Abortion: Legal or Illegal

"Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare." - Bill Clinton.

I would like abortion to be illegal but I don't see that happening, so it should be as rare as possible.

Negoba wrote: I living newborn has a LOT of neural development to become anything remotely like what we call human. They are also completely and totally dependent on others for survival. And yet we don't think it's ok to euthanise babies who aren't wanted (even if the reasoning is very sound.)

Ah, but the answer to this is simple. Newborns don't violate anyone's right to bodily autonomy. A fetus undoubtedly violates this right so any woman should be free to remove it. 

CCVP wrote: I, personally, don't understand why people would defend the legalization of abortion when there are such a huge number of contraceptives.

And abortion is merely another form of contraceptive. Instead of prevention, you kill the fetus later. Yes, technically, by the definition of the word, abortion isn't a kind of contraceptive, but it's not a whole lot different and the ends are exactly the same. So in my mind, there's really no need to make that distinction between the two. 

Gamemako wrote: Traditionally, life requires the ability to reproduce, which sperm and egg do not have. Hence, gametes are not alive in the traditional sense of the word. Similarly, viruses are not alive as they require a host to reproduce.

Gametes are a type of cell which means they are indeed alive. There's really no disputing this. They clone themselves via meiosis if I remember correctly.

I mean not allowing abortion is pretty much just punishing woman for having sex which I find inherently sexist. Just read the chart on this blog and you'll see what I mean: http://www.amptoons.com/blog/2011/06/27/do-they-really-believe-abortion-is-murder/ 

Dudemanguy wrote: CCVP wrote: I, personally, don't understand why people would defend the legalization of abortion when there are such a huge number of contraceptives.   And abortion is merely another form of contraceptive. Instead of prevention, you kill the fetus later. Yes, technically, by the definition of the word, abortion isn't a kind of contraceptive, but it's not a whole lot different and the ends are exactly the same. So in my mind, there's really no need to make that distinction between the two.

They are quite different. With conmtraception prevent human life from forming; wile the abortion destroys human life in formation. Moreover, they do not have the same result: the former does not have impact on the female body (for the most part), wile the latter aggressively attacks the female body in so many ways that I, for one, don't understand why women allow their bodies to undergo such a procedure.

You see, a rather blunt mean of comparison would be a car accident: using a contraceptive would be like following the security measures when the accident happened wile the abortion would be the other option; imagineing that the person survived said accident, it is plainly obvious that, though in both options the person has survived, the consequeces would be much graver in the second scenario and could potentially kill said person. Same happens with abortion: not only it kills the fetus, but it represents a real risk to the mother's life as a whole and her body health in general.