Abortion Clinics Should Not Be Closed Essay

, Research Paper

In 1973, the Supreme Court?s decision made

it possible for women to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical

surgeons, and therefore led to dramatic decreases in pregnancy-related

injury and death (”abortion”). Now there is a new proposal to close abortion

clinics. This proposal takes away the privacy rights of American women

that are guaranteed by our Constitution. By closing abortion clinics the

government is not only taking away women?s rights, but is also punishing

those whom want to exercise their right of a pro-choice woman.

Abortion clinics allow thousands of women

every year to have abortions. Having the abortion should be woman?s personal

choice. By closing these clinics, there will be no providers to perform

the operation, so the choice has already been made for them. Closing the

clinics will increase the barriers of having an abortion. When there are

too many obstacles, the right to make their own choice is taken away from

them. In 1973 the American Supreme Court ruled that Americans? right to

privacy included: “the right of a woman to decide whether to have children,

and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state

interference” (”abortion”). The Constitution says we have a right to privacy,

so taking away a woman?s chance to make decisions about her own body violates

that right.

The American Civil Liberties Union defends

the Constitution and peoples? rights.ACLU has protected the rights of abortion

for women, and in recent years has argued mayor cases opposing restrictions

that deny woman access to reproductive health care (”ACLU”). Policy 263

states: “The ACLU holds that every woman, as a matter of her right to the

enjoyment of life, liberty, and privacy, should be free to determine whether

and when to bear children.”(The American Civil Liberties Union)

The closure of abortion clinics will be

done with the purpose to reduce the number of abortions. This raises the

question whether this will be an effective method or not. Before 1973 abortions

were illegal yet the number of women who sought abortions did not decrease

(”abortion”). Before 1973 many thousands of women died or suffered serious

medical problems after attempting to perform their own abortions, or going

to untrained doctors who performed cheap abortions with uncivilized methods

or in unsanitary conditions (The Abortion Law Homepage.). If clinics are

closed, women will still continue to attempt, and succeed, in ending unwanted

pregnancies just like before 1973. Women will risk their health and possibly

even their lives. By keeping these abortions clinics open it ensures a

higher probability that the women who do have abortions will be in a safe,

sanitary environment, and therefore injuries will be fewer in number.

If clinics are shut, the waiting lists

of abortion clinics in other countries will be much longer. Women will

have to wait longer to get an abortion, and will be treated later in their

pregnancy which is much more dangerous for the pregnant women.

Pro-life activists claim that the unborn

baby is alive and has feelings when the heart begins beating. But, the

heartbeat begins between the eighteenth and twenty-fifth day (”Fetus”).

They also say that women who have abortions are “murderers”. This problem

could be solved by keeping abortion clinics open, because then the woman

can be treated before the twenty fifth day when the fetus is not yet a

living baby. She will not have to wait because of long waiting lists, but

instead will have the abortion as soon as possible with as less psychological