WODC: Voluntary Abortion should be legal

I also wish her good luck in this debate and the rest of the tournament. I will use this round to present my arguments for the legalization of voluntary abortion. Arguments1. The bodily rights' argumentI consider this to be the best argument for the legalization of voluntary abortion because it excludes irrelevant little discussions that tend to be ambiguous around the debate. The bodily rights argument states that the violation of the woman's bodily rights is unethical and intrusive. Legal and safe abortions ensures these rights giving women an option to control their bodies. This argument alone is enough to prove that voluntary abortions should be legal. -The bodily integrityThis is the inviolability of the physical body and gives huge importance to the control and self determination of the own body. This is related to the debate of abortion because illegal abortion would mean that women are forced to continue their pregnancies and deliver the child, always. In other words, women have to donate their womb for 8-9 months even if they don't want to. This is against their bodily rights and the concept of bodily integrity. Every woman has the right to chose what to do with her own body and have others respect this bodily autonomy. -Abortion as a reproductive rightReproductive and sexual rights are heavily related to the bodily rights because it helps ensure the control of the body related to reproduction. Women are able to decide the number, spacing and timing of their children. If abortion is illegal, women would be deprived of these rights that are fundamental in a modern society. Now, I'm not trying to say that this is the only way woman can control this. . It helps ensure the full control of it. Consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy. -Beginning of life or personhood is irrelevant to the debate The beginning of life and/or personhood is definitely an interesting topic that is as controversial as this debate, but it is not relevant because the bodily rights should be respected, "even" by alive persons. This is important to note because this is a part of a common argument against abortion and the ability to choose and control the woman's own body. The argument of the bodily rights does not imply that the fetus or the embryo is a blob or part of the woman's body. We can hypothetically replace the fetus with an adult and alive human being. No one should be forced to donate his body to this person, even if his live is in danger. In other words women should not be forced to continue a pregnancy (donate her womb) to the fetus, even if this is alive/human/person. This is usually addressed with an analogy for easy understanding. Judith Jarvis Thompson wrote a philosophy essay called "A Defense of Abortion" in 1971. Here is an analogy from the paper: "You wake up in the morning and find yourself back to back in bed with an unconscious violinist. A famous unconscious violinist. He has been found to have a fatal kidney ailment, and the Society of Music Lovers has canvassed all the available medical records and found that you alone have the right blood type to help. They have therefore kidnapped you, and last night the violinist's circulatory system was plugged into yours, so that your kidneys can be used to extract poisons from his blood as well as your own. [If he is unplugged from you now, he will die; but] in nine months he will have recovered from his ailment, and can safely be unplugged from you. "Even though the analogy seems extreme and unlikely to happen, the situation is pretty similar to what happens in a pregnancy. A woman can volunteer and donate her womb, and that's exactly what women that want to be mothers do, but they should not be forced to. Remember that the analogy is not perfect. The analogy is only used for easy understanding so I ask Con to address the argument directly and not the analogy. For this reason the argument of life and personhood is irrelevant to the discussion of legalization of abortion and there is no need to suffer trying to answer these questions that have no exact answer in science. -Parental responsibility is irrelevant to the debateThis is another common argument against the legalization of abortion. It attacks the idea of bodily rights implying that the woman has parental responsibility for the fetus. This begs the question because this assumes exactly what's trying to prove. At the end, abortion is a way a woman abdicate her parental rights and take responsibility of her actions or the situation she is in. For that reason, parental responsibility is also irrelevant to the debate. -No, it's not murderA common rebuttal is that the bodily rights' argument is not an excuse to murder someone else. Some people claim that you may have the option to donate an organ, but you should not kill another person just because he needs you. This is a clear misunderstanding of what abortion is. And it's really common to see phrases like "abortion is murder" because of this misunderstanding. Abortion is defined as the termination of a pregnancy, it is not about killing fetuses. There are forms of abortions that are practiced with the intention of maintain the fetus alive and deliver the baby. The caesarean section is a form of late term abortion and most of the cases the fetus lives. The fact that the fetus dies in most of abortions is because it can't live on its own.2. Making voluntary abortion makes the procedure saferThis is just a plus to the bodily rights' argument to show that there is no reason for abortion to be illegal. Abortion is a safe medical procedure if it's done properly. This can only be ensured if abortion is legal. -Illegal abortion won't stop abortionsWomen try to get abortions, even if this is illegal. For example, abortion used to be illegal in the US. Untrained "doctors" and conditions without medical standards were common characteristics of illegal abortion. Inducing own abortions were common too. This conditions didn't stop women to get these abortions. Estimates of the number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year only in the US. [1] -Making abortion illegal endangers women's healthMaking abortion illegal is a barrier to accessing safe abortion services and endangers women's health. Before making abortion legal an estimate of 5000 women died each year because of unsafe abortions in United States only. [2]Illegal abortion is still the leading cause of maternal death. 47000 women die each year because of this around the world. [3] -Surgical abortion is a safe medical procedureWhen abortion is practiced by a trained person, the procedure is safe with little to no risk. Specially compared to procedures in countries where abortion is illegal. It's complications are less serious than those related to giving birth. [4]ConclusionPro has presented a compelling case for the legalization of Voluntary abortion. The arguments were related to the bodily integrity of women and the safety of abortion in the world. I await for Con's rebuttals and arguments. Thanks. Vote PRO. Sources1. . http://www.guttmacher.org...2. . http://www.who.int...3. . http://whqlibdoc.who.int...4. . http://www.reuters.com...