AAN Tour: Voluntary Abortion should be legal

I will now finish this debate with an attempt to demonstrate why it is not wise policy to legalize abortion. 1. Bodily rights. The reason why consent to sex is consent to pregnancy is a large part of it is the sperm cells joining the egg cells, resulting in a baby. A sperm does not join a woman's egg without the woman's cooperation in most cases. The woman knows the consequence of having a baby, and has made her decision. Pro tries to make an analogy that equates pregnancy with STD. He is basically saying that all sex equals promiscuous sex. Pregnancy is a natural consequence even if you remained chaste for all of your life and then got married. STD is a consequence that comes after promiscuous sex. 2. Reproductive rights. Consent explained previously. 3. Personhood. I never accepted the definition Pro cited. His definition was so broad that everyone who is alive was aborted. It is invalid, and unusual. So I gave another. Here’s one from medicine: "The removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in, or caused by its death." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...) Con is suggesting that we keep abortion illegal because it is morally wrong to kill the child. Infanticide is illegal. Abortion is infanticide. Therefore, abortion should be illegal. We must be consistent. As to the C-section argument, I was born by C-section. But this argument is a red-herring argument because distracts from the point that babies are daily being killed by the very person who is supposed to nurture them. Only 33% of births in America are C-sections, and the reasons why they are so high has nothing to do with abortion or birth complications, but with a lack of information. (http://www.childbirthconnection.org...) Pro says that the baby's death is a fact of nature. But it is not. During an abortion,“[The doctor] has to dismember the foetus inside the uterus and pull it out, bit by bit. … Even then, some body parts are too large to come out intact…[which] are the skull and then the spine and pelvis, and … they are crushed...” (http://www.dailymail.co.uk...) A processer of the bodies of aborted babies, says, “Pulled out 2 well formed arms and then the torso, headless. The head was at the bottom of the container, when I pulled it, he had this expression of such utter horror,” (http://www.lifenews.com...) The body was a baby, and the head showed that the baby felt the pain of abortion. If we found an adult body in such a condition, we would immediately think it was a murder. The baby is alive at the age it is aborted. A doctor observed, "I think it's totally barbaric that a 24-week foetus will be aborted on one floor of a hospital and in the intensive care unit they'll be trying to save the life of another one." (http://www.dailymail.co.uk...) An aborted baby is a “preemie” that wasn’t lucky enough to have a mother that cared. I'm not trying to illegalize births, but the killing of babies. Pro claims abortion is not about killing the baby. Then why is the most publicized reason for an abortion a girl who can't raise a baby? What is abortion about then? How often do people abort with a C-section? How often does the baby survive an abortion purposely? Abortion is murder because it is the intentional killing of a human being. Pro never actually proved that abortion is not murder. He just asserted it. I have provided evidence and examples demonstrating just how horrific abortion is. Pro says to replace the baby with a two year old. Think of that two year old getting its arms, legs and head ripped off its torso. Anyone who did that would probably get a life sentence. I addressed the bodily rights argument. 4. Rape. Consent was addressed. It is not responsible to kill the baby because the mother is trampling on the baby's rights. The baby doesn’t have all the rights, but it is wrong to ignore the rights it does have. Both have rights which should be respected. We are trampling over the baby's rights, and because it can’t protect them, it is assumed it has none. The baby has all the rights of a person, because it IS a person. Pro agreed with me that those rights are in conflict. I already addressed whether abortion is murder. 5. Psychological damage. I went to the APA (pro's source) to see exactly what it said. Their study is a compilation of several studies, and it says "None of the literature reviewed adequately addressed the prevalence of mental health problems among women in the United States who have had an abortion." So, we can’t draw accurate conclusions off of this evidence. And another study states "At least one-third of the respondents have experienced psychological side effects. Depression, worrying about not being able to conceive again and abnormal eating behaviors … Decreased self-esteem, nightmare, guilt, and regret… Psychological consequences of abortion have considerably been neglected." (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...) 6. Safety. Legality. Pro is backed off from his original point that illegal abortions are more dangerous and we should legalize it so it is safer. Since he didn't address my point that it is not a good reason, it stands. Abortion is wrong because it kills a baby. Pro did not directly respond to my point about long-term problems, and therefore, it stands. Safety. a. Money. Why spend money to violate human rights? b. Procedure. It is humiliating to have a stranger fishing around in your private area. c. Health Damage. Previously addressed. d. Loss of Child. Dropped by Pro. e. Loss of peace. Dropped by Pro. f. Adding to tragedy. Dropped by Pro. g. Innocent life. Dropped by Pro. h. Civil Rights. Dropped by Pro. i. Killing Child. Dropped by Pro. j. Avoiding responsibility. Previously addressed. He decided not to respond to my point that abortions are more dangerous than child birth, and therefore it still stands. Conclusion. Cost/Benefit analysis of abortion. Costs. I've mentioned how abortion is killing a child, it damages the mother physically and emotionally, and violates civil and human rights. "Benefits." The mother is not forced to carry and raise a child. The cost surpasses the benefit. The relief is temporary; the damage is permanent. Over this debate, Pro has ignored the rights of the baby, claimed that the woman has all the rights, denies that the baby is alive and human, claims that legalizing abortion will make things safer, claims that killing your child is responsible, and claims that abortion does not always end in death. He avoided several of my points and dropped important arguments. Silence is consent. I have tried to show you the horrible things we are doing, and the humanity of the babies and their brutal daily murder. We are depriving the next generation of their rights, while at the same time we say we value human rights. We murder unborn babies when we have the technology that could save them. We kill babies while we oppose the death penalty. We discriminate against babies because they are unborn, while we proclaim equality. We agree with torturing a child by tearing it apart, but spit upon people that abuse their kids. Our hypocrisy is astounding! We excuse it in our minds by saying that they aren't really people. But they are humans, and as humans, they have rights that should be taken into account. Please vote Con and make such actions illegal and restore our credibility as humans. Thank you so much for taking time to vote on this debate. We both greatly appreciate it.