Concerns about legality and morality took center stage Friday night, as Fiona Givins, vice president of the Virginia Society for Human Life, and Stephanie Mueller, communications director of the National Abortion Federation, wrangled over the emotionally charged issue of abortion.
Givins, a pro-lifer, presented her argument first and called abortion the "most compelling, controversial, divisive issue of our time."
Current U.S. laws delineate few restrictions for women seeking an abortion, she said.
Givins called abortion the destruction of a living human being and said the procedure violates the rights of an unborn child.
Unborn children are a separate entity from the women bearing them, and they deserve the same rights as any other person, Givins said.
"It is the government's duty to protect those who cannot protect themselves," she said. "How could this procedure be possible in this country - the 'land of the free and the home of the brave'?" Givins also compared abortion to the enslavement of blacks in pre-Civil War America.
"In one instance you are discriminating against someone because of the color of their skin, and in the other instance you are discriminating against someone because of their size or place of residence," she said.
She graphically described the procedure of partial-birth abortions, which she claimed is never fully explained.
Abortion can have serious physical and mental repercussions for the woman having the abortion, she added.
All abortions are dangerous and can result in sterility, future miscarriages or post-traumatic stress disorder, Givins said.
She said while women who suffer miscarriages grieve immediately, women who have abortions often suppress feelings of guilt, causing possible future psychological problems.
"Abortion leaves in its wake broken bodies, shattered lives and grieving mothers," she added.
Mueller disputed Givin's claim that abortion is a dangerous procedure and stressed the need to keep the procedure legal in order to maintain safety.
Abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures available and is 10 times safer than childbirth itself, she said.
"If you make abortion illegal, it will not stop abortion - it will stop safe abortion," Mueller said.
Those who want abortion to remain legal do not necessarily favor abortion over other options, she said.
"We only endorse abortion as an option. I would never tell a woman to have an abortion," she added.
Mueller said abortion counselors provide women with information about abortion but do not encourage women to have abortions.
Abortion counselors have turned more women away from abortion clinics than the efforts of anti-abortion protestors have, she claimed.
Mueller said pro-choice groups believe abortion is a private healthcare decision that the woman, not the government, should make.
Because there is no consensus as to when human life actually begins, Mueller said she believes abortion is a religious and philosophical question that should not be in the hands of the government.
Eighty-six percent of U.S. counties have no abortion provider because abortion clinics face harassment from protesters, she said.
Mueller said pro-choice organizations are dedicated to "protecting women's health and saving women's lives."
Jefferson Society President Daniel Grunberger said the debate provided students with the opportunity to participate by asking questions.
Second-year College student Levi Fox said he enjoyed hearing both sides of the debate.
"Both sides made good representations of their cases and I thought both speakers were very professional," Fox said.
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