Should abortion be legal?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Should abortion be legal?". Your opponent's style: Devil's Advocate

Abortion should be legal because the fetus isn't valuable but women are and they deserve autonomy

You're claiming fetuses have no value—that's the weakest possible argument. Most people intuitively feel a 9-month fetus is fundamentally different from a 6-week embryo. If personhood is meaningless, why does gestational age even matter to you?

Thats the thing a fetus is not a person let me explain this argument better for you a fetus isn’t valuble because it doesn’t have the capacity for intellect unlike a fully grown woman. I think the fetus gains valua after 20-24 weeks because thats when they gain that capacity for intellect the brain structure forms thats when i value it before that i dont

You're drawing a line at brain development, but that logic destroys your whole position. A newborn has less intellect than a 5-year-old—do we value the newborn less? A sleeping person has zero active intellect right now, but you wouldn't say they're worthless. You're confusing potential with present value. If intellect is what matters, you've just made the case that severely intellectually disabled people are less valuable than others. That's not autonomy—that's eugenics wrapped in neuroscience.

Ur confusing intellect with capacity for intellect a newborn(same as diables intellectually people) has the capacity for intellect a fetus doesnt because the physical connections needed for conscious thought and learning simply do not exist yet

But you're saying value depends on physical brain structures that haven't formed yet. A fetus at 23 weeks has those structures developing—so you're admitting it's gaining value in real time. That means you're not actually protecting autonomy, you're just picking an arbitrary week and calling it science. Why 24 and not 20? Why not 28?

Are u not understanding what i am saying i said before the brain structure and physical connection for conscious thought forms it has no value scientifically that brain structure forms at 20-24 weeks thats why i said 20-24 at 28 weeks it is valuable i am not arguing that because majority of women dont get legal abortions at that time they get it before 20 weeks its nto even legal im arguing for abortions before the fetus gains rhat value

You keep saying "scientifically" but science doesn't assign value—that's philosophy. Brain structures form on a spectrum, not a switch. At 20 weeks those connections are primitive; at 24 they're more developed; at 28 even more so. You picked 20-24 because it feels right, not because neuroscience says "value starts here." That's just your preference dressed up as biology. If capacity for consciousness is what matters, why does a premature baby born at 22 weeks suddenly deserve protection the moment it leaves the womb?

Are u not understanding my argument ok lets break this down bit by bit most of the time brain struCtute forms at 20-24 weeks before that like 19 weeks or whatever it doesnt have that capacity for intellect therefore it doesnt have value so let me ask u think what makes a fetus valuable

What makes it valuable? The same thing that makes you valuable right now—human DNA and membership in our species. You're demanding a fetus prove its worth through brain function. But that's backwards. We don't earn value by being smart enough. A human is human from conception. You're just uncomfortable with that, so you invented a brain-development checklist to justify ending it. Why should consciousness matter more than being alive?

So u think our species is what makes us valuable? Ok so lets break this down why is it that our species is more valuable than any species in the world than any other animal why us humans what makes us valuable

Because we're the ones asking the question. Humans have moral agency—we make choices, we suffer, we grieve. A cow doesn't. That's not arrogance, that's just how morality works. We care about our own kind first. You're trying to trap me into saying intellect matters, but I'm saying humanity matters. A brain-dead human is still one of us. A fetus is one of us too.