Abortion should be legal in the United States

Hello everyone. This debate is still going on and you can find my opponent's arguments for this round in the comments section. I want to address some of her arguments. Abortion is Safe I agree with my opponent that abortion is safe. Ability to feel Pain My opponent argues that the fetus has very little ability to feel however according to her own words, "The evidence is not absolute, though, and it is very likely we simply do not know enough at this point to tell." Now, while we don't know, it is best to err on the side of cation because what if it turns out that he pain for a fetus is hideous? Even if they can't does that mean they don't have a right to life? If you lost your ability to feel pain, would killing you be morally acceptable? No, of course not. Adoption According to my opponent adopted kids can be very socially dysfunctional and jump from foster home to foster home. I actually got to experience this personally because my Aunt adopted six Russian children and teenagers. These kids had problems with drinking, drugs, and teenage pregnancy. However some of them eventually turned out all right, especially the younger ones. As it turns out, the younger you are when you get adopted, the more functional you are because you spend less time in an orphanage and more time with a family. From the article sourced, there are too few babies to be adopted, so giving your baby for adoption will likely get them to a family quickly (1). However, even if my opponent is right about the adopted children, emotional scarring is still better than being put to death. In fact lets take a poll of all adults in the US who were adopted as children and ask them whether they would have preferred that their mothers had aborted them. I wonder what the results will be? The Mother This is the main argument for abortion. Women are often left taking care of children as single parents and this can damage their careers and lifestyle. However this is still better than killing a human being. In the last round I argued that a fetus has just as much as a right to life as an adult because your development stage doesn't affect your right to life because if it did infants would have less of a right than adults. Also fetuses gain the major human characteristics in a matter of weeks. These arguments went unchallenged. My question to anyone is lets say you were in this bad financial situation my opponent mentioned, and killing someone you knew could get you out of it. Would you do it? No. What if that person was the child you were taking care of? Again, even though the child is causing this lifestyle, the child's right to life supersedes your desire for a more comfortable lifestyle. The only difference between this and abortion is that the child is inside the woman's belly. So this brings up the right to not be pregnant vs. the child's right to life. The right to life is greater. if you poll women and ask them whether they would rather go through a pregnancy or die? We all know what the answer to that will be. The right to life is more important. One doesn't have the right to kill someone to end their pregnancy and improve their financial situation. The reason murder is the greatest crime is because the right to life is the greatest right we have. Also, as mentioned before abortion is a great alternative. The argument from financial problems associated with child care is irrelevant because children and infants can be put up for adoption. Criminalization Makes Abortion Worse? Imagine if I was arguing for murder and claimed that since murder is criminalize it is far more dangerous to do. Lets say I also argued that many people get away with it anyway so it should not be criminalize. Crazy huh? Yet that is what my opponent is trying to claim about the murder of fetal infants. If you suffer harm in the process of trying to kill someone else, I really don't feel any sympathy. However, most of these abortions were not dangerous and it is estimated that 9 out of 10 abortions were done by licensed doctors (2). Even if few aborters are caught at least we know some are being caught. If something is wrong and should be illegal, then we should make it illegal no matter how well we can enforce it. If we were not able to catch child pornographers, I would still support making that disgusting practice illegal. Contraceptives and Abortion My opponent states that 5% of unintended pregnancy happen when people take birth control correctly. If this happens, adoption is a great alternative if necessary. Again, killing a life is worse than financial inconvenience. I will end with a quote from Susan B. Anthony a major figure in women's right: "No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime! (2)" 1: http://hamptonroads.com... 2: http://frc.org...