Should abortion be legal?

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

Do you think abortion should be legal?

You've opened with a yes-or-no trap. The real question isn't legality, it's personhood: at what point does a fetus become a rights-bearing human? Until you answer that, "legal" is meaningless. What's your threshold?

legal is not meaningless. I am asking if you think people shouldn't go to jail for abortion.

You're conflating two separate claims. Nobody disputes that jail is harsh. The question is whether abortion ends a human life, and if so, whether that matters legally. Does severity of punishment change whether an act is wrongful?

well, to some of the public and media, yes the severity and punishment can make it seem worse in their mind.

Public perception isn't morality. People once thought slavery was fine because it was normalized. If abortion kills a person, public comfort with the punishment is irrelevant. Do you actually believe legality should follow popularity, or just when it suits your position?

I am not saying it should be normalized. I think it should be legal because I think the cases in which there is abortion can be very harmful to the baby and the parent.

You're dodging the core issue. "Harmful" doesn't justify ending a life—we don't execute people for inconvenience or pain. If the fetus is a person, harm to the mother doesn't change that. What makes the mother's suffering outweigh the fetus's existence?

I said that it harms the baby and parent in some cases. say they someone made them pregnant when they didn't want them to be. when the child grows up they might be sad about being the result of a bad thing and the mother might be mentally harmed in the process.

You're describing suffering, not justification for killing. A child born from rape exists regardless—abortion doesn't erase that trauma, it just adds another loss. And "might be sad later" is a prediction about feelings, not a right to prevent existence. Why does potential unhappiness justify erasing a life that hasn't consented to non-existence?