I do not agree that a "moderate" position on abortion is to decide when human life begins. That seems to me to want a final, cut and dried answer which will spell out for good and all whether or not it is "murder." That is not moderate, but conservative and inflexible.

People already believe viability begins at conception. Others (and this seems to me the most reasonable view) believe a fetus is viable when it can live independent of the mother's womb (with basic incubation technology for special cases). But the medical profession classifies pregnancy into trimesters for precisely this reason. The determination of viability is already there, and it does affect the laws on this issue.

There will ALWAYS occasions when terminating the life of a fetus is necessary to save the life of a mother. A "moderate" view, it seems to me, probably takes that into account.

And there will always be people who believe it is always the right of the mother, whose bodily health and propriety is in question, to decide what she wants to do about her own pregnancy.

The "right to life" was not actually even an issue in this country until abortion became a SAFE procedure. Prior to Roe v. Wade, aboriton was illegal primarily because it was DANGEROUS, and to protect WOMEN from dying under the knife of some back-alley abortion doctor; NOT because to do so was somehow ending the life of an "unborn" human. When abortion became safe, around the same time as the invention of the birth control pill, suddenly women were given a great deal of control over their reproductive freedom and their bodies. This simply would not do. It is no great surprise that the majority of abortion foes are men, or women who follow a religious path which states that women are to be subjugated to men...

A bit of historical perspective is quite helpful when looking at this issue.