no punishment before fetal pain, moderate punishment then till viability, murder after viability

It seems that my opponent is under the impression that I am a cold, callous monster when it comes to this issue. Well, let me disabuse you of that illusion right now. I am not cynical. I am not unsympathetic, I am a caring, compassionate person just like I believe deep down you are. If you choose to dehumanize people just because they disagree with your opinion that is your choice but it does not make it true and to quote Napoleon Bonaparte, "Truth alone wounds." Although my opponent thinks it is ridiculous that experts on the matter clearly explain why it make sense that a fetus doesn't experience pain until the point of viability. Let me assure you that, that is not the case. The simple fact is that the reason abortions cannot be preformed after viability is because that is the point at which a fetus begins forming the connections within the cortex that are necessary for consciousness. And despite what my opponent argues, even The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage". The definition further states that "pain is always subjective. Each individual learns the application of the word through experiences related to injury in early life." This means that in order to feel pain one must be conscious. The RCOG report also found that even after 24 weeks of development, fetuses abide "in a continuous sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation. To another point, the only reason I didn't dignify the statement about the use of pain killers with a response is because if my opponent had done any research or even fully reviewed some of the articles she sourced she would have known that the only reason sedatives are used in an abortion is if it is necessary to immobilize the fetus. Even though my opponent seems to think that her common sense is smarter than every doctor and scientist on this issue, I would encourage you to simply read some of the many articles written by experts on this issue. I am sure they can better explain it to you than I can in the time I have. You can even find the same information in the article my opponent uses, so be my guest. (http://reason.com...) In summary, the fact is I am not picking and choosing which evidence to believe I am only choosing to believe the only evidence that has currently been provided. Simply put, there has been no new evidence that my opponent's side has ever provided. They use the same information gathered form the very institutes they are now fighting. They then make speculations about what that information means. The only thing my opponent has shown is hypotheses. By that I mean questions that can be tested and researched in any number of ways to prove there validity. Then if one is able to confirm that it's true then one can convert that into a theory. But if you decide to just skip the middle step completely and simply assume that you have a true statement of fact (a theory), then you have proved nothing. You simply cannot take a hypothesis and act as if it is true just because it make since to you, when in reality your just speculating. Then are surprised when the hypothesis that you have made up in your mind makes sense to you . As if a theoretical light bulb just went off, followed by a inner monologue of "aww that makes sense to me, so it must be true!" You can try and make it seem like your argument has evidence to support it but it doesn't. Plain and Simple. Even though I know this might piss people off I still think it is worth saying, this is not a debate about punishing people who have an abortion that would cause fetal pain. Because the fact is fetal pain has yet to be proven. What this really comes down too is how you feel about abortion. Because it is an issue that has been debated for years, people have fundamentally different opinions towards it and people have come up with countless 'hypotheses' arguing for, but more often than not, against abortion and spout them off as fact when they are anything but. The truth is we cannot simply choose to 'defer' to the issue of pain when the issue of pain is still just speculation. We mustn't and 'ought' not become a society that allows personal opinions about a particular issue cause the rights of others to be denied and different opinions to be oppressed. Thank you for your time!