I have attempted to inform the discussion, akenaton, by linking to an article that clearly shows that "abortion on demand" does not, as you falsely assert, increase the overall numbers of abortions. It does, however, make abortions safer. That may not be important to you but it is to me. Honestly, I don't know why I bother. I'm beginning to see that your favourite style of argument is the one from deliberate and wilful ignorance. Beginning? Gosh, I think I've known it for years.

The danger in all these discussions is always the "when does life begin" chestnut popping up. Well, it began about three and a half billion years ago and has been a continuum ever since. The unfertilised egg and the sperm that has ambitions to get in there first are just as alive as any zygote/blastocyst/embryo/foetus/baby/dude. They each exhibit the criteria of life that we all learned in them dusty ould classrooms decades ago. To see it any other way is futile. Trying to pinpoint an exact moment is just bandying words. I'm risking thread-implosion by saying that, but despite my best endeavours I'm not the first to raise it. I don't mind that as I'm an expert on hijacking threads myself, but it isn't really the point of the thread. What should we be doing as parents, friends, teachers and society to make it so that those abortion clinic staff sit around all day playing cards due the the lack of unwanted pregnancies reporting in? Bearing in mind that what we've done so far doesn't seem to have worked very well?