Resolved: The United States should value the pro-life stance above the pro-choice stance.

Thank-you for your response. I will now give a list of my definitions. Unintended Pregnanices: Unintended pregnancies include unwanted pregnancies as well as those that are mistimed. Worldwide, 38% of pregnancies are unintended. Fetus: A developing human from usually two months after conception to birth. Individual Liberty: a. The condition of being free from restriction or control. b. The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing. Back-Alley Abortions: Illegal abortions not medically supervised. Reproductive Rights: Reproductive Rights are legal rights and freedoms relating to reproduction and reproductive health. First Trimester: First twelve weeks into the pregnancy. Second Trimester: Between the 12th week to the 27th week. I would like to begin by resolving an often misrepresentation of those who take the stance of "Pro-choice" over "Pro-life". People who choose to be Pro-choice accept and understand that in the end, it is ultimately the woman's decision and our efforts should be focused not in persuading the woman to choose an abortion or not choose an abortion, but giving her a comfortable environment and answering any questions she has relating to the abortion so she can make a better decision. It is NOT the intention of Pro-choicers to encourage women or discourage women from getting an abortion. I will now go through the benefits of being pro-choice, and why having legalized abortion is a completely necessary thing for society to function properly. Contention 1: Abortion should remain legal and medically supervised the way it is. Before the abortion process takes place, the mother is often placed in a comfortable environment where she can ask questions and resolve her feelings or doubts to make a better decision. The clinic is run by doctors and professionals who know what they're doing and are not interested in coercing or forcing the woman to make any decisions she is not comfortable with. Once she has made her decision, the doctors decide whether to go through with the abortion, or to send her home since she made the choice to keep the child. Without legalized abortion, mothers wanting to get rid of an unborn child that they don't want would need to refer to back-alley abortions, which could potentially danger the mother's life. Women who get a legalized abortion are also still able to have another child, as they would have no organs damaged like they would during a back-alley abortion, since these types of abortions are unprofessional and deterimental to the woman's health. Contention 2: Most of the guilt and stress that comes from a woman after an abortion is due to external pressure and influences, such as people in the Pro-Life movement, or other people who try to convince her she committed murder. One of the arguments that a lot of Pro-Life representatives bring up time and time again is that the mother feels incredibly guilty after she has gotten an abortion. This, however, is due to a lack of understanding on their part. When an unborn child is aborted from the mother, her hormones change back to their pre-pregnancy state, and a whole range of emotions is usually felt by her. This includes happiness, relief, sadness, and irritation. On top of this, most women do not get support from their family after they've performed an abortion, and she is usually left with her own thoughts. Loneliness is not usually a pleasant experience. There are also irrational fears that are completely natural from being in an emotional state, that the woman will never be able to have a child again. But if she got an abortion done by the professionals at the abortion clinics, the safe, legalized abortion and not a back-alley abortion, then she will be able to have another child whenever she so pleases. 5% to 30% of women report feelings of regret, anxiety, guilt, mild depression, and other negative emotions. Pro-Life advocates try and make those numbers sound larger, and the media sensationalizes on women that feel guilty afterward, but the numbers show that most women, after getting an abortion, do not feel any guilty at all. Contention 3: Abortion clinics are a separate entity from government and are usually funded by concerned volunteer-groups or pro-abortion advocates. Abortion can be a fairly expensive procedure. However, what most people don't know is that the government doesn't pay for it, and neither do we. The funding for abortion comes from normal citizens like you or me that understand the importance of a mother's right to an abortion, and there are usually group donations and generous individuals willing to help pay to cover the costs of an abortion. In this way, abortion clinics cannot be exposed to corruption because the government has no hand in the decisions being made, and cannot mandate their will on the procedures taking place. In this regard, there is no ulterior motive for abortion clinics to abort women's unborn children. The aborted fetus is used for stem-cell research, but there is enough aborted fetuses already that the necessity to coerce or bribe women to get an abortion is simply non-existent. On top of this, an abortion usually does not take place (depending on the clinic) without the consent of the mother's parents, first. Contention 4: Before the 24th and 28th week of pregnancy, the fetus is not considered conscious or aware, and should not be considered alive. If it is not considered to be alive, the decision for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness cannot be used to defend the unborn child. Therefore, only the mother can really decide. Scientific evidence is demonstrating to us that while the child is in the womb, it is not actually considered a human being until the 24th week of the pregnancy. If this is true, then how are human rights given to a non-human entity? The fallacies in the Pro-Life argument are great, and most fail to accept the scientific evidence that the unborn fetus is a human being by the 24th week due to a religious bias or other forms of ignorance. If we are to argue that getting an abortion is wrong, we must also argue that the destruction of sperm cells is also wrong, despite the fact that sperm dies and is recycled every three days. Before the 24th week of pregnancy, the unborn child in the mother's womb is only, in reality, a conglomeration of tissues and cells that are in the process of becoming human, but are not actually human. I actually have a few more contentions to list here, but have sadly run out of room. These four contentions alone, however, should be enough to show why abortion is important, why it should remain legal, and how it benefits not only the individual, but also society as a whole. I now give the floor over to Pro. Sources: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com... http://www.pro-truth.net... http://fvdb.wordpress.com... http://www.princeton.edu...