[sturm und drang]

Agree with Dooby on one point, at least: this is indeed a huge issue legally.

Bush and Republican legislators are actively trying to imbue fetuses with legal rights-- a small, but effective, step in rendering the fetus a human being. As such, abortion would then be murder. As with a majority of women, I am adamantly pro-choice and am thus violently opposed to current and pending legislation that pushes the fetus closer and closer to legal personhood. (See the recent "Defense of the Fetus" act that serves to protect the fetus from external harm, a la the Peterson case. It is widely regarded as the first step down the path of establishing legal personhood.)

It is myopic to look at the Peterson case and simply see that this fetus was wanted-- and thus claim that the abortion issue isn't relevant. By establishing the fetus as an autonomous homicide victim, it is yet another step in establishing any fetus as an autonomous human being.