Personally, I don't understand how a 21-week old fetus would not be considered a person. It's viable, it has a human brain, human anatomy, human DNA...it's human.
Ironically, the law considers in many cases that a fetus is a person. If someone in a criminal activity accidently kills a fetus (for example, a robber violently pushing aside a pregnant woman), he can be charged with murder. So why should the accidental killing of a fetus be considered murder, but not the intentional killing of a fetus?
A 21-week old fetus is hardly viable. Even today, when preemie care has become amazingly advanced, a 21 week old child has a very, very low chance of being viable outside of the womb. A quick Google query says only a few babies ever have survived at 21 weeks, and most were at 21 weeks six days (but that is splitting hairs.) According to August 23, 2010 issue of "Pediatrics," Dr. Barbara J. Stoll, a 22 week old only has a 6 percent chance of survival. More than 50% of 24-week old fetuses survive. According to The Guttmacher institute (
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/ib14.html)(It's purported to be left-leaning, go ahead and bash it), published in 1997, only 0.08% of abortions occur past week 24. According to the CDC, only 1.4% of abortions occur after week 21. Different organizations have classified "late-term" in different ways. I personally believe the incidence of later gestational abortions, when life is viable, are very overblown by most pro-life groups. It just doesn't occur that often. Besides that, since 1997 many states have enacted late-term abortion bans. This should have driven down the post 21-week abortions down even further, depending on how the state defines "late-term abortion".
I didn't make state laws, I can't reconcile those with federal rulings. I think, personally, abortions should be outlawed starting after the second trimester begins and then the fetus can be considered "alive." However, the problem I see then becomes this then allows political fights over if abortion is illegal or not, extending into banning abortions totally. Which I absolutely do not agree with. According to Wikipedia( great, I know), 36 states already have made late-term abortions illegal. I am guessing many of those states also have laws stating that if another person (not the mom) kills an unborn fetus, it is murder. I don't have data on at what gestational age successful charges have been brought. Perhaps most when the fetus would be considered late-term, I don't know.
I don't think what the fetus look's like, at any point during gestation, has any bearing on if it is human or not. I define life in terms of viability, not some magical juice sperm has and not some other-wordly spirit imparted once the sperm enters the egg.
