Abortion Should be Made Illegal in the United States

Abortion: The willing extermination of one or more fetuses in the womb of a mother. In this debate will attempt to show why abortion should be illegalized in the United States of America in the majority of cases, the only exceptions being rape or when the life of the mother is in grave danger. The United States currently has one of the highest abortion rates in the developed world, which is unacceptable (1). "We fed the public a line of deceit, dishonesty, a fabrication of statistics and figures. We succeeded because the time was right and the news media cooperated. We sensationalized the effects of illegal abortions, and fabricated polls which indicated that 85 percent of the public favored unrestricted abortion, when we knew it was only 5 percent. We unashamedly lied, and yet our statements were quoted as though they had been written in law. " - Dr. Bernard Nathanson, founding member of NARAL and former abortion doctor responsible for 75,000 dead fetuses. Now a pro-life Catholic. "Sweeter even than to have had the joy of caring for children of my own has it been to me to help bring about a better state of things for mothers generally, so their unborn little ones could not be willed away from them. " - Susan B. Anthony (1889) REASON IT'S WRONG No 1: A Fetus is Human First let us talk about the definition of a human. A human is any member of the hominid family, characterized by upright walking, and articulate speech; A human is a member of the genus Homo and especially a member or Homo Sapiens. Now, in order to fit into the species Homo Sapiens, which all of us are, you must: • Have eukaryotic cells. E cells are cells that have many complex structures called organelles, each with its own purpose. All things in Kingdom Animalia have eukaryotic cells. • Have the same DNA sequence. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is what makes us individuals and who we are. If I am not mistaken, about 98% of a human gene is the same as anyone else; it is that other 2% that makes us different from everyone else. • As said before, have the potential to walk upright (usually, for instance, paraplegics cannot walk upright -- but they are still human) and articulate (again, if you cannot do this because of a disease, you are still human). Fetuses have the potential to do this if given enough time. Those are the requirements for being a human. However, the main requirements are a and b, because c has exceptions (Again, such as disease, paralysis, etc). The question now: Does a human fetus meet these requirements? The answer to all of them is yes. (2) Does the fetus have eukaryotic cells? Genetic inheritance: When the sperm and egg, both eukaryotic cells, collide, they create another eukaryotic cell -- the zygote, which is something we all were. A fetus has eukaryotic cells. Do fetuses have the same DNA sequence? All fetuses share the same 96-98% of DNA with us. The same is with all people; the remaining two to four percent are what make us individual. Do fetuses walk upright and speak? Well, no. However, the fetus has the potential to -- and will, within two years, when they are physically and mentally able (which varies between everyone)—speak and walk upright. It is quite safe to say a human fetus is, indeed, human. REASONS IT'S WRONG No 2: Fallacies in Common Pro-Choice Arguments 1: The fetus becomes human when it can exist outside of the womb, and 'to the point where the fetus can have conscious thoughts. " A fetus does not, nor does a human baby, have conscious thoughts -- or so some think. In a way, we cannot really tell. Babies gurgle and cry, and have dreams (fetuses have also been documented to have brain patterns during sleep), but that does not necessarily make them conscious. Since consciousness is so hazy and unknown to us, this is an invalid argument. It's like arguing that the surface of a planet millions of light years away is made of candy -- we simply do not know enough about the planet to tell. Until we know what consciousness is and when it begins, we cannot argue using the idea of consciousness. So, I will focus on the former contention: A fetus cannot exist outside the womb. A baby, which has already been born, is not dependent on the mother, and is a human, will die without this nurse and life support system. Now, by the logic of the statement above, this baby is not human – it is dependant, and can be killed at any time without reprimand. Premature births often result in intense life support for the child. They can and do often happen. These all increase the risk of a premature birth: If the mother. .. is younger than 17 years or above 35 years; is carrying twins, triplets or more; Previously had more than three abortions; has already delivered a premature baby; has certain uterine or cervical abnormalities; or hasn't gained sufficient weight during pregnancy. All of us are dependant. I, being barely a teenager, am dependant on my mom. She buys me food, works, and cooks for me. I sit and play on the computer. Does that mean I am without rights? Almost everybody is dependent on something – whether financially, emotionally, or biologically. Even so, ALL innocent humans deserve basic human rights. 2: If you illegalize abortion, people who have been raped will suffer. According to the Guttmacher Institute, an organization dedicated to sexual and reproductive health studies worldwide and in the US, 1.21 million abortions were performed in the United States in 2005. Out of these, there were 93,934 rapes that year according to the FBI. California State University says that about 5% of rapes result in pregnancy. That turns out to be approximately 4650 pregnancies due to rape per year. So, in 2005, 4650 (we will assume all were aborted, even though this is not true) out of 1,210,000 abortions were because of rape. This turns out to be less than one half of a percent of abortions performed because of rape. Thus, very few abortions occur because of rape -- and I wish to protect the vast majority, the over one million fetuses who are not a result of rape yet aborted anyways. Some also say it is a woman's right to have an abortion, simply because Roe v. Wade says so. Roe v Wade is a scientifically outdated law -- we did not have info like that shown in RIW1 in the seventies, such as the human genome -- that was not mapped until the year 2000! In conclusion, abortion is wrong for one main reason: The fetus is a human, and the taking of an innocent human life is illegal in every first-world country, including the United States. Until the fetus has committed a crime (which it is not capable of) it has the right of life, liberty, and justice. _____ Bibliography: (1) . http://www.guttmacher.org... (2) . http://en.wikipedia.org...