The states putting forth the heartbeat laws are reasoning both legally and scientifically. It is biological fact we are human beings at conception.
The 14th Amendment says no person is to be deprived of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. Alabama by plebiscite passed a state constitutional amendment deeming unborn life at any stage is a person. They then passed another state constitutional amendment outlawing all abortions except in the cases of endangering the woman’s life.
These are all based on settled science and laws protecting the life and liberty of all, not just US citizens.
Redleghunter in post #13: "It is biological fact we are human beings at conception."
No, it isn't. Apparently this is a common misconception. When scientific magazines do editorialize on when personhood begins, they have always taken the view that it begins much later than conception, in my experience.
Take a look at these quotes from a talk by Scott Gilbert, an eminent professor of biology, from the website of Swarthmore College.
<< I really can't tell you when personhood begins, but I can say with absolute certainty that there's no consensus among scientists. Some scientists will say it begins at fertilization, where the zygote gets a new genome, where the sperm and egg combine, their nuclear materials, which actually is a long process ending with a two cell stage. Some scientists will say it's at implantation, where you get a pregnancy. Other scientists will say it's at day 14, gastrulation, where the embryo becomes an individual, where you can no longer form twins and triplets, so that you have one embryo giving rise to, at best, only one adult. Some scientists will say it's at week 24 to 28 when you see the beginnings of the human specific electroencephalogram, and saying if we're willing to say that death is the loss of the EEG, perhaps personhood is the acquisition of the EEG. Still others say it's at birth or during the perinatal period where a successful birth is possible. >>
<< ... Michael Sandel when he was brought before the President's Commission on Bioethics said, "If the embryo lost that accompanies natural procreation were the moral equivalent of infant death," in other words, if the zygote is a person, "then pregnancy would have to be regarded as a public health crisis of epidemic proportions: Alleviating natural embryo loss would be a more urgent moral cause than abortion, in vitro fertilization, and stem cell research combined." >>
<< Now, Renfree, an embryologist says, "Assuming that monozygotic twins have separate souls," okay. He's going to that notion of ensoulment now. "Assuming that monozygotic twins have separate souls, it follows that ensoulment, whatever it must be, must occur after cleavage, at least 12 days after conception." >>
Finally,
<< ... the parable of the man walking into a burning clinic and sees on the clinic floor a young woman and a canister, and the canister says "1000 embryos", which do you rescue? Who do you rescue? This is basically the question, do you really think that a zygote or blastocyst is the equivalent of a human person? >>
Source:
When Does Personhood Begin?
