Abortion Essay, Research Paper
Abortion: to be or not to be?
Many women feel abortion should be their choice. However, pro-lifers
feel abortion should be illegal. Should abortion be the woman’s choice or should
the state get to choose?
Elective abortions are those initiated by personal choice. Women choose
an abortion for many reasons rape, irresponsibility, or they are not ready to have
a family. When women choose to have an abortion for one of these reasons it is
called an elective abortion ( Conditions and Concerns: Medical Encyclopedia.
Abortion: elective or therapeutic).
Therapeutic abortions are those recommended by the health care provider
for safety reasons. Most therapeutic abortions take place between eight to twelve
weeks of pregnancy. The procedure consists of dilating the cervix and removing
the contents of the uterus by scraping and suctioning the inner walls of the uterus
( Conditions and Concerns: Medical Encyclopedia. Abortion: elective or
therapeutic).
Legally performed abortions are relatively safe, and complications rarely
occur. A first trimester legal abortion is physically safer for a woman than
actually giving birth. Excessive loss of blood and infections are the
most frequent complications. These complications are rare when the procedure
is done by a competent provider ( Conditions and Concerns: Medical
Encyclopedia. Abortion).
The Children’s Defense Fund, supporters from Washington, states that
at least 40,000 girls drop out of school because of pregnancy. That every year
in the United States more than a million girls under the age of twenty –about one
in ten– become pregnant. “Eighty-two percent are unintended, forty-two percent
aborted”( Clark 441). However some teenage girls may not realize they are
pregnant until the second trimester and increase the danger to their own
lives with second trimester abortions. “In the United States one legal abortion
occurs for every four live births” ( Conditions and Concerns: Medical
Encyclopedia. Abortion).
Laws that require teenagers to involve their parents in abortion decisions is
one issue that is making big headlines. Forty-one states have enacted laws to
prevent teenage abortions without consent. “Opinion polls show the public
supports parental involvement by majorities as high as eighty-one percent”
( Glazer 441).
The Roe v. Wade ruling gave women the right to privately decide for an
abortion. Although, the right to have an abortion is not unlimited, state laws may
regulate the standards in
As the fetus develops, the state may have an interest in protecting its life.
“However, the unborn are not included in the definition of a ‘person’ in the
Fourteenth Amendment and therefore, have no constitutional rights
(Terkel 30).
Until the point of pregnancy where the fetus is capable of life outside the
womb, usually between twenty-four and twenty-eight weeks, the state may only
regulate abortions to protect the mother’s health. The state cannot require that
abortions be done in a hospital only in a medical facility by a licensed physician
(Terkel 30).
Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in the United States. It has
been the focus of many political campaigns. There is so many arguments going
on between the abortion opponents and supporters that it appears they are evenly
divided on the issue. On one side there are the right to lifers “ready to amend the
Constitution, close down abortion clinics, and persuade every woman not to have
an abortion” ( Henshaw 26). Then there are the pro-choice supporters insisting it
is every women’s right to have an abortion.
Public opinion polls show fewer than twenty percent of American’s believe
abortion is morally wrong regardless of reason. Twenty to twenty-five percent
believe a woman is entitled to an abortion if she wants one. The majority of
Americans still believe abortion should be legal( Henshaw 26).
Some people argue that life is a divine blessing which no person, not even
a mother, has the right to take. Others say no individual, not even an unborn
child, has the right to keep a woman pregnant against her will ( Abernathy 15).
One ethical guideline in our society is that it is immoral –and illegal–
to murder another person. Although our society finds certain killings such as
self-defense or excusable wars morally allowed, it does not excuse the killings
of innocent people. So, if a fetus is considered a person, it would be immoral
to abort it because it would be killing an innocent person. It is also said that
“abortion is immoral because although it is not killing a person it is killing a
life that has the potential of becoming a person” (Abortion 15).
The legalization of abortion does not exempt people from behaving
morally. It just gives them the opportunity to do so. Abortion is a very
serious decision it should not be taken lightly and should be made with
responsibility. It is taking a life. Even though it is not formed, it is the potential,
and to me it is still taking a life.