Abortion Debate:

The abortion debate refers to the ongoing discussion about the moral and legal issues of abortion. The two main factions involved in the debate are the pro-choice movement, which generally supports access to abortion and regards it as morally permissible, and the pro-life movement, which generally opposes access to abortion and regards it as morally wrong. Each movement has sought to influence public opinion and to attain legal support for its position.

Issues and Factors of Discussion

Several factors that cause further complication within the framework are issues related to contraception, feminism, gender roles, teen pregnancy, and sexual morality. Aside from the complexity of the underlying primary issue of abortion, the addition of these and other considerations create the following major points of discussion:

• The beginning of personhood or beginning of life: When is the embryo or fetus considered a person? When does life begin?
• Universal human rights: Is aborting a zygote, embryo, or fetus a violation of human rights? What about fetuses with genetic disabilities? Which disabilities? Of what severity? Is not allowing a woman to terminate her unwanted pregnancy a violation of her human rights? Are the persons separate or one? How much control should one person have over the life of another? And should relationship be a factor?
• Circumstances of conception: Should the circumstances of conception be a determining factor in the ultimate fate of the embryo or fetus? Does pregnancy induced by rape or incest, or by poor or non-existent birth control use change the permissibility of abortion?
• Alternatives to abortion: Is adoption a viable and fair alternative to abortion? Are there resources available to aid mothers who are unprepared for parenthood, but who may wish to keep their child?
• Limit of government authority: Are laws controlling abortion violations of privacy and/or other personal liberty rights? Are laws condoning or allowing abortion legalizing homicide, murder, infanticide, or genocide?

The core issues in the abortion debate are rights-based.

Pro-Life

The (pro-life) view that abortion should be considered "wrong," and subsequently illegal, primarily believes:

• That the existence and moral right to life of human beings (human organisms) begins at or near conception–fertilization;
• That induced abortion is the deliberate and unjust killing of the fetus in violation of its right to life;
• That the law should prohibit unjust violations of the right to life.

Pro-Choice

The (pro-choice) view that abortion should be considered "right," and subsequently legal, claims:

• That women have a right to control what happens in and to their own bodies;
• That abortion is a just exercise of this right;
• That the law should not criminalize just exercises of the right to control one's own body.

On one issue, both sides claim to agree:

• That the law should prohibit unjust violations of the right to life.

Scientists Know Life Begins at Conception:

" . . . every time a sperm cell and ovum unite, a new being is created which is alive and will continue to live unless its death is brought about by some specific condition." — E.L. Potter, M.D., and J.M. Craig, M.D. Pathology of the Fetus and the Infant (3rd Edition). Chicago: Year Book Medical Publishers, 1975, page vii.

"Zygote. This cell, formed by the union of an ovum and a sperm represents the beginning of a human being." — Moore, Keith L. and Persaud, T.V.N. Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects. 4thedition. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1993, p. 1

"Although human life is a continuous process, fertilization is a critical landmark because, under ordinary circumstances, a new, genetically distinct human organism is thereby formed." — O'Rahilly, Ronan and Müller, Fabiola. Human Embryology and Teratology, 2nd edition. New York: Wiley-Liss,1996, pp. 8

Doctors Know Life Begins at Conception:

"Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception." — Dr. Jerome LeJeune, professor of genetics at the University of Descartes in Paris and discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Down syndrome

"By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." — Professor Hymie Gordon - Mayo Clinic

"I oppose abortion. I do so, first, because I accept what is biologically manifest—that human life commences at the time of conception—and, second, because I believe it is wrong to take innocent human life under any circumstances. My position is scientific, pragmatic, and humanitarian." — Dr. Landrum Shettles, obstetrician-gynecologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York

"It is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive...It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception." — Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School

"The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward matter — the beginning is conception." — Dr. Watson A. Bowes, University of Colorado Medical School

If life begins at conception, then abortion is the ending of a life — homicide.

Of course, those who are pro-choice know the answer to the question of when does life begin. And since they can't argue with or change the answer, they choose to attempt to cloud the issue by raising the nonsensical question of, "When does human personhood begin?"

Paul Campos, professor of law at the University of Colorado, addressed the question of "personhood" this way, "Whether or not abortion should be legal turns on the answer to the question of whether and at what point a fetus is a person. This is a question that cannot be answered logically or empirically. The concept of personhood is neither logical nor empirical: It is essentially a religious, or quasi-religious idea, based on one's fundamental (and therefore unverifiable) assumptions about the nature of the world."

The argument of "personhood" is irrelevant, unless you are something other than human and yet concerned with this matter in some way. A life is a life. And a life produced through the union of a human egg and a human sperm is a human life.

President Ronald Reagan spoke plainly about the beginning of life and the human "person" when he said, "The real question today is not when human life begins, but, 'What is the value of human life?' The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother's body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being."

A great article on the multiple facets of the Abortion Debate can be found here.