I once had an encounter with an absolutist anti-abortion fanatic. Of course, she knew little of medical science and nothing about the amount of fertilized eggs rejected naturally (most of what they call babies are flushed).

Strangely, she was most stunned by the condition of anencephaly, where a child develops without a brain. For some reason, despite all the voodoo logic of “soul given at conception”, the idea of a human being with a person and soul did not trancend the very materialistic border of the brain.

There is a reachable center of reason under that veil of superstitious nonsense. It’s just that it’s so much easier to have a nice little outing with your friends, verbally abusing vulnerable people, in the name of the Lord - rather than actually looking into and thinking about the subject.