Roe v Wade should be put up against modern science.

In revisiting Roe, science should trump Stare Decisis

...Blackmun wrote “We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins.” That was probably dishonest dodge back then. But today, nobody can argue that life begins at birth, or in the second trimester. If there’s any debate remaining, it’s a very narrow one, and the consensus is that a person is a person at least by the time a pregnancy is detected.

In 2003, scientists mapped the human genome. We now have something of a unique chemical serial number for each human being, which reflects the commonality of all humans, but also the individuality of each person. We have come to accept that DNA makes us the creatures we are.

While we change over our lives, and while we change immensely in the womb, that unique identity that is our DNA is already determined when we are a single cell, not even implanted in our mother’s uterus. Even if the phrase “life begins at conception” might strike some scientists as imprecise (“conception is a process,” they will say,) science has made clearer that a single-celled person is the same person she will be when she is born, when she grows old, and when she dies. A person is a person.

This wasn’t a new discovery in 2003. Embryology texts have said for decades that the fertilized egg is a unique individual, who will grow into an infant over 9 months. But scientific advances have made it harder to deny.

Since Roe, the notion of “viability” has also changed. Blackmun was only willing to grant that a baby at 28 weeks gestation was viable outside the womb. These days, a baby born at 24 weeks will survive is cared for properly....

March for Life: Science has changed since Roe v. Wade, now abortion laws must change

...In 2005, columnist Richard Cohen argued, “If a Supreme Court ruling is going to affect so many people, then it ought to rest on perfectly clear logic and up-to-date science. Roe, with its reliance on trimester and viability, has a musty feel to it.” The mustiness identified by Cohen has only intensified in the 14 years since he wrote this.

...Overnight, Roe v. Wade allowed elective abortion throughout all nine months of a woman’s pregnancy, making the United States one of only seven countries allowing late term abortions, alongside China and North Korea. At the time of the decision, the “right” to an abortion was balanced against the state’s interest in regulating abortion, but states could only regulate the practice after viability, the age at which a premature infant can survive outside the womb. At that time (1973) viability was estimated to be between 24 and 28 weeks gestation.

...Advancements in the medical profession, particularly ultrasonography, reveal earlier and earlier the humanity of the child and in doing so, help people to see clearly that a person’s life starts when male and female chromosomes come together. Standard human embryology textbooks such as "The Developing Human Being" teach that “human development begins at fertilization when a male gamete or sperm (spermatozoon) unites with a female gamete or oocyte (ovum) to form a single cell — a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marked the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.” Unborn children possess from the beginning the DNA that informs a person’s unique characteristics.

...And babies born before 24 weeks are more likely than ever to survive thanks to modern medicine. Consider the news in 2017 of a baby girl born at just over 21 weeks who beat the odds and is “thriving,” according to CNN....