Abortion should be illegal.

Harm to the fetus “Pro says fetuses have neurological development at week 5, so can feel pleasure/pain then. First, in that case, abortion can be legal for the first four weeks - that itself negates Pro's case to this extent.” The definition established in the first round states that an abortion results in the death of an embryo or fetus; prior to week 5, the embryonic hasn’t begun, [1] so getting an abortion during the first four weeks would technically not be an abortion by the definition used in the debate. “Pro's source #2 doesn't talk about pain/pleasure, only on neurological development. The vast majority of research agrees that fetuses begin to experience such basic emotions only sometime between 24 and 37 weeks.” My source discusses nervous system development. If a nervous system is developed, it can detect certain things that may include pain and pleasure. There are many things that have been made illegal because their safety hasn’t been confirmed, and abortion should be one of them. Psychological damage “One, from the harm principle, we can see that even the psychological damage caused is to the individual that chooses to have an abortion, so it remains a self-regarding act. The government shouldn't legislate to prevent purely self-regarding acts.” As I explained in my argument, there is also psychological damage caused to the partners of women who have had abortions, so it is not a self-regarding act. In addition, the source I quoted mentioned that women who had abortions were 154% more likely to commit suicide, and as I explained earlier, death harms more than just the victim. “Rocca and Kimport, et al. explain that ‘[c]ompared with women who obtained a near-limit abortion, those denied the abortion felt more regret and anger . . . and less relief and happiness.’” “Those denied the abortion” refers to women who seek an abortion and are denied one. Women who don’t want an abortion wouldn’t feel a lot of regret and anger. Hippocratic Oath Our team has decided to drop this argument. Back-alley abortions “Dr. Paul Van Look of the World Health Organization led a study that suggested that ‘abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.’” Most countries that have outlawed abortion are underdeveloped countries in Africa and Latin America; however, I am arguing that abortion should be outlawed (with exceptions) in the United States or a similar Western state. Take a look at this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com... It shows abortion rates per 1,000 women [2] and the legal status of abortion [3] in 61 developed nations. None of those nations had a rate above 20 except for nations with abortion legal (including the United States). Nations where abortion is outlawed or restricted had much lower rates, and three of them brought their rates down to zero. “When abortion is illegal, it's very tough to afford appropriate medical conditions and regulations expected in hospitals. So women go to places with poor medical facilities to get abortions, or attempt to self-abort. Such unsafe abortions lead to around 68,000 deaths annually (mostly in countries where abortion is illegal), along with *millions* of painful injuries.” You’re saying that 68,000 women die every year trying to get an abortion illegally. But clearly, this is better than the 40-50 million deaths [4] caused by abortions, so the overall death toll goes down when abortion is illegal. Now I know what you’re probably thinking right now: What about the embryos/fetuses killed in back-alley abortions? You said yourself that “Some women... attempt to self-abort.” Unless you can provide a source that proves that these abortions are successful, I will dismiss this as a baseless argument. Rape This argument is irrelevant. When I explained why abortion is immoral in round two, I didn’t mention anything about the situation being the woman’s fault. Abortion is immoral regardless of whether the pregnancy was the woman’s fault. As for your analogy, it is not the violinist’s fault that the woman is being harmed. Killing him would just make the situation worse. Sources [1] https://www.nlm.nih.gov... [2] http://data.un.org... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org... [4] http://www.worldometers.info...