40. "Abortion denies choice to a man who wants to be a father." AS IT SHOULD, since the father directly contributes very little to a pregnancy. First of all, an ovum outweighs a sperm by about 100,000 times.
books.google.com/books
While both parents contribute roughly equal quantities of DNA or genetic instructions to a conception, all the biological hardware, the natural nanotechnology responsible for carrying out those instructions, come from the woman's ovum. And, after the built-in food resources of the ovum are used up, and the young human organism/blastocyst seeks more resources for further growth, via womb-implantation, all those additional resources will come from the woman, too.
Suppose a woman invested $100,000 of down-payment toward a boat, and some man invested $1. Also, the woman makes all other regular payments, plus extra payments for maintenance and insurance and improvements in the boat, while the man directly contributes nothing. If that man claimed half-ownership of the boat strictly on the basis of his investment, he would be laughed out of court. Therefore, since a man contributes so little to a pregnancy, the man deserves equally-little say in whether or not a pregnancy should be carried to term.
In more practical terms, if a man deserves to be a father, it won't be because he helped at the start of a pregnancy; it will be because he will be there to more-than-help, he will be there in a major supporting role, for many years afterward --and he will have found some ethical way to convince the woman of that. Why do abortion opponents so often hypocritically focus on the woman, and not on the man, whose behavior is often a major factor in why the woman seeks an abortion? In other words, if abortion opponents want to really succeed at reducing the abortion rate, they need act more intelligently, and attack all the fundamental causes, not just only the simple fact that an unwanted pregnancy exists. Because that's not the only factor involved, that leads to abortion, by far!
41. "It was absurd to link a Constitutional right to privacy with legalization of abortion." IRRELEVANT. That's because, regardless of the validity of the privacy argument, there are two other and perhaps-much-better Constitutional arguments available. First is the requirement to conduct a Census of all Persons every ten years. The Founding Fathers were right there in 1790 to specify the Questions that were asked in the very first Census, and which therefore distinguished Persons from non-Persons. The fact is, the Founding Fathers did not count chickens before they hatched, nor did they count Persons before they were born. And NO Census ever since has counted unborn humans as Persons.
Second, Amendment 13 forbids involuntary servitude outside of due process of law. If a woman does not want to be pregnant, and the unborn is not a person, then there is no conflict because an abortion merely kills an animal (which it certainly purely is, in scientific fact). But if the unborn is arbitrarily declared to be a person in spite of the scientific facts, then the unwilling pregnant woman is now in involuntary servitude to that unborn human, outside of due process of law. She has committed no crime, much less been convicted of one, such that involuntary servitude to the unborn can be required of her. Better, therefore, that granting personhood to the unborn be avoided in the first place. So, to all who would Amend the Constitution to grant personhood to unborn humans, exactly how can you do this without violating Amendment 13, whenever a woman does not desire to be pregnant?
42. "Modern technology allows prematurely born babies (legally persons) to survive (be 'viable'); therefore abortions should be prohibited for unborn humans that become viable per technical means, since they could be forcibly born and thereby immediately acquire legal person status." FALSE, mostly because the definition of "birth" can become extremely distorted as technology continues to improve.
For example, artificial wombs are being seriously researched. When perfected, it would then be possible to conduct fertilization in a petri dish, and move the zygote directly to the artificial womb, which could also be called an "ultimate incubator". Well, when exactly is this human considered to be "born", relevant to the 14th Amendment? When it is "viable" enough to no longer need that artificial-womb environment, such as typically occurs 9 months after fertilization, when a typical natural womb is involved? Then, doesn't that mean that "viability" should logically be defined such that no technical assistance is required, for a developing human to survive?
Meanwhile, viability alone is insufficient to grant personhood to an unborn human, during a pregnancy. Measurably animal-level are the minds that an unborn human has, even if the pregnancy stretches for ten full months after conception! Because, remember, infant humans also can't pass any scientific unprejudiced species-independent personhood tests, for several whole months after birth.
43. "Government should have the power to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term." IT ALREADY ALMOST DOES, but, logically, that means it also almost has the power to force women to abort wanted pregnancies. Remember that 13th Amendment? The only thing missing is an ordinary Law, perhaps something as ridiculous as "Pregnancy is now illegal." Any unwillingly pregnant woman could then be sentenced to involuntary servitude during pregnancy and childbirth and child-raising. Of course, that exact same Law could alternatively be used to enforce mandatory abortions of wanted pregnancies. Meanwhile, most people want Government to avoid passing ridiculous laws, and to leave ordinary folks alone when they aren't doing anything that negatively affects other people --which unborn humans most certainly aren't!
44. "In killing ordinary animals we attempt to do so in a painless manner, but abortion subjects the unborn human to extreme pain." The first part of that is indeed true, but the rest is not only PARTLY FALSE; it CAN BE ALWAYS FALSE. During the first six months of pregnancy, the brain is not connected to the spinal cord. Pain signals from the body of an unborn human getting cut up by an abortion procedure simply cannot reach the brain.
After six months, though, when the brain and the spinal cord are connected, it can be possible for pain signals to reach the brain. On the other hand, there is more than one way to perform an abortion.
For example, the umbilical cord could be cut first-of-all inside the womb. Since nobody cares how painful or painless cutting the cord is after birth, nobody should care about cutting it in the womb. But if it is cut inside the womb (or even strongly clamped, without being cut), then the flow of oxygenated blood to the unborn human stops, and the brain will begin to shut down in less than a minute, painlessly. After about six minutes the brain will be dead, also painlessly. And after that time any more-ordinary abortion procedure could be performed.
45. "Abortion increases the chance of a future miscarriage." MISDIRECTION, since giving birth can also increase the chance of a future miscarriage --and so can miscarriage, itself. This is because pregnancy always causes the womb to become scarred, whether it ends via birth, or ends via miscarriage, or ends via abortion. A later pregnancy that happens to occur too-near the old scar tissue can be adversely affected by it. The problem is nothing more than a matter of statistics; it is well-documented how various women have successfully carried a dozen or more pregnancies to term, in spite of an occasional miscarriage.
46. "The Hippocratic Oath forbids a doctor from performing an abortion." IRRELEVANT, because there are variations on that Oath which are accepted by the medical profession, and which permit a doctor to perform an abortion.
47. "The U.S. Declaration of Independence specifies a Right to Life, which therefore forbids abortion." IRRELEVANT, because the Actual Law Of The Land is the Constitution. Per the 14th Amendment, "Right to Life/Citizenship" only applies after birth.
48. "Abortion is a poor substitute for birth control." LARGELY IRRELEVANT, because sometimes birth control fails, leaving abortion as the only known remaining option that can ensure an unwanted pregnancy ends quickly. Note that even the abortion procedure can have a failure rate --there are some known survivors of botched abortions-- but it is also possible to attempt abortion more than once, if the first attempt is botched. The saying goes, after all, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." In the end, abortion can always be 100% effective. For most other birth-control methods, they basically have just one chance to succeed.
So, banning abortion will not solve the problems posed by less-effective methods of birth control. And, to the extent that ordinary birth-control methods are less expensive than abortion, that is the extent to which the Law of Supply and Demand will encourage ordinary birth-control methods to be used, and reduce the numbers of women seeking abortions. Common contraceptives are effective most of the time, after all.
books.google.com/books
While both parents contribute roughly equal quantities of DNA or genetic instructions to a conception, all the biological hardware, the natural nanotechnology responsible for carrying out those instructions, come from the woman's ovum. And, after the built-in food resources of the ovum are used up, and the young human organism/blastocyst seeks more resources for further growth, via womb-implantation, all those additional resources will come from the woman, too.
Suppose a woman invested $100,000 of down-payment toward a boat, and some man invested $1. Also, the woman makes all other regular payments, plus extra payments for maintenance and insurance and improvements in the boat, while the man directly contributes nothing. If that man claimed half-ownership of the boat strictly on the basis of his investment, he would be laughed out of court. Therefore, since a man contributes so little to a pregnancy, the man deserves equally-little say in whether or not a pregnancy should be carried to term.
In more practical terms, if a man deserves to be a father, it won't be because he helped at the start of a pregnancy; it will be because he will be there to more-than-help, he will be there in a major supporting role, for many years afterward --and he will have found some ethical way to convince the woman of that. Why do abortion opponents so often hypocritically focus on the woman, and not on the man, whose behavior is often a major factor in why the woman seeks an abortion? In other words, if abortion opponents want to really succeed at reducing the abortion rate, they need act more intelligently, and attack all the fundamental causes, not just only the simple fact that an unwanted pregnancy exists. Because that's not the only factor involved, that leads to abortion, by far!
41. "It was absurd to link a Constitutional right to privacy with legalization of abortion." IRRELEVANT. That's because, regardless of the validity of the privacy argument, there are two other and perhaps-much-better Constitutional arguments available. First is the requirement to conduct a Census of all Persons every ten years. The Founding Fathers were right there in 1790 to specify the Questions that were asked in the very first Census, and which therefore distinguished Persons from non-Persons. The fact is, the Founding Fathers did not count chickens before they hatched, nor did they count Persons before they were born. And NO Census ever since has counted unborn humans as Persons.
Second, Amendment 13 forbids involuntary servitude outside of due process of law. If a woman does not want to be pregnant, and the unborn is not a person, then there is no conflict because an abortion merely kills an animal (which it certainly purely is, in scientific fact). But if the unborn is arbitrarily declared to be a person in spite of the scientific facts, then the unwilling pregnant woman is now in involuntary servitude to that unborn human, outside of due process of law. She has committed no crime, much less been convicted of one, such that involuntary servitude to the unborn can be required of her. Better, therefore, that granting personhood to the unborn be avoided in the first place. So, to all who would Amend the Constitution to grant personhood to unborn humans, exactly how can you do this without violating Amendment 13, whenever a woman does not desire to be pregnant?
42. "Modern technology allows prematurely born babies (legally persons) to survive (be 'viable'); therefore abortions should be prohibited for unborn humans that become viable per technical means, since they could be forcibly born and thereby immediately acquire legal person status." FALSE, mostly because the definition of "birth" can become extremely distorted as technology continues to improve.
For example, artificial wombs are being seriously researched. When perfected, it would then be possible to conduct fertilization in a petri dish, and move the zygote directly to the artificial womb, which could also be called an "ultimate incubator". Well, when exactly is this human considered to be "born", relevant to the 14th Amendment? When it is "viable" enough to no longer need that artificial-womb environment, such as typically occurs 9 months after fertilization, when a typical natural womb is involved? Then, doesn't that mean that "viability" should logically be defined such that no technical assistance is required, for a developing human to survive?
Meanwhile, viability alone is insufficient to grant personhood to an unborn human, during a pregnancy. Measurably animal-level are the minds that an unborn human has, even if the pregnancy stretches for ten full months after conception! Because, remember, infant humans also can't pass any scientific unprejudiced species-independent personhood tests, for several whole months after birth.
43. "Government should have the power to force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term." IT ALREADY ALMOST DOES, but, logically, that means it also almost has the power to force women to abort wanted pregnancies. Remember that 13th Amendment? The only thing missing is an ordinary Law, perhaps something as ridiculous as "Pregnancy is now illegal." Any unwillingly pregnant woman could then be sentenced to involuntary servitude during pregnancy and childbirth and child-raising. Of course, that exact same Law could alternatively be used to enforce mandatory abortions of wanted pregnancies. Meanwhile, most people want Government to avoid passing ridiculous laws, and to leave ordinary folks alone when they aren't doing anything that negatively affects other people --which unborn humans most certainly aren't!
44. "In killing ordinary animals we attempt to do so in a painless manner, but abortion subjects the unborn human to extreme pain." The first part of that is indeed true, but the rest is not only PARTLY FALSE; it CAN BE ALWAYS FALSE. During the first six months of pregnancy, the brain is not connected to the spinal cord. Pain signals from the body of an unborn human getting cut up by an abortion procedure simply cannot reach the brain.
After six months, though, when the brain and the spinal cord are connected, it can be possible for pain signals to reach the brain. On the other hand, there is more than one way to perform an abortion.
For example, the umbilical cord could be cut first-of-all inside the womb. Since nobody cares how painful or painless cutting the cord is after birth, nobody should care about cutting it in the womb. But if it is cut inside the womb (or even strongly clamped, without being cut), then the flow of oxygenated blood to the unborn human stops, and the brain will begin to shut down in less than a minute, painlessly. After about six minutes the brain will be dead, also painlessly. And after that time any more-ordinary abortion procedure could be performed.
45. "Abortion increases the chance of a future miscarriage." MISDIRECTION, since giving birth can also increase the chance of a future miscarriage --and so can miscarriage, itself. This is because pregnancy always causes the womb to become scarred, whether it ends via birth, or ends via miscarriage, or ends via abortion. A later pregnancy that happens to occur too-near the old scar tissue can be adversely affected by it. The problem is nothing more than a matter of statistics; it is well-documented how various women have successfully carried a dozen or more pregnancies to term, in spite of an occasional miscarriage.
46. "The Hippocratic Oath forbids a doctor from performing an abortion." IRRELEVANT, because there are variations on that Oath which are accepted by the medical profession, and which permit a doctor to perform an abortion.
47. "The U.S. Declaration of Independence specifies a Right to Life, which therefore forbids abortion." IRRELEVANT, because the Actual Law Of The Land is the Constitution. Per the 14th Amendment, "Right to Life/Citizenship" only applies after birth.
48. "Abortion is a poor substitute for birth control." LARGELY IRRELEVANT, because sometimes birth control fails, leaving abortion as the only known remaining option that can ensure an unwanted pregnancy ends quickly. Note that even the abortion procedure can have a failure rate --there are some known survivors of botched abortions-- but it is also possible to attempt abortion more than once, if the first attempt is botched. The saying goes, after all, "If at first you don't succeed, try try again." In the end, abortion can always be 100% effective. For most other birth-control methods, they basically have just one chance to succeed.
So, banning abortion will not solve the problems posed by less-effective methods of birth control. And, to the extent that ordinary birth-control methods are less expensive than abortion, that is the extent to which the Law of Supply and Demand will encourage ordinary birth-control methods to be used, and reduce the numbers of women seeking abortions. Common contraceptives are effective most of the time, after all.