Abortion Moral Or Immoral Essay, Research Paper

Abortion: Moral or Immoral

According to Faye Ginsburg “Abortion has been a controversial issue in society for nearly a thousand years” (98). Historical and present-day evidence shows the law made little difference in the amount of abortions that were occurring while it was illegal. Unfortunately, when abortion was illegal, it put the mothers in great danger. Women must have access to safe abortions. The risks of maternal death lessen when abortion is legal and accessible. Women have always used abortion as a last resort to prevent the birth of a child. They always will regardless of what the law or society have to say. No matter if anyone likes it or not there will be abortions. Illegal abortions are dangerous and, therefore, outlawing them is useless and cruel.

In the 1930’s there was “an epidemic of criminal abortion” in the United States. According to Stephanie Giutton “The number of births dropped by about half, as women refusing to bring children into a depressed economy resorted to illegal abortion to end their pregnancies” (57). As a result of this, about two thousand five hundred women died each year from abortion complications. This accounted for nearly one in four maternal deaths. According to Chuck Morse “From 1950 to 1965 in the United States, there were two hundred to two hundred fifty abortion related deaths reported each year” (4). But today thanks to changes in the law, the mortality rate from legal abortion is almost zero and abortion accounts for only three percent of maternal deaths. It is impossible to achieve a low maternal morality level without access to safe abortion. So why are President George W. Bush and Senator John Ashcroft trying to make abortion illegal? Don’t they know the statistics? Obviously not! President George W. Bush is practically trying to make women’s rights illegal. He is taking away our right to choose abortion. President Bush has decided to block United States funds to international family-planning groups that offer abortion and abortion counseling, but supposedly trying to be quiet about it. President George W. Bush never spoke much about his anti abortion views during the campaign so he probably won’t during his presidency. We’ll just have to pay careful attention to his actions. One action I have noticed was staffing his administration with pro-lifers. As Fred Barnes stated “He intends, for intense, to reinstate the so-called Mexico City policy of Presidents Reagan and Bush senior that barred the use of American funds for groups promoting and performing abortions around the world” (1). According to Fred Barnes “He is also supporting Texas’ “Parental notification Law for minor girls” which: requires doctors to notify a parent or guardian by phone or certified mail at least 48 hours before performing an abortion on a minor girl and provides a ten thousand dollar fine to doctors if they fail to notify” (1). I personally think this is taking away a girl/woman’s sexual privacy. I also think that President George W. Bush is confused in his beliefs. Bush stated that he supports a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion except in cases of rape or incest or to protect the life of the mother. But President Bush also said that he supports the Republican Party platform, which contains an anti-abortion plan that makes no such exceptions. He needs to get his story straight because he has totally contradicted himself.

Senator John Ashcroft is another man who is trying to take away a woman’s right to choose. According to Fred Barnes “Ashcroft opposes all abortion, and abortion-rights advocates fear that this could lead to negligent enforcement laws assuring women access to clinics without close-range inference by anti-abortion protester” (2). Senator Ashcroft also tried to get the Constitution amended to outlaw abortion, even in cases of rape or incest. Because of this statement, the American Way group has attacked him. He also opposed requiring federal health insurance plans to cover prescription contraceptives such as the birth control pill.

As a woman in today’s day and age, I cannot believe that the citizens of the United States would want take away from women the right to choose. If this were such a free country, then why would they do this? If abortion were to be illegal, women would still take the risk to prevent the birth of an unwanted child. The government would not be reducing the amount of abortions but they would be increasing the amount of deaths. I do not see how these two men (Senator John Ashcroft and President George W. Bush) could ever understand what it is like to be a woman and to be pregnant with an unwanted child. If the mother does not feel she can provide the child with a good life, she should be able to have the choice whether to abort or not. According to Chuck Morse “The majority of the people in the United States support legal abortion, and the position of legally banning abortion is futile, it is time to refocus the debate” (1). Honestly I don’t feel they could ever make abortion illegal again. Legal abortions are here to stay. The fight against it is a lost cause and it is time to cut our losses and move on to other issues before we lose more battles and eventually a war.

Bibliography

Works Citied

Barnes, Fred. “A Pro-Life White House.” The weekly Standard Magazine 1 January 2001: Volume 6, Number 16.

Ginsburg, Faye. Contested Lives. California: University of California Press, 1998.

Giutton, Stephanie. May It Please the Court. New York: Norton, 1995.

Morse, Chuck. “Abortion Will Be Legal.” Free Rebublic.com. 23 September 2000.