Resolved: Abortion, the removing of a fetus (3 months or earlier), should be banned in the U.S.

"Contention 1. fetus is not a human being and should not be treated as such A human being should first and foremost be considered one for their brain. A human being must be sentient and have the capability to go beyond instinct. As the Abdullah Ali Zaeed, psc, MA, MDS, MBA states that the difference between human beings and any other life form is our ability to reflect. Thus, because a fetus does not have the same ability to self-reflect it should not be treated as a human being and we should not value it as a life." My opponent says that a fetus is not a human being. Stating a human's existence is a based more on it's state of mind, but this is not true for many reasons, that I will explain now. 1. Regardless of it's ability, a human is simply a Homo sapien, we the only surviving species of the genus Homo. 2. As I've said, a human remains human, even if they are brain dead or if there mental deficit. 3. Killing a newborn baby cannot self-reflect nor can it "go beyond instinct" yet, but it is valued as life none the less and is still deemed human. Therefore, my opponents argument on what is deemed human and valued as life is just untrue and has no validity against what I have stated. "Contention 2. Forcing someone to have an abortion is violating their own free will. Forcing a woman to abide by a law made by other people is a direct violation of her own free will. As Peter Vallentyne, a Philosophy teacher from the University Missouri states that in order to be ethical a system must recognize self-ownership. Vallentyne states "If the rest of world is owned by others, then anything one does without their consent violates their property rights, and, as a result of such violations, one may lose some or all of one's rights of self-ownership.". Meaning that if women were to have an abortion it would violate the government's property rights over her and she would lose some if not all of her self-ownership. The sole reason why this free will is important is that all human beings need free will in order to make decisions. For example, the decision to accept this debate was possible only because I possessed free-will. However, if my free will was violated I would not have any say in what I could ever do in life. Taking away a woman's right to choose deliberately violates their free will. Thus, it is unethical because it does not recognize her self-ownership." My opponents second contention states that because it would affect the woman's free will and self-ownership that having a law that prohibits abortion would be unethical. This fails to make sense by itself as there are many laws that infringe on what we may do. From laws that deny the ability to drive or even walk across the street at times, but if we want to get even more personal, we are not even allowed to kill ourselves legally as suicide is illegal and punishable under common law in many states. Though free will is important, it is also important to understand the relationship between ethics and law and that laws are based usually on ethical basis and are subject to change. A law prohibiting the right to kill another human is perfectly ethical by all standards. "Contention 3. Turning the focus away from current issues to abortion will be disastrous to all human life Currently, The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, has historically low approval ratings and is currently focused on the issue of North Korea. By discussing a ban on abortion Donald Trump and Congress will now shift their view from North Korea. By shifting their view the North Korean tensions rise and North Korea will be able to continue to produce and test nuclear weapons without sanctions or threats from the U.S.. The result would be disastrous because the tensions between South Korea and Japan, and North Korea would escalate and could eventually lead to a large-scale nuclear apocalypse. Thus, the end result is extinction of all humanity and civilization" My opponent's third contention is pure conjecture and hasn't the evidence to support any of their theory. Stating that bringing up the subject of banning abortion would lead to a nuclear apocalypse, is an unfounded opinion and is non sequitur. Suggesting that we should not decide all of our decisions on the consequences of said actions is an odd assertment, as even their argument on free will is based on the consequence of what is done. Humans ability to self-reflect and use our sentience is understanding what our actions do, it is one of the foundations, conscious and sane, humans use to live our lives. As stated above, a human doesn't even have to be conscious or in sound mind, to still be a human. Therefore terminating a fetus (which is still a human just simply in a developmental phase) is very much equal to "slaughtering" a newborn baby or a person in a coma. The fetus has all the properties of life and is just a human in a developmental stage of it's life.