Question: Should abortion be legal?

Abortion Legal abortion protects women's health. Though it is an incredibly hard decision, some women need to chose what is best for them. In many cases, there have been illnesses that can be life-threatening, and the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth. Though a woman might be pregnant with a child, she still is her own person and has every right to decide what she wants to do with her baby.

Abortion should be legal. The legality behind abortion is very clear. Our "unalienable rights" -- as implicitly stated in the Constitution -- ensure us "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Without legalizing abortion, women wouldn't be granted the right to care for their own bodies and make decisions regarding their unborn child/children.

Abortion Should Be Legal Abortion is not immoral. It should be legal.

Abortion Should Be Legal Abortion is not immoral and it should be legal.

Abotion should be legal 1. Abortion is about allowing woman the right to make choices about when they want to have children in relation to their age, financial stability & relationship stability. It is the not the place of government to legislate against woman's choices. 2. Raising a child is not an easy task & requires social & emotional commitment coupled with financial resources. As such if a person feels they are not ready for a child, it means the pregnancy is unwanted & resultant allowing a fetus to grow into a child is worse than abortion since the resultant child will grow in a non conducive & destructive environment without the love, care & stability that a child needs. 3. The argument against abortion is a moral argument which is subject to personal interpretation so should not be legislated against. Those see it morally allowable to do abortion should be provided with the means to do so & those who don't believe in abortion should have the choice not to have an abortion 4. A fetus is not legally or scientifically a person or human being so abortion cannot be equated to murder or taking a life since the fetus is not a person nor alive. 5. A fetus is like a brain dead person with no self awareness or consciousness so it is actually dead. 6. Prohibiting abortions doesn't stop abortions, women would simply seek abortions via illegal means which are unsafe & illegal, so it is better to provide woman with safe & legal ways to do an abortion. 7. Abortion prevent unwanted & unplanned pregnancies which prevents child neglect since the mother does not want to have children at that moment in time. 8. Making abortion illegal is also a class struggle since the rich can always go to other places where it is legal & have an abortion whilst the poor cannot do this, but have to resort to unsafe abortions which can lead to their death. 9. Making abortion illegal is more or less compulsory pregnancy which contradicts the quest & fight for freedom. 10. Making abortion illegal will increase teenage pregnancy (children having children). This usually leads to illegal abortions which can lead to death or permanent health defects, poverty, joblessness, hopelessness, and dependency. 11. A woman's right to choose abortion is a "fundamental right" 12. Personhood begins at birth, not at conception. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy (fetus), not a baby. Personhood at conception is not a proven biological fact. Fetuses are incapable of feeling pain when an abortion is performed. 13. Access to legal, professionally-performed abortions reduces injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions. 14. The anti-abortion position is usually based on religious beliefs and threatens the vital separation of church and state. Religious ideology should not be a foundation for law. 15. Modern abortion procedures are safe. The risk of a woman"s death from abortion is less than one in 100,000, whereas the risk of a woman dying from giving birth is 13.3 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies. 16. Access to abortion is necessary because contraceptives are not always readily available. Women need a doctor's prescription to obtain many birth control methods, such as the pill, the patch, the shot, and the diaphragm. 17. Abortion gives couples the option to choose not to bring babies with severe and life-threatening medical conditions to full term. 18. Many women who choose abortion don't have the financial resources to support a child. 19. Motherhood must never be a punishment for having sexual intercourse. 20. A baby should not come into the world unwanted. 49% of all pregnancies among American women are unintended. Having a child is an important lifelong decision that requires consideration, preparation, and planning. 21. Abortion reduces crime. Teenage girls, unmarried women, and poor women are more likely to have unintended pregnancies, and since unwanted babies are often raised in poverty, their chances of leading criminal lives in adulthood are increased. 22. Do we have the right to force the mother to keep the baby solely because she consented to participate in these sexual activities? Do we have the right to take away another"s right as we continue to fight for other rights? Why do we take away the rights of a woman because she has the potential to have a baby? 23. We get right to life, liberty & pursuit of happiness when we are born. he fetus does not have these rights until it is born. So abortion is not murder & abortion does not go against the rights of a fetus since it does not have any until born. 24. Every woman has the right to do whatever they want with their body aka Bodily Autonomy. This is one of the reasons why it is illegal to take organs from the deceased that have not signed off permission. If we continue this right after life, why do we strip it from a pregnant woman? Why would you grant a dead person a right that you wouldn"t give to someone that is alive. 25. If someone needs something donated that you have, you are not legally obligated to donate anything. This parallels to pregnancies because a fetus does need these resources, but the mother is not legally obligated to keep giving this baby her resources. Denying to give someone a body part is not illegal, so terminating a pregnancy should not be illegal 26. Legal abortions protect women's health. Legal abortion not only protects women's lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes, and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth. 27. Being a mother is just one option for women.* Many hard battles have been fought to win political and economic equality for women. These gains will not be worth much if reproductive choice is denied. To be able to choose a safe, legal abortion makes many other options possible. Otherwise an accident or a rape can end a woman's economic and personal freedom. 28. Even when precautions are taken, accidents can and do happen. For some families, this is not a problem. But for others, such an event can be catastrophic. An unintended pregnancy can increase tensions, disrupt stability, and push people below the line of economic survival. Family planning is the answer. All options must be open. Abortion should be part of a country's contraception policy. People should plan their families & society must allow women to end unwanted pregnancies, in order to deal with failures of birth control. Some methods of contraception in fact amount to abortion during the very earliest stage of a pregnancy. Abortion should be legal but discouraged. Legal simply because it is a choice, and what grows inside your body is yours. But discouraged because there are other more effective ways to prevent pregancy than abortion like contraception.

Abortion Should Be Legal Abortion should be legal. Regardless of whether the fetus is classified as a human, it is not wrong to have an abortion. The woman has a right to her body and her life. Denying her the write to an abortion is wrong.

Abortion Should Be Legal and Unrestricted Restrictions placed on abortion by U.S. lawmakers have no factual or substantial reasoning. A woman's bodily autonomy should be her decision only, and she has the right to terminate her own pregnancy for any reason. Abortion is necessary for many women that become pregnant, and taking away reasonable access will only harm the woman (and possibly her potential child.)

Abortion should be legal Abortion should be legal because if a woman doesn't want to have a child than she should have the right to prevent herself from having one. If the government bans abortion then they would be forcing a woman to have a child. If a pregnant woman doesn't have an abortion then she is going to have a child. So if the government takes away that right then pregnant women will have no choice but to have a child. Adoption is a option that is not used often after a woman gives birth to a child. Most women don't want to put their child up for adoption. If the government bans abortion then some women will have an unsafe abortion. More women will have an unsafe abortion if abortion is illegal. Every year approximately 78,000 women die from unsafe abortion. If abortion is legal then less unsafe abortions will occur. Abortion is a safe medical procedure. 88% of women who have an abortion do so in their first trimester. Medical abortions have less than 0.5% risk of serious complications and do not affect a woman's health or future ability to become pregnant or give birth. The government should make sure that late term abortion is safe. The fetus is in the woman's body so therefore the government should not control their bodies. Banning abortion is bad for women and is anti-women's rights.

Abortion should be legal Women have the right to decide what they want to do with their bodies, no doctor has the ability to make that decision for a woman. A woman has the right to decide what is the best choice for her. Say a girl becomes pregnant at the age of 14, her body has not developed fully enough to the extent that she is ready for child birth. If she were to have a baby at this age, she--and the baby--may not survive the birthing process. In situations like this it is imperative to see that abortion may be the best solution, because it is in the best interest of the mother's health.

abortion should be legal Abortion should be legal. Why so? First of all we are talking about freedom of choice. Everyone has the freedom to do what their want with their body and for mothers it includes their foetus. Why so? First of all the foetus doesn't go into government's protection at having the right to live. Some people continuously argue that foetus has the right to live. This is however very wrong. First of all the abortions mostly happen before the foetus are considered fully alive with its organs bodily function, etc. Furthermore, there are one necessary element for owning a right, which is rationality. You need to be a person of rational mind. Because only when you are rational, you can consider yourself a member of society and consent to the idea of having a government over you and join the social contract existing there. For that very reason we are allowed to take the life of animals for say food, etc. They are living creatures, but we take their rights to live because they have never had the rationality that makes them a part of society. Same goes to foetus. They are barely alive and even if they are alive, they don't have the rationality making them part of society and granting them protection. Second of all, let's talk about greater good. Government are basically utilitarian in nature. They want the greatest benefit possible. It is something achievable by abortion only. Someone won't do abortion for fun. It is expensive and risky so there must be a good reason. Usually it's either because they are not ready to have a baby or because the mother's life are in danger. In both scenario, biggest benefit are achievable when abortion is done and seeing that i have proven to you that it is justifiable, why not?

Abortion should be legal Legal abortion is one of those topics that I see necessary for a functioning society where everyone is equal. I see many people arguing against it which saddens me to see, because is it not the right of a woman to have control over her own body? Is it not her choice to decide what to do with it? In the US, a survey was made asking the American people what their opinions on abortion was - 51% thought that it should be legal in mostly all cases, while 43% opposed, thinking it should be illegal (1). These stats have remained relatively stable and of course, the fact that 51% thinks it a positive thing, there is still 43% remaining. This does not even include what the people think is morally right and wrong. Only a meek 15% thinks that it is morally right! (1) To me, this is almost outrageous. Especially religious people seem to think that it is morally wrong to have an abortion, which makes me wonder. As a Christian, I see God as an important figure in my life too. But I think He would not wish for some to be oppressed and to be in pain for something they do not wish. The pain goes to both the pregnant woman and to the child! Why should she suffer 9 months to give birth to a child that she would not want? Is it being said that it is better for a child to be left to die, rather than to lose it's life before it becomes a conscious being, thus not inflicting harm? At the best in the cases where the woman have the child despite her wishes, they might be left in an orphanage to wait, possibly for many years in our already crowded homes for orphans. At worst, they will be left to die. Recently, the issue is brought up again which is a start and we are moving in the right direction. However, I think it wrong that all the states of the US have not yet collectively decided that this is an actual issue, because it is. Many people get abortions - And they will continue to, even when it is illegal! The only difference is, that since it will then have to be done in secret or with the fear of being found out, it will be much more dangerous for the woman. If medicines, and medical students and doctors cannot offer what they need to help and give the correct procedure to the patient, it could cause permanent damage, perhaps even death to her. So, Con, I am open to hear your arguments - Whatever you have to propose, I am listening.

Abortion Should Be Legalized Before I begin my arguments, I’d like to apologize for my delayed response. I’d also like to note that I’ve opted to devote this round to only arguments and not rebuttals, in favor of incorporating some questions I’d like to address in my rebuttals that I’d like my opponent to answer in his following round: Why should raped women be forced to carry around a baby, deal with the pains of pregnancy, and then be forced to financially support the child of a rapist who she does not love or want for twenty years of her life because she was raped and impregnated? Should women who have a high risk of death during birth be allowed to have an abortion? If the pregnancy put the life of the mother at stake, should she be forced to give birth? Should fetuses with a high risk of painful defects – such as HIV or Cerebral Palsy – be aborted? Should stem cell research – research that saves thousands of lives every year – be discontinued because they use human embryos? Finally, before I begin my arguments, I’d like to note that this debate is based on the legality of Abortion, not the morality. Therefore, my opponent cannot simply rely on moral arguments if I can demonstrate that it is necessary to legalize abortion. 1) The fetus is not the equivalent of a person. It is evident that there is some boundary between when a fetus is just a blob of cells and when a fetus actually acquires its personhood – it’s the same reason why we don’t regard freshly planted acorns as trees. It’s not enough for a being to have human cells and be conscious; otherwise, zombies would be considered persons. Because this debate is specific to abortions within the first trimester as defined in the first round, it is important to understand that what’s essentially being aborted is a clump of unconscious, undeveloped cells. Therefore, the destruction of the fetus has neither the same moral nor legal consequences as murder. 2) It’s better for women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy/reduces crime rates. The lifelong regret that my opponent describes during his second point is ironic – it’s almost as if he’s describing the lifelong regret that comes with teen pregnancies. In his arguments, my opponent continuously deflates the ramifications of childbirth and inflates the value of a cluster of cells – what needs to be stressed here is how much commitment it takes to raise a child. Raising a child is a tireless, full time commitment. A kid needs to be nurtured – he/she demands money, time, and attention. Now imagine that you were a teen girl who lived in the slums (since that is the demographic that is most likely to seek an abortion), and you became saddled with a baby because “you were young and lacked the life experience to understand what you were getting into”. The father leaves you and you’re left with a kid that requires you to drop out of school and work full time as a waitress in order to support him/her for twenty years. I firmly believe that it is better for women to terminate the pregnancy rather than forcing them into the example above. Not only does this harm the mother and essentially hands a death sentence to a teenage girl who made a minor mistake – it causes indescribable damage to the child as well. Imagine being raised in the slums by a mother who doesn’t love you, and regrets giving birth to you. This kind of childhood neglect and abuse is what creates monsters like Hitler and Stalin, as well as serial murders like Paul Bernardo and Charles Manson, all of whom have been neglected as a child. It is also why crime statistics have been proven to drop upon the legalization of abortion. 3) Abortion would exist anyway, with or without legalization. Even before the landmark Roe v. Wade, abortions were relatively commonplace. The only difference is that the abortions were performed in dirty closets with copper coathangers and unsanitary procedures rather than in the hospital, resulting in up to 100,000 deaths (of the mother as well as the baby) annually. This kind of desperation, which goes to show how many women would choose a potential life of vaginal scarring, infertility, and even death in order to avoid being saddled with a child is proof that even if abortion was made illegal, it would only serve to drive abortion underground to more dangerous conditions, similar to what happened with the prohibition of alcohol during the 1900s. 4) The rights of the mother trump the rights of the fetus. In most developed countries, there exists a constitution that promises its citizens liberty and the right to self ownership. With this in mind, the legalization of abortion should be considered unconstitutional. The fetus is the equivalent of a parasite that latches on to your body and feeds off of you for several months. You’re forced to carry it around, wherever you go. If a hobo came up to you and latched himself onto you, followed you around, and forced you to feed and shelter him as well as causing you morning sickness and childbirth pains, the government cannot charge you for kicking him out. This is because the government cannot force you to sacrifice your body and freedom to carry around a parasite even if removing it means its death; it’s a violation of your right to liberty! The mother’s (who the cluster of cells is completely dependent on) right to a choice supersedes the right of the fetus even if the fetus could be considered a human being. Which it isn’t. Conclusion: As I am running out of time, I will respond to my opponent’s points on medical complications in the next round, as well as provide a more detailed and factual case. I hand the stage back to my opponent.

Abortion Laws Should Be Legalized. My opponent wanted practice debating, but did not feel up to writing an affirmative case, so I have obliged on an agreed-upon topic. I understand that the resolution means "abortion should be legal." For this debate, I will consider mainly first trimester abortions, but also abortions at any time when the life of the mother is at stake. Negating the resolution requires that no abortion should be legal, so to it suffices to affirm that some abortions should be legal. this puts aside the issue of late term abortion. 1. Whether or not to have an abortion is a moral decision, but it is a personal decision to be made by the woman, not a decision for society. The Supreme Court ruled that for the first trimester the fetus is by nature totally dependent upon the mother, so it is properly considered part of the mother. The fetus cannot survive independently. The Court also ruled that the Constitution has an implied right of privacy. I don't necessarily agree that there is such a right in the Constitution, but the logic of the fetus being part of the mother is sound. The mother has an inherent right to manage her own body, and no law ought to interfere with that right. 2. The life of the mother ought to be prioritized above the ultimate survival of the fetus. Society has a lot invested in the mother in terms of education, and she is highly valued by her friends and family. The fetus has no perception, and most important, no memories. Consequently, if it comes to a medical decision to save either the mother or the fetus, it ought to be the survival of the mother that prevails. Legalizing abortion to save the life of the mother is required to make the right decision. 3. For the first few days after conception, the fertilized egg is a microscopic undifferentiated sphere. Many fertilized eggs, more than half are spontaneously aborted naturally. No one considers spontaneous abortion as morally significant. No one holds them to be comparable to a late term miscarriage. Generally no one knows they happen, and no one thinks it important to find out. Since natural abortions in the first few days are not given moral significance, it is consistent to make early induced abortions legal. Incidentally, the "morning after pill" is a contraceptive, not an abortion drug, but there are other drugs that accomplish early abortions. 4. Modern society has needs that differ strongly from those of primitive societies. In primitive societies many people died in childhood. Having many children was required to maintain populations. That is consistent with an instinct to carry pregnancies through to term. Modern societies are far more likely to suffer from overpopulation than underpopulation. Even if first-world nations, raising a child properly is an expensive undertaking for both the parents and society. It is therefore rational to allow legal abortion as a mechanism for population control. Cumulatively, there have been about 50 million abortions in the United States since legalization in 1973. We are having problem caring for the population we have, let alone 50 million more. Abortion should be legal for the good of society. 5. The alternative to legal abortion is illegal abortion. Illegal abortion was rampant before legalization, and if made illegal it would be so again. Illegal abortions are often performed by quacks. 5.1 Making abortion illegal would deter some abortions, but at the expense of injured women. In the United States, the death toll would not be as high as in other countries. In 1965, the number of deaths due to illegal abortion was 235, a limited number as a consequence of real doctors treating the injuries with antibiotics. http://www.straightdope.com.... 235 unnecessary deaths per year is 235 too many. 5.2 Wealthier women could afford to travel to a country where abortion is legal, while the poorer would endure illegal abortions. Making abortion illegal is therefore unjust. If abortion were illegal everywhere, then the toll of death and injury worldwide due to improperly performed illegal abortions would be much higher. 5.3 In the U.S., emergency room treatment is provided to everyone who needs it. Consequently, while death could often be avoided, there would be a substantial drain on medical resources to patch up botched abortions. The abortion decision is a serious one, but it is not one that should be made by government, and certainly not in a broad way that makes all abortion illegal. The resolution is affirmed.

Pro Legal Abortion Abortion should be legal because it is a women's right as a human being to choose what she wants to do with her body. The Supreme Court recognizes the "fundamental right" of a women to choose abortion as a result of the Roe v. Wade case in 1973 (1). Also, personhood starts at birth, not conception (2). In the past, fetus' have never been considered a full human being, but only a part of the mother's body until birth. (1) http://www.foxnews.com... (2) http://www.dailykos.com...#

Abortion should be legal in most cases. A mother has a right to choose if they want to bring a human into this world. If a mother believes that their child will enter Earth only to suffer for a myriad of reasons, She is morally just in deciding to have an abortion. Choice is Liberty, Which is one of those rights.

Abortion Should be Legal This argument is to be made without god. Abortion has been around long before conventional medicine, by restricting women the right to have an abortion, they will revert back to these dangerous methods that will either disfigure the fetus, kill it, or kill the mother. By allowing women access to contraceptives and abortions, the number of abortions would both decrease, and the ones that exist will be much safer. Having an abortion will lead to a greater quality in life for both the mother and the child she may have later on. Saying that the fetus should be carried to term and given up for adoption, is not the best option. It puts more pressure on the foster care system and it is a hard decision to make.

Abortion Should Be Legal By denying the woman an abortion, you are giving more rights to the fetus over her body. How can this be just? A woman should be able to do whatever she wants with her body. She should at least have equal rights. By denying her an abortion you are infringing her rights and you are taking away her liberty.

Abortion should be legalized If a woman does not want/isn't ready for/cannot raise a child, then why should she have to go through giving birth to it? An unborn child doesn't have a birthday, a name, and depending on how far into the pregnancy the woman is, not even a gender, let alone a conscience mind or emotions. If we refuse a woman to choose what happens to her body, we are stripping her of a right that all people are entitled to.

Abortion should be illegal It appears that my opponent will not make an opening statement. I will post a small argument here.I. Legalized Abortion Reduces CrimeThe crime drop in the 90s was partially because of legalized abortion: "For instance, homicide fell 25.9 percent in high-abortion states between 1985 and 1997 compared to an INCREASE of 4.1 percent in low-abortion states. Panel data estimates confirm the strong negative relationship between lagged abortion and crime. An analysis of arrest rates by age reveal that only arrests of those born after abortion legalization are affected by the law change."[1] Abortion reduces crime rates. II. Legalized Abortion Reduces Women's Deaths "Six months after abortion was legalized in Guyana in 1995, admissions for septic and incomplete abortion dropped by 41%. Previously, septic abortion had been the third largest, and incomplete abortion the eighth largest, cause of admissions to the country's public hospitals. One year after Romania legalized abortion in 1990, its abortion-related mortality rate fell from 142 to 47 deaths per 100,000 live births. These are examples of the positive impact legalizing abortion has on women's health."[2][3][7] Legalized abortion is safer than "backalley" abortions.III. Legalized Abortion Reduces Breast Cancer Risks "In February 2003, the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) held a workshop of more than 100 of the world's leading experts who study pregnancy and breast cancer risk. The experts reviewed human and animal studies that looked at the link between pregnancy and breast cancer risk, including studies of induced and spontaneous abortions. Some of their findings were: • Breast cancer risk is increased for a short time after a full-term pregnancy (that is, a pregnancy that results in the birth of a living child).• Induced abortion is not linked to an increase in breast cancer risk.• Spontaneous abortion is not linked to an increase in breast cancer risk.The level of scientific evidence for these findings was considered to be "well established" (the highest level)."[4] Legalized abortion reduces the risk of breast cancer when compared to a pregnancy. IV. Legalized Abortion Reduces Mental Illness Rates "The biggest study worldwide of the relationship between termination and mental wellbeing is published and concludes: 'The best current evidence suggests that it makes no difference to a woman's mental health whether she chooses to have an abortion or to continue with the pregnancy.'"[5] It would be an unwanted pregnancy, not the abortion itself, that would cause mental illness in a woman. Legalized abortion reduces mental illness incidence. V. Abortion Is Not Immoral "Despite the potential that a fetus has for becoming a human being, and its similarities to a human being, we cannot say that a fetus is a human being. A fetus resides in a legal and social no-man's land, where rights and personhood can have no force or meaning, unless women are kept thoroughly oppressed. Plus, there are many significant differences between a born human being and a fetus, which creates reasonable doubt as to its status. Because there can be no consensus on the matter, the value accorded to a fetus is a subjective, personal matter. Individuals, not society as a whole, must choose what the status of a fetus should be, based on their personal beliefs, morality, and circumstances. And ultimately, this choice belongs only to pregnant women."[6] Abortion is not immoral and should not be illegal. Overall, abortion should be legal.Sources [1]: http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu...[2]: Abortion in Context: United States and Worldwide," Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1999. [3]: http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org...[4]: http://www.cancer.org...[5]: http://www.guardian.co.uk...[6]: http://www.abortionaccess.info...[7]: "Envisioning Life Without Roe: Lessons Without Borders," Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2003.

Abortion Abortion should be legal, Because women have the right to control the uses of their own body, And they shouldn"t be forced to have children and raise them if they don"t want to, Nor should they be forced to go through with the scars and pain of childbirth if their life is at risk or the babies is. Abortion should also be legal because of complications like rape or child marriage, Children shouldn"t be forced to have children.

Abortion Should Be Legal and Unrestricted What's important to realize about abortion is the fact that it is absolutely not murder. If abortion actually did involve the killing of a child, it would have never been a legal option in the first place. You simply cannot logically argue that a child is killed if said child would not be able to survive outside of the womb at the point of abortion. Additionally, a baby/fetus cannot have autonomy because their brains are not capable of making such a complicated decision as abortion. And yes, I absolutely believe that there are circumstances in which abortion would be necessary, such as if the birth of the child would lead to the death of the mother. This is not to say that the woman would be forced to abort, because it a right and not a responsibility. Women do deserve the right to abortion for their own individual reasons, as there are many cases that would harm the lives of the mother and/or child. Women that are raped deserve the right to abortion if they wish it, as a child is a huge commitment to which they did consent. If women become pregnant due to misuse or faulty birth control methods, they too deserve the right to abortion. Caring for a child is extremely costly and time consuming; women that cannot afford to care for another human being deserve the right to terminate a pregnancy. Lastly, if abortion were to be made illegal, it would not stop abortions from happening. Abortion is extremely common; as many as 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in their lifetime. To make abortion illegal would only make it much more dangerous for the women who have them. The women that would not attempt abortions would end up raising a child in poverty and/or neglect, which would absolutely be detrimental to the child's life.

Why abortion should be legal Abortion should be legal because the fetus is in the woman"s body so therefore the government should not dictate what she should do with her own body. If a woman becomes pregnant and decides that she does not want to have children than why should the government force her to have it? Conservatives argue that the woman should have been responsible by thinking before becoming pregnant. Well here"s my argument, Even if a woman thinks before becoming pregnant she still might change her mind about having a child. If a woman becomes pregnant without thinking beforehand than she made a mistake and she should be able to fix that mistake by having an abortion. If the government does not allow a woman to have an abortion then they are forcing her to have a child. if a woman does not have an abortion than she is going to have a child. If the government does not allow her to have an abortion than that would mean that once a woman gets pregnant she has to have a child. So the government would be forcing her to have a child if they were to ban abortion. This would not be the right thing for the government to do. The woman should be allowed to choose what she wants to do with the fetus because it is in her body.

should abortion be legal yes or no (no) Access to an abortion should be legal for these reasons. First, access to abortion is a part of American history. It wasn't until the 1900's that abortion was illegal in every state, and even then it was still permissible in certain circumstances. Thus women have had access to legal abortions longer than they have been barred from it. Second, abortion should be legal because it safeguards women. Making abortion illegal won't prevent abortion it will prevent safe abortions-- to the risk of women. The truth is that women facing poverty, abuse, or simple lack of preparation will seek abortions if they want them. Outlawing abortion would result in a return to back ally treatments, rusty coathangers, and harm to the most at risk and in need women. Finally, abortion should be legal because women have a right to self-determinism. By outlawing abortion we are saying that women are subject men's procreative whim. It supposes that women should be in bondage until they deliver a man's offspring. In essence, we would be arguing that woman lose their agency and autonomy, their very humanity when they become pregnant-- be it through rape, incest, abuse etc.

Abortion I'm arguing that abortions should be legal.

Abortion should be legal Judges please note: This round is exclusively for arguments; After a thorough research I will try to quote experts who have extensively dealt with the subject of abortion. Proponents, identifying themselves as pro-choice, contend that choosing abortion is a woman's right that should not be limited by governmental or religious authority, and which outweighs any right claimed for an embryo or fetus. They say that pregnant women will resort to unsafe illegal abortions if there is no legal option. Although the Catholic and Lutheran churches oppose abortion, more of their members believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus illegal in all or most cases (51% vs. 45%, Lutheran; 48% vs. 45%, Catholic). [1] A woman's risk of dying from having an abortion is 0.6 in 100,000, while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher (8.8 in 100,000). [2] The mortality rate of a colonoscopy is more than 40 times greater than that of an abortion. [3] The US Supreme Court has declared abortion to be a "fundamental right" guaranteed by the US Constitution. The landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, decided on Jan. 22, 1973 in favor of abortion rights, remains the law of the land. The 7-2 decision stated that the Constitution gives "a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy," and that "This right of privacy... is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." [4] Personhood begins after a fetus becomes "viable" (able to survive outside the womb) or after birth, not at conception. [5] [6]Embryos and fetuses are not independent, self-determining beings, and abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a baby. A person's age is calculated from birth date, not conception, and fetuses are not counted in the US Census. The majority opinion in Roe v. Wadestates that "the word 'person,' as used in the Fourteenth Amendment [of the US Constitution], does not include the unborn." [7] A baby should not come into the world unwanted. Having a child is an important decision that requires consideration, preparation, and planning. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment stated that unintended pregnancies are associated with birth defects, low birth weight, maternal depression, increased risk of child abuse, lower educational attainment, delayed entry into prenatal care, a high risk of physical violence during pregnancy, and reduced rates of breastfeeding. [8] 49% of all pregnancies among American women are unintended.[9] Abortion reduces crime. According to a study co-written by Freakonomics co-author Steven D. Levitt, PhD, and published in the peer-reviewed Quarterly Journal of Economics, "legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions." Around 18 years after abortion was legalized, crime rates began to drop abruptly, and crime rates dropped earlier in states that allowed abortion earlier. Because "women who have abortions are those most at risk to give birth to children who would engage in criminal activity," and women who had control over the timing of childbearing were more likely to raise children in optimal environments, crime is reduced when there is access to legal abortion. [10] Many religious organizations and people of faith support women's reproductive choice.Although many religious groups oppose abortion, the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations are all officially pro-choice. [11] [12] [13] The Bible, despite interpretations to the contrary, contains no explicit condemnation of abortion, and does not portray the killing of a fetus as equivalent to the killing of a human being. In Exodus 21:22-25, the crime of causing a woman to miscarry is treated as a property crime, whereas killing the woman is considered murder and is punished with the death penalty. [14] While the Catholic and Lutheran churches oppose abortion, more of their members believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases versus illegal in all or most cases (51% vs. 45%, Lutheran; 48% vs. 45%, Catholic). [15] Joe Biden, 47th US Vice President, stated in Oct. 2012 that "I accept my church’s position on abortion... But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews, and I just refuse to impose that on others..." [16] SOURCES [1] Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, US Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices: Diverse and Politically Relevant, religions.pewforum.org [2] E.G. Raymond and D.A. Grimes, "The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced Abortion and Childbirth in the United States," Obstetrics and Gynecology, [3] American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Medical Association, "Brief of Amici Curiae [in Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical Health Services et al. v. Attorney General Gregory Abbot et al.]," acog.org, [4] Roe v. Wade (342 KB) , US Supreme Court, lp.findlaw.com, [5]Franklin Foer, "Fetal Viability," slate.com, [6] James Davison Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America's Culture War, 1994 [7] Roe v. Wade (342 KB) , US Supreme Court, lp.findlaw.com, [8] Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, "Family Planning Program," colorado.gov [9] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "Unintended Pregnancy Prevention: Home" (159 KB) [10] John J. Donohue, and Steven D. Levitt, "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2001 (Despite admitting to an error in one of this study's tables, Levitt has stated that "the story we put forth in the paper is not materially changed by the coding error." See Steven D. Levitt, "Everything in Freakonomics Is Wrong!," freakonomics.com, Nov. 28, 2005) [11]General Board of Church & Society of the United Methodist Church, "Family Planning and Reproductive Health - Social Principles," umc-gbcs.org, 2008 [12]General Assembly Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church (USA), "Presbyterian 101 - Abortion Issues," gamc.pcusa.org (accessed Feb. 25, 2011) [13]Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, "Right to Choose," uua.org, June 3, 2010 [14] Rick Lowery, PhD, "Abortion: What the Bible Says (and Doesn't Say)," huffingtonpost.com, [15] Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, US Religious Landscape Survey: Religious Beliefs and Practices: Diverse and Politically Relevant, religions.pewforum.org, [16] John J. Donohue, and Steven D. Levitt, "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 2001 (Despite admitting to an error in one of this study's tables, Levitt has stated that "the story we put forth in the paper is not materially changed by the coding error." See Steven D. Levitt, "Everything in Freakonomics Is Wrong!," freakonomics.com, Nov. 28, 2005) [20]Ezra Klein, "Transcript: The 2012 VP Debate," washingtonpost.com,

Abortion should be legalized Before I start: Hello. I just wanted to compliment the structure of your argument and how well presented it is. I'll try my best, but this is my first ever debate, so I'll probably lose, but that's okay. Anyway, I'll get to it. Abortion is a choice that is frowned upon in our society. So let's look at some of the reasons why someone would want an abortion. Some of them include: - The woman was raped and is carrying the rapist's child. - The woman is in a poor financial state and is unable to raise the child. - The woman is under the age of 18 and is simply too young to have a child. - The woman and her partner simply did not try for a baby and the methods of birth control failed. We have the reasons why someone would want an abortion. Now why does society disapprove of it? Well, here are some reasons why: - It is considered immoral - The mother can give the baby up for adoption - A fetus is a human and terminating it is the same as murder. Adoption seems to be a better choice than to abort the child. However this is not the case. There are estimated to be 153 million orphans worldwide, and there is simply not enough people to take care of them all. This means the child being given up may never find parents, which can have a severe psychological impact on them later in life. Abortions are not violent, brutal things. They are safe, clean and performed by medical professionals. I stated this earlier: "An unborn child doesn't have a birthday, a name, and depending on how far into the pregnancy the woman is, not even a gender, let alone a conscience mind or emotions." When I said this, I meant that the unborn lack what all human beings have. This means abortion is not murder, because technically a fetus is not a living, breathing person with memories and feelings. A fetus cannot speak, move, experience, think, feel or do anything that human beings can do. They cannot even survive without their mother. If we outlaw abortion, we would be forcing women to go through pregnancies they do not want or otherwise are not able to cope with. Could you imagine having to give birth to the child of a man who violated you and put you through a horrible and traumatic experience? What if the mother was only 14? Or if they were living out on the streets? Outlawing abortion may lead women to find other methods of terminating their pregnancy. They could seek illegal and unethical ways to do so which may cause further harm to both the woman and her child. I conclude with the following statement: Abortion is a choice all women should have. It is a choice that we cannot deny. Those who consider going through with one are finding the strength to do so and the negative approach from society does not help with their conscience. We should allow abortion to be legalized.

Abortion should be illegal On to the debate... I. Individual Autonomy Under the principle of individual autonomy, a person has the right to determine his actions upon himself, his thoughts over his actions, and his actions abiding his thoughts. No one shall proclaim a restriction or utter a coercion upon an individual who is rightfully exercising his right to bodily autonomy. It is then established that a person may do whatever he intends to do with his own body, whether or not there are, and he is aware of, potential harms attached to its action's consequences. Since he has consented himself to do so, he will automatically be holding the burden of responsibility of whatever harms he might face. If a person eats 200 cupcakes a day, no one shall take his freedom and happiness to do so; he may hold the burden of having diabetes after a year but the mere fact that he is considered as a consensual self deliberately negates any negative remarks on this matter. If a teenager aborts the fetus inside of her, she may do so. It is her right to her own body and nobody shall take that away from her. What if the government tries to? II. Violation of Human Rights The duty of the government is to cater to the necessities of its people. One of the innumerable needs would be the protection of each and every individual's fundamental human rights. Imposing a massive restriction such as criminalizing abortion is a testament of violation, an infringement to an essential tenet of human law and nature---the freedom of choice. Freedom and choice are two inseparable aspects of society. As justice, freedom, choice, protection, and speech are virtually imperative values that hold equally indistinguishable importance, it is the duty of the government to abide by the laws of man and nature and ultimately subject itself to catering to human rights protection, especially when the rights of women are concerned. What about them? Will women be greatly affected when abortion is made illegal? III. Desperate Mothers Criminalization of abortion is a major downfall to women who seek it. There will always be mothers who will seek and be desperate for abortion. If abortion is made illegal, no doctor would perform this type of surgery and desperate mothers will resort aborting by themselves, with no supervision, with no aid of a medical professional, with no certainty of a safe undertaking. Purely unnacceptable. An article story showing this scenario was published on IOL, a publication website, which started like this: "Samantha is a 17-year-old girl who aborted her five-month-old foetus at an illegal back-alley clinic in Pietermaritzburg last month. Since then, Samantha has suffered severe pain and abnormal bleeding, and was forced to tell her mother, who rushed her to their family doctor." Halfway through a testimony from a nurse was shown. "Nurse and social worker, Daya Pillay, told the Daily News that in her 25-year experience, illegal abortions had skyrocketed in the past five years.""It has become a massive problem. Young women are bleeding to death as a result of the botched procedures being performed on them," Pillay said."[1] Teenagers who will engage in illegal abortion may face the same type of problem, more or less. The simple solution to this unfortunate phenomena would be the utter legalization of abortion. IV. Jobless Teenagers It is also noteworthy to take on the issue of jobless teenagers, not that they can't find one, but they haven't reached a more mature age to finish education and find a job. Early adolescence to early adulthood is a solid transition period. In these years, we are dependent to parents, still learning and going to school, exploring life with pink-hued sunglasses, and, obviously, too young to work. Once we criminalize abortion, a teen will be forced to take care of her growing baby, her schooling will be affected, and if ever she's at her early twenties, she has no financial capability in feeding the baby when she's still about to find her job, making her career largely vague and unstable. Allow abortion and all of these problems will be easily eliminated. V. A Question of Life Of course, I have not forgotten to include the embryo's qualification for life, as this matter is highly debated and scientifically argued between polarized consensus. But, I have devided to put it as my last argument as scientific researches perpetually change and modify and calibrate itself, sometimes to suit a certain group's ideologies and sometimes it falls short of academic soundness that it can no longer be rendered as valid or it simply falls shorts due to mysteries that human thought fails to fathom. However, I will be sticking with the current criteria for life as of the human moment. The current definition is that organisms maintain homeostasis, are composed of cells, undergo metabolism, can grow, adapt to their environment, respond to stimuli, and reproduce. If a criterion doesn't fit, then it would constitute to the invalidity of the matter in question. An embryo cannot reproduce. That criterion does not fit to the embryo. That would make its qualification of life invalid. Con has also gave this set of criteria to prove his stand which makes his claim self-refuting. Conclusion: I have provided compact legal, societal, and scientific explanations to uphold my stand as a pro-choice advocate. With abortion's legalization, women will freely exercise their freedom of choice, evade bodily harm, secure their career, and attain personal happiness. [1] www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/illegal-abortion-continues-to-thrive-1884600

Abortion should be legal. It is my belief that it is a mothers natural inherited right to choose rather or not to terminate a pregnancy.

Abortion should be legal 1) Constitutional Right in the US In Roe vs Wade it was ruled as a violation of the Constitution to prohibit abortions under the 9th and 14th amendments. It is a woman's choice and right to her own body in regards to having an abortion ( http://www.lawnix.com... ). 2) Self Defense We have the right to self defense in the united states. If and when a fetus is damaging a woman to the point it can endanger her life, the mother should be able to reasonably defend herself against the fetus. ( http://en.wikipedia.org... ) This basically states that someone can murder another person ( assuming the baby is a person ) under the pretense of self defense. Think of it like this, if someone is coming at you with a knife do you have the right to kill that person? The answer is yes. If a fetus is endangering your life, you should be able to reasonably defend yourself. a) consequences This should be the mothers choice to end the pregnancy. The fetus is sapping nutrients, increasing how tired the mother is, making her miss work, etc. This could effectively mess up her real life. If you cannot maintain having a baby, and a fetus was conceived on accident, you should be able to opt out. Some people are not financially capable of carrying out the entire pregnancy, and missing work, the effects it has on their health, and other impacts could negatively impact their life in a way where they may actually grow to hate the child and or give it away. Child's that are adopted are three times more likely to commit crimes, than those that are raised properly. 3 ) Rape Almost 1 percent of all pregnancies are from rape ( http://www.operationrescue.org... ). Rape is a net detriment all around, as the mother has no choice in the pregnancy. The most applicable scenario to this is the violinist analogy. ( http://spot.colorado.edu... ) This basically asks you if you were at a party and someone smacked you upside the head. They then proceeded to drag you to a room where you had no say, and while you were still knocked out they connected a man to you via a tube that was keeping him alive. When you woke up, you realized you had this man connected to you. If you removed the tube he died, if you did not he lived. The issue is this tube causes you severe emotion distress, health problems, and other things that you must endure for 9 months and you were put in this situation by no fault of your own. Is it wrong to pull the tube out? Most would say no as you had no choice about whether or not you were put in that situation. A situation that could possibly kill you, endanger your health or various other things. The same thing applies to rape. You are telling a girl who had no say in the matter, that she must have a child that she does not want because it's her responsibility. That is literally just wrong on so many levels.

Abortion should remain legal in the United States. Abortion is legal, and should remain legal because it is a woman's right.

Abortion should be legal 1. Abortion is about allowing woman the right to make choices about when they want to have children in relation to their age, financial stability & relationship stability. It is the not the place of government to legislate against woman's choices. 2. Raising a child is not an easy task & requires social & emotional commitment coupled with financial resources. As such if a person feels they are not ready for a child, it means the pregnancy is unwanted & resultant allowing a fetus to grow into a child is worse than abortion since the resultant child will grow in a non conducive & destructive environment without the love, care & stability that a child needs. 3. The argument against abortion is a moral argument which is subject to personal interpretation so should not be legislated against. Those see it morally allowable to do abortion should be provided with the means to do so & those who don't believe in abortion should have the choice not to have an abortion 4. A fetus is not legally or scientifically a person or human being so abortion cannot be equated to murder or taking a life since the fetus is not a person nor alive. 5. A fetus is like a brain dead person with no self awareness or consciousness so it is actually dead. 6. Prohibiting abortions doesn't stop abortions, women would simply seek abortions via illegal means which are unsafe & illegal, so it is better to provide woman with safe & legal ways to do an abortion. 7. Abortion prevent unwanted & unplanned pregnancies which prevents child neglect since the mother does not want to have children at that moment in time. 8. Making abortion illegal is also a class struggle since the rich can always go to other places where it is legal & have an abortion whilst the poor cannot do this, but have to resort to unsafe abortions which can lead to their death. 9. Making abortion illegal is more or less compulsory pregnancy which contradicts the quest & fight for freedom. 10. Making abortion illegal will increase teenage pregnancy (children having children). This usually leads to illegal abortions which can lead to death or permanent health defects, poverty, joblessness, hopelessness, and dependency. 11. A woman's right to choose abortion is a "fundamental right" 12. Personhood begins at birth, not at conception. Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy (fetus), not a baby. Personhood at conception is not a proven biological fact. Fetuses are incapable of feeling pain when an abortion is performed. 13. Access to legal, professionally-performed abortions reduces injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions. 14. The anti-abortion position is usually based on religious beliefs and threatens the vital separation of church and state. Religious ideology should not be a foundation for law. 15. Modern abortion procedures are safe. The risk of a woman"s death from abortion is less than one in 100,000, whereas the risk of a woman dying from giving birth is 13.3 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies. 16. Access to abortion is necessary because contraceptives are not always readily available. Women need a doctor's prescription to obtain many birth control methods, such as the pill, the patch, the shot, and the diaphragm. 17. Abortion gives couples the option to choose not to bring babies with severe and life-threatening medical conditions to full term. 18. Many women who choose abortion don't have the financial resources to support a child. 19. Motherhood must never be a punishment for having sexual intercourse. 20. A baby should not come into the world unwanted. 49% of all pregnancies among American women are unintended. Having a child is an important lifelong decision that requires consideration, preparation, and planning. 21. Abortion reduces crime. Teenage girls, unmarried women, and poor women are more likely to have unintended pregnancies, and since unwanted babies are often raised in poverty, their chances of leading criminal lives in adulthood are increased. 22. Do we have the right to force the mother to keep the baby solely because she consented to participate in these sexual activities? Do we have the right to take away another"s right as we continue to fight for other rights? Why do we take away the rights of a woman because she has the potential to have a baby? 23. We get right to life, liberty & pursuit of happiness when we are born. he fetus does not have these rights until it is born. So abortion is not murder & abortion does not go against the rights of a fetus since it does not have any until born. 24. Every woman has the right to do whatever they want with their body aka Bodily Autonomy. This is one of the reasons why it is illegal to take organs from the deceased that have not signed off permission. If we continue this right after life, why do we strip it from a pregnant woman? Why would you grant a dead person a right that you wouldn"t give to someone that is alive. 25. If someone needs something donated that you have, you are not legally obligated to donate anything. This parallels to pregnancies because a fetus does need these resources, but the mother is not legally obligated to keep giving this baby her resources. Denying to give someone a body part is not illegal, so terminating a pregnancy should not be illegal 26. Legal abortions protect women's health. Legal abortion not only protects women's lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes, and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth. 27. Being a mother is just one option for women.* Many hard battles have been fought to win political and economic equality for women. These gains will not be worth much if reproductive choice is denied. To be able to choose a safe, legal abortion makes many other options possible. Otherwise an accident or a rape can end a woman's economic and personal freedom. 28. Even when precautions are taken, accidents can and do happen. For some families, this is not a problem. But for others, such an event can be catastrophic. An unintended pregnancy can increase tensions, disrupt stability, and push people below the line of economic survival. Family planning is the answer. All options must be open. Sources 1. http://www.debate.org... 2. http://abortion.procon.org... 3. http://www.topix.com...

Abortion should be legal Given my knowledge on abortion, if it is legal then it will benefit the mother. If abortion is legal then it will create a safe way for a mother to abort her baby and it will give the mother the ability to decide what she wants to do with her body. Abortion has been legal since the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973, where women were given their personal rights to decide on what they would like to do to their bodies, which has led to safe ways to abort a mother's baby; therefore abortion should be legal, presumably, unless abortion brings harm to the mother.

Abortion Abortion is, and should be legal in most cases. The right of the mother to make her own health decisions must always be protected. Making abortion illegal will not help to stop the procedure, it will just move the location to a more unsafe environment.

Abortion Should Remain Legal Abortion should remain legal, because it's the right for a women to do what she wants to her own body because of either unplanned pregnancy, deformed baby, or the possibility of harm to the woman from the pregnancy. I also think that the Freedom of Choice Act should be signed.

Abotion should be legal I will begin by stating my argument against abortion, and then respond to my opponent's points. To clarify, I will be arguing that abortion should not be legal, apart from cases where it is a necessary medical procedure in order to save the life of the mother. Why abortion should be illegal My argument is as follows: Premise 1: Abortion is the deliberate killing of a human foetus Premise 2: A human foetus is alive, and so therefore a human foetus is a living human being Premise 3: It is not morally justified to remove the life of a human being Premise 4: Only that which is morally justified should be legal Conclusion: Abortion should not be legal Now I will support my premises: Premise 1 Abortion is defined as: 'Expulsion from the uterus of the products of conception before the fetus is viable.' (1) We know, due to the definition of 'viable' in this context, that this procedure will necessarily kill the foetus. Therefore, abortion is the deliberate killing of a human foetus. Premise 2 First I will affirm that a foetus is alive, then I will use this conclusion to affirm that a human foetus is a human being. Life is defined as: 'The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death' (2) Foetuses grow and are subject to continual change preceding death (3). They have the capacity for reproduction given time to develop naturally. Furthermore, to suppose that a foetus is not alive is to either state that a foetus is dead or inanimate. It is not dead because something must have once lived in order to be dead, and it is not inanimate (4). Therefore, a human foetus is alive. All life is characterised into species (5), and as we have affirmed that a human foetus is alive we must also accept that it must belong to a particular species. A human foetus's genetic makeup is most similar to the genetic makeup of the species homo sapiens and so a human foetus is human (which perhaps goes without saying, as if it was not human then we would not refer to it as a human foetus). Therefore, a human foetus is human. Therefore, a human foetus is a human life, which is to say that it is a living human being. Premise 3 To say that it is not morally justified to remove the life of a human being is to say that we ought not to kill human beings. There are many reasons why I am justified in asserting this moral truth: Rule Utilitarian approach - Having a rule stating 'do not kill human beings' will result in a greater amount of happiness than the absence of such a rule, therefore this it is moral to abide to this rule. Deontologist approach - Killing of a human being is wrong because it is a maxim that cannot be universalised; no rational human being would freely consent to live in a society that permitted the killing of human beings. Evolutionist approach - Permitting the killing of human beings is evolutionarily disastrous, for obvious reasons. The killing of human beings is not morally justified according to the vast majority of normative ethical theories. If my opponent disagrees and argues that killing of human beings is justified (aside from cases of self-defence), then she will have the burden of proof, as she is making the positive claim that killing of human beings is morally justified. Therefore, it is not morally justifiable to remove the life of a human being. Premise 4 Although it seems pretty common-sensical that only morally justifiable actions should be legal, I will analyse it under the main normative ethical theories in order to demonstrate why only morally justifiable actions should be legal. Rule Utilitarian approach - Having a rule stating 'legally permit immoral actions' will result in a lesser amount of happiness than a rule saying 'legally prohibit immoral actions', therefore this it is moral to abide to the rule that we should not legally permit immoral actions. Deontologist approach - Legally permitting immoral actions is wrong because it is a maxim that cannot be universalised; no rational human being would freely consent to live in a society that permitted immoral actions. Evolutionist approach - Permitting immoral actions will create a society where immoral actions are prevalent, this will negatively effect the quality of our offspring and so it is not evolutionarily beneficial. I assume that my opponent agrees with premise 4, but if not, the above analysis verifies it. Therefore, only that which is morally justifiable should be legal. As I have now asserted the veracity of all my premises, the conclusion deductively follows. Therefore, abortion should not be legal. Argument from Consistency In order to hold a rational moral assertion, it must be consistent. So, in order to be rational, we must abide by the maxim: 'Treat someone as we would consent to be treated if we were in the same situation as that someone.' An example of moral inconsistency would be stating: 'I am morally justified in throwing sticks at my mother, but I would not consent to having sticks thrown at me if I was in the same situation as my mother'. I argue that abortion is inconsistent according to these terms. To assert that abortion is morally justified is to be morally inconsistent, as it is equivalent to saying: 'I am morally justified in killing a human foetus, but I would not consent to being killed if I was a human foetus.' Unless, of course, the pro-abortionist would consent to being killed if they were a human foetus, but I highly doubt they would be serious in holding this conviction. This becomes especially prevalent because it is not hypothetical, as everyone was once a foetus and so nobody can be exempt from the consistency criteria. As asserting the moral permissibility of abortion is inconsistent, it is an irrational moral belief. It is absurd to suggest that actions should be legalised if one cannot be rational in supporting them, so abortion should not be legal. I will now respond to all my opponent's arguments within the character limit I have. 'Abortion is about allowing woman the right to make choices about when they want to have children in relation to their age, financial stability & relationship stability. It is the not the place of government to legislate against woman's choices.' It is definitely the government's choice to legislate against women's choices if the choice harms another human being, as abortion does. It would be odd to suggest that the government should not legislate against murder simply by virtue of the fact that a woman chose to commit it. 'Raising a child is not an easy task & requires social & emotional commitment coupled with financial resources. As such if a person feels they are not ready for a child, it means the pregnancy is unwanted & resultant allowing a fetus to grow into a child is worse than abortion since the resultant child will grow in a non conducive & destructive environment without the love, care & stability that a child needs.' 'Abortion prevent unwanted & unplanned pregnancies which prevents child neglect since the mother does not want to have children at that moment in time.' I agree, but this is a false dichotomy. A baby can be put up for adoption at birth, so it is not a choice between abortion and raising a child. 'Those see it morally allowable to do abortion should be provided with the means to do so & those who don't believe in abortion should have the choice not to have an abortion' This statement has very strange implications, as it implies that anyone should be allowed to do something so long as they believe that they are morally justified in doing so. Yet this would mean that we should allow murderers who believe that their actions are morally justified to commit murder. 'A fetus is not legally or scientifically a person or human being so abortion cannot be equated to murder or taking a life since the fetus is not a person nor alive.' See premise 2 of my initial argument. 'A fetus is like a brain dead person with no self awareness or consciousness so it is actually dead.' Definition of dead: 'Having lost life' (6). A foetus has never lost its life (irrespective of whether it ever had life) and so cannot be dead. 'Prohibiting abortions doesn't stop abortions, women would simply seek abortions via illegal means which are unsafe & illegal, so it is better to provide woman with safe & legal ways to do an abortion.' If one freely chooses to murder their foetus then they are, to some extent, forfeiting their protection. Let me suppose an analogy; legalising burglary would make burglaries much safer for burglars, yet this is hardly a valid justification for legalising burglary. The same applies with abortion. I agree that prohibiting abortion does not stop abortions altogether, but it reduces them significantly. In 1969 (when legal abortion facilities were implemented) there were 53643 abortions compared to 21400 when abortion was illegal in 1966 (7). This is 32243 abortions that were caused by the legalisation of abortion. I have run out of characters now, but I will finish rebutting my opponent's arguments in round 2. (1)http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com... (2)http://www.oxforddictionaries.com... (3)http://www.babycentre.co.uk... (4)http://www.webmd.boots.com... (5)http://en.wikipedia.org... (6)http://www.thefreedictionary.com... (7)http://www.johnstonsarchive.net...

Abortion should be legalized. Abortion should be legal, definitely. Ask a pro-lifer what their position represents - what is being a pro-lifer? They'll usually give you a definition of something along the lines of someone who believes that a fetus is a life, and the sanctity of life should not be compromised by legalizing a form of murder. Ask them further if they would take measures against death occurring. Would they, if they had the power, pass a legislation that would save more lives than not? If adhering to their position as pro-lifers, they should. At this point, the terms pro-lifer and pro-choicer would become synonymous, because any pro-lifer who is not a hypocrite, and wants to save lives as opposed to inflicting punishment will want to legalize abortion. A study came out recently showing that rates of abortion occur in countries where abortion is legal and where it is not. (Source: http://www.nytimes.com... ) Despite the ruling of the land, women are not deterred in ending their pregnancy when they want to. More often than not in areas where it is not legal, unsafe abortions occur and the mother is injured or killed. In places where abortion is legal, unsafe abortion is hardly a problem, and abortions usually occur legally and safely. So the citizen has their choice: legalize a process that kills one person (accepting the definition that the fetus is a life - which I would contest, but I'm using it here for the sake of argument), or ban a process, thereby killing two people for every one that could have gone. If the "pro-lifer" sticks to their moral compass that they defined earlier, they'll find that legal abortion is a necessary privilege, and banning abortion is contradictory to their philosophy, killing more people than could have been saved.

Abortion Ought to be Legal *shakes Con's hand* Now, onto business. Argument 1 Abortion ought be legal as a matter of public health. Regardless of whether abortion is legal or not, there will be those who will seek out abortions anyway. Abortions received in a clinical setting are much safer than other methods, as they are performed by and under the supervision of those in medical professions who know what they are doing and what to do in case of emergencies. Abortions performed at home, such as with coathangers or any of the various methods often used in the hopes of inducing a miscarriage (blows to the abdomen, intentionally eating foods one is meant to avoid during pregnancy, etc.), are done without this medical supervision and often in the absence of any medical knowledge by the pregnant woman. Safer abortions should be provided because it would minimize the amount of deaths and complications due to abortions. Argument 2 Abortion ought to be legal because it is the right of the woman. If we accept the premise that a human being is the owner of their own body (which we must if we're debating laws in the first place, because why would we tell someone what they can and can't do with something if they aren't in control of it anyway?), then that human being also has the right to decide what to do with his or her body. If a woman doesn't wish to be pregnant, she shouldn't be legally denied an abortion, because denial of that abortion would force her to make a choice that she doesn't want to and shouldn't have to.

Abortion should remain legal in the United States. Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making that choice for thousands of years, for many good reasons. They have the right to decide what they put their bodies through. Whenever a society has sought to outlaw abortions, it has only driven them into back alleys, where they became dangerous, expensive and humiliating.

Abortion Should Remain Legal Women should have the right to their own bodies, not the government. A fetus is not a human, it is a potential human. Because of that, a potential human does not have any rights.

Abortion should be legal Abortion should be legal to women because women have the right to do what they want with their bodies. As we progress in society it becomes more and more important for woman to take initiative amd decide for what they think will have the most postive impact in their life. If having the opportunity to decide whether abortion is most suitable is important for women today. According to Anne who wrote the article "what if abortion were illegal?" Says that of they were to make it illegal ot would cause a lot of problems. It could possibly have women try to do "home remedies" that can hurt themselves. Also, if abortion was illegal where they lived, some women may travel to far places where it legal just to get it done because they really desperate to have the procedure. So basically some women will still go out of there way just to have this done, because that's what they want for themselves for many reasons.

Abortion This should be fun :) The legalisation of abortion has been a big issue worldwide for a long period of time, not only politically but also on social and religious fronts. Abortion can be defined, as by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as the termination of a pregnancy resulting in the death of the embryo or fetus. The reasons for and against are both numerous and persuasive. The first reason that deems that abortion should be illegal is due to the fact that abortion is considered immoral. Considering that life begins as soon as the fetus is created, the killing of a fetus could be considered the killing of a human. In this way abortion is similar to murder. If it is immoral to kill a human, how could it be considered acceptable to terminate a fetus? No civilized society allows one human to intentionally take the life of another human freely, and according to the aforementioned definition, abortion should not be different. Abortion also goes against the Hippocratic Oath. The Hippocratic Oath is historically taken by doctors and nurses that swear to practice medicine ethically. One of the lines in the classic Hippocratic Oath states that ‘I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion'. This clearly states that abortion goes against the ethics of medicine and medicinal science. Another reason that abortion should be illegal is due to the fact that there is no such thing as an unwanted child. One of the main reasons for abortion is that the parents are unable to keep the child. However, the genetic parents do not necessarily need to keep the child, but they could rather put the child up for adoption. This option is preferable to killing a human being. Is adoption not a better way of dealing with the issue? Abortion can also lead to medical problems in later life. 10% of women that go through with abortion have immediate complications. This does not include those that have other medical problems later in life due to abortion. These medical issues include, but are certainly not limited to, cervical, ovarian and liver cancers, uterine perforation, cervical laceration, placenta previa, complications with future births, handicapped newborns, eptopic pregnancy, pelvic inflammatory disease and lower general health. The risk is intensified for multiple abortions. Despite all the compelling reasons against the legalisation of abortion there are several reasons that abortion is positive. Firstly, on many occasions the parents are unfit or unable to take care of the baby. The reasons for this could be due to several factors, including religious, moral or financial complication. If a woman does become pregnant, it is extremely likely to be an accidental birth, in which a contraceptive has failed, bad planning or due to rape. In any of these scenarios abortion is often the only option. One of the main reasons against abortion is that the killing of a fetus is considered murder, akin to the killing of another human being. However, there is a difference between the concept of personhood and the concept of human life. Almost all abortions take place in very early stages of pregnancy. In these early phases, the fetus can not live outside the mother's womb. In this case, can the fetus be classified as a separate being? The question is up to the mother to decide, and what she wishes to do with the child. Once again, the classification, or definition of what is considered human depends on the individual and their beliefs. Another reason for abortion is the complications of how pregnancy, and a child, would affect a young person's life. If forced to continue with the birth of the child, the prospects for the parents would be rather grim. They would be extremely likely to have to leave school, rely on society for raising their child, develop health problems, end up separating or have psychological problems like depression or anxiety. Abortion is often the only way that parents can avoid this bleak future. One reason for the legalisation of abortion is that if abortion became illegal, it would lead to a lot of ‘backstreet' abortions. These abortions would cost a lot of money, be unsafe and unclean, and have generally negative effects on the mother. However, if abortion were to remain legal, then abortions can be carried out in safe and clean environments, where the prime concern is welfare rather than money. Another reason that abortion should be legal is due to the fact that if the child would be born with defects, whether the deficiencies be physical, mental or a combination, it would lead to problems. Having a child with severe medical problems would not only be detrimental to the child but also to the mother and father. The parents may have problems against having a child with birth problems, not only in raising the child, but also due to how they feel, whether this is owing to social or religious demands. In this case abortion can be the only way to deal with the issue. Approximately, there are 42 million abortions that happen every year. The amount that are justified is uncertain, and certainly depends on the individual's definition of the word. But the question remains, should abortion remain legal? What do you think? Personally I believe that abortion should have certain requirements that must be fulfilled before abortion is applicable to the mother. Some requirements may be if it was a forced pregnancy, if it was due to a contraceptive failing or if harm could come to the mother from the birth of the child. In this way, abortion would become less of a contraceptive or an easy way out, but more of a positive thing that would be extremely helpful to many people internationally. Don't hate too hard

Abortion should be illegal Props to Pro for posting this debate, and thanks for letting me participate. I believe abortion should be legal because a fetus is not a person until birth, anti-abortion arguments are usually based on religion and threatens the vital separation of church and state , and if safe and legal abortions are not available, women will be driven to dangerous back-alley abortions. A fetus is not a person until later on in the pregnancy. Until then, the fetus only has potential. If destroying the potential of a person is considered murder, then ejaculating would be a mass killing. Linda Lowen states in a article that "nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester, when a fetus cannot exist independent of the mother. As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb". If abortions became illegal, many pregnant women will rely on illegal abortions. Over 47,000 women die each year from illegal abortions where abortion is illegal. If abortion was illegal, a rape victim would have to go through a dangerous abortion which could kill her. In conclusion, abortion should be legal because a fetus is not a person until birth, anti-abortion arguments are usually based on religion and threatens the vital separation of church and state , and if safe and legal abortions are not available, women will be driven to dangerous back-alley abortions.

Abortion Abortion should be leaglized because the illegalization would infringe upon the women's right to her body. The fetus does occupy space inside the mother and that is an infringement of her right to her body. The fact that the fetus invades upon the mother's body makes gives the mother the decision to accept the pregnancy or to abort the baby.

The Legality of Abortions Stance: Abortions should be legal.

Abortion should remain legal in the US I wish this to be a fair and great debate! To reiterate, I will be arguing the following statement: "Abortion should remain legal in the United States. " With that, I will clarify the conditions of my contention. I am arguing that any abortion restrictions and laws should remain as they are, withno suggested changes or additions. I am arguing that current abortion regulations need to stay the way they are. This means that my contention also suggests that abortionshould not be outlawed, and thatother forms of abortion should not be made legal if not already. This is an important part of my argument. Also, while my personal views on abortion are varied, I still argue my statement because I know it is the best for society. I encourage any readers and also the Con to take an unbiased approach to reading and taking part in this debate. Now, my first argument: I: Women have the right to choose what to do withtheir body It is a known fact and idea, that everyone is entitled to the right to choose. To choose what brand of food they wish to buy from the store, or what color to die their hair. We also have the right to choose on decisions that have to do with our bodies. In a life or death situation for another person, legally, you have the right to choose whether you want to donate the means to save that person's life (without legal consequences). [1] In the same way, we are also entitled to choice when it comes to things that have immediate or prolonged consequences, such as committing a crime or doing drugs. Stretching that idea out, women have the right to have an abortion, as it is a part of their body. We know this because the society we live in is all based off of the free choice of Americans. At the current standards, a woman seeking an abortion goes through many steps to actually terminate her pregnancy. Depending on the state, some are required to go through counseling, and permission from a parent (in minors) or a doctor-- however, all over America, women seeking an abortion go through the shaming of society of their decision, while still making the decision to terminate their pregnancy. [2] We know that a lot of things are being done to deter that choice, but like a good and civilized society,we still allow those women to have their freedom of choice. II: Personhood doesn't begin until viability After arguing the reasoning as to why women undoubtedly have the right to their own body, the question still remains: when do fetuses have the right to their own body? It is a known fact, in science and in the law, that life in the womb begins when the fetus is capable of living on its own. When is this? ". .20 to 35 percent of babies born at 23 weeks of gestation survive, while 50 to 70 percent of babies born at 24 to 25 weeks, and more than 90 percent born at 26 to 27 weeks, survive. "[3] So generally, fetuses are more than likely to be considered viable at 26-27 weeks, and in the most rare cases, maybe 23 weeks. A vast majority of states ban abortions after 20 weeks, while some even ban abortions after12 weeks. [4] Abortion isn't even legal while the fetus is considered viable! So, if the fetus is not yet its own person, not yet capable of even surviving outside of the womb, then it is assumed that everything is indeed a part of the woman's body. This means until the fetus has reached personhood, women have the right to choose what to do withtheir body. This means that if abortion is only legal while the fetus is not capable of living on its own, then abortion isnot an illegal practice, and should remain a legal option to women in early stages of pregnancy. III: Completely enforcing anti-abortion laws is impossibleLet's assume just momentarily that abortion was banned everywhere. In a situation where Congress easily passed legislation that prevented women from getting abortions in any conditions, and no other country in the world provided legal options to terminate a pregnancy. This would still not prevent abortions from occurring. Women seeking an abortion for whatever reason, are more than likely still going to get an abortion in whatever way possible, despite it being illegal. People argue all the time, "If you make guns illegal, people are still going to get guns, just illegally. " This is a true statement that has just as much truth when it comes to abortions. You just simply can't forbid a woman from terminating her pregnancy and hope that laws and regulations are going to act as a deterrent in a world like that. This leads to my next argument; IV: The risk of illegal abortionsThis is my last and most important argument. In that country where no woman could legally get an abortion, they will find a way to get one should their situation be that desperate. This will lead to illegal abortions, which are not safe at all. When a person that decides they cannot have a baby for social or financial reasons, and they are determined that they do not have the means to bring a child into the world, then they will also be determined to end that pregnancy in anyway possible. This is a sad but absolutely true statement. Illegal abortions took place in the so called back-alleys, and they were not safe or something anyone wanted to think about. Before Roe v. Wade, illegal abortions were done in many terrible ways, some of which including coat hangers, illegal drugs, knitting needles or even a punch to the stomach. These methods were unsafe, and led to many women dying as a result of it. The statistics are saddening. [5]It has been wisely said, "Roe v. Wade was not the beginning of abortions, but rather the end of women dying because of them. "This is my strongest and main argument to keeping abortion legal in the United States. Abortion needs to remain to be a legal option for women, as it is their choice, and it is not up to anyone else. Whether we disagree with their decisions or not, certified abortion clinics should remain to be legally open to any women in any circumstances. [1]. https://www.academia.edu... [2] . http://www.huffingtonpost.com... [3] . https://en.m.wikipedia.org... [4] . http://www.prochoiceamerica.org...[5] . https://www.guttmacher.org...

Abortion Should Be Legal Assuming the humanity of the fetus, abortion is wrong as it is the killing of an innocent human life. No society has ever accepted the idea that it is morally acceptable to kill an innocent human being. Even in such atrocities as the holocaust and various other historical genocides, it was first necessary to either deny the humanity of the victims or attribute some wrongdoing to that class of people before it could be accepted that it was moral to kill them. The woman DOES have a right to her body and her life, but, assuming it's humanity, so does the fetus.

Abortion Should abortion be legal

Abortion should remain a legal standing law. Women should be able to determine their own future. It is ultimately the woman"s decision whether or not she should bring a child into the world. This is important because only she knows whether or not she is capable of bringing a child into the world. I believe that the abortion law should remain standing. Pros: 1). Reproductive choice empowers women, allowing them to take control over their body. 2). Women who receive abortion are less likely to suffer mental health problems than women denied abortions. 3). Allow women to have an option to choose not to bring fetuses with abnormalities to full term. 4). Women who are denied abortions are more likely to become unemployed, be on welfare, to be below the poverty line, and to become victims of domestic violence. 5). Reproductive choice protects women from financial disadvantage. 6). A baby should not come into the world unwanted. 7). Abortion reduces welfare costs to tax payers.

Abortion should remain legal in the US First things first: When making this debate, I was in a rush and I had copied the debate itinerary from another one of my debates, and forgot to change the settings so that this would be a 4 round debate. I have spoken with Nonsense, and we have agreed to continue the debate as normal, and in place of a fourth round, I will start a new 1 round debate which will act as the round for our rebuttals and conclusions. Thanks to the Con for accepting this debate! I wish this to be a fair and great debate! To reiterate, I will be arguing the following statement: "Abortion should remain legal in the United States." With that, I will clarify the conditions of my contention. I am arguing that any abortion restrictions and laws should remain as they are, with no suggested changes or additions. I am arguing that current abortion regulations need to stay the way they are. This means that my contention also suggests that abortion should not be outlawed, and that other forms of abortion should not be made legal if not already. This is an important part of my argument. Also, while my personal views on abortion are varied, I still argue my statement because I know it is the best for society. I encourage any readers and also the Con to take an unbiased approach to reading and taking part in this debate. Now, my first argument: I: Women have the right to choose what to do with their body It is a known fact and idea, that everyone is entitled to the right to choose. To choose what brand of food they wish to buy from the store, or what color to die their hair. We also have the right to choose on decisions that have to do with our bodies. In a life or death situation for another person, legally, you have the right to choose whether you want to donate the means to save that person's life (without legal consequences). [1] In the same way, we are also entitled to choice when it comes to things that have immediate or prolonged consequences, such as committing a crime or doing drugs. Stretching that idea out, women have the right to have an abortion, as it is a part of their body. We know this because the society we live in is all based off of the free choice of Americans. At the current standards, a woman seeking an abortion goes through many steps to actually terminate her pregnancy. Depending on the state, some are required to go through counseling, and permission from a parent (in minors) or a doctor-- however, all over America, women seeking an abortion go through the shaming of society of their decision, while still making the decision to terminate their pregnancy. [2] We know that a lot of things are being done to deter that choice, but like a good and civilized society, we still allow those women to have their freedom of choice. II: Personhood doesn't begin until viability After arguing the reasoning as to why women undoubtedly have the right to their own body, the question still remains: when do fetuses have the right to their own body? It is a known fact, in science and in the law, that life in the womb begins when the fetus is capable of living on its own. When is this? "..20 to 35 percent of babies born at 23 weeks of gestation survive, while 50 to 70 percent of babies born at 24 to 25 weeks, and more than 90 percent born at 26 to 27 weeks, survive."[3] So generally, fetuses are more than likely to be considered viable at 26-27 weeks, and in the most rare cases, maybe 23 weeks. A vast majority of states ban abortions after 20 weeks, while some even ban abortions after12 weeks. [4] Abortion isn't even legal while the fetus is considered viable! So, if the fetus is not yet its own person, not yet capable of even surviving outside of the womb, then it is assumed that everything is indeed a part of the woman's body. This means until the fetus has reached personhood, women have the right to choose what to do withtheir body. This means that if abortion is only legal while the fetus is not capable of living on its own, then abortion is not an illegal practice, and should remain a legal option to women in early stages of pregnancy. III: Completely enforcing anti-abortion laws is impossible Let's assume just momentarily that abortion was banned everywhere. In a situation where Congress easily passed legislation that prevented women from getting abortions in any conditions, and no other country in the world provided legal options to terminate a pregnancy. This would still not prevent abortions from occurring. Women seeking an abortion for whatever reason, are more than likely still going to get an abortion in whatever way possible, despite it being illegal. People argue all the time, "If you make guns illegal, people are still going to get guns, just illegally." This is a true statement that has just as much truth when it comes to abortions. You just simply can't forbid a woman from terminating her pregnancy and hope that laws and regulations are going to act as a deterrent in a world like that. This leads to my next argument; IV: The risk of illegal abortions This is my last and most important argument. In that country where no woman could legally get an abortion, they will find a way to get one should their situation be that desperate. This will lead to illegal abortions, which are not safe at all. When a person that decides they cannot have a baby for social or financial reasons, and they are determined that they do not have the means to bring a child into the world, then they will also be determined to end that pregnancy in anyway possible. This is a sad but absolutely true statement. Illegal abortions took place in the so called back-alleys, and they were not safe or something anyone wanted to think about. Before Roe v. Wade, illegal abortions were done in many terrible ways, some of which including coat hangers, illegal drugs, knitting needles or even a punch to the stomach. These methods were unsafe, and led to many women dying as a result of it. The statistics are saddening. [5] It has been wisely said, "Roe v. Wade was not the beginning of abortions, but rather the end of women dying because of them." This is my strongest and main argument to keeping abortion legal in the United States. Abortion needs to remain to be a legal option for women, as it is their choice, and it is not up to anyone else. Whether we disagree with their decisions or not, certified abortion clinics should remain to be legally open to any women in any circumstances. [1]https://www.academia.edu...... [2] http://www.huffingtonpost.com...... [3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org...... [4] http://www.prochoiceamerica.org...... [5] https://www.guttmacher.org......

Abortion Should Be Legal Well first off, depending on whether you consider a fetus a human, it is not a death penalty. In the constitution Americans are given the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. By denying a woman an abortion, you are taking away her rights. Why is it that the baby has more rights than the woman? In the constitution it says all men are equal. To give more rights to the baby would be unjust. Further on, abortion is not immoral. Why should it be illegal.

Abortion should in most cases be illegal Thanks Pro; this is quite a serious topic for me and not one I take particularly lightly, as my own mother had an ectopic pregnancy with me--she had to have blood transfusions while pregnant, and almost died in child birth. In the vast majority of cases, the fetus is either aborted or simply does not make it to one/two months never mind full term. I on the other hand was very lucky. My position is still, however, that abortion should be legal. This argument is primarily based around the impracticalities involving illegal abortion, as I will demonstrate. Opening Argument: It should come as no surprise to anyone, than an illegal abortion is far more dangerous than a legal one; so arguing in favor of a legal procedure (one that is carried out by qualified doctors in a medical environment) actually has less to do with what side of the political, religious, or personal spectrum one is on and more to do with what is practical and safe for the woman involved. History has more or less demonstrated that abortion is basically an inevitability, in fact, the first references to various types abortions can be traced back to 1550 BCE (1.) https://www.thoughtco.com... The Ancient Egyptians did it, the Persians did it, the Romans did it--point being that it happened. The Babylonian Talmud also makes reference to it, stating that when something is a certain shape, it may be aborted. Centuries later types of bans were enforced on the practice, but women still continued to have abortions through whatever means necessary; some able to go to physicians and some not. In terms of more modern times, illegal abortion has lead to what would be millions of unnecessary and likely extremely painful female deaths, throughout the world. It is a particular problem in developing countries--so much so that according to the World Health Organization, every eight minutes a woman in a developing country, will die as a result of an unsafe abortion (2.) http://www.who.int... Countries and states that have very strict abortion laws or outlaw it completely, have a higher mortality rate among women (see above link.) Some of these are not necessarily just attributed to the medical dangers either, but the self-inflicted harm a female can do to herself if she is denied safe access to abortion (3.) http://prospect.org... Going back to to 20th century; After the Roe v Wade court case and the decision to legalize abortions nationwide in the U.S (1973), the number of illegal-abortion related complications decreased according to estimates from the National Hospital Discharge Survey (4.) https://www.guttmacher.org... Once again, countries that haven't made the same improvements like Venezuela, where abortion is illegal, women who do not wish to go through with their pregnancy are confronted with an array of difficulties--from buying dangerous abortion pills on the black market to undergoing procedures such as 'vacuum aspiration', one such woman experienced both as the pills she had purchased has failed to remove the entirety of the fetus (5.) https://www.google.co.uk... In regards to *less* developing countries that still disallow abortions; Ireland would a good example. Despite legalizing gay marriage in 2013, abortion is still illegal. Irish women are left with the options of underground abortions or spending money that they don't necessarily have to travel to countries where it is legal, in 2016, the United Nations formally called upon Ireland to reform its legislation and make it legal (6.) http://www.ohchr.org... and (7.) https://www.amnesty.org... It's also important to note that abortion bans, actually have no real impact on the rate of abortions that are performed (8.) http://news.bbc.co.uk... and (9.) https:/theguardian.com/world/2016/may/11/criminalising-abortion-does-not-cut-number-of-terminations-says-study Which obviously presents a significant issue to Pros position as there would be little point in making something illegal AND increasing the danger to life/mortality rates, if it had no effect on the practice in question anyway. So, my stance in this debate is less based around the ideological factors but the non-theoretical ones. The life of an actual living woman, who can feel pain and the horrific effects of unsafe and illegal procedures--who can die without due need, should come before the potential life of a fetus or unborn child. Fundamentally 'laws' should always exist around what is good for the continuation of life as it is being lived--not as it could be lived, maintaining safe ways for people to exist is what should objectively count.

Abortion should remain legal in the United States I look forward to a very exciting debate on a very heated and touchy subject. Thanks for the challenge. “No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother. ” ― Margaret SangerSafety issues- Abortion should be made as safe as possible, considering it will always be around. “Throughout history, women have had unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. And throughout history, women have found ways to terminate those pregnancies. But what has not always been guaranteed is whether they can do so legally, with the medical care necessary to protect their health–or if they must seek illegal, "back-alley" abortions. In the years just before abortion became legal in 1973, hospital wards were filled with women seeking abortions–who either had been injured or become sick obtaining an illegal abortion under dangerous conditions, or who had tried to induce the abortion themselves. Desperate women used a number of dangerous means to terminate pregnancies. Some sought abortions from back-alley abortionists, with usually humiliating and sometimes deadly results. Other women tried to induce abortions with homemade means–such as a bleach douche, or inserting sharp instruments into her cervix. This is why the now almost forgotten image of the wire coat hanger became the symbol of the abortion rights movement. ”[1] "In Chicago, at Cook Country Hospital, there were about 5,000 women a year coming in with injuries bleeding resulting to illegal abortions, mostly self-induced abortions," Leslie Reagan, the author of When Abortion Was a Crime, said in an interview. "They had an entire ward dedicated to taking care of people in that situation. Those wards pretty much closed up around the country once abortion was legalized. "[1] Human Rights Issue- Women should be in control of their birthing rights. "The right to abortion, both concretely and ideologically, symbolized a control of one’s body," explains Cohen. "If one couldn’t make decisions oneself about whether you wanted to be pregnant–what to do if you got pregnant when you didn’t want to be pregnant–you couldn’t control your life. You couldn’t control what was going to happen to you–where you could get resources to take care of yourself and your children, you couldn’t finish school, you couldn’t get the jobs you wanted…They’re the ones who have the capacity and have always had the responsibility to think about the consequences of pregnancy and childbirth, and make decisions. That’s actually a moral responsibility and duty women have always had, and taken quite seriously. That kind of history comes out a lot more into the public in the ’60s and with the legalization of abortion. " [1] Democracy demands it- The US has an overwhelming majority of those who are support Roe V Wade. In a poll of 1,007 voters, one third of the pro-life voters voiced their opinion that Roe V Wade should not be overturned—showing that one can be pro-life and pro-choice. “Quinnipiac University’s annual voter survey shows that supporters of the landmark Supreme Court ruling now outnumber opponents by a two-to-one margin. Some 64% voiced support for Roe v. Wade in last year’s poll, up from 60% in 2010. Only 31% said they opposed the Roe decision, down from 35% two years earlier. ”[2] Another poll by The Pew confirms the large majority at 63% support for Roe V Wade. [3] [1] . http://www.counterpunch.org... [2] . http://tv.msnbc.com... [3] . http://www.reuters.com...

Abortion should be legal Thank you, Rightreform, for being respectful in this debate. This is my first debate as well, and by no means would I like you to take it easy on me. Oftentimes, it is argued that abortion is murder- a common argument. However, this is not the case. Nearly all abortions occur in the first trimester of pregnancy (about 12 weeks). This takes place when the fetus cannot exist independent of the mother. As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health is dependent on her heath; thus, it cannot be regarded as a separate entity due to the fact that it cannot exist outside of the mother's womb. Also, studies have demonstrated that fetuses do not feel pain when abortions are performed. Neuroscientists have argued that because a cortex is critical in order to feel pain, and is not yet functional when most abortions are performed, the fetus is unable to feel any pain. The cortex only becomes functional around the 26th week of pregnancy (around the third trimester). Abortion can also give women the the option to minimize a child's suffering in the case that the child is born with severe birth disorders or defects that would result in the child living a difficult, painful life. Some of these disorders can be so severe that death is guaranteed after a short, painful life. For some, death imminent to birth is also a possibility. Furthermore, it is foolish to believe that simply making abortion illegal will keep people from getting them. (ie. Drugs are illegal, but people still obtain them, oftentimes with more dangers involved.) Abortions will still occur- however, they will occur illegally, and with significantly higher risk involved. Prior to the recognition of abortion and various advances in the field of medicine, back-alley abortions used to be performed via coat hangers, illegal/unregulated pharmaceutical products, knitting needles or a punch to the stomach. If there is no legal, viable alternative, couples or mothers will inevitably resort to these back-alley operations, which are both highly dangerous, and will likely prove deadly for the mother.

Abortion should be kept legal I believe that abortion should be kept legal. Abortion where it concerns the invidivual woman is a health and life choice. Abortion where it concerns society is a legal and/or political issue. The moral or religious oppinions of a third person - should not have an affect on the law or the health care choices of another individual. Women should not be forced - by government officials - to gestate and birth feoti agianst thier will.

abortion should be legal There is nothing to be lostWhen a child is born, his level of success will be determined by mostly environmental factors. When a child is aborted, we are not losing what could have been. In fact, we are not losing anything, since there is no human being at the time of a legal abortion.Because there is no being, there is no murderA human is not created at the time of conception. Instead, there is only cells dividing. That is it. Cells aren't living. Cells aren't capable of thought. They don't contribute to society.Women's Health Sometimes, a fetus needs to be aborted to protect the health of the mother. Instead of focusing on the health of dividing cells, we should be focusing on the health of a living person. That includes the mental health costs for the mother after an abortion. Women's RightsWhat right does the government have to interfere in the reproductive systems of women? None. Abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor, and the government doesn't have the right to dictate what happens.

Abortion should be legal The "Unborn Victims Act" designates unborn children as human beings with a clear right to life. According to the The National Right to Life Organization, the "Unborn Victims Act" does not include abortion as a legally punishable act as a compromise, so it could become law. However, the law does legally recognize unborn children as legal human being with rights, so this sets a legal precedent for the legal right to life debates. If a fetus can, in fact, have a crime committed against it, and is seen as a legal human being, it gives credence to the argument that mothers shouldn't have the right to kill a child just because it hasn't been given birth to yet. The argument that women do not have to use birth control methods just because they don't like it is absurd and the argument that women may not feel comfortable using these methods, but are comfortable with getting an abortion may be even more absurd. A woman not only has the ability to use birth control methods if she can not support a child, she has a duty to use these birth control methods. There are many birth control methods which I listed which in no way shape or form affect hormones. The best way to stop a problem is prevention, and if prevention methods are used, abortion is unnecessary. Finally, the Hippocratic Oath is still a mandatory oath which doctors must take. The oath specifically prohibits the unnecessary harm of human beings. If a baby is not threatening the safety of a woman, the abortion is not necessary and many other approaches can be taken towards the child. Such as government financial support, other forms of support, and giving the child up for adoption is also an option.

Abortion should be legal in every case, even late-term Also, I would like to precise that when I say "every" case, I imply every voluntary case, of course. A woman should not be forced to have an abortion, and I hope both the reader and my opponent understood that. First of all, I would like to point out that abortion is not always a bad thing. In this 21st century, we are witnessing a considerable population growth that might result threatening our planet in ways we may not imagine. Overpopulation is a problem we need to look at, and it is clear that abortion is a much more humane technique than forced population control and one-child policies. Abortion can also be justified in common cases such as rape. If a woman does not consent to be pregnant, she shouldn't be forced to keep the fruit of a crime. It was not her choice to have a child, and so her having this child shouldn't be forced upon her. When the woman's life is in danger because she is not able to receive enough nutrients with the fetus in her womb or such medical problems, there is a clear argument about the morality of abortion. Abortion can be moral, indeed, in such a case, as it would save the carrier's life rather than letting both the mother and the unborn child die. But the most important case is the philosophical one. I come to the debate floor arguing that a woman, as an individual, is the sole owner of her body and what's inside of it. Just like she should be free to insert anything within her body, she should be free to take away intruders in it. I ask, What right does anybody have to live as a parasite within someone else's womb? Surely, no one has the right to exploit the property of others and decide, for instance, to come to live within your house without your consent. The same applies to unborn children. They have no right to live there if the mother does not want to.

Abortion should be illegal I'll begin by addressing your arguments, none of which are new to the "pro-life" side of the abortion debate.The first individual you quoted in your case was Dr. Jerome Lejeune of the University of Descartes. Dr. Lejeune was Catholic, and his religion had a heavy influence on his opposition to the practice of abortion. As much as I respect freedom of religion, in our society, church is to remain separate from state, and considering this is a legal debate, he is not a valid source.But if you would like to talk about Dr. Lejeune, we certainly can. He also firmly opposed in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and the usage of contraception. This avid dissident of the process of abortion was willing to refuse legislation of a bill that would have prohibited all forms of birth control, leaving no options for those who did not wish to have children (please do not propose abstinence because it is an unreasonable and unrealistic solution). Potentially, Lejeune's resistance to the use of contraceptives was due to his view of ova and sperm cells being sentient due to their capacity for life. An individual such as Lejeune who perceives gametes as being equal to fetuses, and fetuses as being equal to developed and self-sufficient humans, is not a credible or reasonable source for any debate, much less this one. Next, you talked at length about the various definitions of life and the various proposals of the time life begins. You seem to be confused as to the point at which this actually occurs, so for simplicity's sake I'll let you know that I believe life begins at conception. This is an objective, scientific fact. Technically there is life before conception, due to gametes' capacity to carry out the processes of life, however, we'll go by the definition that human life begins at fertilization.Humanity and personhood, however, concern two very different concepts. Humanity is the ability to be human - your genetic makeup that dictates you are a homo sapiens. Every individual with similar genetic makeup is considered human, or a member of our species. Personhood is more vague and has been debated for years. There was a time when women were not considered persons under the law, and various racial groups have seen the same around the world. Conversely, some non-humans have been named persons, such as Sandra the orangutan. Keep in mind, however, that at this point in time, in North America, fetuses are not considered persons under the law and therefore are subject to the rights of animals, for example, but not human rights*.*To clarify, the term "human rights" is rather a misnomer, and in this case I am using it to refer to rights we receive under the law and international documents due to the recognition of our personhood.I will explore the idea of personhood later in my case, but in the example of a mother and her unborn child, the only individual who may benefit from human rights is the mother. This needs to be acknowledged but is something you have skipped over. Secondly, you brought the topic of cancer into your argument by stating that a history of abortion increase's an individual's risk of breast cancer. Unfortunately, this is entirely irrelevant. Your proposal is that abortion should be illegal, not that it shouldn't be forced upon pregnant women. Anyone who consciously and voluntary subjects themselves to the procedure of abortion does so on the premise that it may lead to health complications in the future. It is the responsibility of the individual to become educated, and the job of society to educate, but the international legalization of abortions does not coerce anyone into partaking in a medical practice for which the consequences are personally undesirable. Your final contention regarded the life, health, and wellbeing of the mother carrying a fetus. This contention is underdeveloped, and if we explore it properly we find it holds no real value. There are many cases, such as that of an underage pregnancy, wherein someone is physically unable to carry a child. The scope of this debate is international, so let's look at the case of El Salvador. In 1998, the federal government implemented a law prohibiting abortions without exception. Since the law passed, unprofessional abortions have increased tenfold, a direct contradiction to your assertion that "The prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women." Not only are women in El Salvador seeking illegal means of abortion in acts of desperation, they are clearly unsatisfied with the medical care available to them. My case today centres around three contentions, all of which do relate to the information already presented. These contentions cover bodily autonomy, human rights, and the welfare of both child and mother.I. Bodily autonomyFirst, nearly all arguments made by individuals who identify strongly as "pro-life" revolve around the fetus' alleged rights to life but neglect entirely the rights of people who are pregnant and forced to carry pregnancies to full term. Bodily integrity (autonomy) is defined as the inviolability of an individual's body and the rights to health and security. Casting aside the fact that someone who finds themselves pregnant may be unwilling or unable to provide proper care to their unborn child, it is immoral, unethical, and illegal under most national law to force anyone to house another human within their body for up to nine months. Regions that prohibit abortion generally violate implemented laws considering bodily integrity. The toll that pregnancy and childbirth (natural or caesarean) takes on one's body is unreasonable to impose on anyone who has not consented to the condition of being pregnant. Physical demand during pregnancy, birthing, and recovery increases exponentially with twins and sets of multiple children. According to Dr. Dorothy Shaw, professor in obstretics and gynecology at the University of British Columbia, "There's a clear connection between countries that have a high fertility rate, where women are having six to seven children, and maternal mortality rates." Other complications arising from pregnancy include (not an extensive list by any means):Depletion of nutrients from the mother's body (e.g. Maternal Depletion Syndrome)Postpartum hemorrhageFailure of uterine muscle tissuePremature labour and birth complicationsIn the case of organ donation and transplant, bodily autonomy is integral. When we look at blood donors, no one is legally capable of giving a blood transfusion without previously having consented to it. Additionally, corpses are granted bodily autonomy in the realm of organ donation and transplant - if you don't agree to donate your organs while you are alive, they cannot be taken from you once you die. By prohibiting abortions entirely, you grant women who are pregnant, or have the potential to become pregnant, fewer rights than not only a fetus, but a corpse.II. Personhood vs. humanity (and the false hierarchy of rights)Secondly, when we return to the concept of personhood in contrast to humanity, we see a false hierarchy of rights. During the first trimester of pregnancy, a fetus, while scientifically classified as human, is little more than a cluster of cells carrying out basic life functions. The prioritization of these cells' perceived "rights" over the rights morally and legally granted to their mother is unethical and ought to be viewed societally as being absolutely unacceptable. Just as there are non-human persons, we have to acknowledge the presence of human non-persons, fetuses. While they are granted some rights as humans and sentient beings, their rights are inferior to those of persons under law, and it is a great stretch to consider them as even having equal rights. Their complete dependency on another human is a violation of that human's bodily integrity and by envisioning a fetus' rights as being remotely equivalent or superior to the rights of women who are both persons and humans, we completely demolish the value of a person and our collective concept of human rights. III. Welfare of the child and motherFinally, let's look at the welfare of the unborn child who, if forced to be carried to term, will likely see a poor quality of life throughout their upbringing. Abortion is not an easy decision to make, even when medically necessary, and often causes emotional discomfort to the individual choosing to abort. To proceed with such a process, there is generally solid reasoning behind the mother's decision (and if not, they likely weren't set up to be a great parent anyway). Abortion is not only humane to the mother in allowing her autonomy over her body, but oftentimes is humane to the fetus. Reasons for abortion may include:Rape/incestFailure/neglect of contraceptivesFinancial inability to raise a childPhysical inability to bear a childLack of familial support; full responsibility of raising a childPoor social status and lack of resources to provide to a childPrevention of the birth of a child with birth defectsMental illness/emotional stress caused to the motherAll of the above are valid reasons to abort a pregnancy, many of which are issues unsolvable through the process of adoption. By permitting abortion, we ensure better quality of life for the children who are born.It is here where I take issue with the term "PRO-LIFE." On top of your denial of bodily integrity to the pregnant mother, you now refuse to acknowledge the needs of a real child - it appears that you, along with other opponents of abortion, are significantly more "PRO-heartbeat-and-respiration" than you are "PRO-morality." While your intent is to protect the life of a breathing creature, you do more harm in the process through violating the rights and degrading the quality of life of both the mother and the potential child.

Abortion Abortion is something that should be kept open as in option to the cases in which it is the best option in the opinion of the mother. The abortion of a fetus is the best choice for some mothers who have been the victim of rape, have no resources to care for a child or for births that were unintended. These three reasons are all enough for a mother to decide what to do with her own body. There is no legal or medical reason not to allow a mother to abort. Nor is there a religious one that could govern all women such as those those who have no religious preference. The control over what happens to ones body is something that one but that person has the right to call the shots. To make a law over this would be a law is no constitutional.

Abortion should be legal Why do you believe that abortion should be legal

Why abortion should be legal Abortion is not killing a human because a fetus is not a human. If you count all the humans in the world, you wouldn't count fetuses. If you don't count it as a human than it is not a human. Killing a human and killing a fetus is totally different. The difference is that fetuses don't know anything. They don't know that they are alive. So you can't say that fetuses don't want to get killed because they don't want anything. They can't think. In regards to killing a human, most humans don't want to die. Killing a human would most likely be done in a painful way. Killing a fetus is done in a non painful way. I support the right to have an abortion regardless of the case. I believe it is the right choice for a woman to have an abortion in cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the woman is danger. I do not believe the government should forbid women from having an abortion in any cases. When a woman gets raped the government should pay for her to have an abortion because she shouldn't have to pay for someone doing something terrible. She shouldn't have to lose any money for someone else's action. If she gets raped, it's not her fault so therefore she should not have to pay for the abortion. The government should pay for it. You should feel bad for women who are rape victims. Paying for the their abortion would be a big help form the government. If a pregnant woman does not want to have a child than she could either have an abortion or put the baby up for adoption once it's born. The woman might not want to put her child up for adoption. She should be allowed to choose what she wants to do with the fetus because it is in her body. If a woman gets pregnant by accident than she made a mistake by not using protection or taking birth control pills. She should be allowed to fix her mistake by having an abortion. Everyone makes mistakes. Accidents happen. Why should the woman get a consequence for her mistake by having a child when she doesn't want to. The government should not forbid women from having an abortion. The woman knows what's best for her. When a woman has an Abortion it is not the government's business. The only thing the government should do is make sure the abortion is safe for the woman. Abortion is between the woman, Her partner and the doctor.

Abortion should be legal It should be

Abortion Should be Illegal A woman is more important than a fetus. You state as an argument that a fetus is "a separate human being", but the unborn baby is not scientifically or legally a person or human being and therefore an abortion cannot be considered a murder or treated as such. Furthermore, the fetus does not have self-awareness or the ability to feel pain. Putting their rights above a woman's is arrogant and degrading. In addition, the baby is most certainly a part of the woman's body, which is protected by Bodily Autonomy. This in part makes up the rules dictating that you cannot take organs from a body that has not provided consent prior to death. It is absolutely ludicrous to expressly grant that right to a dead body, yet strip it from an alive and sentient woman. Compulsory laws that dictate what a woman must do with her body do not fit with the image of a free society. We can and must trust women to make their own decisions; if not that, than what can we depend on? Thank you.

Abortion should be legal I've wanted to debate this topic for a while now, and my opponent has shown some interest in it on the forums, so I thought this would be a good debate. Since the resolution is very straightforward I don't think an acceptance round is needed. Con may use their text space however they want to. Opening arguments: 1) Uncertainty about the beginning of life The scientific answer to the question of whether life begins at conception, at birth, or at some other point during a pregnancy is not absolute, but depends on which perspective is used (1). Therefore, legal systems are unable to know whether embryos and fetuses are scientifically human. However, international human rights codes (2) and almost all national constitutions, including that of the United States (3), refrain from defining them as such. Giving embryos and fetuses legal status as human beings would come with many complications, such as the hassle of counting them in censuses and recording them as tax dependents, as well as such absurdities as extensions of birth certificates (which would, of course, now be conception certificates) and social security numbers to the unborn. Given that there's a chance of miscarriage, this wouldn't be at all practical. Although we don't scientifically know whether a fetus is human and legally, fetuses are not considered human in the vast majority of cases, we do know that women are human and most certainly do have corresponding human rights. This includes the right to their own bodies. The human rights of someone acknowledged as a person by science and law should take priority over the rights of a fetus that, due to our lack of consensus on whether it's alive or not, we don't even know we should be giving to them. The government should protect lives, but when something isn't legally considered alive and hasn't been proven definitively by science to be so and this thing is attached to and dependent on someone's body, it isn't protecting life, it's restricting the autonomy of the mother and infringing on her freedom. 2) The parasitism of the embryo/fetus A parasite is a plant or an animal organism that lives in or on another and takes its nourishment from that other organism (4). If a fetus is alive, it fits this definition. It's inside the mother's uterus and completely depends on her blood supply for oxygen and nutrients (5). Pregnancy also has several negative side effects on the mother (6). I'm not implying that pregnancies are like diseases, because if the mother consents to loaning out her organs to another being, dealing with side effects, giving birth and caring for a baby and is able to do this without significant emotional trauma, damage to her personal life or ambitions or financial difficulty, that's great. But if she doesn't want something inside her, living in and off her body, she shouldn't be forced to have it. An analogy can be drawn here with organ donation. In some cases, a definitely living person's life can be saved by an organ donation. But donation isn't compulsory, and if a donor isn't found, the person dies. This is because people need to give consent before parts of their body are loaned out, even if someone could die if they don't. If people shouldn't be forced to let those in need use their organs, why should a mother be forced to let an embryo/fetus use hers? Babies and young children also depend on their mothers, but this is social dependence, so it doesn't affect bodily autonomy. Mothers could breastfeed, thus making their babies dependent on their bodies for nutrition, but they don't have to now that they can buy milk. Placentas and sacs of amniotic fluid, however, aren't sold in supermarkets. Only the mother's body can nourish a fetus - it can only survive as a parasite. Ergo, it shouldn't survive without the mother's consent. 3) Alternatives and safety Mothers instinctively won't want to get abortions, because limiting the number of offspring limits the survival chance of humanity. So this "irresponsible mother who aborts because she feels like it," is an anti-choice myth. In actuality, women sometimes have no choice but to abort. The use of abortion as birth control could be due to the malfunctioning of contraceptives,or the fact that they're not easily accessible or sex education classes haven't taught women to obtain or use them correctly. When there are freely and easily accessible contraceptives, abortion rates are lower (7). It makes much more sense for women to use contraception than to have an abortion, as it's cheaper, easier, less time-consuming and causes less pain and distress than abortion, so they're more likely to do so. But if they're unable to and want to terminate their pregnancy, they should have the right to do so. Adoption is often lauded as an alternative beneficial to both parties: the mother isn't forced to look after a child, and the fetus doesn't die. But women have other motives to abort besides inability to care for a potential child. implies that the only reason a woman would want to get an abortion is to avoid raising a child, and that isn"t the case. Birth can cost between $3,000 and $37,000 in the United States (8) and is the sixth most common cause of death for women aged 20 - 34 (9). As well as the harmful side effects of pregnancy I mentioned earlier, pregnant women, especially teenagers, are also at risk of being socially shunned, abused by parents or partners or becoming depressed because of their pregnancies, and this can have profound negative psychological impact on them. Not to mention the fact that if the pregnancy was a result of rape or the mother's life is at risk, forcing her to carry a fetus endangers her life and health and that of the fetus. If a mother being forced to give birth to a child she can't look after results in the child being orphaned, the child will often be psychologically damaged, and even adoption can cause damage (10). An abortion could actually save a child from having an awful life. As there's often no alternative to abortion, unsurprisingly, women seek them even if they're illegal (11). This causes a black market, which is unsafe for both the mother and the fetus. Romania banned abortion for 15 years from 1966, during which time over 9,000 women died from unsafe abortion and many more were permanently injured (12). When it was legalised there, the maternal mortality rate fell by 50% in the first year alone (13). Abortions can be one of the safest medical procedures, with a death risk 14 times less than that of giving birth (14) but only if carried out professionally and hygienically and not on the black market. To conclude, abortion should be legal for the sake of the certain personhood of the mother, the health, safety and quality of life of both her and the fetus, and because there is often no alternative that doesn't involve stripping the mother of her humanity. Sources: 1. http://freeinquiryforum.com... 2. https://www.un.org... - "All humans are born free and equal in dignity and rights." 3. http://www.law.cornell.edu... 4. http://www.medicinenet.com... 5. http://education-portal.com..., http://www.articlesbase.com... and every other article on fetal development. 6. http://www.bellybelly.com.au... 7. http://jezebel.com... 8. http://www.cnbc.com... 9. http://www.cdc.gov... 10. http://www.mentalhelp.net... 11. Medical World News. 1987. Abortion Clinic's Toughest Cases. pp 55-61. March 9. 12. Kligman, Gail. "Political Demography: The Banning of Abortion in Ceausescu's Romania". In Ginsburg, Faye D.; Rapp, Rayna, eds. Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction 13. http://www.cs.cmu.edu... 14. http://health.usnews.com...

Abortion Should Remain Legal My name is Roger Robbins, I am 15 years old, I am a liberal Democrat living in the U. S. A. . I have a 4.2 GPA, I am a Junior in high school, I am an adolescent volunteer coordinator for a convalescent hospital, and I have a minimum wage job that helps me save for college. I ask that my opponent uses the first round as a personal introduction for them self, and gives a very general/direct statement that summarizes their opinion on abortion. The following debate should be structured using three different questions, where each should be answered in their designated round: Round 2: Should abortion be legal in the U. S. A. ? Round 3: Is abortion morally correct? Round 4: Is abortion necessary? These questions do not have to be the entire basis for your argument, but they should at least be acknowledged to help keep structure within our discussion. As for my opening statement I want to be clear that I am not pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice. Abortion should remain legal in all states because women are entitled to make their own decisions, especially regarding their health. Revoking a woman of her ability to do what she wishes with her body is a violation of her constitutional rights, and in some cases disrespectful. Making a woman give birth to a child she does not want, is making her endure pain for an act that she may or may not have had control over. Forcefully making a woman's life change because you do not agree with her beliefs is not your business nor your responsibility. I do not believe that women should use abortion as birth control, however I more strongly believe that it would be inappropriate for me to force my beliefs upon another person, especially to the extent of changing their life. It is a woman's life, a woman's child, a woman's body, a woman's motherhood, and ultimately a woman's choice.

Abortion should be legal. The fetus is not a person, and I hold the life of the mother higher than that of the fetus. But my argument is not whether or not abortion is morally right or wrong, because I agree that depends on your beliefs. However, I believe it should be legal because of the right of privacy in the constitution. The Supreme court case of Griswold v. Connecticut decided that there is an implied right to privacy in the constitution. The right to privacy is a penumbra. Amendments 1, 3,4, 5, 9, and 14 all imply a right to privacy. The 1st amendment guarantees privacy to have your own beliefs, the 3rd guarantees privacy in your own home, the 4th guarantees the privacy of your own person, the 5th guarantees the right to life and property, the 9th says that rights not given in the constitution are guaranteed to the people. The Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade established that a woman has a right to the privacy of her own body. The Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth guaranteed that this right to privacy extended to minors.

Abortion should be legal. Human life begins at conception ,Its even been proven scientifically. Every human has a right for a chance at life. If abortion continues to be legal than we are striping that right from these children.

Abortion should be legal. Thanks for opening this important debate. I hope to have a respectful discussion. No debate format was specified, so I will issue a brief opening argument and some initial rebuttals. == Argument == P1: If abortion terminates human life, then it should be illegal. P2: Abortion terminates human life. C: Abortion should be illegal. No one would deny that abortion kills a living thing. The key question is whether that living thing is human. Let's examine the facts: At the first second of conception, the zygote has unique and completely human DNA. Humans have 46 chromosomes with DNA specific to the Homo Sapiens species. All 46 chromosomes, as well as the human specific DNA that comes with them, are present the moment fertilization occurs. According to the book Human Embryology & Teratology, "fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed.... The combination of 23 chromosomes present in each pronucleus results in 46 chromosomes in the zygote. [1]". Even if an abortion happens immediately after pregnancy can first be confirmed (4 weeks), the embryo has already begun developing its own unique brain, spinal cord, fingerprints, and heart. By week 6, the arms, legs, eyes, and bones develop. The heart also begins beating [2]. The brain and spine of a fetus do not belong to some separate sub-human species. They are genetically fully Homo Sapien - just at an early stage of development. Logically, in order to call an embryo "non-human," then there must be some point at which it does become human. This distinction is very difficult to make unless you draw it at the moment of birth. But even drawing the line at birth presents philosophical problems. Is a baby really not human until the second it leaves the womb? How about 30 seconds before? 3 hours? 3 days? What about 3 weeks AFTER birth, since the baby is completely dependent on others and its brain is still not developed? I'm interested to hear where my opponent draws the line of human life and why. Finally, American law already recognizes an unborn fetus as a human with individual rights at every point in pregnancy. In 2004, the federal government passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes it illegal to harm (either intentionally or unintentionally) an unborn child. The law defines "unborn child" as follows: "the term 'unborn child' means a child in utero, and the term 'child in utero' or 'child, who is in utero' means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb." [3] Incredibly, this means that if a pregnant woman on her way to the abortion clinic gets hit by a truck, survives, but loses the baby, the truck driver can be charged with manslaughter. This remains true whether the mother is 4 or 40 weeks pregnant. However, if she safely arrives at the clinic then it's perfectly legal to kill the baby. This contradiction borders on the insane. It essentially says a fetus has human rights in every instance except when the mother chooses to take them away. I am not going to address cases of rape or life of the mother. The fraction of total abortions performed for these reasons is so comparatively minute that including them is almost a Red Herring. To have a real discussion about this issue, we need to focus on the bulk of abortion cases. Assuming my opponent agrees that intentionally ending human life is wrong, then it must follow that abortion should be illegal. In order to refute this, Pro must show why an unborn child is not human. == Rebuttal == Pro makes two central arguments: 1. Making abortion illegal will not stop it, so why bother. 2. Since both abortions and childbirth cause death, it's sensible to choose the option that causes fewer deaths (400 vs. 11,767,000). Let's look at the first argument. The obvious question to this point is: does making ANY behavior illegal stop people from doing it? Murder, theft, rape, and fraud are all illegal, yet these activities still occur all the time. Therefore, according to Pro's logic, we should also legalize and regulate murder, theft, rape, and fraud. People's unwillingness to avoid certain behaviors doesn't justify making them legal. Pro's second argument seems reasonable enough - if faced with choosing between 400 deaths and 11,767,000 deaths, surely we would want the lesser of two evils, right? The only problem is that Pro leaves out one crucial statistic: the number of children abortion kills each year. Since 1979, the number of annual legal abortions in the U.S. alone has been around 1 million [4]. That means, somewhere in the ball park of 36,000,000 children have been killed since Roe v. Wade (and that's a very low estimate). So it seems it's not a choice between two evils, but three. I'm not even sure why Pro includes childbirth mortality rates, because it's an unrelated issue - are they suggesting that everyone should get abortions because it's too risky to have children? That certainly wouldn't bode well for the continuation of the human species. Finally, as a side note - if the next person who asked me for a kidney truly would die unless I donated mine, then I would happily do so. That's all I have for now. Sincerely looking forward to the next round. [1] O'Rahilly, Ronan and Muller, Fabiola. Human Embryology & Teratology. 2nd edition. (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996), 8-29 [2] http://www.nlm.nih.gov.................. [3] http://www.gpo.gov... [4] http://www.cdc.gov...

Abortion Should Be ILLEGAL Abortion should be legal.. Because the baby is a) growing inside the mother b) will be born from the mother and c) is the responsibility of the mother, she should have the legal choice to terminate if she thinks the child will not have a healthy life in the womb and after birth because until the baby is born, she is the sole provider and protector of that child because it is a part of her. The earth cannot sustain the already expanding population and making abortion illegal would have severe consequences further on down the line. This does not mean I support abortion as the only contraceptive, if people are stupid enough to not use protection (excluding rape, incest, etc.) that is their fault, but it is also their responsibility to decide what to do with the child now because they are responsible for that life. It is murder, but murder of a developing mass of cells, if terminated early enough, that may or may not have a healthy full-filling life that is the sole choice of the parent because they are the only one who can advocate for THEIR child. If vasectomies are legal, why shouldn't abortion be? It is a reproductive health service that should be made legal everywhere, even despite religious/cultural conflicts. Making it illegal is violating basic human rights to reproduction, not to mention the slew of problems that would drag the world to its knees because of overpopulation because some people think 'abortion is murder'.

Abortion Should Be ILLEGAL Abortion should not be illegal. It is a service that pertains to the health of a person. Yes, a fetus is a living being, but the fetus is also inside of a person, therefore making the mother the responsibility of that being. There are many factors that lay in the decision to abort. Rape and incest being popularly discussed while there are many outlaying problems such as lack of proper health care, insufficient financial stability, maybe the mother simply does not want the baby. People develop tumors inside them, do they stop and ask what the tumor wants before deciding to remove it? No because it is a tumor and it does not know what it wants. If a mother wants to abort her child, she should have the right to do so in a safe, clean, and professional environment.

Abortion should be legal Abortions should be completely up to the person that is pregnant. It is their body and they should be able to decide whether or not they would like to keep the baby. While putting a child up for adoption may be free, someone that is looking to adopt has to spend a lot of money just to be considered. Along with that, a lot of children are left unadopted. There are approximately half a million children (possibly adults, as well), currently in foster care. The mother would be expected to endure lots of pain during the nine months while being pregnant. Someone could never be fully aware of the financial situations of the expecting parents. Bills aren't cheap and caring for a child on top of that could put some in financial debt or make it nearly impossible to care for a child, either leaving them neglected, or there being no food, no power, etc. Contraceptives are not always effective either. Condoms, while they are roughly 85%-98% effective that doesn't cover for all the time. The right to decide on abortion is similar to telling a person whether or not they can get a tattoo. At the end of the day, it is their body and their choice and what they want to do with it should be up to them and no one else in society or otherwise should be able to have an opinion on that or change that.

Abortion should be OK Abortion should be legal because:1. Some woman have certain circumstances where abortion is needed, for example rape, incest, abuse etc.2. It is not the job of the goverment to decide whether or not a woman can have an abortion. 3. If a woman even wants an abortion, the baby is unwanted. It is better to terminate a small blood cell, then to let it grow up unwanted or in a bad environment.

Abortion should be illegal Legal abortion is needed to protect women's health, is justifiable in certain circumstances, and it is a woman's right to choose to abort a fetus. A fetus cannot feel pain until the 26th week Legalizing abortion protects women's health I don't disagree that abortion, in most cases, is morally wrong. However when abortion is illegal it is dangerous to the health of the woman due to back-alley abortions. Whether abortion is legal or not women will abort the fetus if they choose to. This is the most important reason abortion needs to remain legal because making it illegal changes nothing except more desperate women will die from their abortions. The fetus will be terminated either way but illegal abortions are unsanitary and incredibly dangerous in most cases while legal abortions are generally safe. Rape, incest, or danger to the mother In certain cases abortion is the only option if delivering the child is dangerous to the mother. Other times, rape may be the reason the mother is unwilling to deliver the fetus. Nobody should be able to force a woman to carry the unwanted fetus and go through painful, sometimes dangerous, delivery. There are many reasons women need an abortion and it should only be used as a last resort, but sometimes it must be done. Women's rights Abortion is, in the majority of cases, morally wrong in my opinion seeing as birth control is so readily available and putting a child up for adoption is an option. I want to make it very clear I am totally against late term abortion! But the woman should be able to choose in the early stages of pregnancy if the woman sees no other option. Consciousness in the fetus Abortion should only be legal within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, or the first trimester. 88% of abortions take place within this time frame. (I would prefer not to debate over the other 12% as I agree that it should be illegal) The first stages of consciousness begin to develop around 12-16 weeks with the development of thalamic afferents to the cortex but at this stage almost nothing from the thalamus can reach the cortex. The brain cannot sense pain until about 29 weeks but it can receive visual and auditory information at about 24 weeks. Suffering to the fetus cannot be a factor in early abortions because the fetus cannot feel pain. http://www.prochoiceamerica.org... http://www.nature.com... http://abortion.procon.org...

Abortion should be legal In regards to unsafe abortions, if abortion is illegal than more unsafe abortions will occur regardless of if it's optional or not. Regardless of whose fault it is that women have unsafe abortions, more women will still die. Abortion is not a serious moral crime because it's killing a fetus not a human. If you count all the humans in the world you wouldn't count fetuses. If you don't count fetuses as humans than how are they humans? In regards to the right to not have a child, Why should the government force women to have a child? Why can't women decide if they will have a child or not? Having a child may not be the best thing to do for a woman. Women know what's best for themselves. Just because the woman is pregnant doesn't mean she should be forced to have a child. In regards to the time work and money it takes to take care of a child, If a woman doesn't have an abortion than she could either take care of the child or put it up for adoption. Most woman don't want to put their child up for adoption. Adoption doesn't happen often. If the woman doesn't have an abortion and doesn't put the child up for adoption than she will have to take care of the child for a long period of time. Taking care of a child will effect the woman's life. There are some people who don't want to have children. There's a reason why they don't want to have children. Not everyone could afford to take care of a child. Banning abortion would be controlling women's bodies, that's wrong. Abortion should be legal so that women will have the right to choose what they will do with their own body and if they will have children or not. Thank you for debating with me. You have one last chance to make arguments. Good Luck.

Abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus, and that is to prevent the birth of a child with birth defects or severe medical problems, to protect the woman"s health if threatening physical or mental conditions are present, to end an unwanted birth resulting from rape or birth control failure. Abortion has been a controversial subject in many societies through history because of the moral, ethical, practical, and political power issues that surround it. It has been banned frequently and otherwise limited by law while it has been legalized in most parts of the world. Abortion should be legalized if the subject in hand has an honest and logical reason, which means that the woman should not take advantage of this procedure to frequently kill the embryo resulting from planned sexual intercourse. If the fetus is found to have the Down syndrome for example, the baby is anticipated to live in constant agony he and his family where his health will be an obstacle that will affect the normal life of surroundings that is in the terms of economical, moral and social burdens. Divine religions tell us not to kill but it is not the fact of killing that matters in this case; it is the thought of wanting to help an ensemble of cells to not live a life of misery and psychological problems majorly. If the childbirth threatens the woman"s health, it is necessary to protect her by preventing any kind of danger or difficult hard changes. Therefore, abortion should be legal in specific cases that are to be studied completely by professionals before coming to the conclusion of taking action. http://www.merriam-webster.com... http://worldabortionlaws.com... http://women.webmd.com...

Abortion Should Be Legal Resolved: Abortion should be legal. Introduction: I am going to clear up a few details immediately. One argument that has been used against abortion to the point of becoming ubiquitous in such debates is that there is little significant difference between the mental or physiological status of a fetus days prior to birth and an infant days after birth. This is used against the traditional liberal argument that the significant moral break in the development of the fetus occurs with its biological separation with the mother. For the most part I do not accept the liberal argument, but that in and of itself does not help to refute the resolution that abortion should be legal. If it is illegal to abort a pregnancy after a certain point, it was still at some point legal. To make an analogy, the fact that it is illegal to drive while intoxicated does not support the resolution that driving is illegal. Legality can be subject to circumstance. Argument 1: Depending on the debate, I will typically uphold that it is morally wrong to kill a person. However, I am quite careful about using the term person instead of the term human. The status of being of one species or another does not logically have any moral value. So I will present my own argument for what ought to be considered a person and leave my opponent to address it: I define a person as an individual, morally conscious being capable of forming a complex thought and possessing the capacity (but not necessarily the ability) to communicate such thoughts via a language. This definition will include all humans that are not serious impaired mentally but will not include any inanimate objects or nonhuman animals. Moral consciousness, thought, and language are all more valuable and relevant characteristics for determining personhood than the genetic characteristic of being human. Under this definition, a fetus that is not sufficiently developed would not be considered a human because it would lack the cognitive abilities. On the other hand, an infant is moral conscious and capable of complex thought on some limited level and possesses the capacity to learn a language with which it can express such thoughts. Therefore it is perfectly legal to kill an underdeveloped fetus but not an infant. The exact point at which the fetus would be considered a person may be subject to debate, but that is irrelevant as long as at some point after pregnancy begins the fetus is not a person. Argument 2: There are pragmatic reasons why it would sometimes be logical to abort a fetus. If the fetus is diagnosed as having a fatal condition that would make the pregnancy pointless, there is no reason to force additional physical and mental stress on the mother. If the pregnancy presented a serious risk to the survival of the mother, than likewise it would be reasonable to abort. The value of the life of the child is of no greater value than the mother's, and the status of being pregnant does not innately impose any obligation to endure extreme suffering and physical risk on the behalf of another individual. In these cases, even if the fetus were considered a person it would still be rational to abort the pregnancy. Conclusion: At this point I have not presented many arguments because I believe that considering my opponent's (comparatively) liberal views this will be a nonstandard abortion debate and I am not going to try to anticipate where it will head. Also, because I am not certain on what my opponent's position will, I will not object if he wants to concede my second argument and remove it from the debate. I have other arguments that may better address his views and I expect there will be enough controversy over my first argument for the next round anyway. Sources: I drew extensively from The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, particularly the articles on Abortion and The Political Philosophy of John Locke.

Abortion should be allowed. Let me first put up what is abortion- Abortion is the ending of pregnancy by the removal or forcing out from the womb of a fetus or embryo before it is able to survive on its own. #ARGUMENTS Argument 1- Saves the life of the woman if her life is in danger - There are many cases where due to medical complexities, the fetus becomes reason of danger for the woman. In such cases, it should be made legal for the woman to abort the fetus no matter how weeks old the fetus be. The life of the child saved will likely be destroyed without a mother,but the mother? She can give birth to another child and carry on a good life. http://en.wikipedia.org... This is what denying abortion can do. Nothing but ignorance and apathy Argument 2- Ability to abort a basic civil and women right-(i) The fetus undergoing cell differentiation and cell maturation obtains all its raw materials from the to be mother (except for the sperm cell) Therefore it is logical to accept to take decisions on the fetus solely by the mother. If she is the only one nurturing it,then on she must have the rights to terminate it,nobody else. (ii) During any kind of rape- In such cases it is obvious that the woman would want to terminate the pregnancy. Such cases very much demand the need for abortion,without which both the life of the child and the mother will be spoiled. (iii) In cases of teen pregnancy. The reason behind it is simple- (a) The teen mother is neither physically nor mentally matured enough to nurture a fetus or a child in the future for that matter. (b) Since the teen mother herself is a child,her priorities are much different than a matured woman. Her age is to gain education and learn about the world and not nurture babies. Also since they a children themselves,they dont posses enough knowledge on parenting,thus spoiling the life of the mother and the child. I will put forward more arguments in the next round.

abortion should be legal and not be shamed it is quite heart breaking that so many women die during legal abortions, but if abortions were illegal, it would not stop them, and women seeking an abortion would find one by unsafe and illegal means, so it is best to provide a safe and legal means of abortion. wikipedia states that unsafe and illegal abortions symptoms include, but are not limited too: abdominal pain, vaginal infection, abnormal vaginal bleeding and shock. women have abortions to choose when to have children based on their age, financial stability and relationship stability. It is not the government's position to legislate against women's choices. The fetus is like a dead brain without self-awareness or consciousness, so it's actually dead. Abortion prevents unnecessary unplanned pregnancies and prevents children from neglecting because their mothers did not want to have that child at that time. Many women who choose abortion don't have the financial resources to support to raise him or her.

Abortion should be legal. Abortion should be illegal for the following reasons: 1)Abortion can be harmful to the woman if it's not conducted properly especially if performed in a third-world country. 2)Controversially, crime rates could actually go up. Prostitution is at an all time high, because a woman could easily get an abortion whenever she wanted to. 3)The fetus IS A PERSON with a future just like you and me! It is morally wrong to murder a baby in horrific ways and deprive them of that future! Plus the woman sometimes regrets getting an abortion afterwards. So pro-choice isn't always good. 4)You may have a choice to abort the baby but he/she does not. Think about it. You are in prison. You are completely innocent. Everyone knows you are completely innocent yet you are still in prison. Without a court case, you are taken to the executioner and killed on the spot. This is in essence what you are doing to the baby! 5) You say the fetus it not human, yet it has human DNA and is therefore human in nature! Just because a mother has this choice a baby is separate from her as a person. I'm sure if you asked the baby they would want a future! Another argument I say is the sexist argument of "Men shouldn't decide what is right for us women. We should!" Men aren't solely deciding the GOVERNMENT is. Last time I checked the government consisted of both men AND women. And yes there are woman who do not agree with abortion! With that being said let's start the debate! Some conditions I expect are: You must agree with abortion. (Duh!) You must stay on topic! We must treat each other with respect even though we have different viewpoints! Let's start the debate!

Abortion Abortion should remain legal in the U.S.

Abortion Should Remain Legal Round 2: Should abortion be legal in the U.S.A.? U.S. Constitution Yes, I believe that abortion should be legal in all states and all American women are entitled to choices regarding their own welfare. It is insensitive to dictate what women can and cannot do in a country that promises freedom. Most advocates for our constitution would say that abortion is a violation of our natural rights because “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (U.S. Declaration of Independence) Although life is promised to each citizen of the United States of America, does a woman’s underdeveloped fetus count? No, they are not legally citizens until birth. With that take into account, we also notice that the constitution was written to defend freedom and protect all of its citizens. "… establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare …" (Preamble- U.S. Constitution) I have no right to claim that any life is less valuable than another, but for the sake of our constitution- the basis on which our country was developed- we must protect women's rights over their own bodies. Protection of women’s choice should be reserved regardless of the circumstances. Even some of our greatest leaders agree.... "You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion." -Hilary Clinton "No politician should make decisions about women’s health" -Barack Obama Modern Law The moral confliction about abortion is that it is considered murder. I disagree. First, allow me give you dictionary.com's definition of murder: "Law. The killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder) and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder)" dictionary.com In the United States of America it is legal in all 50 states to get an abortion, therefore making it a surgery, not murder. Because abortion is not outlawed in any state, it would be foolish to call abortion "murder." Supreme Courts & Science When the supreme courts faced the legalization of abortion they declared that there is not enough scientific evidence to prove that the fetus is alive, therefore it would be irrational to revoke women’s constitutional rights for ignorance. Scientific studies suggest that life (as we know it) is not developed until the third trimester. Regardless to these laws, rights, and scientific studies, women have rights lawfully and constitutionally, but there has not been enough science to strip them of their rights. The ultimate question is: Who are you to control someone else’s life? (Especially when there are no certain as to when life starts)

Abortion Abortion should be legalized in all countries

Abortion should be legal in all states. Abortion should remain legal; in all states. Making abortions illegal would be a violation of our constitution. The fourteenth amendment, a part of our constitution, clearly states, "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property." Women's bodies are just that, women's. They should not be deprived of doing as they see fit with their body. It goes against what our country was founded on- freedom. Freedom to choose. Freedom to choose our president, senators, religion, and opinions. And what we want to do with our bodies. Abortion is a choice, a personal choice, that women should be able to make for themselves. Our country also faces population issues. If abortion became illegal, they would only grow worse. This is a serious issue. I'm not pro-death, I am pro-choice.

Abortion should be illegal. I am pro on abortion for a few different reasons1. Historical contextAbortion is nearly as old as civilization is. Abortion has been practiced for thousands of years, although earlier abortion was primarily practiced via extensive physical labor. Assuming we are talking about legality in The United States, the historical context here is a bit different considering how young the country is. In America, abortion was legal in the country's infancy but was illegalized, one of the reasons was due to a lack of desire to have the population dominated by the children of immigrants, the strongest force behind the drive to criminalize abortion was the attempt by doctors to establish for themselves exclusive rights to practice medicine. They wanted to prevent “untrained” practitioners, including midwives, apothecaries, and homeopaths, from competing with them for patients and for patient fees. The best way to accomplish their goal was to eliminate one of the principle procedures that kept these competitors in business. Rather than openly admitting to such motivations, the newly formed American Medical Association (AMA) argued that abortion was both immoral and dangerous. By 1910 all but one state had criminalized abortion except where necessary, in a doctor’s judgment, to save the woman’s life. In this way, legal abortion was successfully transformed into a “physicians-only” practice. As you and I are aware the ruling on abortion being illegal was overturned in 1973 with Roe V. Wade and is now constitutionally justified in the united states, so long as it's performed by a trained medical practitioner.2. Consequences of illegal abortionThe consequences for making abortion legal are only bad to America's citizens and result in more death than legal abortion. Before roe v wade it's estimated that 1.2 million women would seek out abortions per year, and be forced to get illegal, or "back-alley" abortions, which resulted in many thousands of deaths of women and their fetuses.3. Human rightsYou would call it a human right to force the woman to have an unwanted child, I would call that oppression. By taking away a woman's right to choose whether or not she must have a child regardless of the circumstance, you effectively oppress the woman by giving her fewer rights than the fetus that is using her organs to sustain itself. There are laws put in place that say that no one can use your organs or blood, regardless if you are dead or living, and regardless of how many people it would benefit or even save. Giving a fetus unlimited rights to use a woman's organs without her consent effectively gives a dead person more rights than a pregnant mother, and that isn't (in my opinion) how we should treat it.4. Faults with contraceptionA common argument presented within the pro-life community is "Why don't you just use a form of contraception?" and the answer is quite simple. Contraception fails and fails a lot more than most people would think. s://www.guttmacher.org...; alt="Image result for rates of contraceptive failure" />I think this graph portrays the common methods of birth control and their rates of failure very well.In conclusionI believe that legal abortion, while somewhat immoral, actually provides us the benefit of having a safe and effective way of terminating a pregnancy that doesn't result in countless deaths and medical complications.

Abortion should be illegal. No it shouldn't. For one, it is democratically supported. For another, it is the individual who has signed the social contract who benefits from society, and no-one else, unless predefined. That is, the child gains no inherent rights in the society - only through personal morality. Abortion is a good form of birth control, and finally we can use the aborted fetuses to help our country in other ways, from stem cell research to save lives to new flavoured ice cream.

Should abortion be legal Abortions should be legal as Personhood begins after a fetus becomes viable or after birth, not at conception. According to the U.S. Supreme Court a person is to get their age when they are out of the mother's womb and breathing oxygen starting at the 0 mark eventually working their way up to be 1 years old.

Abortion One of the most pressing issues of the 21st century- abortion. And it really is one. It questions our moral and ethical values. Even though many people people believe abortion should never be an answer, abortion should be legalised. This is because abortion because the woman"s choice is to be valued. Firstly, there are many questions to answer and doubts to clear. To what age is it even right? Technically the zygote, which turns into an embryo isn"t really human yet. They don"t have feelings, they don"t technically have rights yet. Yes it is sad, but a fetus wouldn"t even have organs at that time. We can"t look at this emotionally, we have to look at this rationally. There however, should be a line drawn, a certain age where you shouldn"t get an abortion, like 28 weeks, that is when the fetus has blood going into it and life birthed. If the mother wants an abortion afterwards, that"s her loss. Also, it"s a woman"s choice. It"s a woman"s choice whether she wants a child. It"s a woman"s choice if she wants to endure 9 months of hell. It"s a woman"s choice if she wants to go through the pain of labour. What if the woman had potential to something great, but has to give it up for a child? She might even grow to hate on the child. If the mother got pregnant in school and had to drop out, would it really be worth it? The girl would be too young, too unknowledgeable to be a mother. She wouldn"t have even learnt about biology let alone being a mother. So it"s a woman"s choice. What if the child can"t be supported? The child could be born into a family without privileges, support, or a real certain future. It may be a single mother, it may be money scarcity, it may be anything. The child may have a bad future awaiting, and may even be put up into adoption anyway. If a mother can"t even look after herself, how can she be expected to take care of another human being? Also, mothers with addictions like drugs, alcohol and smoking would be imposing problems on the fetus, possibly defects, which is unfair on the fetus. Why should the fetus live with disabilities? Rape is also a huge issue. The mother, may have been raped and imposed with a child. A child could bring major psychological harm to the mother. A 10 year old girl in India, is wanting an abortion for her 21 week old. She was raped by her stepfather. Due to this, if the doctors don"t approve of her abortion, this means she may be psychologically damaged of carrying her stepfather"s child, the one that brutally raped her. Why should this even be allowed? Imagine yourself as a ten year old, carrying a child, while you"re still a child and still have lots to learn. Imagine a twelve year old girl as a victim of incest to have a daughter that is their brothers creation. The psychological harm would be unbelievable.This is why abortion should be allowed, with exceptions like date and reason. To a certain stage, abortion is not good. 28 weeks? Too old. But we do have to legalize it. We just need a few restrictions on it. How reasonable is having a world without abortion?

Choose Any Topic! I would like to contest with my opponent's definition of abortion before I get onto my case. It is more accurate to change 28 weeks to 24 weeks since my case will primarily revolve around the abortion in countries such as the UK where abortion is only considered legal up to 24 weeks into the pregnancy. I’m sure that this will not affect my opponent’s case in any way and that they will agree to my definition. The burden of proof is split. I must argue for the legalization of abortion. My opponent must argue for abortion to be illegal. Libertarian Framework My framework for this debate will be based around libertarianism and the fact that the government has no right to interfere with our choices. My opponent must provide an alternative framework and a reason as to why there framework is preferable in order to gain a huge advantage in this debate. Without a response or sufficient acknowledgement of my framework libertarianism will stand and therefore voters ought to look at this debate from the libertarian perspective brought up in this debate by me. This is a case that is very controversial amongst libertarians however with the support of my contentions I will attempt to eliminate the other side of the debate (at least from a libertarian onset). Would you find it acceptable if you went to get some food and the government stopped you from doing so? The reasonable and rational answer is no. So why would you allow the government to step in and stop you from doing what is best for you and your baby. The baby is yours and the government have no right to make decisions on your behalf - especially when there is no personal look upon the situation. If abortion is to remain illegal (as my opponent proposes), then the government won’t come in and look to see if there is no hope of anything good coming out of the pregnancy and allowing an abortion. The government will simply not allow the act to occur no matter what the circumstances because abortion is illegal. Simple enough. No that this has been explained I will reiterate the food analogy. You have some food, the government then come in and stop you from having this food. This is unacceptable, as any rational person would argue. Now put the fetus into this perspective. You have a baby. The government try to stop you from aborting this baby. Is this acceptable - no. You have the choice and the right to do what you feel is beneficial for the baby and due to this you ought to prefer the legalization of abortion over the illegalization of abortion. Contention 1: Is the fetus alive? The requirements of being alive require many things. The acronym that is usually taught is MRS GREN (1). I will address each individual one separately. Remember that each of these requirements must be met in order for the fetus to be classified as living (1). Movement - The fetus can move so this part is met. Respiration - The fetus cannot respire on its own (2). Sensitivity - The fetus cannot sense at 24 weeks or even 28 weeks (3). Growth - The fetus does grow. Reproduction - Whilst it is a fetus, no it cannot reproduce (4). Excretion - This is possible however very rare and unlikely (5). Nutrition - The fetus cannot independently take in nutrition. If one of these wasn’t met then the fetus would not be considered alive. The fetus was only able to meet 2 of these. Making it considered not alive (1). Contention 2: Illegal Abortions When an abortion is legal there is absolutely no point in having an illegal abortion because they have been proven to be very dangerous and expensive. If abortion are legal then illegal abortions will negatively correlate (6). These illegal abortions have been known to kill both the mother and the baby and sometimes result in extreme suffering on the mother’s behalf (6). Mothers are not doctors so these illegal abortions also occur later than 24 (and even 28) weeks meaning that the babies suffer too (6)! Did you know that: “13% of pregnancy-related deaths worldwide are related to complications of unsafe abortion. ”(7) This statistic is shocking but demonstrates my point very well. These unsafe abortions are illegal abortions and this is what is currently happening because abortions are illegal in places. Contention 3: Underaged teenagers “19% of teens who have had sexual intercourse become pregnant each year. 78% of these pregnancies are unplanned. 6 in 10 teen pregnancies occur among 18-19 year olds. ” (7) This statistic is extremely significant for many reasons. Firstly, if this occurs amongst 18 - 19 year olds then this is extremely bad. Having to look after and care for a child ruins their chances of going to college / university. Your twenties are your most important period of your lives according to many sources (8,9,10). Having to look after a child in this period of time is extremely stressful and prevents you from getting proper qualifications and more importantly, it prevents you from getting a full time job and a house. Children are extremely expensive to have and having a child at the time when you should be looking for a job makes income problematic. On top of this you will have to pay huge amounts of money. “To raise a child born in 2013 to the age of 18, it will cost a middle-income couple just over $245,000, according to newly released estimates from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. That's up $4,260, or almost 2%, from the year before. ”(11) Now let's compare this to the average income of a family: “The typical U. S. households pulls in $51,371 per year. ” Now teenage parents are most likely to make a lot less than this but let's take this statistic anyway. Assuming that this ‘average’ family spend no money at all on anything. It will still cost them almost 5 times their yearly income to equate to that amount. Of course they will need food, clothes, mortgage, heating, electricity etc. on top of this sum of money. Now if this seems like a lot you should double the cost of a child figures (assuming that they have another child), what will you do then? Not allow an abortion? Allow these teengagers to pay almost $500,000, earning (most likely) less than $51,371 per year. Contention 4: Gender Equality Pregnancies have a huge impact upon people’s lives - in particular the mother. As Sarah Weddington stated: “A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life. ” (13) She continued: “[And we feel that], because of the impact on the woman, this … is a matter which is of such fundamental and basic concern to the woman involved that she should be allowed to make the choice as to whether to continue or to terminate her pregnancy. ” (13) This was a very important case showing that without the right to a termination, you are denying women a right and therefore what my opponent is advocating is gender inequality. The great philosopher, Judith Thomson said: “If abortion rights are denied, then a constraint is imposed on women's freedom to act in a way that is of great importance to them, both for its own sake and for the sake of their achievement of equality . .. . and if the constraint is imposed on the ground that the foetus has a right to life from the moment of conception, then it is imposed on a ground that neither reason nor the rest of morality requires women to accept, or even to give any weight at all. ” (13) This emphasizes my previous point in regards to the denial of gender rights and equality and therefore we come to the following conclusion: P1: Denying women an abortion is gender inequality P2: Gender inequality is a violation of human rights C1: Abortion legalization stops gender inequality (in terms of this right) C2: Abortions should be legalized Sources[1] . http://www.bbc.co.uk...[2]http://www.babycenter.com...[3]http://able2know.org...[4]http://www.sexualityandu.ca...[5]http://www.ask.com...[6]http://en.wikipedia.org...[7]http://web.mit.edu...[8]http://bigthink.com...[9]http://www.forbes.com...[10]http://elitedaily.com...[11]http://money.cnn.com...[12]http://www.mybudget360.com...[13]http://www.bbc.co.uk...

Abortion should remain legal in the United States. Thousands of American women died and thousands more were maimed before abortion was legal. For this reason and others, women and men fought for and achieved women's legal right to make their own decisions about abortion. However, there are people in our society who still won't accept this. Some argue that even victims of rape or incest should be forced to have the child. And now, having failed to convince the public, certain of these people have become violent, engaging in a campaign of intimidation and terror aimed at women seeking abortions and health professionals who work at family-planning clinics. Some say these acts will stop abortions, but that is ridiculous. But, the same urgent reasons will exist for safe, legal abortions as have always existed.

Should abortion be legal Abortion is the act of inducing miscarriage which is safe for the women having the abortion in a doctors office but if abortion was illegalized than that safety is all thrown out of the window. A women could induce the abortion of the pregnancy in many ways such as coat hangers, bleach, alcohol, and pills; all of which are very dangerous to the women's health and life. Coat hangers as unpleasant as it sounds it is a method, and most likely the most dangerous if the women missed the fetus and hit an internal organ that would mean the loss of the fetus and internal bleeding and injury or death of the woman. Bleach, alcohol, and pills: may induce a miscarriage or leave the fetus with life long physical and mental disabilities. Crime; if these fetuses make it to humanhood they will either stay with a mother who will be in poverty or will be adopted to either a middle class family or will not be adopted and have a much greater chance of going into a life of crime. In 1973 abortion was made legal and when unborn pregnancies would have been 18 old enough to have a crime committed crime rates started to drop. Crime rates rose from 1960 until 1991 and the 1992 crime rates took a sudden down turn that has still continued http://www.disastercenter.com.... Rebuttals 1. Abortion is the killing of an innocent human life "Life is the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaption to environment through changes that originate internally." The definition provide is from dictionary.com as was the cons side. The last statement states that life has to be able to grow with its own metabolism and be able to adapt to the environment through changes that ordinate internally. If one was to preform an emergency c section before 24 weeks of pregnancy even the doctors will not help because there is to great a chance the fetus will not live because it does not have one major property of life the ability to adapt. 2. "The case assumes that abortion is killing" Assuming and stating are two different things abortion is not defined as killin abortion is defined as "the removal of the embryo or fetus to end a pregnancy" dictionary.com. Conclusion Abortion has kept the crime rates lower and has saved women's lives from the dangers of home abortion.

Abortion Abortion should be legalized because everybody mistakes and the baby might have defects that family can not support and the baby might be in pain for life with that defect. Sometimes young women make mistakes and accidentally get pregnant, if they are unprepared financially and emotionally they should have the option of having an abortion. When the person finds out the baby has a defect and the family can't support the costs to support the child or the child will live in pain for his/her life because of the defect, it is ok to put it out of its misery.

Abortion Is A Choice Not A Right Abortion is a personal choice and should not be limited by any person or any government. It is the personal choice of the mother; it's not a decision for anyone else to decide. Sometimes abortions are medically needed. There are many women who are not able to give birth to a child in a healthy or safe way and those certain kinds of situations may call for aborting the pregnancy. Laws against abortion also violate a woman's right to choice and right to privacy. Only the woman who is pregnant knows whether or not she is able enough to have and properly care for the child. Illegal abortion forces women who want to abide by the law to have a child even if they are not capable of doing so. No government can have a role in influencing a woman's decision in any way.

Abortion should be illegal. Abortion, though quite an unpleasant idea, is a necessary one. We all have things we don't like to do but must and abortion happens to fall in with these things. Abortion signifies the only right that an unwilling mother has to her own life. Teenagers, rape victims etc... do not want to hang on to the memory of something stupid and horrible. Through abortion, unwilling mothers can have another shot at their own life. Something that they are in charge of and asked for. They should not be held responsible for something that was outside their control; something that could possibly damage the rest of their life.

Abortion should be made legal. I will start off by saying that abortion should be made legal. While I dislike it from a moral standpoint, my morals also convince me that abortion should be made legal. I reserve the right to add further benefits of making abortion legal (if you disagree, don't accept), however, I will deal with what I think is perhaps the single most important argument for now. There may be more after the response. A. Banning abortion in all cases is bad. 1. Banning abortion in all cases is ridiculous, there are several cases in which not allowing an abortion would be unethical and unhealthy. 2. Women whose health is put at risk by child birth should be allowed an abortion. 3. Women who have been raped should be allowed an abortion, it would be immoral to force her to keep a symbol of her rape for her whole life. B. Exceptions should be made at least in the cases above. C. If you are to accept this, pragmatism forces us to make abortion legal. 1. Any women can claim that childbirth will hurt her. This can all be easily forged with some doctor's writing, ultimately, that means that anyone can claim for an abortion. 2. Rape must be proven in court. It takes more than 9 months for someone to be proven guilty without a doubt, and thus, we are forced to grant an abortion before a conviction. Also, a women could claim to have been raped and not have proof, so ultimately, she must also be granted an abortion. Anyone could claim rape, and this means that we would be having people lie for the sake of having an abortion. Ultimately, this is another reason to legalize abortion. D. Abortions will happen anyway 1. Abortions will not be stopped, only driven underground. 2. It's better for the country for abortions to be done legally and safely than in an ally with a cloth-hanger. E. Vote AFF, it would be a wicked thing to deny abortion in all cases, and these exceptions force us to allow abortion in all cases.

Abortion should be legal It is preferable to err on the side of liberty when an action is not obviously immoral. Abortion is a highly debated topic and is thus not obviously immoral. Abortion should thus be legal.

The USFG should ban abortion == Rebuttal == 1. I accept that the fetus is a human. 2. Human Rights Pro points out that the right to a person's life is protected under the Constitution. The Constitution has been amended 17 times since its inception and interpreted innumerable times by the Supreme Court, meaning the law as-written is not necessarily the way the law has/ought to remain. SCOTUS decided in Roe v. Wade that a right to privacy under the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that this right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting women's health and protecting the potentiality of human life [1]. The government does not disregard the fetuses' rights all-together, but rather establishes criteria for when their right to life trumps the mother's right to privacy and bodily autonomy. The Court decided this right begins with fetal viability - that is when the fetus can live without it's mother's body. The Supreme Court has ruled many times that people have the right to bodily autonomy and the right to their own person. For example in Cruzan v. Missouri, the Court ruled that people can refuse to seek medical treatment even if it would lead to their death [2]. Indeed we can use our body however we see fit regardless of other people's preferences. If I want to tattoo my body or have a baby, I have that right whether other people believe I should do those things or not. Pro writes, "Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought." However compare this to euthanasia which is the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering. Ending a life in and of itself is not necessarily murder, and Pro has not proven as such. Consider why only killing humans is considered murder whereas killing animals does not qualify. This is because animals do not have the level of sentience that humans do. While fetuses have the potential for sentience at some point, until that point, they do not and should not have the same rights as those who have already achieved this criteria. We do not grant rights based on potential. We do not give 16 year olds the legal right to drink just because they have the potential to turn 21. We base rights as/is, which is why some fetuses have the right to life and some do not. In my contentions, I will be arguing the right to life ought to be based on a level of sentience, even for human beings. Pro notes, "Whenever rights are limited, the most common and justifiable reason is when the observation of one right infringes on more important rights of others." He posits that the unborn baby is due for protection under the law including the right to life, and that this right is more important than the mother's right to privacy. But indeed the mother's freedom and right to bodily autonomy is what's also in question. Privacy refers to a woman's decision to keep it personal and none of anybody else's concern or opportunity to regulate. Pro writes that females waive their right to bodily autonomy by consenting to sex. That is manipulative rhetoric. If I consent to sex, it's not consent to aggressive sex or all sexual acts. If I consent to sex and contract an STD, it would be ridiculous to suggest I must be forced to live with this STD forever (or for a certain period of time) against my will. Instead I should be able to treat it however I would like, because it's my body and therefore my choice. If the STD had achieved a level of sentience, that would be different. But until then it would just be an unintended consequence of my actions. "When women are compelled to carry and bear children, they are subjected to 'involuntary servitude' in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment... Even if the woman has stipulated to have consented to the risk of pregnancy, that does not permit the state to force her to remain pregnant" [2]. == Arguments == 1. Individuals have the right to bodily autonomy. This means we should be able to make decisions about our own bodies, especially if they affect our health risks. Abortion should be a legal choice for women because it is risky and directly involves their body and health. More than 70,000 girls ages 15-19 die each year from pregnancy and childbirth [3]. No other person has the right to control how we use our bodies, especially as adults, though this inherent right ultimately extends to all fully conscious persons.2. Other people do not have the moral or legal authority to govern our bodies, even if someone else's life is on the line. For example if someone needs me to donate organs, blood or plasma, I cannot be legally forced to use my body to save their life -- even if it's my fault they need help (say my drunk driving caused a car accident, and their lives are now in danger because of my choices). Women have the right to determine how their bodies are used. There is no other circumstance in which any person's body is forcibly used to keep another human being alive against their will. 3. Criminalization will not stop abortions. So-called "back alley" abortions will still occur that put women at risk. If it does not serve as a meaningful deterrent, criminalization is not effective and does more harm than good. Legal abortions are generally safe and provide women with reproductive choices that do not needlessly make them criminals [4]. Criminals are those who infringe upon other's rights, whereas women who get abortions do not infringe upon an entity that has any legal rights. 4. Women who are raped or victims of incest should not be forced to carry out a pregnancy. These people should not be forced to carry out a pregnancy from such an invasive and traumatic violation. Even if it's a small percentage of pregnant women, the law exists to protect minority populations. 5. The abortion rate is declining while abortion remains legal [5]. You can combat abortion by providing meaningful sex education and access to birth control. This includes contraception that prevents the fertilization of an embryo. 6. Both IVF and abortion involve the destruction of fertilized eggs that could potentially develop into people. However the push to criminalize abortion and not those who need fertility treatment, proves the contention is less about protecting human lives, and more about controlling women's bodies. Indeed most people who are "pro life" do not support legal measures to protect life when it comes to caring for the sick and impoverished who need care in order to survive. And anti-choice organizations have avoided targeting IVF, even as they’ve sought radical restrictions on abortion access. The point here is that protecting every human life does not seem like a serious or consistent contention. 7. Fetuses that aborted still have lived that are used for good. "All embryonic stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are unlike any specific adult cell. However, they have the ability to form any adult cell. Because undifferentiated embryonic stem cells can proliferate indefinitely in culture, they could potentially provide an unlimited source of specific, clinically important adult cells such as bone, muscle, liver or blood cell... Embryonic stem cells are of great interest to medicine and science because of their ability to develop into virtually any other cell made by the human body. In theory, if stem cells can be grown and their development directed in culture, it would be possible to grow cells of medical importance such as bone marrow, neural tissue or muscle" [6]. This can be useful at treating disease and saving other human lives - the lives of those already sentient. 8. Reproductive choice can be the only thing that stands between a woman and poverty or death. While adoption may be a viable option for some, particularly in the U.S., in other parts of the world that is not necessarily the case. However Pro's standard of the right to life means women who are in specific danger due to restricted medical care or resources (especially in Africa and South East Asia) will be forced to birth children, even if it means that they are likely to die and that there babies will die or be uncared for. 9. Fetuses are often terminated before sentience, so they are not very conscious beings. We legally kill living things that are more cognizant, such as pigs that are as sentient as toddlers. Therefore simply being alive (or even being conscious) does not determine the "right to life" in society. Fetuses arguably do not have the right to life, specifically as it pertains to mandating the use of the mother's body to survive. We do not recognize the right to life in other humans such as those in vegetative states, etc. The reversibly comatose, momentarily unconscious, or people who are asleep are once functioned and/or are currently functioning as sentient beings, even if they are temporary state of non-sentience. The pre-sentient unborn, however, were never sentient and once they qualify as sentient obtain the right to life. It is the capacity to be sentient which provides this distinction. This standard is important and useful because it accounts for the essence of personhood beyond being alive or arbitrary speciesism. Why don't plants have the right to life despite being alive? It's the ability to feel, think, perceive, and be self-aware amongst other things that makes this important moral and legal distinction.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org...[2] https://en.wikipedia.org...[3] http://amplifyyourvoice.org...[4] http://thinkprogress.org...[5] https://www.guttmacher.org...[6] http://news.wisc.edu...

Abortion should be illegal with exceptions In this debate, there are a few factors that must be considered. Who has abortions, why, and what are the alternatives to abortion. I will be arguing that abortion should be LEGAL with exceptions. The foundation for my arguments will stem from the reasons for abortion not being unethical, and from the few reasonable alternatives to abortion. If any part of the foundation is proven, the ballot should go to the CON side. Who has abortions? NBC News reports that those who have abortions come from various demographic fields, but a higher proportion of economically depressed women have abortions. 60% of the women getting abortions already have at least one child. Why do they have abortions? Abortion rates are linked with economics. When family economy is bad, women are more likely to get abortions. Their decision may stem from wanting to better support their born children, or from not wanting to give their unborn children harsh, impoverished lives. What are some alternatives to abortion? This will depend on the circumstances, but the most common alternative is adoption. However, carrying a baby to term most likely would entail an unpaid maternity leave, which would not help economically struggling families. Thus adoption is not a viable alternative for all. As can be seen, having abortions is not unethical. Women don't just abort when they aren't willing to raise a child. Alternatives to abortion may not be readily available to them, and dire economic situations may demand that they have an abortion. Therefore, abortion should be LEGAL with exceptions (the exceptions are when the baby can actually live on its own). I wish my opponent good luck in this debate. Welcome to debate.org.

Abortion should be legal in most cases. A mother's right to choose what exactly? In America, Every human has the right to life, Liberty, And the pursuit of happiness. Choice isn't one of those rights, LIFE is.

Abortion Abortion should be legal because a woman should be able to make her own decisions. They have to carry a baby for 10 months, then deliver, and then take care of them for the rest of their lives. Plus, raising a child is not an easy job, according to all parents, they are needy since the day they are born. If someone doesn't have the appropriate living conditions or they don't have enough money to raise a child, they should be able to decide weather they want to have a child or not. 1) http://www.psychologicalscience.org... 2) https://www.guttmacher.org...

Resolved - Abortion Should Be Legal Thank you for your acceptance. I look forward to a great debate. My arguments are as follows: A fetus should not have the same rights as a sentient human being. Simply because the fetus is alive, does not make it equal to a parent. Science shows that the traits that make a human, human, namely self-awareness, advanced cognitive thinking, and a certain degree of consciousness, does not develop until the fetus is 25 weeks old - this is just about at the end of the second trimester. (Some may argue this excludes the legality of third trimester abortion - however, the majority of these abortions occur because of life-threatening issues to the mother, or to both the mother and fetus. But I digress). One could then argue that before this stage, a fetus could be considered merely a parasite, dependent on its 'host' for life. An argument commonly made by the Pro-Life community is that 'if we found a single-celled organism on Mars, the headlines would read "Life on Mars". A baby in the womb is not considered alive'. However, this claim is a false conception. My argument is this: do we give the same consideration for single-celled organisms as we do human beings? We clearly do not. When we are infected by parasites, or viruses, do we stop and consider the moral obligation we have to keep it alive? No. We kill it with antibiotics, or our body fights it off. To argue that these are double standards between a fetus and an organism is untrue. Speaking of double standards... The Pro-Life community argues that a fetus is a human, from the moment of conception. But if this is true, aren't they focusing their energies on something more worthwhile for the protection of this human? Let's look at the math. From the moment of conception, namely, when a sperm unites with an egg cell, the fetus (or, at this point, the zygote) has a slim chance of surviving. The chances of implanting onto the uterine wall are slim - only 30-40% of zygotes do. The rest are carried out by the menstrual cycle and thus, by the logic of considering them humans, die. After implantation, there is approximately a 25-50% chance that the zygote is miscarried. This leaves us with, at best, only 30% of the zygotes conceived - at worst, only 15%. These are appalling statistics, since we are considering the zygotes to be people. By these numbers, we lose to the natural cycle over 1.5 million babies a year. In contrast, only 125,000 babies are aborted a day - that's approximately 7.8% of those lost naturally. Surely, given these appalling numbers, the Pro-Life community should be devoting, at a minimum, the same number of resources towards preventing miscarriages and other natural losses of life as they do towards preventing abortion. The fact that they do not suggests that either they truly don't consider the life of a zygote worth that much time and energy, showing they don't truly believe it is a human, or the attention towards abortion is actually aimed at a cause other than saving the zygote - perhaps to condemn pre-marital sex or slow the progress of women or something along those lines. But surely, if the life of the zygote is truly their #1 concern, this issue should take priority over abortion prevention. Thank you for your time.