Abortion should be banned

Thanks to my opponent for responding. Just to clarify my reasoning for exempting cases of severe injury, I assumed I would be allowed to make an exemption to my argument since you made one for yours. You clarified you will be defending abortion EXCEPT in late term abortions. I clarified I'll be arguing for the ban of abortion EXCEPT in extreme and possibly fatal cases. 1. But murder is a legal term with a very precise definition. Sperm doesn't have the potential for humanity. The difference between sperm and a fetus is sperm (1) has a very very high likelihood of never surviving in the first place where as the great majority of fetuses will survive through pregnancy and (2) sperm has not yet fertilized anything therefore isn't potentially anything yet. That and unlike a fetus which develops the appropriate cells to become human, sperm will never do that. Sperm is not a potential human - an egg and a sperm together are. Clearly you have never met a mentally challenged person. They can not function independently. And once again your argument bases itself on the idea that killing a fetus isn't murder. There's no such thing as undeveloped cells. A fetus is merely cells that aren't fully compiled. Similar to when you cut yourself or scrape your skin, you're decompiling cells that will reform there later. It's not that the fetus has undeveloped cells, they just have to form themselves and multiply to create the human form. And it is a basic part of humanity. We will lose and gain cells all our lives as we grow. Should we diminish our earliest stages just because they grow slightly faster? It's completely natural. As we grow, the process gets slower and slower. But in the beginning it's incredibly fast. We all have to start somewhere. 2. Mentally challenged people can not always make their own decisions. As someone who has worked with severely physically and mentally challenged people, I can assure you that there are many that can not make their own decisions about anything, let alone live independently. And while fetuses may not be able to make a decision, who's to argue that neither can small toddlers? Of course they can but they can't tell us necessarily. And personally them not being able to make decisions makes it worse. Would you agree that forcing young children into situations they don't understand and taking advantage of their nativity is wrong? Isn't it the same thing to abort a fetus under the pretense "they can't make their own decisions". "She says that banning theft is also forcing beliefs on people. Wrong. Stealing is not a belief anyone considers good. Even robbers know that stealing is wrong, and as she herself points out, almost everybody knows this." That is a very wide generalization. There could very well be a group out there that sees no problem with theft. This is not the case with abortion. What about hardcore drugs? There's plenty of people who'd like to legalize those. What about guns, and gay marriage, and the death penalty - all controversial issues where someones will is forced on someone else. To say "this forced your belief on me" is nothing short of an obvious statement - both sides will always believe the other side is "forcing beliefs on them". I am not religious so I'm afraid I don't understand the connection. I think it's an assumption made based on the fact the loudest people who are against abortion tend to be religious. I believe that's like saying "I won't convince you to smoke cigarettes if you don't convince me to stop". It's not exactly a fair trade off. So they could've been murderers. Are you implying some good never comes of horrible situations? Also I never once alluded to that. They could grow up and be Average Joe but a treasure to there family. They could be just an office schmuck but make someone who loves them very happy. They might be Ted Bundy, but bring a community together unified to fight against the killer. Are you saying that the aftermath of 9/11 didn't frame this country has unified in this time of disaster? Of course it doesn't make disaster good but of every bad situation some good comes of it, and often it's enormous and widespread. You can't disregard the changed timeline on the simple basis that "well they could be a murderer too" because that murderer could reform our entire death penalty policy. Also speaking of direct implications there are far more than physical. Many woman who get an abortion will experience severe stress afterwards and sometimes worse. And like I supposedly ignored the religious wars argument, my opponent seems to be ignoring my natural selection argument. I await your next response.