue, you have to figure out the intent behind what anti-abortion advocates are trying to say, because they wouldn't keep saying this without reason. Based on
@KennyAtom 's recent posts, we can reasonably conclude that when anti-abortion advocates say:
"A fetus is a baby."
What they really mean is:
"A fetus is a person."
Since Kenny has stated his position that abortion may be permissible if no fetal heartbeat has been detected yet, we can conclude that we actually agree on the same metric for when abortion should be permitted:
"Abortion is pemissible before the fetus attains personhood."
Kenny's threshold for personhood is a fetal heartbeat, whereas the threshold agreed upon by several other thread participants is brain development. Our positions are not so far apart, after all. We just need to use common language so that we can express our positions in a way the other side can understand.