A mother is raped and becomes pregnant. Should abortion be an option for her? What might her child think?
Rachel Jackson,
String up her attacker, get medicare to fund her abortion & charge the judiciary for failing to protect her.

Dear runner,

It is not junk science to write a fetus is not a baby. It is fact. That is something you're apparently not used to dealing with. You prefer to call fact junk science.

Meanwhile please state your source for your statement about the 99+%. I think it is simply another lie. However, I will be happy to hear that it is not a lie by your supplying the evidence that there is a factual basis for your statement.

A mother is raped and becomes pregnant. Should abortion be an option for her? What might her child think?
Rachel Jackson,

Rachel, I doubt anyone whose mother was raped would ever say they wished they hadn't been born. They can't help who their father was, or be blamed for what he did.
I admire your mother for having you anyway.

These days, there is the morning after pill for rape victims, so pregnancy is not an issue.
Abortion IS an option today in Australia, so there is always that choice.

People who believe in gods, fairies or any other man-made illusions should not have any more say in that personal choice of pregnant women than anyone else....

I think JP has provided the correct answer, even though they do not really understand what they said:
"(And if we have unintentionally happened to evolve from the slime, for no particular purpose, then yes, none of us actually has any intrinsic value.)"

You are correct that we do not have any intrinsic value, as we all make value decisions regarding different lives differently. For example, most people value their own life most, followed by family, friends etc etc. Most people find the death of a small child more upsetting than that of an elderly person.

I do not believe for a second that the anti-abortion posters here truly value the life of a rapist, murder etc. the exact same as they do themselves or a fertilised egg.

If we accept the argument that human life has no intrinsic value (set by whom?), and that we all value different lives equally, then what the argument really comes down to is: can you force others to value life the same as you do? To some extent this is possible, we make murder illegal, we make medical decisions to save lives, or not, and in the past we have made abortion illegal. However in our society, abortion in some circumstances is legal, and most people have made value judgements that agree with this.

You have every right to disagree and value whatever life (real or imaginary) how you like, but if you need to resort to magic, superstition or lies to argue your case, you will not convince many people.

PS I have observed many embryos (human and animal) in vitro, and I bet the likes of runner couldn't tell a monkey from a human. That would be an interesting sight to see! Bah, secular magic tricks, they both have tails!

they both have tails!
Stezza,
only the ones who turn out to be lefties. :-)

Science is rapidly reaching the point where any one of my skin cells -- and I have billions of them -- could be made into a viable human being. Is that 'worthwhile'? What proportion of them are we morally obliged to clone? Where do we stop?

'Having the potential to become a worthwhile person' and 'being a person' are two different things, just as 'being an oak tree' and 'being an acorn' are. It's funny that nobody seems to have any trouble with this distinction outside the touchy area of abortion. We don't, for instance, pursue squirrels for their relentless destruction of potential forests.