mjm, I'll attempt to shed some light on your questions.

How can this be legal? The law is always more comfortable with black and white than with shades of gray. Born/not born is essentially black/white. 20 weeks/24 weeks/28 weeks gets into shades of gray. For anyone who accepts abortion at all, it comes down to where you draw the line. The law is not good at drawing a line somewhere in the gray--in fact we've been seeing that line dance around over the last 30 years.

I'm no expert on this, but my understanding is that there are some (rare) situations where this type of late-term abortion is called for medically. In other words, it's not just a procrastination issue. So it's legal because it's medically valid and legislatively feasible.

What I saw was a completely formed human being...did I see something that was not there? Probably, in one sense. It's obvious that the site you mentioned has a clear agenda, a major part of which is to make people feel that this is murder. They want you to see a completely formed human being. Now, if it is indeed a 7-month fetus, it's not completely formed, but it's close enough to give that appearance. The goal is to make people think "baby", not "fetus". Again, my understanding is that this procedure is quite rare, perhaps in the single digit category per year, nationally. It may not be that low, but it's IS extremely low in proportion to the hoopla and attention it gets.

If you compare a 1-week embryo to an 8-month fetus, they're so clearly different it's easy to say "this one's a little speck, that one's virtually a baby". Compare 4-month to 4 1/2 month, and the distinctions are harder to make. Gather all the info you want, make evaluations and decisions you're comfortable with. Please be aware, however, that the site you've visited is not interested in your making a decision that's right for you--they want you (and everyone) to agree with them, and they are not providing an even-handed, balanced look at the issue. If you agree with them, fine, just don't allow them to manipulate you into it.

I hope that helps at least some.