Thanks, Les, and good post, er, Mr Sole.

I think that one of the most sterile and pointless arguments on the internet is the one about when the embryo/foetus becomes human, etc. We'll never get agreement on that in a month of Sundays and it generally turns into an emotional mush. Also, I absolutely hate anyone who wants to restrict or ban abortions calling themselves pro-life. To me, getting abortion numbers down to an absolute minimum is a practical issue rather than a moral one, and I heartily agree with George Monbiot. There is a moral issue, but it involves the mistreatment of women, and that's what has to be put right. The moralising, the restrictions, the obstacles put in women's way, the stigmatising of women by the likes of...(I won't mention her name but she's about to be sainted by dint of two fake miracles) - none of it has worked, all of it worse than useless. Every sane person on this planet wants to live in a world in which abortion is rare. So let's find the way to achieve it. As Monbiot asserts, it involves doing just about the opposite of what so many countries do now.