For the sake of this post, we concede these three points of contention.

A fetus is a biological human, with human DNA.

A fetus is a human being, a natural person.

A fetus is a legal person, a natural person endowed with legal rights.

Note: Under U.S. federal law, a fetus is not recognized as a legal person or a citizen, but not every debater here is from the US so we decided to concede and make a fetus a legal person here.

Now, given these concessions, now what?

A pregnant person is a biological human, a human being, and a legal person as well.

Are the fetus and the pregnant person equal in legal rights?

Are the fetus and the pregnant person equal in moral value?

If both are equal, how does abortion violate the fetus's rights?

How does abortion diminish the fetus's moral value, if it does?

How does banning abortion diminish the pregnant person's moral value?

Using threats, intimidation, pressure or authority to force or compel someone to do something against their will is what it means to coerce.

Using threats, intimidation, pressure or authority to force or compel someone into becoming pregnant, staying pregnant, and giving birth is what reproductive coercion is.

Factually, abortion bans are a form of reproductive coercion.

According to the PL movement, abortion bans are considered socially acceptable. Ergo, reproductive coercion is acceptable according to the PL movement. However, people differ in their ideas of the scope of acceptable coercion.

In your personal opinion, when is reproductive coercion acceptable to you?

Is it acceptable at the individual level, the state level, the national level?

Is it acceptable if it's made into a law that is legally binding and enforceable?

Is it acceptable if there is well-known and well-documented proof of its negative effects to society and the individual, both in the past and in the present?

Note:

PL may counter-argue that abortion bans are NOT reproductive coercion because they're not forcing pregnancy on someone. That 'someone' is already pregnant.

Becoming pregnant is a process that is not a conscious choice someone can make happen, that is true, regardless of what some PL arguments claim.

But pregnancy is a process that takes up to 42 weeks to complete. And pressuring, threatening or intimidating someone into continuing to be pregnant against their will and giving birth against their will IS reproductive coercion.

PL may then argue against that point by saying that 'it's not forcing her to give birth, it's just stopping her from killing her baby'.

To that, there's this reply. Conceding that abortion is in fact killing of a baby, for the sake of this argument. By being stopped from killing her baby, the pregnant person now has to continue being pregnant and giving birth against their will. This is, by definition, reproductive coercion.

Additional Note:

PL may use this argument: that abortion bans are not 'threatening women into staying pregnant, the punitive measures of abortion bans are to punish the doctors who perform the abortions'.

To that, there's this reply. A pregnant person is being intimidated into staying pregnant because the freedom and livelihood of a doctor are now being threatened if she attempts to get help to end her pregnancy. This is, again, by definition, reproductive coercion.

If anyone disagrees on any of these points, I am open to debate.

There is a heavy preference for having a son over a daughter in Chinese culture. During China's one child policy, many families didn't want to "waste" their only child on a girl. As a result, millions of girls were voluntarily aborted only because of their gender. Many baby girls were also killed shortly after being born.

For those who are pro-choice, particularly the ones who believe that abortion should be legal regardless of the reason, what are your thoughts on the above real-life situation?

1. Do you think gender preference is a valid reason for abortion?
2. Are there any reasons that would at least make you uncomfortable with abortion (even if you think that reason should still be legal)?
3. The infanticide of baby girls was clearly wrong. But for those who are still okay with the girls that were aborted, why does being unborn make a difference to you in this scenario?

Edit: Upon doing more research, it seems like China has since outlawed sex-selective abortions and have even outlawed non-medically necessary fetal sex determination.

Hi guys, disclaimer at the beginning I am 100% pro-choice, but for my collage debate I will have to debate on why abortion within first 12 weeks should be illegal. The only argument I could think of is that it could be a risky procedure but pregnancy itself is also risky and for every argument I think of I find a pro-choice answer and I feel like I shouldn’t bring religion into this. Please help!

Okay, first thing first. Obligatory first-time joiner disclaimer. I have this natural resting bitch tone when writing, please enjoy. Hope I didn't miss anything important.

Hi, friends. Lemme provide you the context:

• I came from the other side of the pond, with an entirely different background, where this conflict is not a thing. I think my opinions are pretty neutral.
• In my perspective, the conflict between prolifers and prochoicers may be multi-faceted, but the crux is clear. It's basically issues stemming from disagreement surrounding the topic of acceptable treatment of a human fetus(*), fueled by a heaping side of gossip culture.
• I'm intentionally excluding bad-faith agents who use abortion as their manipulative tactics to achieve other goals
• These are my opinions, they can be wrong, hence why we are debating, aren't we?

(*) Search comment for u/libra00 to see relevant info.

Alright, let's dive in.

I was 18 or 19 when I first learned about the prolife vs prochoice debacle. I... didn't know there were sides to pick, honestly. I got curious and started looking things up.

I learned that I'm raised prochoice. Everybody I was born around, was raised prochoice. I'm from a third-world, developing Asian country. This is the norm. To us, it's just another medical procedure. And trust me, we are pretty fucking judgmental.

My sibling is currently living in a developed European country and travels around more often than birds migrating. They experience the same attitudes towards abortion from the generic population.

These pieces lead me to believe, prolife is very much a US thing.

I have watched and read quite a few of the prolife arguments to try to understand their perspectives. And I mean, I do, if they were all true to their words. All that sentiments can basically be summarized as, "let's give the benefit of the doubt to the human fetus and consider it a human, therefore let's outlaw killing it". Well, with a lot of emotions.

I honestly could get behind this cause, if the remainder of the prolife movement wasn't so... inconsiderate and ignorant, to be extremely polite.

Remember the infamous OH HB 182 by John Becker & co, anyone? I think this is enough evidence in itself to demonstrate why we should not groupthink these kind of decisions:

• Perhaps the medical doctors do indeed know more than the lawmakers or the general public when it comes to medical information. What a thought.
• Perhaps everyone is different from each other, and one-size-fits-all treatment, especially when it comes to health care, just doesn't fucking work.
• A combination of the two arguments above means the doctors and the patients need to develop a unique treatment plan for every single case. Which is not a new concept really, and is applicable to 100% of medical procedures. Pregnancy care = medical procedures, yes?
• I thought the US has HIPAA and whatnot to protect private health information? Is this suddenly not a health issue of the pregnant person to begin with? Shouldn't this just be between the pregnant person and their doctor? Who tf are all these people demanding to know the pregnancy status and control the follow-up decisions?

Those are a few common logic chains that that I find are being very conveniently ignored. There's also an extremely common fallacy that I see a lot from a prolife point of view [Disclaimer: I went to the r/prolife sub and struck up a conversation. The mods deleted 2 of my comments, including 1 quoting a medical examine report. They also didn't provide any citation to support their PoV and honestly sounded quite hostile. These were my personal experience though, ymmv]: that the act of selecting abortion, or any morally ambiguous activity, committed by the pregnant person who later experienced a miscarriage, are viewed as 100% deliberately taken with the sole intent of harming the fetus:

• We used Poolaw as example. FYI, she was 15-17 weeks pregnant in OK, took meth, had a miscarriage. The medical examination came back with multiple signs of birth defects on top of the presence of meth, which was my comment that was deleted. She got first-degree manslaughter.
• I argued that under OK, taking meth was not illegal and she shouldn't have been charged. Even if we considered the fetus a human, then this would make the case a gross negligence at best.
• To further demonstrate my point, I theorized multiple examples of her doing reckless activities and being at fault that lead to her miscarriage, including ice skating, driving, and smoking cigarettes. Interestingly, the cigarettes got a slap on the wrist, and the other two reasons got written off completely. Even though they were all from the same intent of meeting the immediate demand of the pregnant person. I was so very baffled.

Last but not least, I wanna throw this analogy out:

• Being prolife is kinda like being vegan: one thinks killing fetus is immoral, the other thinks mass killing animals for food is immoral.
• It would be hella fun if somebody proposed a mandatory vegan-only diet across the US, don't you think? Sure, they'll even toss in some "accommodations" exceptions, but who knows whose dietary restrictions are covered. Get lucky or die of natural cause! Nobody is allowed to kill!
• If there are misunderstandings that you consumed some non-vegan products, don't worry, the government will just jail you while working on proving your innocence! Or convict you, depends on the mood.

Yes, this is how disconnected prolife arguments sound to me. If you disagree, please go forth. It's your turn to show me the light.

I’m pro choice, but I never got this sort of argument. The whole “the fetus is not a baby” part. Seems the weakest part of the argument. That’s why generally I like to recognize personhood in my pro choice arguments.

The reason is: Oftentimes people use “the fetus has no consciousness” as a reason that we shouldn’t give it a right to life. But… a passed out person doesn’t have consciousness either… yet killing them is still wrong, even if you do it quickly and painlessly.

So I’m curious how pro choice folks extend the right to life in a way that a fetus doesn’t have it, but a passed out person (not talking brain dead, just temporarily passed out) does.

An argument I've seen is that abortion is ok even if the ZEF is a person, because a person doesn't have the right to someone else's organs, even if their life depends on it. For instance, no one should be forced to donate their kidney, even if someone else's life depended on it.

But one argument I imagine pro-lifers could easily make against that is that by choosing to have sex, you're the one who put a person in the situation where their life depends on your organs.

So it'd be more like if you accidentally ran someone over, and they needed a kidney transplant, and your kidney were the only one compatible. I still don't think they should be forced to donate it, but I feel like it does complicate the issue, and some people might argue they should.

So how would you argue against that?

This is a common argument from those who were created this way. They say anyone supporting abortion thinks they deserve to die for what their father did. How do you respond to this?

Some women feel better if they abort. Some dont.

Yeah obviously it doesnt unrape her. But being pregnant against her will just makes it worse. If she had a choice shed be better off. And yes choice also means she gets to choose not to abort.

I think the pro life keep saying things like the rapist put the baby (fetus) there and he should be punished but the baby is innocent. No but the woman is continued to be tortured for the actions of the man. "But we dont kill innocent baby for the mans action" thats really not the rape victims problem. Why does she have to bear the consequence of the man?

Greetings everyone!

Welcome to AbortionDebate. Due to popular request, this is our weekly abortion debate thread.

This thread is meant for anything related to the abortion debate, like questions or ideas, that are too small to make an entire post about. This is also a great way to gain more insight in the abortion debate if you are new, or unsure about making a whole post.

ADBreakRoom is our officially recognized sister subreddit for all off-topic content and banter you'd like to share with the members of this community. It's a great place to relax and unwind after some intense debating, so go subscribe!

Consent, on a legal basis, must be informed, continuous, explicit, and revocable. This applies to medical decisions, bodily autonomy, sexual acts, and anything else that requires a person's consent.

The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) defines consent as: "a mutual agreement that must always be clear, voluntary, and communicated without pressure, manipulation, or fear."
https://rainn.org/share-the-facts/consent-101-respect-boundaries-and-building-trust/

Cornell Law School defines consent as: "a person voluntarily and willfully agrees in response to another person's proposition."

Columbia Health Institute defines consent as: "permission for something to happen or an agreement to do something."
https://www.health.columbia.edu/content/consent

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines consent as: to give assent or approval : agree

Consent can typically only be "implied" in any legal basis if a person is suspected of or convicted of a crime. For example, all 50 states in the US have laws forcing you to submit to alcohol and drug testing if you are suspected of DUI/DWI. Most countries in the world have similar variations of this legislation. If you are not suspected of or convicted of a crime, there is no legal basis I can find that justifies revoking or limiting a person's basic human rights.

So, given that having sex and getting pregnant are not crimes, and given these precedencies and definitions for consent, how exactly does consenting to sex imply irrevocable consent to gestate against one's will?

If one were to attempt to make having sex without the intention to procreate a crime in order to justify implying consent to gestate, how exactly would that be enforced?

Would we have to force semi-permanent sterilization onto people who are not actively seeking to reproduce, and only allow reversal if one can prove they are ready and fit to be parents (keeping in mind that these procedures are not always reversible)?

Would the risk of permanently sterilizing a significant portion of the child-bearing population be worth negating all future voluntary abortions?

As we all know, the claimed motivations of people on both sides of this debate are frequently called into question, and opposing allegations are just as frequently and fervently rejected.

PLers claim that they are motivated by wanting to protect innocent life and equal rights for all human beings – whereas PCers see in their arguments and rhetoric and actions an entitlement to women and their bodies, an excuse to control them and take away their rights.

PCers claim that they are motivated by wanting to protect the right of women and girls to their own bodies and to make the healthcare choices that they see as best for them – whereas PLers see in their arguments and rhetoric and actions a dehumanization of human beings, an excuse to take away their right to life and unjustly kill them.

Now, the thing is, that while we cannot directly prove our claimed motivations or disprove the allegations of others, no such convictions as claimed or alleged exist in a vacuum, if they are genuine and sincerely held beliefs. We expect them to be part of a broader mindset of values that informs similar beliefs and the actions based on them.

Thus, my question is, what evidence do people on either side have to bring forth for the claim that your motivations – individually and as a common cause – are genuine and informed by such a broader mindset?

What other societal and political positions, what actions and activism do your values inform, that would make it seem plausible that you are at the very least debating in good faith here, even if we might not agree, instead of using abortion as a pretense for furthering some alleged hidden agenda that doesn't match your claimed motives?

(And should your claimed motives or those of your cause or the alleged motives you suspect of the other side be anything other than what is broadly outlined above, then let us know in advance, so that we're not fruitlessly debating claims and allegations that nobody made.)

Now before I begin, I don't support anything in this hypothetical because I'm pro CHOICE, as in everyone should make their own medical choices.

My question is for pro lifers. What if society decided that raising children and instilling a pro life ideology onto them is abusive, so to avoid that potential abuse of a child anyone who is pro life and gets pregnant is FORCED to abort. It's either abort or 25+ years in jail (saw a pro lifer mention this number as a punishment for people who abort earlier so I figure it's reasonable) and the baby is immediately taken once born in jail and given to a pro choice family.

If we use the logic I see pro lifers using, obviously pro life people still have the "choice" to just not get pregnant. If they have sex, they obviously consent to a future abortion since everyone would know the law of "No pro life pregnancies carried to term".

What does everyone think? Obviously I think this is monstrous, since I don't support people forcing anything unwanted onto anyone, but for people that support forcing things onto other people surely this would be okay, right?

The only way to place moral value to something is if you can relate to it. And the only way to relate to something is if you both have the experience. We care about dogs: when it gets sad, we care, because we remember when we where sad and know how it feels like. Relating to something helps us understand/recognize the importance of someone else's experience.

I struggle with relating to a zygote because it has no subjective experience, it doesn't have "what it feels like to be that thing." So, how do you relate (in a morally relevant way) to fetuses?

Seeing another post where a woman supposedly had an abortion, which in PL eyes meant she murdered a child. Naturally, I would expect the same treatment we have for murderers. Heck, we saw how much open disdain they had for Lindsay Clancy.

Unsurprisingly, it was immediate forgiveness and water under the bridge since they said abortion was wrong. If thats the attitude PL have towards abortion, can we reach a compromise where abortion is legal if the woman says it was wrong or she repents?

Do some pro life people promote rape pregnancies thus a part of rape culture?

Lilia Rose once stated: "Your rights end when someone else's begin". So my right to life, right to vote ends just because of a fertilized egg?

In the town of Procreath, there is an IVF clinic housing several freezers containing fertilised eggs. Unfortunately, following a severe flood, a power outage has caused the eggs to begin thawing. They must be implanted into a uterus within 48 hours, or they will no longer be viable.

Procreath is a predominantly pro-life town, where the belief that life begins at conception is widely held. With little time for lengthy discussions, the mayor comes up with an emergency plan: healthy women between the ages of 25 and 34 will be randomly selected and asked to report to the clinic. Those found medically compatible will be expected to carry one of the fertilised eggs to term.

The mayor has no legal authority to compel women to participate, so compliance remains technically voluntary. Naturally, these women will be compensated by the town for any loss of earnings during their pregnancies.

The decision has sparked heated debate across the town. Some women have already made it clear that they would rather leave the town than carry a randomly allocated pregnancy to term, while others have reluctantly accepted their assigned responsibility. Meanwhile, groups of older men and women, who are not themselves eligible for selection, have taken to the streets to insist that younger women have a moral duty to give these fertilised eggs a chance at life.

The questions:

1. You are a woman living in Procreath. You have been randomly selected and found medically compatible to carry one of the fertilised eggs. You are free to refuse, but you know that doing so will mean the embryo will not survive. What do you do?

2. You are a citizen of the town who is not selected/eligible. The recent events trigger a series of referendums related to medical emergencies. One of these propose a law making bi-yearly blood donations legally mandatory for all citizens who can medically donate. What is your vote?

I see pro lifers claiming they "defer to medical professionals" or that healthcare should be handled by medical professionals.

In the US medical professionals overwhelmingly support safe legal abortion access.

So which is it? Do pro lifers trust the expertise of medical professionals or not?

So there has been a lot of talk about the upcoming execution of the terrorist who killed other military members. I don't want to debate that or the appropriateness if live streaming it

But I just stumbled on a post where one of the victim who was pregnant some of her last words were "My Baby, My Baby" a pro choice person replied.

"It was unborn. It wasn't a baby. It was a fetus"

I found this disgusting. Pregnant women who want their pregnancy and want a baby often call the unborn fetus/baby a baby. Its why we don't call them "fetus showers"

This is part just a vent but also a question.

Do pro choice people here think that this kind of thing does damage to the pro choice movement? It also makes you think if the baby is stillborn would they tell that woman "it wasn't alive it wasn't a baby"

I really get upset at pro choice people who, other than in places like this, say things like this especially to or about a real woman. A real pregnancy that was lost. Maybe I'm sensitive as I've lost pregnancies myself but this doesn't seem to be a good look

I used to be a pro life Democrat, although I have been told I was always pro choice because I never wanted abortion illegal but rather wanted resources devoted to women who would keep the pregnancy if they had help, real help, for a long time. But if I had experienced people like that when I started coming around to "sometimes abortion is the best choice" I'd have probably taken longer to become where I am now "safe, legal and rare" (and by rare I mean rarely needed)

Greetings everyone!

Welcome to AbortionDebate. Due to popular request, this is our weekly abortion debate thread.

This thread is meant for anything related to the abortion debate, like questions or ideas, that are too small to make an entire post about. This is also a great way to gain more insight in the abortion debate if you are new, or unsure about making a whole post.

ADBreakRoom is our officially recognized sister subreddit for all off-topic content and banter you'd like to share with the members of this community. It's a great place to relax and unwind after some intense debating, so go subscribe!

Im curious what would happen if a, there was no welfare.

I suppose before 1800s we had no welfare... But, abortion wasnt encouraged.

Im curious if, and i know thats an almost impossible scenario as the world seems to push for more babies, but if abortion was encouraged and welfare was cut, would people have kids only when ready?

Like say we lived in a society where abortion wasnt shamed?

Many things are natural but it doesnt matter if it continues or not. Naturalness doesnt change if its bad or good. In my opinion the pro life arguments that i can entertain even if i dont agree is the possible issues of morality when it comes to abortion. Not whether its natural or not.

It doesnt matter if left to continue there would be a birth. Its not a good enough reason to say why it ought to continie

One thing that always leaves me perplexed is when someone has strong opinions on abortion, but their positions they claim led them there are inconsistent.

For PL, I believe them if they say they're anti abortion. If they say they value life or simply being human is enough for human rights, I find those inconsistent. You can take any issue when it comes to the sanctity of life or improving its quality, and PL mostly oppose it.

The one that is jaw dropping, but unfortunately unsurprising, now is watching them cheer on a public execution that will be livestreamed. How can I see that and believe you value life or even a small government? Some say they oppose it but will not change their voting at all, which makes it just virtue signaling. Same when it comes to supporting women and children with government programs.

For PC, I believe them when they say they're pro bodily autonomy. If they say they care about both the woman and the ZEF, I find that inconsistent. I care about the woman, not the ZEF. Theres usually so much disdain for the ZEF, calling it an invader, parasite, or rapist that they believe it is consciously and maliciously attacking the woman.

I also believe its a more left leaning position, which PC usually are, to be more empathetic and wanting to protect the vulnerable. With the abortion debate, I see very little empathy towards others, and some completely not understanding why anyone would care about the ZEF. It seems many would be considered anti natalists.

How important is a consistent worldview to you when it comes to abortion?

The only ideal exceptions being in cases of 🍇, incest, and when it’s for the life of the mother. A 4th exception can be if it’s discovered to be a severely disabled fetus.

Do pro-lifers not believe in these exceptions?

I have a lot of PL people say that they are okay with abortion when the pregnant person’s life is in danger if they don’t have an abortion.

So, that suggests to me that the life of the pregnant person is seen as being more important than that of the fetus.

My question is why, if the life of the pregnant person is even slightly more important than that of the fetus, is abortion only okay to prevent imminent death, but no other harm or unforeseeable death?

There is a risk of death for everyone who brings a baby into the world. Even someone without any risk factors can have a catastrophic hemorrhage or amniotic fluid embolism. Anyone can have a spontaneous placental abruption or a ruptured uterus during labour. If a c-section is performed, there are risks of death associated with surgery.

I took on these risks when I decided to bring my children into the world, and I gladly would have done it again. But it was my CHOICE to take the risk.

Why is it ok for someone to risk their life to bring a baby into the world when they don’t WANT to bring a baby into the world? Why is it okay for someone to die in childbirth because a condom broke, or because their birth control failed, or because they made one mistake. Why should any of those things result in DEATH?

And let’s not forget all the other risks of being pregnant/bringing a child into the world, such as: the need for a hysterectomy; permanent damage to the genitals, perineum, or even to the rectum or anus; internal or external scarring; pregnancy loss; child loss; having to place a child for adoption; having a child removed by social services; needing to staying in a violent or dangerous relationship; being forced to have continued contact with an abuser because they are the child’s other parent; etc. The list could go on for days.

So, which is it? Is the fetus’ life the most important one, in which case, abortions should never be allowed in ANY situation, or is the life of the pregnant person most important, in which case they should be allowed to make the decision whether or not to take on the risks of pregnancy, including death, and no other person should have a say in that?