In the context of the abortion controversy in the United States, list any five arguments in favor of ...

Some of the arguments in favor of legal abortion are as follows:

The belief in personhood at conception is a religious belief held by the Roman Catholic Church. Most Protestant and Jewish denominations regard the fetus as a potential human being, not a full-fledged person, and have made position statements in support of legal abortion. When the unborn becomes a person is a matter of religion and values, not absolute fact.
No law has ever stopped abortion, and no law ever will. The issue is not whether abortions will be done, but whether they will be done safely, by doctors, or dangerously, by back-alley butchers or by the women themselves. History has shown that antiabortion laws are uniquely unenforceable and do not prevent abortions.
The original intent of Medicaid was to equalize medical services between the rich and the poor and to help the poor become independent and self-sufficient. To make them ineligible for abortion defies justice, common sense, and rational policy. Women burdened by unwanted children cannot get job training or go to work and are trapped in the poverty/welfare cycle. Neither abortion nor childbirth should be forced on poor women.
In countries where abortion has been legal for years, there is no evidence that respect for life has diminished or that legal abortion leads to the killing of any people. Infanticide, however, is prevalent in countries where the overburdened poor cannot control their childbearing and was also prevalent in Japan before abortion was legalized.
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that abortion is not associated with a detectable increase in the incidence of mental illness. The depression and guilt feelings reported by some women are usually mild, temporary, and outweighed by feelings of relief. Such negative feelings would be substantially lessened if antiabortion advocates were less vehement in expressing their beliefs. Women choosing abortion should be informed of the risks and benefits to the procedure and should decide for themselves what to do.