Abortion

I would first like to address the issue of rape/incest in relation to abortion. I don't think that anybody should be punished for the crimes of anyone else. Yet in abortions because of rape, the fetus is being punished for the crimes of it's father. That's obviously not fair. But your argument is obviously about the welfare of the mother. I hear arguments refer to how the mother doesn't want to be reminded of the rape every time she looks at her child. My response to this is one of anger. In this situation you are prioritising the emotions of one human over the life of another. That is wrong. Human life is infinitely more valuable than human emotions. I would also like to point out that abortions over rape or incest are the extreme minority of all abortions, so while I think it is still relevant to the debate, I still think it is not as central as other topics, given how many more abortions are caused by simple irresponsibility. Which brings me perfectly onto my next point, the extreme majority of abortions. (If you want statistics I will be happy to supply them in the next round but it isn't even debatable, it is a fact that the extreme majority of abortions are not rape or incest). Anyone who wasn't raped and gets pregnant after sex should show responsibility for their actions. They know about sex, they know what the risks are, so they should accept the responsibility that there is a chance they could get pregnant. So excuses like 'I can't afford a child' and 'I'm not ready for one now' are ridiculous, as they knew the risks of having sex. If you couldn't afford a child, why have sex? You had sex. You made that decision, so you should accept the consequences. And don't even get me started on alcohol. The excuse of 'I was drunk and it just sort of happened' is the most stupid excuse I have ever heard. You decided to drink heavily! So accept the responsibility that comes with that. The bottom line is people need to take more responsibility for their actions, because if they don't babies will get killed. And now onto the elephant in the room, is a fetus worth the same as a human life? We have to start with the question, is human life after birth worth anything? If the answer is no, than abortion is not a concern to you, and you wouldn't care either way. If it is, and you are pro abortion, then you must reach a point either in development or circumstance where the destruction of the fetus is justified. For example, if you consider an unborn fetus not worthy of life at all, then what about premature births? If the fetus is delivered prematurely, it is considered human if it survives, but during the same stage in development, and it is unborn, it could be susceptible for abortion. Of course, this may not be your view, in which there are only two options remaining. 1. You believe human life begins at conception, and therefore agree with my view. 2. There is a cut-off point in terms of development as to what constitutes human life, and what is worthy of human rights. If your answer is 2, there is a fundamental error in your reasoning. The only way to instate a law regarding development is to base it on a set time period on when abortions can occur, and anything after that point is murder. This is the problem with this solution: In a hypothetical scenario, a fetus is close to it's termination deadline. Let's say it's April 8th. At 23:59 on April 7th, destroying that fetus is no more legal or morally wrong than plucking a hair from your head, as that fetus isn't recognised as a human life. So you could get the abortion on April 7th at 23:59, no problem. How is it right then, that exactly one minute later, that would be murder? How can one minute decide the legitimacy of human life? In that split second between 23:59 and 00:00, the entire moral and legal standing of that fetus goes from morally worthless to the highest value ever issued in our communities and legal system. Nothing special happens in that split second, nothing drastically changes withing the fetus that somehow makes it eligible for human life. So, if it is valued at 00:00 and then onwards forever, but is worthless before hand, it must also be valued before that, at conception at least. The problem is with the whole 23:59 --> 00:00 scenario is that it is illogical to attribute worth to something over a millisecond where nothing changes.