Should abortion be illegal?

I will argue that abortion should generally be illegal, Even in cases of rape or if the life of the mother is in danger. I am not arguing for or against abortion in other sorts of extreme cases (fetus doesn't have a brain, Etc. ) Post "I accept" as your first argument and then we will begin.

I accept.

I will define a "person" as someone/something with moral value.

1. A fetus is an innocent person

2. If a fetus is an innocent person, Killing a fetus is wrong.

3. Abortion is the killing of a fetus

4. If abortion is wrong, Abortion should be illegal

(1) A fetus will be sentient in the future. This is the fundamental difference between a dead person and a person in a coma. (Technically, The real victim of abortion is the future person who is being killed, But I refer to a fetus as a person the same way we call someone who is comatose a "person") As we might expect, Stabbing someone in a coma is wrong, But stabbing a dead person is far less so. Also, It doesn't make sense for someone with future sentience not to have rights. For example, It is moral to create a child you know will die. Everyone dies eventually, So this happens all the time. However, Poisoning a fetus so it dies at age 10 would be immoral. If a fetus was not a person, Then this would simply be part of creating a child you know will die. Furthermore, If it is immoral to shorten a fetus' lifespan to 10 years, How could it be any more moral to shorten its lifespan to zero?

(2) is often opposed on the basis of bodily autonomy. However, Parents are responsible for taking care of their children because they are responsible for their children needing to be taken care of. Therefore, They have an obligation to allocate their resources in order to take care of their children. This is the reason for child support. Opponents will often contend that parents have no obligation to take care of their children. In Ancient Rome, Babies were often left to die. If parents did not have an obligation to take care of their children, Then who does?

Opponents often sometimes contend that a fetus is "part of the woman's body". According to their definition, Anything attached to the woman is part of her body, And she has a right to control what happens to it. However, This definition has some serious problems with it.

First of all, A part of someone's body that is detached from them is still their property. If my hair falls off and I made clear that I wanted to keep it afterward, Then it would still be my property. If the fetus was part of the woman's body, She would own her child after they are born, And infanticide would be permissible.

Second, Conjoined twins do not have the right to kill each other, Even though they are attached to one another. If being attached to something makes it part of your body, This would not be the case.

It seems to me then that when the fetus is created it has the rights to its body and the woman no longer does.

(3) is true by definition. Someone might contend that it is simply failing to provide the fetus with essential nutrients, But I explained in my response to (2) why the woman has the obligation to do this.

(4) is often opposed on the grounds that making abortion illegal won't decrease the rate; it will simply make people have abortions in unsafe ways. However, There are a few objections to this.

This assumes that we should be caring about the safety of the woman. Even if there was a good chance that making infanticide illegal would just make parents do it at a risk for themselves, Why should we care about the safety of a parent who is killing their child? Several studies do show that making abortion illegal decreases the rate [1] and that studies showing the opposite don't control for other factors. If there was even a chance that making murder illegal will decrease the rate, It seems like it would be a good idea to do so, Even if we are risking the life of the murderer.

The punishments for abortion are not very strict. For example, In India abortion is only punished with a fine and several years in prison [2]. Punishing the provider causes more demand, So the way to decrease an illegal activity is to punish the consumer harshly. Life in prison for abortion would not be unrealistic, And it might be much more effective.

In summary, Sometimes making abortion illegal decreases the rate. Sometimes it doesn't. However, The punishments for abortion are very lenient, So we shouldn't expect to see much change with such small consequences. Better safe than sorry. If the government was actually serious about enforcing an abortion ban, They could almost definitely come up with a way. It wouldn't even need to be expensive. There are plenty of pro-life people who would be willing to pose as fake abortion providers and catch people in the act, Free of charge.

1) https://lozierinstitute. Org/how-the-legal-status-of-abortion-impacts-abortion-rates/

2) https://en. Wikipedia. Org/wiki/Abortion_in_India

Con forfeited. Vote Pro!