Abortion

Conclusion Thank you for the opportunity to have this debate! It has been a really interesting experience! -Truthfully, it’s hard to tell with studies which ones are right and which ones aren’t. Mine could be incorrect - I don’t have a way of verifying completely either source, to be honest. The source that was cited was conducted in 2012 and was published by the Obstetrics & Gynecology journal. -My point in saying that some pregnancies end in miscarriages was just meant to highlight that not all pregnancies are successful and end up with a healthy living baby. In saying that - ending a pregnancy, say in the first trimester, simply means that some cells that would not have formed much at that point, is not going to mean that the doctor performing the abortion or the woman having the abortion is a murderer. -I do not believe that the choice to have an abortion has to be an all or nothing situation. Perhaps, the law could allow women to have an abortion up to say the third trimester, then after say that they can only have an abortion for a medical emergency. There are options other than a full ‘yes to all abortions at anytime’ to the complete opposite which would just be dangerous ‘no abortions whatsoever even if the mother’s life is in danger.’ It doesn’t have to be that way - and currently, it isn’t. In the US and the UK, women can have abortions up until the 24th week - beyond that it is for a medical emergency only. (The reason because the fetus can live as a living baby without the need of the womb - which before then it couldn’t.) http://www.nhs.uk... If a woman were to kill her child after birth, it would be infanticide (really homicide) because the child is outside of her womb and not in her body. The point being that the fetus is in her womb and as such is causing an incredible life threatening strain on her body. While the fetus is still in her womb, it is up to the mother and the doctors what can and should be done. When the child is out, then it is a being that is separate from the mother and not reliant on the mother. Then it is a person and has even greater rights than it had as a fetus. -A woman so desperate to have a back-street abortion is not likely to be someone who is knowledgeable about the risks. Some of these back street abortions are done on young vulnerable women. Not all women know the risks of having an abortion and not all women know the risks of pregnancies. Not all young women even know the risks of having children if they were to engage in sexual intercourse. More education is needed for all, in this regard. -I do believe an unborn child does have rights at the point that they are able to live outside of the womb. Before this point (and it’s not an automatic point that just randomly happens, but a stage in which occurs gradually) the fetus is not able to sustain itself outside of the womb and is reliant on the body of the mother. Scientifically this isn’t likely that they can live outside of the womb unless they are 23 weeks old or older. http://en.wikipedia.org... ‘ -In conclusion, from the arguments above it seems that abortion should be legal in order to prevent vulnerable women from having to go through a traumatic back street abortion and to potentially be criminalized for it. A fetus has rights at the point that it is able to live outside of the mother’s womb. Before then, it is up to the mother because it is the mother’s life that the fetus is reliant upon. Finally, abortion does not have to be an all or nothing situation. Abortion laws as they are now in the US and the UK do make some sense and should remain that way.