Abortion Is Generally Morally Reprehensible

IntroductionTo preface my argument, I will provide a few initial clarifications. First of all, note that no claims of absolute morality will be involved in this debate. My opponent agrees that morality is not absolute, and based on his opening argument and comments, I do not believe that it his intention to make any arguments in favour of an absolute or objective morality.Morality is simply an artificial human construct that is a manifestation of human desires for human interaction or behaviour. Since no qualification was given about terms such as "deserve," "impermissible," and "wrong" I will assume that what is determined to be reprehensible is in the context of humanity with regards to human action, thought, and interaction as opposed to the context of a god or supreme dictator of moral law. Human LawIn this regard, "moral reprehensibility" can be seen as the manifestation of the human perspective on what actions are appropriate or inappropriate. Specifically, negative sanctions are evidence that an act is morally reprehensible. Formal sanctions in particular are the most clear in making these acts known. Written law is a good indicator of what isn't generally permissible and worthy of punishment due to its backing. Laws are generally set in place after great consideration to govern social interaction and maintain "civility" through well financed enforcement. As such, there is a large overlap with what is determined wrong and what is determined illegal, and in some cases, morality is even stated to be the basis of laws.Specifically, generally accepted ideas about morality are what make it into the law (making the law a perfect source of evidence for this debate). For example, my opponent is of the position that the murder of "innocent" human adults is wrong and morally reprehensible. The fact that the murder of human adults is impermissible can be clearly seen in the written law across the world. Similarly, if abortion is generally morally reprehensible, we would expect to see this reflected in the law. I will not debate the legality of abortion in any country, but I will argue that existing laws matter for this debate.I urge the reader to reject any qualms my opponent may have with me discussing the legality of abortion. Since written, official, enforced laws are the number one steady and generally stable determinant of what is permissible and what is met with negative sanctions, it is foolhardy to disregard the law in this situation. The laws are absolutely relevant to what is morally reprehensible, and again, any attempts to dismiss my arguments involving modern law should be themselves dismissed for this reason as an unfair tactic to try to put a dent in my best and most concrete source of defense. NoteThus far, my opponent has made the argument not only that it is impermissible for women to have abortions but also that those who do are deserving of severe disapproval and criticism/harassment for their choice. If anything, this stance embraces the projection of one's preferences/morality onto others to the point of taking action to treat them negatively when their behaviour is found offensive despite the absolute lack of any direct consequences or effects on the person engaging in the criticism. This seems to me to be highly undesirable, but more importantly, for the context of this debate, I will argue that it is simply not case that abortion is generally morally impermissible in the first place. In order for me to meet my burden of proof based on the given definitions, I will only have to provide evidence that in most of or the majority of cases, the act of abortion is permissible. Abortion Being Morally Reprehensible Does Not Reflect RealityPrediction 1: Abortion Is Not Permitted?If abortion was morally reprehensible, we would expect to see a total intolerance of and widespread ban of abortion (it would not be permitted). However, the opposite is true.Abortion is legal on request in a great number of countries including China, the United States, Russia, Canada, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, India, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Vietnam, South Africa, etc. [1]. In many other countries, it is permitted in cases other than the special cases my opponent listed, such as for economic reasons (i.e. in Japan) [1].If abortion was generally impermissible, it would not be permitted in so many countries. The combined population of China (1,360,720,000), India (1,241,060,000), the United States (317,632,000), and Russia (143,700,000) alone totals 3,063,112,000 people or about 43% of the world's population [2]. Counting the other countries where abortions are permissible in the "92%" of cases where factors such as rape are not relevant, the percentage of women in the world who are permitted to have an abortion on request is significantly higher. This fact alone dismantles my opponent's claim.Prediction 2: It Does Not Occur Often?Furthermore, the enforcement of the law and number of people who disobey must be taken into account. Consider the many women who receive abortions against the law in countries where it is not permitted in order to avoid harsher consequences and criticism. In these specific settings, losing one's virginity outside of a marriage is often seen as a terrible thing, and some laws go as far as to punish the action with death. Despite the illegality of abortion, it is seen as a much more desirable alternative in many cases. In Africa, where abortion is generally illegal, an estimated 6.4 million abortions were performed in 2008 [3]. Acts that are generally morally reprehensible do not take place this generally. If such an act was so generally perceived as unacceptable, impermissible, and "evil," it simply would not be occurring at this rate.For example, consider the fact that (assuming an equal sex ratio) 6.4 million women out about 492 million women total had abortions in Africa in 2008 [4]. This is 1.3% of the women living in Africa. Compare this to the estimated robbery rate of 0.13% (133 per 100,000) in the U.S. for 2009 [5]. Of course, for different crimes and countries, the numbers will be quite different, but the deviation here is quite clear. If something was so generally seen as "wrong" and impermissible, it would not be legal in so many places, and it is highly doubtful that it would done by 1 out of every 100 people even in cases where it was illegal. Also, consider the fact that there have been somewhere around 50 million abortions performed in the United States since 1973 [6]. Just for context, remember that there were about 60 million deaths in World War 2 [7].To mention the previous example, the claim that abortion is generally morally reprehensible is quite similar to claiming that sex outside of marriage is wrong or generally morally reprehensible even though it happens frequently without any criticism in many places across the world. It may be seen as immoral by some groups, but in no way can the subjective morality of a few be generalized for the entire world. This is what separates abortion from the killing of an "innocent" human adult. There is not a mostly universal aversion to the act of abortion; rather, anti-abortion sentiment is espoused by some who hold various strangely constructed moralities not held by most other people.ConclusionI feel that I have met my burden of proof for this debate. In order for my opponent to successfully rebut my arguments, he must provide substantial evidence that abortion is both generally very bad and impermissible.[1] un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/policy/world-abortion-policies-2013.shtml[2] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population[3] guttmacher.org/pubs/IB_AWW-Africa.pdf[4] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population[5] fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/violent_crime/robbery.html[6] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_the_United_States[7] en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties