Prochoice Essay, Research Paper

If you had a fifteen year old daughter and she got pregnant either by some stupid kid or, heaven forbid, she was raped, what would you do? Would you want her to drop out of school to raise a illegitimate child? We all know that abortion is wrong and not a birth control method, but consider it once if abortion was illegal. Your beloved daughter would be in an ally somewhere with someone worse than the father having a procedure to gruesome to describe. So I am going to write about the different areas of Pro-Choice abortion to show that it is a better practice than the other alternatives.

What are the different methods of abortion?

The most common method is suction abortion or vacuum aspiration. This practice a suction tube is inserted through the dilated cervix into the womb. A powerful vacuum tears the placenta from the uterus and dismembers the body of the developing child, sucking the pieces into an attached container. There is a risk that the uterus can be punctured during the procedure. Also, the abortionist must take care that all the body pats are removed from the womb, as infection and hemorrhage can occur if fetal or placental tissue is left in the uterus. This method can be used up to the eighth week of pregnancy.

The second most common method is called saline injection or salt poisoning and is used after sixteen weeks or pregnancy. The doctor inserts a long needle through the mother s abdomen and injects a saline solution into the sac of amnionic fluid surrounding the fetus. The fetus is poisened by swallowing the salt and it s skin completly burned away. It takes about an hour to kill the fetus. After the child dies, the mother goes into labor and expels the dead baby. Saline injections have been outlawed in some countries because of the risks to the mother, which can include lung and kidney if the salt finds its way into her bloodstream. In spite the horrible burning effect, some babies have survived salting out and been born alive.

Dilation and Curettage (D&C) is a method used during the end of the first trimester and the beginning of the second trimester. In D&C the doctor inserts a curette, a loop shaped steel knife, into the womb through the dilated cervix. As the curette scrapes the wall of the uterus, the baby is cut into pieces. Bleeding can be considerable and some patients do die from excessive bleeding , but this is very rare. As with a suction abortion, there is a risk of infection or hemorrhage, so the abortionist must reassemble the body parts to sure the uterus is empty.

Dilation and Excavation (D&E) In a D&E abortion it is similar to D&C, except that forceps must be used to grasp the baby s body because of the child s advanced development. The baby is dismembered as the abortionist twists and tears the parts of the body and slices the placenta away from the uterus. Bleeding is profuse. Although relatively safe for the mother, the procedure is devastating for the hospital staff and many doctors refuse to do advanced D&E abortions.

Why do women get an abortion?

There are many reasons for not wishing to continue a pregnancy: the woman may be too young or too old; it is the wrong time in her life; she is single and lacks financial and emotional support; she has too many other responsibilities; her baby is likely to be born with serious disabilities; she is pregnant as a result of rape or incest; she has no home or secure base; she has a serious disease which would be made worse by pregnancy; there is a hereditary disease in her or her partner’s family; she has a large family already; she has relationship or marriage problems.

What problems does abortion cause?

Besides the threat that abortion gives the mother, there is also a threat to the clinic workers. Some confronational anti-abortionists are so dangerous they turn on each other. For example, Barbera Lyons of Wisconsin Right to Life reported anti-abortionist Robert Cook to the authorites because as she was quoted having said in the Chicago Tribune, The things he said caused us some concerns. Cook was found guilty in January 1996 on charges of stealing $260,000, and using the money to purchase weapons, and attempting to assemble an army of men to attack abortion clinics across the country.

Speaking to the National Abortion Rights Action League, Hillary Clinton tallied up all the bombings and other acts done by some off-balanced persons against abortion clinics and their employees. We agree that these actions are without justification: In ten years, seven lives have been taken. There have been 38 bombings, 146 cases of arson, and 733 acts of vandalism. These total 924 incidents at abortion clinics, many tragic and all uncalled for. That is what a Pro-Life agency said about the bombings that have taken place.

Searching through CNN I have found many stories of crazy Pro-life activists shooting abortion doctors, such as Dr. Slepian being shot by James Kopp. Where is the logic with shooting a doctor. If your seatbelt doesn t lock in a crash you don t blow up Ford or GM.

The definition of abortion by Webster s New World Dictionary is: 1a) any spontaneous expulsion of an embryo or a fetus before it is sufficiently developed to survive; miscarriage b) any deliberate procedure that removes, or induces the expulsion of, a living or dead embryo or fetus: called Criminal abortion if done illegally.