Mike, I agree, debates on personal views on abortion get very heated. And when you throw in cases of denying it even when the life of the mother is in danger, and the ugly Kermit Gosnell case here in Philadelphia (where the pro-abortion faction turned a blind eye), it gets even uglier. But a correction...

Roe v Wade (and a subsequent Supreme Court decision) did not establish a hard point at 28 weeks per se. The Court ruled that while abortion was protected under the 14th amendment, states could set gestational limits based on viability. At the time, the Court accepted medical conventions that viability began at the start of the third trimester, sometime between 24 and 28 weeks, and acknowledged that due to variables, viability could be determined case by case

This might come as a surprise, but there are a growing # of people and legal scholars who are generally pro-choice (at least up until around five months) and who ALSO disagree with Roe v Wade. Two of the justices who voted "yes" in the 7-2 decision stated later that they regretted their ruling, that the court really had no standing to make the decision and that it represented questionable science. Many who initially supported the decision have said that become of improvements in medical technology, the actual wording of the decision is essentially on a collision course with itself.

Viability is certainly very low at 23 weeks, but there are some cases where babies survive. Yes, viability at 20 weeks is unheard of - the respiratory system hasn't developed enough to survive outside the womb. However, there is still significant respiratory development that begins at 16 weeks. At 20 weeks, the unborn child can hear and recognize the mother's voice, the heart can be heard with a stethoscope, hair starts to grow, and never center development in the brain is occurring. They are right on the verge of viability and deserve protection.

That doesn't mean I've done a 180....the health of the mother comes first. These fetal heartbeat bills that try to outlaw it after 6-8 weeks should always be shot down. But after 20 weeks, I don't think any doctor should be performing them unless it's a case of the notable exceptions.