The Most Developed Cases Against Abortion

Many people are passionate about "hot button" issues, but don't seek out sources that present the deepest understanding and strongest, most-developed arguments on those issues. 

So, they listen to folks like social media influencers and apologists and activists, but not credentialed, experienced experts. Apparently, many people just don't ask themselves, "Who really knows about these topics? What are the best sources here?" and seek out those experts. 

This is true about many issues and topics. Many reflective people find this problematic and bizarre, for many reasons that I won't review here. 

With that in mind, here is a short list of some of the thinkers who are widely considered (by experts on the topics) to have the deepest understanding and strongest, most-developed arguments on those issues, with links to some commentary on their arguments:

• Francis Beckwith
• Robert George
• Robert George and Christopher Tollefsen
• Christopher Tollefsen
• Christopher Kaczor
• Don Marquis (interestingly: he is widely considered by philosophers to present the best anti-abortion arguments, yet anti-abortion advocates and activists tend to either be unaware of his arguments or reject them). 

There surely are others that I cannot think of at the moment.

Now, that some people have the deepest understanding and strongest, most-developed arguments on those issues does not mean or entail that their arguments are good arguments. The thinkers above tend to argue that abortion is wrong by claiming:

• embryos and beginning fetuses are the "kind" of beings that are rational beings or moral agents, or:
• people and living bodies are basically the same thing, so when a living body exists, so does a person: that embryo was you; or:
• we -- e.g., anyone reading this -- are usually wrong to kill because it prevents us from experiencing our good futures, and early fetuses have the same relation(s) to future experiencing people as we do.

Now, for a variety of reasons, none of these are good arguments, but coming to understand why that's so requires understanding the arguments first.