Reasoning

If the fetus feels pain, it should not be killed, right? But it doesn’t feel pain (medically speaking) until the third trimester, so any abortions before that would be alright. I think I would still abort the fetus if it felt pain. It is the utilitarian viewpoint where life is measured in pain and pleasure that I agree with in regards to abortion. If your entire life was pleasure, and you were to get hurt, it was still a good life to live and the pain was worth it. If the fetuses ‘life’ is filled with pleasure (which I think it wouldn’t be able to distinguish from anything else it feels, just like some humans aren’t able to distinguish hot from cold and thusly freeze to death or burn themselves.) and it were to be aborted, then it was still a good ‘life’ to live. That would make aborting it ok.
The choice to have an abortion should be open to all. I highly approve of the therapeutic reasons for getting an abortion. The woman’s life takes precedence over the fetus’s in my opinion. If the woman were to die while giving birth, it is her life that must be saved, as the babe still hasn’t shown it will live past it’s first hour outside the womb. By letting the mother live, she still has the possibility of bearing one or more children. By letting her die and trying to save the child, it could be done in vain as the child may die at birth or in the following days. So would you rather have one death or two?
Rape cases and underage or even older women should definitely have the choice to keep it. To some, it feels like a parasite is in you stealing your nutrients and life source. They want it out of them as soon as possible. The woman’s life and mental health (although it is likely to be damaged by aborting her unborn child or even the fact she had a child) takes precedence over the fetus’s in my opinion.

My take on abortion

I am pro choice. I am willing to kill a fetus, a baby, before it's born. I do think it is wrong however to abort a fetus if you use no contraceptives or protection, and go at it like mad, and wind up knocked up. I've heard a story where a girl kept getting pregnant from lack of protection and just got abortions to 'solve her baby problem'. She should have to deal with it, take care of it. If she were to prove that she was unable to care for the child, or would harm it in some way, then it would be taken from her and be placed in a foster home and later put up for adoption. If she was a child who was being raped, which is a whole other scenario, she should be allowed to abort it if she wants to, and in some cases needs to. I think it appropriate for a woman to have an induced abortion, rather than one made for any other choice.

Who stands in the abortion debate

Those against abortion, whether they want prohibitions or the complete banning of abortions, are called the pro-lifers. The pro-life side argue that the unborn are human beings. They believe it is conscious and has the right to life.
Those against legal restrictions on abortion are called pro-choice. It is also argued that the mother has a right to life and her body.
They both have valid points, although I believe those on the pro-life side have come off as fanatics with little presentable facts, but more opinions followed by skewed statistics. One pro life site is one covered in class that talked about this generation being survivors of a holocaust. The point being abortion was legalized in the 1970's and since then over a billion feti have been aborted.
I find it interesting and somewhat humorous that there is only 'pro' life and choice, rather than one being pro-life and the other anti-life.

What does a fetus look like after it's been aborted? And definitions.

WARNING! THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS PICTURES OF ABORTED FETI! VIEW DISCRESSION IS ADVISED!

This is a fetus at 7 weeks after conception. Shown next to it is a nickel to compare its size.

This is a picture of a fetus at 8 weeks after conception shown next to a quarter.

at 9 weeks from conception, the fetus is little bigger than a quarter.

This is a picture of a 10 week old fetus next to a quarter. It's head is still smaller than a quarter.

A fetus at 11 weeks after conception.

This is a picture of a 22 week old fetus. Thats 5 and a half months after coception.

These real photos came from http://www.abort73.com/HTML/I-A-4-warning.html.

Human is defined as "The modern species of humans, the only extant species of the primate family Hominidae." (from www.answers.com/human). With this vague response to the definition of human, I searched for the definition of 'person' and found this; "A human being". These were all potential human beings. they could of been good or bad, white or black, but they were persons, human beings. One of the arguments against abortion is the fetus is deprived of a brilliant future. It could be a future president or scientist who discovers the cure for cancer. This can be contested that it could also become the next serial murderer or lowlife.

The definition of 'moral' is; "Of or concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character" . What pops into peoples head when they think about abortions is; is it moral to have one. So many questions are asked like is it living? Does it feel pain? What will happen to the mother? What does the law say about this? What it boils down to i is it right? Is it good? Morals are taught to us from the day we are born, which is a joke almost in the case of abortions seeing as they are removing the factor of being born. Therefore fetus's don't have morals, which is to say, we are now forcing our morals onto it. Nevertheless. The morals taught to us from birth are vague but punctuate forgiveness, trust, love, and what are known as good characteristics/ morals. But when morals are applied to abortion, they get very conflicting and confusing. The general consensus of morality is that it is wrong to kill/ murder or maim. But one of the questions is "Is a fetus alive" which brings a lot of controversy. Then it becomes not a question of morals, but of ethics. For most people, doing what is illustrated graphically above is morally wrong. Doing that to a being whether it is alive or not is still wrong.

Miscarriage and surgical abortions

There are a few ways abortions occur. There is the miscarriage, meaning spontaneous abortion, and there is the surgical or induced abortion. A miscarriage happens naturally and isn’t harmful to the pregnant woman. It usually occurs before the 20th week of gestation. Those that happen before the sixth week of the last missed menstruation are deemed chemical pregnancy. Those that happen after that 6th week are termed clinical spontaneous abortions. A sign that you might be having a miscarriage is bleeding while you are pregnant. Most women who have this happen often go on to having a miscarriage. This is noted to be called a threatened abortion.
An induced abortion falls into two categories; therapeutic or elective. Therapeutic abortions take place to either save the life of the mother, to keep the woman’s [physical] or mental health. ‘To stop a deformed child from being born that might die after birth, or to reduce the total number of fetuses to lessen health risks associated with multiple pregnancy.’ [www.Wikipedia.org/induced abortion]. Elective abortions are those performed by personal choice for reasons other than those stated above.

The creation of a human baby

This is an illustration of the stages of a fetus, from an embryo to pre-birth. This goes along with the following information (though not specifically)
Picture from;
http://www.healthofchildren.com/P/Prenatal-Development.html

The more technical side of a fetus's development. At 5 weeks, the fetuses heartbeat is detectable and begins circulating the blood. An umbilical cord and some organs start to develop. The fetus also starts to develop arm and leg ’buds’.
At 6 weeks, the fetuses brain cells develop, along with it’s eyes and nostrils. After the 8th week of pregnancy, the embryo is considered a fetus.
Around the 11th week, nearly all organs are formed along with the determination of its genitals. Hair and nails also begin growing as organs begin to function one at a time.
At three and a half months, one can find the gender of their fetus.
At 16 weeks, the fetus is found to be able to breathe on its own.
Around 4 to 5 months, the woman can feel the fetus moving and at 24 weeks, the fetus can survive outside the womb.
Around week 32, all 5 senses are functional, toenails formed, and can produce tears.
Finally, at week 40, the fetus is ready to be born, and when that happens, you‘ll be holding a warm babe. (The Merck Manuals, Stages of development). (Pregnancy.org- fetal development)

What is abortion and

When does Life begin? Does it begin at conception, when sperm meets egg, or at 9 weeks when it's heart starts beating, or even at birth? This is a widely discussed argument among society and politics. There is no definitive time when life begins so lets put this aside for now. It is debated if it is moral to kill something that hasn't even been born yet. In some cases, it is theorized a fetus can feel pain (within its third trimester). [Wikipedia.org/ Abortion/ fetal pain debate].

I believe life, begins at birth, not at conception. Within that 9 month incubating period, there is a 10% to 50% that the fetus will be miscarried, and in some cases, even unknown to the carrier. So after it takes it's first breath and opens its overly large eyes to gaze at the new world around it, it lives. It will not be a fully developed human being until birth. I believe that anything conceived by a human, is without a doubt, a human. What else would it be? An embryo is just a stage all creatures go through. That doesn’t make it a separate creature. If t hat logic were applied, then a teenager would not be human, just a stage in the human development. And furthermore if it were true, then when does development stop and we become humans? Death? The logic of a human fetus not being human doesn’t make much sense.

What is abortion? Abortion is the termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival. Any of various procedures that result in such termination and expulsion. Also called induced abortion. (Definition from www.Answers.com/abortion)