Abortion Should be Made Illegal in the United States

Just a beforehand, I will be going on vacation for a week starting Sunday. If I happen to get WiFi, I will respond, but I apologize in advance for any absence. I will do my best to respond in a timely manner. Thanks! _____ If you'll notice, cactus, the title that you demand is this: Abortion Should Be Made Illegal in the United States Except in the Cases of Rape or Grave Danger to * Mother or Fetus ... or something along those lines. Trust me, I would have put this if I were allowed to. However, the character limit goes to the asterisk, and as such, I put my exceptions in the third paragraph, well before my initial argument. Again, the topic WOULD NOT permit me to say all that I needed to. This problem seems to negate the following of your statements: (Subpoint A) "If he is advocating that statement, there are no exceptions. If my opponent wished there to be exceptions, it must be explicitly stated in the topic." (Subpoint B) "2) If doctors know a baby will have a serious disease (mental retardation, quadriplegia, etc.) but the mother is forced to have that baby, that is violating the human dignity of that baby. The baby will be born with no dignity, and will have no dignity throughout life. Doctors CAN know this ahead of time, especially with instances such as incest" (Defense 3) "My opponent claims there are only a small number of women who are raped a year. And out of that small number only a small number get pregnant. The thing is, this doesn't matter. Human dignity is such an essential right, even more important than the right to life. NOBODY should be forced to live an undignified life." === Refuting Subpoint B === //1) Women who are raped should not be forced to have an illegitimate baby. It violates the mother's human dignity.// -- My opponent claims that the right to dignity is a basic human right, and that by illegalizing abortions great dignity is lost. This has two fatal flaws, however. One of such flaws is the implication that dignity is a greater right than life. The basic right of all non-criminal humans is life, not dignity. Although my opponent disagrees with me, I pose this question: Would you (including the voters) kill yourself if you lost some dignity? If you would, then for you, life is worthless without full respect. If you wouldn't, then you could live without the total respect/dignity of everyone. //3) If a mother knows ahead of time they will not economically be able to support a baby . . . Guttmacher Institute 57% of women who get abortions are economically disadvantaged [3]// In my argument, you can see that less than on half of a percent of abortions occur because of rape (more info: (1)) . 57% occur in mothers that are economically disadvantaged. So, we can say that at least 56.5% of those mothers were haveing consensual sex, and therefore, should deal with the consequences. Yes, condoms slip and things sometimes do not work. However, adoption is an option. As for your little bit saying that they could end up on the street, you are making a very dangerous assumption: The fetus would want to die anyways. You are making a decision for something that cannot express its will; you are deciding that since it may live poor, it shouldn't live at all. I think that if in the course of its life the fetus (eventually a child/teenager/adult) wants to end its life it should be able to, but after its own decision -- not yours, the mother's, the doctor's, or Roe v Wade's. === Refuting Argument Two === My opponent says that since humans have free will, laws will be broken. If abortion is made illegal, people will get hurt and put in prison for back alley abortions. This is a terrible argument, and let me again ask another question to counter it: We know that someone will break a law, such as murdering someone. Since we know someone will eventually murder someone because of their free will, does that mean we should just do away with the law? I think not. Are illegal abortions unsafe? Yes. Is sticking a scalpel, potassium chloride shot, or vacuuming a fetus unsafe? Yes. === Refuting Argument 3 === Abortions do stimulate the economy, granted. So did the Holocaust -- thousands were employed keeping death camps up and running. Slavery stimulated the economy, too. And yet... === Refuting Defense 1 === In defense one, my opponent says tat fetuses shouldn't be legally human, using a manslaughter analogy to get his point across. However, that analogy is very flawed. Let me ask the readers another question before I get to the point: Would you hold a person responsible for attempted suicide if their lungs failed? (assuming they didn't, say, stab themselves in the lungs. You get what I mean.) I don't think so. Most miscarriages are believed to be natural selection; they are the body routing out babies who would not live (2). You wouldn't persecute the woman for "having" a miscarriage -- it is a natural cycle. There's a line between purposely killing a fetus and having your body do something natural. * I wil cede defense two to my opponent in that fetuses have no consciousness. I do, however, believe they should be kept alive until they can make the decision to live or die for themselves. * (1) http://www.guttmacher.org... (2) http://www.healthsquare.com...