Pro-choice vs pro-life, I want to see the best arguments in favor of each standpoint?

Question

I want to read serious answers. I don't want fanatics saying stuff like women who abort will go to hell. Please, keep it logical. In my case, I am pro women's freedom over their bodies and lives. Basically hundreds of women are forced to either have or abort the baby, sometimes women kill themselves trying to commit homemade abortions. Many women die this way. I believe women should be safe about their sexuality and take all necesary precautions to prevent diseases and pregnancy. There is much more to this topic, but for now I would like to read what you have to say. Again, serious answers. Thanks

I am pretty amazed at both great arguments and poor ones. If I could I would choose a couple of best answers. I want to aknowledge all the ones I deem worthy, so I have to analyze them a little more. The one that shocked me the most I must say was the fellow who said women protect children and men fight for the tribe. First of, what year are you living in? You don't mind men killing each other, that is your "tribe" would kill a woman who aborted, but wouldn't mind if the kid grew up to be the one who killed the woman? Interesting. There was however one good pro life argument, although it started off sounding a little too WWJD kind of thing, your arguments were very well supported. More details will follow.

Ah yes, ergo sum. You enjoyed answering this question and even though I do not agree with your standpoint, I think you did well on defending your case with as many aparently logical arguments as possible. However I believe you went a little off with defining human life. Is a fetus a human, is a human in a coma a human etc. A chicken's fetus can be an omelete if you know what I mean. It's life, but it isn't human. A human fetus is a human fetus, but it does not have the ability to reason the way we understand reasoning is. The question here is life. Where does life begin, when it comes to humans? Well, this may seem strange, but so far, the person who has enlightened me with one of the greatest arguments on this debate is George Carlin, a comedian. He says that life (as some other person said) life is a continuous process, it began a long time ago and it is evolving constantly. Life is not only a human fetus or an omelete. Abortion is not going to put in jeopardy the human race, or life

To all those who have gone through abortion and regret it, the man who told the story about his girlfriend and what not. To those who think that rape victims are more entitled or are less judgeable. To those who are in favor of adoption. All pro lifers read me out. As one girl said here, no one is forcing a pro life to abort, and I believe this is the whole issue here. What women need is the choice, that they can choose to have or not have a baby. Pro lifers, the point here is, if you do not agree with abortion, do not abort. Live and let live. Some women choose aboriton for legitimate reasons, whether it's rape, low income, too many children, sickness including deadly ones such as aids and others, a baby with down syndrome, siamese twins, child molestor's case, etc. There are always women who do not have legitimate reasons to abort and it's pitiful that they do, however, women who have legitimate reasons shouldn't be deprived of choice because of a few wreckless ones.

I somewhat agree with trinigal... the choice of adoption is always there, and it is true many unwanted children have difficult lives but in one way or another it is still a choice for the woman to make and some adopted children lead happy lives as well, it is a very random possibility, but it's a choice. It is also true that most pro lifers lack consistency when defining and defending life, which is really a big problem, specially when the future of a woman is on the line. Very good answer, I could have chosen you best answer but one chick here really did nail the argument.

Answer 1

This issue is so complicated on so many levels. I'm pro-choice. First of all, I don't believe life starts at conception, and since no one has been able to prove it does, why should anyone force their opinion on me that it does? A pro-life person might argue that since it IS so uncertain we should "err on the side of life," but if that were the case, than even more unwanted babies would be born- many might never even be adopted. Plus, what about the hell a woman's body is put through- all for the sense of "erring on the side of life." That's an awful lot of work and sacrifice for a woman just in case it MIGHT be a life at conception.

Further, I don't think some people fully understand what it is like for a woman... Yes, it would be nice if all women decided to go through a pregnancy instead of having an abortion, but do people realize how tough that is? Vomiting, pain, swelling, mood swings, extra weight- and that's not even labor! Women sometimes tear in labor- TEAR! Men (not all men, of course, many are very supportive of a woman's right to chooose)... how would you like to have the tip of your ***** or your "exit" hole stretched until it rips? Are you really willing to go through that just to make sure you bring a baby to full term when you might have prevented the ordeal early on (if you are subscribing to the belief that it isn't a life at conception).

The whole point I guess I'm getting to is that so much can't be proven about the whole thing, so how is it fair to force one person's belief on another? Some pro-life people feel abortion "is forced on them" but that's not true. I don't see anyone dragging pro-life people into clinics and making them abort. If a person disagrees with abortion, than they shouldn't have one, and they should let people who choose to have an abortion live in peace. Maybe one day, if it's ever proven without a doubt where life begins, all of these matters will be better cleared up... but until then, our resources would be better used to educate the young about safe sex, instead of deluding them that absitence devoid of sexual safety information is the best route. Instead of being so concerned about abortions, maybe we should be more concerned about preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place.

Oh, and I couldn't help but add: Ruserious> It became obvious after visiting that site you listed that it's a biased source. How can you trust any of the information or statistics they put on there? People should refer to unbiased sources that don't slant to pro life or pro choice.

Answer 2

Bravo to you for taking a serious look into what is still the hottest debate today. There are no easy answers to this question because so much is tied up in the issue, and due to this many don't like to hear answers that can prick the conscience. In reality, the epicenter of the debate has nothing to do with who can or can not choose, it has to do with when something is alive or not. The strongest argument pro-choice supporters aim to use centers around the term 'fetus'. Scientifically termed, the fetus is not considered 'human' since it does not portray the qualities understood to be a human baby. However, scientists have been too heavily relied upon to determine things outside their scope of expertise. If you are pregnant, any doctor you go to will never tell you that you are carrying a fetus within you, or use some other form of lingo to explain conception. A doctor will always tell you that you are pregnant, meaning that an egg has been fertilized by sperm and that a new developing being is beginning.

How do you define what is or is not human? Even if something is called a fetus, is it not still a stage in the development of human life? Let's say someone healthy is involved in an accident and ends up in a coma. That person no longer apparently functions as a person and medical officials often called it a 'vegetative state'. So is that person no longer human? What happens then when they come out of the coma and resume their life? Were they human, than not human, than human again? I know I am speaking in pure 'what if' categories and please forgive the argument, we are constrained by time and space. It is not possible for something to 'become' something out of the blue. If a human is not human at conception, then from where does it suddenly gain its humanity? The human species does not morf like a butterfly from a caterpillar. Our species is constant in its development.

It hard to argue against victims who become pregnant of rape because of the physical, emotional, and psychological trauma involved. Indeed, to say it is wrong under this circumstance makes one out to seem uncaring and inhumane. I wish no individual to suffer such an unfortunate and heinous crime! Nonetheless, is it argument enough to justify abortion? Unfortunately not. Once another person's life comes into play that choice cannot be anyone, the child has already its inherent right to live.The same goes with the 'back-alley butcher' argument. Legalizing abortion has not stopped deaths or future complications by abortion. De-legalizing abortion also does not necessarily mean 'back-alley butchers' will be rampant. It is a mere supposition that women will seek such services, which I think is a serious injustice to women's intelligence.

Being safe about your sexuality means being smart about your sexuality. We cannot fool ourselves, sexual intercourse between man and woman always carries the likelihood of conception, and that means baby creating. New evidence is arising of the harm done to the woman when she aborts, and most of this is due to failing to understand sufficiently how the woman's body works. I am sorry I can not recall now my source. Basically, it is noted that although the 'fetus' is removed from the womb, the body still continues to produce the hormones and such common during pregnancy, meaning that the body cannot shut itself off with the mere removal of a fetus. Since the biological elements being produced are meant for the fetus, which is no longer there, the woman unwittingly poisons herself. Hence this is where complications arise later with fertility problems, cancers, etc. Any doctor a woman will see in the future about fertility problems, cancers, etc, will be asked if they had an abortion. The medical community would not ask it if there did not exist a connection.

Again, as time and constraints limit the discussion I will leave it here although I hope I have added a serious answer to your compelling question. Bravo again for your interest!

Answer 3

I wasn't going to answer because I have already posted in this subject. However, one poster said that the woman should give the baby up for adoption because their are pleanty of willing parents. Sure their are plenty of willing parents however while there might be hundreds of people wanting to adopt there are hundreds of thousands of children begging to be adopted and never will be and go from foster home to foster home. Let's face it the majority of people would rather have a biological child then adopt. This is why I am all for abortion I would rather have a child not be born than have a child living knowing they were unwanted or have no real family.

I have also heard people say that it is murder. Well I think people choose who they would rather see die. Most people have no problem killing animals every single day and them eating them, but that is only because they feel superior to animals. Some people don't have much of a problem seeing thousands of troops die who have families and people who love them and want them to come home, but have a serious with a nameless, faceless fetus not getting the chance to be born. These are usually the people who are in favor of the death penalty. So I say to them stop choosing what you consider murder and really be pro-life meaning all life.

Answer 4

Since your question is more of a request than a query, may I suggest checking out this article on the Wikipedia, written by proponents of each viewpoint:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_debate#Modern_arguments


Edit: candy makes a good point. I think the person ought to talk about it with their partner. A lot of people would say, "the partner has nothing to do with it," but it's really that kind of attitude that makes guys a bunch of lazy deadbeats in the first place.

Guys SHOULD feel responsible for their actions. And if women let their partners know that they respect their opinions on the pregnancy (even if they don't agree with them) then men will feel more responsible for the consequences of their actions.


Spock: I'm trying to understand why you would say that pro-lifers express no concern for innocent children dying from US bombings in foreign lands. Perhaps it is because you see the world in terms of black and white and believe that everyone in favor of abortion must be against U.S. military operations and vice versa.

However, even if this "logical" black and white world were to exist, pro-lifers would probably claim that there was some greater purpose in the bombing (i.e., Iraqi freedom is more important than saving the lives of children who would have died under Saddam's rule anyway). For abortion, they may claim that saving the lives of unborn children is more important than allowing someone who chose to have sex also choose to kill their child (please remember that nearly all "pro-lifers" make an exception in the case of rape).

As for evolutionary biology and irrationality, your argument seems to work far better for the pro-life camp than for the pro-choice one. Evolutionary biology would seem to suggest that since men are pre-programmed to protect the tribe and women are pre-programmed to care for the children, it seems far more likely that these primitive minds would irrationally attack those who slay the unborn babies of the tribe than those who oppress women in some complicated, abstract, legalistic fashion that a primitive collective could not possibly understand.

Answer 5

I think that a woman should have a choice, but I don't agree with it in all siuations. There are cases where women get sick from a prgnancy or raped. I can understand if they want an abortion. But some people get rediculous, they abort because they were irresponsiable, or because they wanted a diffrent gender baby. Most women live in regret and wonder about thaeir baby; but imagine the raped woman who stares in the face of her rapist daily. The child will also resemble the mother, but she may feel depressed or have other anxities. I'm sure that most children of rape victims have wonderful relations with their mother, but sometimes the woman can have unsure emotions.

Answer 6

Abortion is the Number One cause of death today.

Abortion is used for and nothing but, plane ole Birth Control.
It is the last resort where no Birth Control was being used or the Birth Control being used failed.

How many married couples go and have an abortion?

The abortion rate for medical reasons is right at 5% or lower.

The child in the womb is a God given life. It is not the mothers choice, to decide weather it lives or dies.

It has it's own beating heart as all living humans do.

No women has the right to take the perfectly beating heart and God given life in her womb and let it be destroyed. Makes no difference how your shoes fit.

If someone were to shoot her with a gun in her womb and kill the life in there. That someone would be arrested and do time.

But yet a doctor is basically doing the same, but instead, he stabs the little infant in the back of their little head causing them to wiggle in pain while sucking out their brains.

I cannot, for the life of me, see how the pro-lifers think and feel that, that is just perfectly O.K. That's about as barbaric as it comes.

Something is just very, very, wrong with that picture.

Answer 7

pro choice. Why should anyone be required to give birth to a child they do not want nor would care for like a planned child? If you do not have clinics that can provide proper care and treatment for a medical procedure like an abortion then women will seek out the procedure in less safe and sanitary places. The reason it was legalized in the first place was that many women in the US were being mutilated and killed by back alley butchers conducting the abortions with out proper medical training, sterile instruments, and medications to prevent post operative infection. outlawing abortions will only result in women being forced to undergo this again. It will turn a woman who was rapped and does not want to give birth to the rapists child into a criminal, it'll force a mother who is overwhelmed with her other children to suffer. It will produce a child and have it raised either in a non loving environment or cause the child to be put up for adoption, or to become a ward of the state. Either way every one looses.

Answer 8

All I can say is my girlfriend got an abortion 5 years ago I told her to keep it and I would help her raise the child. She wanted an abortion and I feel guilty I did not try hard enough to stop her. I now have a lovely young daughter and I keep wondering what that unborn child of mine would have been like. I feel terrible about it every time I think about it . Before you get an abortion please consider giving the child a chance to live . If you can`t afford it consider giving the child up for adoption , there are lots of good parents waiting.

Answer 9

I am pro life because I believe that it is a child at the time of conception and that all life should be respected. People would be enraged if a young child was murdered. Why is this any different with a developing child in the womb? I dont see abortion as anything short of murder. Its just that this murder was somehow legalized.

Secondly, abortion not only kills a defenseless child but is also dangerous for the mother. She can experience bladder and bowel injuries and complications and has a higher chance of contracting breast cancer. If the woman becomes pregnant again they are up to 20 times more likely to have an ectopic pregnancy which can actually kill you.

and if you have an abortion:

(1) You will be more likely to bleed in the first three months of future pregnancies.

(2) You will be less likely to have a normal delivery in future pregnancies.

(3) You will need more manual removal of placenta more often and there will be more complications with expelling the baby and its placenta.

(4) Your next baby will be twice as likely to die in the first few months of life.

(5) Your next baby will be three to four times as likely to die in the last months of his first year of life.

(6) Your next baby may have a low birth weight.

(7) Your next baby is more likely to be born prematurely with all the dangerous and costly problems that entails.


Women also tend to suffer emotionally after an abortion.

Answer 10

pro choice: I don't think that congress which is mostly male should decide what women have to endure. They have no idea what the experience is like. Abortion is something that is an individual decision. Stem cells can help with medical research as well. Keeping a baby when not wanted can hurt it emotionally. Even when a baby is put up for adoption it will have an "empty space" because it was neglected by it's mother. I am for abortions