Abortion

First of all, I fully agree that this is a very, very, complex topic to talk about. I am also located in the United States, for future points. Over the last couple months, I have grown to understand the pro choice argument far more than I had previously known. I would agree with every aspect of the pro choice, whether its women's rights, autonomy, freedom of choice, etc, if the consequence wasn't the loss of a life. I even can understand abortion before 8 weeks of pregnancy, as this is this is where the the baby is still an embryo.[1] But after this point, a human life is clearly being taken. Although there are many negative impacts a human mother may experience, none of these (except life of the mother) can outweigh the loss of a human life. This, on its face, means abortion should be outlawed. My opponent said the following, "However, there are various reasons why the third of abortions occur after the first 8 weeks, and that is because, (lists valid reasons)". I simply cannot view this as a negative. The accessibility of an abortion or limiting factors on an abortion does not justify the loss of a human life. If a women is unable to recieve an abortion before 8 weeks, this is unfortunate. However, this child must be brought to term because any difficulty a women goes through does not outweigh the loss of the life of a child. It seems like we agree that the fetus represents a human life after 8 weeks. If not then, that can be a topic of debate for round 3. Now I will answer the arguments point by point. "Argument 1: Men shouldn't have a voice in the conversation." I strongly disagree with you on this point. Maybe men shouldn't have as strong of an opinion whether or not a women personally chooses to abort a child in the first weeks of pregnancy. However, men should absolutely have a voice in terms of policy of abortion. If a man believes that abortion should be banned after 6 weeks for moral and societal reasons, "well you're a man and this is only a discussion for women" is not an appropiate or acceptable response. Abortion is the one of the most pressing issue society faces, and it needs to be discussed with everyone it affects. Second, I don't buy the argument that a women has personal autonomy over a human fetus inside of her body outside of 8 weeks. Just because a fetus is causing a woman discomfort doesn't mean that is is justified to kill that life. The women is responsible for the creation of that life, (except for obvious cases that have been mentioned before), and therefore cannot let go of her responsibility by ending a life. I also have to disagree with you with the point of men having a choice in an abortion personally. Unless a women somehow intentionally sabotaged a contraceptive or lied, a man was directly responsible for the creation of that life. Just because he does not want to hold responsiblity over him/her doesn't mean he has the right to force a women to kill that fetus. Although this isn't an official source by any means, J Cole provides an interesting perspective on this issue in his song, "Lost Ones". "Argument 2: For most abortions, you just kill a 'ball of cells'". I wont argue with you statistics, even though it is worth noting that they're many issues with the way the CDC reports statistics for abortion [2]. However, 1/3 of all abortions performed is still an insanely large figure. Since Roe v. Wade, there have been roughly 58 million abortions performed. [3] 1/3 of that is roughly 16 million, and we can take a couple million off that due to the exemptions I had previously mentioned. That leaves roughly 13 million lives, give or take, not present in our country today. Although it is tragic some women don't have access to contraceptives, or early term abortions (although I would obviously prefer all babies brought to term), no personal struggle or difficulty outweighs this extraordinary loss of life. If any women is not able to recieve an early term abortion, the future life of the child or the ability for a women to raise that child should not be a factor in whether or not to abort the child. Numerous laws exist, such as the safe haven law, that allows the mother to leave the child at a polic/fire station and give the child up for adoption with no questions asked. I fully realize that it may be difficult to give up your child. However, it's impossible to argue that killing the child is a suitable alternative. And although a child may have a difficult life in a adoption system, at least the child has a chance to live. That's more than can be said of any of the aborted children since 1973. "Argument 3: Don't impose your morals or Christian values on me." Okay, first of all, the idea I was trying to get with this argument is if you accept my fetus=human life framework, than arguing "the government is imposing morals by outlawing abortion" would be the same as "government is imposing morals by outlawing murder." Abortion has had a negative impact upon society, as demonstrated in my first argument, and any argument that abortion decreases crime by removing crime prone people from society is edging dangerously near genocide. I don't see how this argument makes sense. When it comes to stats, yours are misleading. As prolife as I am, I would fall under that "majority" category simply because I believe there should be a time frame and exceptions for abortion. I will point out, however, that a majority of people consider themselves pro life and a majority view abortion as morally wrong. [4] My point is, I don't think abortion is inherently a religious issue, and I don't think being pro life makes you a Christian extremeist. I think any pro life law enacted would respect the morals of the nation. "It's a women's right to choose" It's not a women's right to end a life. I've argued this throughout the round and I maintain that position, just as it is true a man does not have the fit to end a life. Therefore it is not a "women's right to choose". Although I don't agree on necessarily every position, I believe in most "women's rights." I just don't believe that abortion can or should be one of them. I also want to point out that my example makes sense as a women does have an active role in putting a fetus in a position where it is dependant on a women for help. Except for scenarios that I have previously outlined, a women made certain choices that lead to her being pregnant. Even in the incredibly rare example where there was an accident, it once again does not jusitfy the loss of the baby's life. I just want to end my argument by providing an overview of my position. I agree with the mindset of pro choicers. I want women's life's to be easier and I think people in general should have more freedom in their lives However, if you agree with me that a fetus becomes a life after 6 or 8 weeks, then it is clear that abortions should not remain legal after this time period. I acknowledge that creating such a law would cause several negative consequences. However, these consequences are clearly outweighed by the millions of lives that would be saved. For this reason I am pro life and against abortion. P.S. Sorry for the long time to respond. Also, if you want to make more arguments in your next speech, feel free to go beyond simply responding to my points, [1] http://blogs.plos.org... [2] http://www.nrlc.org... [3] http://www.lifenews.com... [4]http://www.gallup.com...