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 order to protect the mother’s health during the procedure.

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.