Eliza Cussen's Abortion Debate

One of the most controversial issues discussed in modern times is the issue of abortion. On March, 31th as a way to bring light to this topic, the student organization Pointers for Life hosted a debate between members of the pro-life and pro-choice community. Standing on the pro-life side of the argument was Isaac Fleming, a member of the organization Wisconsin Right to Life. On the pro-choice side was Eliza Cussen, a member of NARAL Wisconsin, a pro-choice advocacy group. While attending this debate I choose to pick one speaker’s argument to evaluate from the beginning. Choosing Eliza, I found that she provided good arguments and good deliver as a speaker. The first point that Eliza covered, was how birth control and abortion are okay. In summary of her first argument she discusses how birth control and abortion are tools that are available to women to better their lives and that should not be something that can take away from them. One in three woman will have an abortion in their life time and without having abortions available, the lives of these women and the …show more content…
She had a strong confident tone which made the audience sympathize with what she was saying. While she defiantly knew her information, the main place she struggled with as a speaker her variety of sources. This is the one place that Isaac had the upper hand on her. Eliza’s use of sources was quite limited and consisting mainly on information from Planned Parenthood. Another downfall in her argument, was how she presented herself unprofessionally. At the beginning of her argument she stated,” I like debates because I get to be bitchy.” This was fairly unprofessional and takes away from her credibility as a speaker. Despite the few flaws to her presentation, Eliza still presented her argument quite well demonstrating her good use of tone, fairly strong arguments, and good