Its kinda hard to stop something like that, sure, but I really doubt that people would do that in any significant numbers. If possible id say they shouldnt be able to do it for such reasons, but people would just lie, so its kinda hard to stop, like I said though, its a highly unlikely scenario and its highly unlikely that many people would abuse it like that, given the physical and emotional trauma that abortions can result in, abortions arent a "good" thing, but theyre something people have the right to do imo.

Being that people already do it in high numbers for Down's Syndrome children in the western-world, and for girls in the rest of the world, I don't think it is nearly as unlikely as you want to tell yourself ...

The rational assumption would be that between the wide-spread availability of birth-control and massive public awareness that unwanted pregnancies would be a thing of the past; but people are generally far more selfish and self-centered than we can ever logically assume, and given the choice to terminate a “Small collection of cells” to provide the opportunity to have the child they want I bet the abortion will become a highly popular option.

Even if they were illegal it couldn't be enforced. There'd just be dead or mutilated women who'd found an amateur doctor to perform the surgery.

Abortion is about the only issue I have a non-libertarian view on. However, if I was given the ability to ban it, I am unsure if I would outright ban it (as it may not change the views of why people destroy life, which is the key component of why abortion even exists - we need to promote a culture of life and responsibility).

I understand that some argue that it's a human life from conception, others argue that it's at some other time, and I think that's a huge problem. Even if it's not human life, it is still life that will become human. That's why I consider abortion a bad thing. Furthermore, I am not very understanding of why it is more expedient to destroy the life as opposed to bringing it to term, and giving it up for adoption. As others have said, in most countries that allow abortion (western democracies) there is a high demand for adopting babies. If the reason for abortion is because a woman doesn't want the baby, and there are (litterally) millions of women that want the baby....Why not take the time, deliver the healthy baby, and give it away?

I understand your viewpoint, however, it's not one I can agree with. Women (and the men who impregnate them) take the responsibility of life very lax, and I think that's absolutely horrible. I think that getting pregnant is like getting drunk or high - you need to take responsibility for those actions. And I don't believe aborting the child is an action that should be taken.

However,

From a legal standpoint, I can't say I would instantaneously ban it if I was given the miraculous chance to get rid of such an atrocious practice. Our laws need revised concerning abortion - it's not a federal issue, it is a state issue and the onus should be on the state to allow (or disallow) the usage of abortion, as well as the praxis behind it (parental consent for teens, sonograms before abort, ect). States and their voting constituency should be the ones that decide how best to deal with the practice.

Having said all of that, the best way to deal with abortion from an inoffensive centrist point is that we absolutely must change the motivations behind abortion. When 90% of abortions are being done for mere social purposes - the mother does not want the baby - they are being done for the wrong reason, and we need to avoid that. We can best avoid that by promoting the usage of adoption, and instilling a culture of life, love and respect for women that decide to give up their baby for adoption. The link I gave earlier shows a strong correlation between cultural ideas - that single women raising or aborting by their own will - is greatly effecting why women abort, raise their kids in poverty, or decide to give up their children. Interestingly enough, it's the uneducated, poor American woman that decides to abort. There is a strong correlation between higher education and actually giving up the child. It's for that reason we need better education to instill a better understanding of responsibility that seems to lack from why women abort.

In the end, I think there's a way that we can remove abortion - through state law and cultural change - that respects the idea of being pro-choice and a culture being pro-life. Maybe the option needs to exist, but I think that most of the 40,000,000 kids that died in America are because of selfish women.

Also, one should note the interesting fact that the reason that Europe is well below the birth replacement rate is due to abortions. For every 1000 life births, there are 500 abortions. Do you think that this freedom is having a positive impact on your society?

yup lets make it a crime again, because making things agaisnt the law stops them with a 100% sucess rate..... like phohbation stopped people from drinking alc... wait bad example, i mean like tabbco laws prevent teenagers from smo..... ok that doesn't work either ummmm like the long gun registry in Canada stopped gun violence...... damn that didn't work either.
I woudn't be oppesed to stronger foucs on the alternitives and maybe some regs that prevent teenagers who don't * like condoms* from making mulitpule vists to the clinic, but making it illegal would just drive it underground. Past experince shows us that when anything goes underground it just causes a lot of problems and in this case a lot of dead women.

Abortion by default, mothers should apply to not have an abortion.

harsh, very harsh but would be willing to listen to supporting reasons.

To prohibit abortions does not stop them. When women feel it is absolutely necessary, they will choose to have abortions--even in secret, without medical care, in dangerous circumstances. In the two decades before abortion was legal in the U.S., it's been estimated that nearly 1 million women per year sought out illegal abortions. Thousands died. Tens of thousands were mutilated. All were forced to behave as if they were criminals.


Legal abortion not only protects women's lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such women's choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirt

If there is any matter which is personal and private, then pregnancy is it. There can be no more extreme invasion of privacy than requiring a woman to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. If government is permitted to compel a woman to bear a child, where will government stop? The concept is morally repugnant. It violates traditional American ideas of individual rights and freedoms.

Forty percent of 14-year-old girls will become pregnant before they turn 20. This could happen to your daughter or someone else close to you. Here are the critical questions: Should the penalty for lack of knowledge or even for a moment's carelessness be enforced pregnancy and child-rearing? Or dangerous illegal abortion?

And atlast, what if the women have a career? Many can't afford a baby, (they need to be in the store, they have the risk to lose their job).

Adoption could help but what if their is no one to adopt the child? What if no one wants your 'african child?) etc..

@ Bolded: Me? I'm sorry, I'll stop getting abortions lol.

@ the European influence:

Europe is below the replacement rate due to abortions true, but I'm afraid that fact is misinterpreted to you I believe. I don't think that abortion is having a particularly negative impact on Western European society, statistically the Eastern European countries are the ones with the highest abortion rates, with countries like Ukraine and Russia topping the table (Russia having 6 abortions per 5 live births). So in the Western European society, we don't really feel the negative effects of abortion here as it is a "service" if you like, which is used wisely by people. The map below shows Abortion rates as a percentage of pregnancies in Europe.

Source

So as you can see in Britain there is a low abortion percentage, as with France, Germany, Italy, etc...

I would not consider abortion to be a problem that is rife here, it is very much under control (and on a personal note, the only people I know who have had abortions (which admittedly is only 3 women) have done it out of a sensible choice and early on.).

However, the case is that obviously in Eastern Europe abortion is a problem, but the answer to solving this problem isn't to ban abortion, it must lie elsewhere.

Why do I say this?

Because both Western Europe and Eastern Europe have similar levels of legality, but the rates are so different that there must be an underlying factor. 

I can single out certain factors.

One of these is economy. The GDP of the country corresponds almost directly abortions rates, which can be seen on the map below. In countries that have low GDP rates, they typically have a high abortion percentage too. Low income means that these people are less likely to be able to support children. So when pregnancy occurs, they must find a solution, which often leads to abortion. A further factor to this is that eastern European adoption services are notoriously shady, and so it is an undesirable solution.

Source

The second is quality of education. The quality in Eastern European countries are typically below average on education rankings (source) and so this has an impact on knowledge about sex and contraceptives. This would likely result in many unwanted pregnancies, which if you're also living in a country with low GDP (as I shown earlier), it will lead to a high abortion rate.

Anyway, to get back to my point. Abortion is legal in Western Europe, but it is not a problem here because we have the capacity to look after and deal with babies from unwanted pregnancies, and the education on contraceptives and sex leads to a greater transparency of information on the subject, so people are more aware of their actions and consequences. People are more likely to get abortions for more severe situations. So I would say in my society (western europe) abortion has been a positive aspect.

Unfortunately Eastern Europe isn't as lucky as us and it has such I high abortion rate that I would imagine it is cause for great concern. Here it could be seen as a bad thing. But the truth is it shouldn't be banned here at all. The high rates of abortion are not because it is legal, but because of many factors that have caused an unfortunate situation. The solution would be not to ban abortion, because that would just force couples to bring up babies they can't afford, or have abortions illegally. It will cause the problem to get worse.

I think the solution is to improve education quality on the matter and perhaps offer small amounts of income support for children being born... Which easier said than done unfortunately.

Just presenting some opposing arguments