…by yours truly, in today’s Post about when abortions occur:
Re: Do Fetus Images Tell Us Anything?, letter to the editor, Oct. 13.
I’m not sure where letter-writer Olivia Brown got her statistics talking about an “overwhelming majority” of women aborting between four and 10 weeks. Not from Statistics Canada, which shows that in 2006, 31.9% of abortions were done under nine weeks. 54.6% were done later than that. For example, 7.7% of abortions were done between 13 and 16 weeks. For 13.5%, the gestational age is unknown.
There are, of course, differences in fetal development at four weeks compared with 10. The similarity is that whether recognizable as a person or not, that’s what the fetus is, whether at one week or 37.
(This is in response to another letter writer who declared most abortions happen between four and ten weeks. This is something Statistics Canada tells us isn’t true.)








When I’m arguing against abortion, I don’t use the word person, as some people really don’t think that a young embryo/fetus is truly a person. Legally, they don’t have that status. I use the term human being, because then the onus is on the pro-choice person to argue that not all human beings have the right to life.
Good point, Melissa. I suppose our opponents will play semantics on the “human being” versus “person” distinction, too. In any event, a short letter to the editor didn’t allow for nuance! But your point is well taken.