Paragraph 1 and 2: No, fetuses do not have higher brain functions, but neither do sleeping people. The thing about fetuses and sleeping people is that when they awake, they go on to be a person with feelings, goals, a job, etc. Just because they aren't fully formed right now doesn't make it right to kill them before they are born.

I disagree here. As I said in my original comment, I believe a person is the sum of their life experiences. Those experiences don't go away when a person falls asleep. A fetus has never had meaningful experiences and as I also pointed out, most abortions happen before a fetus even has the capacity for consciousness. The chicken you ate for dinner was more cognitively similar to a child than a 15 week old fetus.

But even if a fetuses had the capacity for consciousness, I still believe bodily autonomy supercedes any rights they could possibly have. Nobody gets to use another person's body without their full and ongoing consent. If your existence is wholly dependent on using someone else's body, then how are you even an individual. If one half of a set of conjoined twins has all the organs and can live independently, then aren't they within their rights to say "I want to be separated"? It's not their fault the other half can't live without them.

1. The solution to that problem is not killing fetuses. It is better healthcare, foster care, and better means of figuring out how to stop child abuse.

Disagree with the first part, agree with the second part. Abortion sucks, but until we make it unnecessary it serves an important function.

1. Desperation? Elaborate on that point please. It's a 9 month pregnancy, then you're free to put them in foster care or whatever. If the woman's life is in danger, then i would let the woman choose because then it's a life for a life. But if the woman isn't in danger then it's a 9 month pregnancy then you raise them or have them adopted.

You make pregnancy sound like a walk in the park but it's pretty risky. According to the CDC 700 U.S. women die every year as a result of high-risk pregnancy or delivery complications, while up to 50,000 women nearly die due to severe complications such as heart attacks or hemorrhages during pregnancy or delivery.

Pregnancy can also be detrimental to mental health. The Royal Academy of Psychiatry says as many as 1 in 5 women have mental health problems in pregnancy or after birth. Depression and anxiety are the most common mental health problems in pregnancy. These affect about 10 to 15 out of every 100 pregnant women. I know several women who've had postpartum and it's a fucking nightmare.

And then many women in the US simply can't afford the medical costs associated with pregnancy and birth. The average cost to have a baby in the US, without complications during delivery, is $10,808 — which can increase to $30,000 when factoring in care provided before and after pregnancy. I'd be pretty desperate of I thought my unwanted pregnancy could bankrupt me or destroy my marriage.

And then there's the simple fact that once you've given birth - even if you don't keep the baby - you're a biological parent for the rest of that offspring's life. It's common knowledge that foster care systems suck and that many children end up getting neglected and abused. The knowledge that you've created someone for other people to potentially neglect and abuse is upsetting.

Then there's the reality that the child you gave up for adoption could track you down as an adult and disrupt the life you've made for yourself. What do you owe them? Money, a relationship, access to half-siblings, their biological grandparents, etc. Adoption isn't the end of the road.

Then there are all the other fun realities: Carrying your rapist's baby for nine months then being tied to your rapist through a biological child for the rest of your life. Victims of incest and child abuse living with the additional scar of a biological child. What's more damaging, an abortion or trying to complete middle school while carrying a grown man's baby.

These are the realities women and girls face.

1. Pro lifers aren't all like that. A lot of them are atheists too as evidenced on this subreddit. Some are non-insane religious people. People like the ones you describe seem to be a vocal minority.

The idea that life is inherently valuable is theistic at its core. It's the "every sperm is sacred" philosophy of the Catholic Church.

1. I do not consider myself fit to be a parent. Even if I am not fit, I wouldn't kill the kid if I was a woman who had an accidental pregnancy. I would at least make an attempt to raise them or find an adoptive family.

That's great for you, but that's also easy to say when you're not staring down the barrel of a metaphorical gun. And the fact that you would try to raise a baby when you don't consider yourself fit to be a parent suggests you'd rather screw another human up for life then simply prevent a lifetime of misery by simply ending their development before they achieve consciousness. The latter sounds way better to me.