Actually, the government does have business in this, just as they have an interest in protecting life outside the womb. As far as your example of the 45 year old woman, if we start destroying life because of chromosome abnormalities, we go down a slippery slope, which we have already started on. Today it’s chromosome abnormalities, tomorrow it’s babies with crooked feet that a woman wanting an excuse to kill her baby could say was because of defective genetics. And what if these abnormalities aren’t discovered until after the baby is born? Does she have a right to kill the child then? And how does she do it? Suffocation, starvation, lethal injection? What would be acceptable to you? I usually don’t give much creedence to arguing points with those who refer to the babies as fetuses, because it speaks volumes about what side of the fence you’re on, but I made an exception in this case.
Abortion is a truly unique civil and legal issue. It may seem quite simple to you but I don’t think it’s that simple.
It’s also a question of who has the right to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to term? I do not advocate for abortion at all. I quit supporting a Republican pro-choice group because they wouldn’t denounce late-term abortion.
But the body of a woman is not the “property” of the state just because she becomes pregnant. If I had become pregnant at the age of 45 and had learned of a Down Syndrome condition, I do not know how I would have reacted. But I DO know that neither you, nor any other person outside my family, should be able to force me and my husband to make the choice according to your religious beliefs.
There is no way to compare the questions raised by abortion to murder, although I do agree with those who call late-term abortion “infanticide,” because of the obvious ability of the fetus/child to survive outside the womb. But before that stage of gestation, the mother’s body and the fetus/child are inseparable legal entities, in my opinion.
After birth, the child can survive as long as any adult is available to care for him/her. But the mother’s body does not belong to the state, either before, during or after pregnancy. Sorry.