Essay on Abortion: A Freedom of Choice

When touching the subject of abortion, one must consider that there are two sides battling for control. That is right, abortion has literally turned into a war zone where even the unlikely of individuals do the unthinkable. Each side has their motives and methods for contradicting the other. For instance, there are cases and events that support both sides of this issue.

Abortion’s legalization through Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade, has allowed for one in three pregnancies to end in abortion. This means that 1.5 million abortions are performed in the United States each year (Flanders 3). It ranks among the most complex and controversial issues, arousing heated legal, political, and ethical debates. The modern debate over abortion is a conflict of competing moral ideas and of fundamental human rights: to life, to privacy, to control over one's own body. Trying to come to a compromise has proven that it one cannot please all of the people on each side of the debate.

Pro-life advocates also argue that abortions are being used for unsettling reasons. People are choosing to have abortions when they discover that their unborn child is not "perfect." The embryo or fetus may be the wrong sex, or have some form of a birth defect. They also view abortions as an unacceptable form of birth control. Many women are not getting one abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy, but two, three, and sometimes even more.

Abortion, the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is capable of independent life, has been practiced since ancient times. With records dating to 1550 BC, it’s no question that abortion techniques have been used throughout the ages as an effective form of birth control. Pregnancies were terminated through a number of methods, including the use of herbs, sharpened instruments, the application of abdominal pressure, and other techniques. In the 19th century, the English Parliament and the American state legislatures prohibited induced abortion to protect women from surgical procedures that were deemed unsafe. However, in 1973, abortion was legalized as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court rule in Roe v. Wade. This ruling made it possible

Women choose to have abortion for a lot of reasons some may believe that they are too young and do not have a lot of responsibility of parenting. They may not be in a relationship and cannot handle being a single mum. They may not be able to afford to have a child, they also may not want their life goals to be interrupted (hodesnauser,2011).

Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).

Abortion is one of the most personal, widely discussed, and controversial topics in American culture today. In most cases, people on both sides of the argument take worthy and moral positions. Who can blame someone who wishes to prevent the termination of a teen pregnancy to save the life of an unborn child? On the other hand, who can blame anyone who advocates the soon-to-be mother's right to make such a personal, heartbreaking choice? No matter what she chooses to do, should anyone have the legal right to force her to bear an unwanted child? Most people in the US are pro-choice, and believe that abortion should be a legal, confidential decision that only a woman can make for herself. However, some are against the idea of

Abortion divides many Americans, it is one of the many controversial issue in today’s society. There are two major viewpoints that receive the most attention. One point of view is pro-life which is the belief women should not abort a human life. On the other side, is pro-choice which is the belief women may decide whether to carry a baby to full term or abort it. Abortion is known as the act of removing a human embryo or fetus from the uterus of a pregnant woman prior to the completion of the full term of pregnancy. There are very strong opinions for and against this issue, but no one can deny the vast gray area of abortion. Not everyone falls into the specific camp of pro-life or pro-choice. Many Americans find a comfort level in the gray area where there are restrictions, but abortion is not illegal. 1 A person’s stance on the situation is often determined by how they view the fetus: a part of the mother’s body or as a human being.

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. Since 1973 abortion has been an important controversial issue within the United States. 1973 marks the year that the famous Rowe versus Wade case was decided before the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion be legal and available to all women. Legal abortions can be performed up until the sixteenth week of pregnancy, after sixteen weeks most doctors or clinics will not perform the procedure unless keeping the baby presents a medical risk to the mother. Even in these situations abortions are very risky after sixteen weeks.

The morality of induced abortion is one of the most controversial moral issues of our time. Abortion has grown to be one, if no the most, debated argument of modern times. In the following web-page, we will be discussing abortion in three of its major aspects: Public Opinion, Congress and Courts, and Interest groups.

A lot of people consider abortion a form of murder because they consider the fetus to be a human being. It is because of this that they would never get an abortion and they would get mad at others who did. People consider babies a gift from God and even unplanned pregnancies are seen as God’s gift to the parents. People who are against abortion state other humans are in no position to play God and that we have no right to choose who lives and who dies. Some reasons that pregnant women consider not having an abortion are because the chances of getting pregnant afterwards decline and because of the emotional pain that is felt with the loss of a mother’s child. It is a very tragic event in a woman’s life and its something that can’t be reversed or taken back. People who are against abortion argue that

The controversy within the biomedical ethics topic, abortion, has two main proponents. The first is the view against abortion, also known as pro-life. The other view is rooted upon the belief of being pro-choice, or basically for abortions. These two different views are like two mathematical principles, in that although these two views have many differences, they also have larger similarities in the background. For example, when pro-choice activists support abortions due to unwanted pregnancies, the activists are not rallying behind the idea of sexual incompetency (pregnancies due to lack of birth control). Rather, they are supporting the idea that women have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies. In order to understand

Of all the legal, ethical, and moral issues we Americans continuously fight for or against, abortion may very well be the issue that Americans are most passionate about. The abortion issue is in the forefront of political races. Most recently the “no taxpayer funding for abortion act”, has abortion advocates reeling. Even though abortion has been legal in every state in the United States since the monumental Supreme Court decision, “Roe v Wade”, on January 22, 1973; there are fewer physicians willing to perform abortions today than in 2008. (Kraft) At the heart of the ethical dilemma for many in the medical profession is the viability of the fetus. And just to make this whole dilemma more confusing, according to the United States

Now lets talk about the other reasons why abortion should remain legalized. I feel if a woman is pregnant for any reason and she does not want the child or to go full term, then abortion should be there as an option. If it is not an option then women would find a way to abort on their own, which would be very unsafe to her own welfare. The old coat hangar trick or throwing yourself down a flight of stairs should not be an option because there are no other alternatives available. Anyway, If the pregnancy is made to go full term because of these Pro- Lifers, then I feel many of these babies will be born into families that not only doesn’t want to care for them but can’t care for them. Maybe they

Almost all abortions occur during the first trimester when the fetus cannot live outside of the mother’s body. People who are pro-choice believe that “at birth, a baby is a human life. At conception, it 's something, perhaps, but it 's not really a human life (McDowell).” In other words when the baby has a heart beat it is not a human life. Or when the baby is kicking inside the mother’s womb it is not a human life. The child is not a human life until it is outside of the mother’s body. In the case of rape or incest, forcing a woman made pregnant by this violent act would possibly cause further psychological harm to the victim (Lowen). More often than not the woman who was sexually assaulted is too afraid to speak up against her attacker.