Michael Fumento

A new study in Archives of Disease in Childhood: Fetal and Neonatal Edition reports that using ultrasound researchers have found that fetuses appear to cry at 28 weeks, or four weeks into the third trimester. Since the discovery came about just by chance, directed research could find the behavior begins well before that: perhaps as early as the 2nd trimester in some babies. Yet, as Wikipedia's entry on abortion in the U.S. observes, "The current judicial interpretation of the U.S. Constitution regarding abortion in the United States, following the Supreme Court of the United States's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, and subsequent companion decisions, is that abortion is legal up to the moment of birth, if a woman can find a doctor willing to perform the procedure."

Polls have been showing a steady decline in support for abortion among young women, with apparently much of that to do with observations made with ultrasound that narrow the viewer's belief in the distinction between fetus and baby. In fact, organizations that try to dissuade women from having abortions are increasingly using ultrasound machines to do so. This new report on crying fetuses could prompt a further decline in support for abortion.