Pro-Choice: Gradualism
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An embryo is not a person since it lacks some of the essential features of adults. It cannot have rights because it is not yet a conscious or sentient being. Therefore, in the early months of pregnancy, a woman may abort at will. As pregnancy continues, the fetus gradually acquires value and rights as it becomes sentient and the neurological basis for the higher brain functions characteristic of persons emerges. As the fetus acquires serious rights, its mother acquires obligations to it if certain conditions are fulfilled. The crucial condition is that she be responsible for being pregnant or at least for having carried the child to that point. If she is fully responsible for carrying the child past the point at which it acquires serious rights, then she has obligations to it and only weighty reasons can justify an abortion. If she has a very low level of responsibility, she has no such obligations. In short, if a woman is responsible for her pregnancy or chooses not to abort early, she gradually acquires stronger obligations to her child as it develops.

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