Pro-forced birth misses the point that this debate involves the issue of whether the fetus has any moral status at any point (or at the point under discussion).
In states that ban abortion after the start of the third trimester, the lawmakers have not instantly caved to arguments saying this is forcing women to give birth to these late-term fetuses.
Many of the people debating in this thread have used the third trimester as a cut off time themselves (some of them even think incorrectly that Roe v. Wade made third trimester abortions illegal when it only allowed states to ban them). Most frequently, these people, who would describe themselves as pro-choice, say that the fetus deserves some kind of legal protection past that time.
The argument about force bypasses that issue entirely. If it is possible the fetus deserves similar legal protection earlier, then the argument about force does nothing but paint an ugly picture that is missing something truly important.
EDIT: Specifically for Maedar, but relevant for anyone in the debate. I found some Wikipedia links on when the heart and brain are working:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetus#Development
Says that from weeks 9 to 16, the heart and brain are at the beginning of development and have only "minimal operation."
That is largely contradicted by a second link I found:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenatal_development
This one says that when the embryo is in its fourth week (which is referred to, confusingly, as the sixth week of gestation, a scale I am not using here), it has a heart, and it starts to beat.
It further says that by the time the embryo is in its sixth week, it has a brain.
When the embryo is in week seven, it says, the sound of the heartbeat is detectable by using something called a doppler.
To put it in perspective, this is all
before the fetal stage even begins.
(Just to clarify, most of what was said on that page was very similar to what was on
one page it linked to, a .gov page.)
To supplement that, I found a
chart that deals with brain development. We can debate the exact significance of that, since I'm no expert in this area.
To go back to the "Prenatal development" page, it specifies that shortly after it is a fetus, it can make a fist with its fingers. Unless you want to argue that it's the mother's brain causing that, I think it proves that it definitely has a significant amount of brain activity.
I'm going to rest my case there. For saying that a fetus has no heartbeat and no brain activity until after the 24-week mark, you are the one who sounds ridiculous.
Additionally, I'm going to add that I found a
link showing pretty clearly that abortions past the start of the third trimester are not banned nationwide under Roe v. Wade. Rather, it is, as I've mentioned before, left to the states to determine whether they want to ban it or not, with several states allowing it.
You need to acknowledge both the biological data and the legal data I have presented, Maedar.