Abortion

I would like to begin with a brief road map to help keep my speech clear and understandable. 1. I will be addressing definitions 2. Covering the affirmative case ok so just to begin I will be defining Abortion: the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Illegal: contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law U. S: united states Now that we have clear terms I would like to restate the resolution. I stand In firm opposition to the resolution Abortion should be made illegal. I stand in opposition today for three main reasons the right to choice, safety, and finally equality I would like to introduce the weighing criterion of net benefits to US society and with that I would like to jump into the expansion of my case. 1. Constitutionality: Roe v. Wade,557 the Court established a right of personal privacy protected by the due process clause that includes the right of a woman to determine whether or not to bear a child. We as the united states have the moral obligation to uphold our constitution and by making abortion illegal we would interfering with an individuals 14th amendment. "Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action" includes "a right of personal privacy, or a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy"560 and that "[t]his right of privacy . . . is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. " ( Roe v. Wade). 2. Safety A. safety of the child: So one of the arguments against abortion goes a little something like this "Their human we cant kill them" ok so this goes into how you define human but even if you define these fetuses (which by definition are not capable of being considered human definition from Webster dictionary: unborn offspring of a mammal, in particular an unborn human baby more than eight weeks after conception. ) as some form of human you cant neglect the fact that abortions are had because the baby made was not wanted. what happens when a baby goes to term and is born to mother that doesn't want them? Actually its quite a simple answer they end up in custody of CPS. 400,540 kids are in foster care currently in the US (from . http://www.acf.hhs.gov...) So by making abortion illegal you would be having that many more kids in foster care. If they don't end up in the system its almost a guarantee that they will end up growing up in a home that it is unfit for child. B. safety of the mother: So yes we can look at the physical safety of the mother but I would also like us to look at the mental safety of the mother, so lets say that a woman gets pregnant but cant afford to raise a baby. In a world where abortion is illegal this woman would have to carry her baby to term. It has been shown (Dr. Thomas Verny, "The Secret Life of the Unborn Child" is s good example) that at a certain point (much past the point where abortions are legal) a mother develops a bond with her baby that can make it very hard for her to give up the baby after she has carried it for so long. that being said if you buy the whole emotional argument there is also a physical argument to be made. nearly 17% of abortions preformed are done to save the life of a mother who would not be healthy enough to carry their baby to term. (pro choice. org) that fact alone should be enough of a reason for abortion to remain legal. 3. Equality A. Class differential: Abortion if it was illegal would become an issue of class it wouldn't just cease to exist the people who could get it would just change. so what I mean by this is pretty simple,Wealthy women can always afford access to abortion, even if it once again becomes illegal. We saw this take place during the 1970s. So why does this matter? Well if make abortion illegal its not going to stop it from happening its just going to stop certain people (who might say need it more) from actually getting it. Also woman would still get abortions it would just turn back into back ally abortions which was incredibly dangerous and more people died thus not providing the most benefits to US society as define by our weighing mechanism. Thank you for my time again these are my sources . http://socialistworker.org... Rov v. Wade 557 . http://www.emedicinehealth.com... . https://www.childwelfare.gov... . http://womenshistory.about.com... . http://firstresort.org...