Abortion Should Be Illegal In the United States

Thank you for the debate. First, I think that it needs to be recognized, that the main question is weather or not "humans" are always "people", meaning that fetuses and/or mentally/physically disabled humans have the right to be treated as a person by law. This assumes that we agree that murder is wrong, and is defined as "a person killing an innocent person". So first of all, why is a fetus not considered a person? The differences are: time alive, location, physical development/ability, and mental development/ability. I think that the last two are probably what you consider to be the determining factors. Correct me if I'm wrong. So if a fetus were to be born, but ceased to develop, wouldn't it always be ok to kill it under your point of view? What about if I were to cut off all of your limbs, eyes, tongue, and puncture your eardrums (pardon the gore), would that make you a non-person? The fetus begins to form into a human from the moment of fertilization; the fetus is always a living organism. If you believe that a fetus should not be treated as a person, then you should ask yourself if you would be willing to kill an animal for these same reasons. A fetus or zygote has the DNA of a human and will never become anything else. A fetus is a young human (I've actually seen people try to deny this), and is always human despite the changes that occur. The line for acceptable abortion is frequently drawn when the baby can survive without the mother. This line makes no sense because technology advancements are consistently making babies able to survive without their mother at a consistently earlier age. Abortion is harmful to the mother in many ways; many women regret aborting their children, abortion is dangerous, sometimes resulting in death or serious illness, and it greatly increases the risk of ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and pelvic inflammatory disease. (1) Adoption is a great option for those who can't or won't take care of their own children. The only reason against adoption is purely selfish: the mother not wanting to know that the person exists because of her actions, and that she wasn't willing to raise it/him/her. I would like to point out, that extramarital sex is still wrong even from an atheistic perspective because of the damage to society. It spreads AIDS rampantly, raises the issue of abortion, causes divorce, and causes much emotional turmoil. At the least, killing a fetus is still killing a creature, even giving this option to a woman because of her own foolishness is somewhat absurd. In the case of rape, which would you rather kill, the rapist, or the innocent fetus? The fetus is innocent; it hasn't even had the chance to cause offense. If I can prove that the fetus is a person, which I believe to have already done, then abortion is murder. To make abortion legal only for rape is completely illogical, because it would be almost impossible to prove rape, and the court trial would draw unwanted attention. Medical attention soon after rape can prevent pregnancy. There is much more to lose if pro-choice ideas are wrong, than if the pro-life ideas are wrong. 1: http://womensissues.about.com......