The social issue I am exploring is abortion. The two questions I am researching are: “Please tell me whether or not you think it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain legal abortion if there is a strong chance of a serious defect in the baby” and “Please tell me whether or not you think it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain legal abortion if the woman wants to for any reason.” This social issue is important because it can be viewed from a legal, moral, religious, and social standpoint. It also has only become a large part of our society, and therefore a largely debated issue, in the last half century. It also is sociologically important because it is a debate over the ideal our country was formed on: freedom. …show more content…
For the woman: freedom to choose whether or not to carry the pregnancy to term. I have chosen to view this issue of abortion based on how it varies between classes. I think that the lower classes will be the most opposed to abortions. Many members of the extended family usually assist in raising children in lower class families. Some of these people, such as grandparents, may live in the same house, and aunts, uncles, and cousins may live in the same neighborhood. This focus on a close-knit larger extended family ensures the woman having the baby that they will have a large support base for raising the child. Because of the focus on close ties to their extended family, and their overall focus on family in general, I think that lower class individuals will be more against abortions than upper class …show more content…
Income, wealth, education, occupation, and lifestyle all can be used to define class. Income refers to personal earnings from wages, salary, and investments. This is not always an accurate measure of class because it does not include family status or inheritances. Wealth refers to income in addition to real estate. This is the best predictor of class because individuals with the most overall wealth live the most prosperously, and are classified members of the highest class in American standards. Education relates to socioeconomic status. Education is a usually a strong predictor of income, wealth, occupation, and social status. However, education is not always a predictor of class because some jobs that require many years of higher education then result in low levels of income and wealth, such as teachers. Occupation relates to different levels of respect and prestige in the community. Though this is a fairly accurate display of class, wealth and occupation are not always directly correlated because of other circumstances, such as investments, that can move people up or down in class status. This is not a strong predictor of class because many times people with no wealth are very knowledgeable about our culture. The idea of wealth being the strongest predictor of class is especially prevalent in the United States, where class is based on economic inequalities. In a survey, people most likely self-reported their class
The issue of abortion is one of the most sensitive and controversial issues faced by modern societies. This issue leads to topics of whether abortion is right or wrong, if it is the actual killing of a person, and what actually defines the moral status of a fetus. In this paper, I will be arguing against Bonnie Steinbock, who believes that abortions are morally acceptable. So I will be supporting the view that abortions are not morally acceptable.
Abortion can have several effects on the society. Some may be noticeable, and others less. Abortion increases the amount of unintended pregnancies and deaths, and can affect the economy due to low birth rates (Dailard, 2001). Legalizing abortion reduces the consequences of having a child which increases the amount of sexual activity (Dailard, 2001). This results in the large number of children being conceived than there would have been if abortion wasn’t as available (Dailard, 2001). Some women who have unintended pregnancies will seek out an abortion regardless of its legal situation, even if it can put their lives in danger (Dailard 2001). In many countries where abortion is illegal, women tend to get abortions at a very high rate (Dailard, 2001). It is estimated there are around six-hundred-thousand pregnancy related deaths, and out of those, there were seventy-eight-thousand that are caused by complications due to unsafe abortions (Dailard, 2001). As the death rates increase, the birthrates decrease. As shown in a study in New Zealand, in some developing countries, abortion is leading to lower birthrates (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). Those lower birthrates can lead to a decrease in sales (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). In the twenty-two years leading up to 1999, there were over two-hundred thousand abortions, which led to the fewer sales of children items (“Impact of Abortion on Society”). As abortion has not severely effected society
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
Every year, as many as a million lives are aborted; lives that could potentially have been your neighbor, your friend, or even your son or daughter. Abortion is the surgical process of killing a baby by various means; and has been in effect since the Supreme Court ruling on Roe V. Wade in 1973 which legalized it nationwide. It was, at first, endorsed as being a woman’s right, but has more recently been viewed by most as the murder of an innocent child. Besides this shift in views, abortion has caused diverse effects on our culture and nation, as well as the death of upwards of 56 million children according to Life News. Our society has been deeply impacted by the effects of abortion and the loss of millions of innocent lives, and Christian
Abortion has been progressively restricted in many states across America, and this strong push is coming from believers. This act affects The United States in many ways; Amanda Marcotte from Alternet writes, “thanks to increasingly restrictive state and local laws and overzealous law enforcement, we are seeing a return to pre-Roe back-alley abortions and increasingly criminal treatment of women.” These restrictions, promoted by believers, infringe on women’s rights and contribute to danger of female health.
Abortion has been a highly debated topic for many years. Until 1973, when abortion was legalized in the U.S., women were obtaining very dangerous abortions that often killed them in the process. Although abortion is legal now, members of society still do not agree on whether it is “right.” There are pros and cons of abortion, which can be examined by the three theoretical perspectives; Structural Functionalism, Conflict Theory, and Postmodern Theory. This essay explains what the three theoretical perspectives are and how they view the social issue of abortion.
Abortion continues to make a profound impact on public policies and remains one of the most controversial debate of our time. Though abortion continues to be a debate, it was not always a problematic one. Abortion has been present throughout history dating back to the ancient Egyptians, Greek and Roman. Before abortion became a crime in the 19th century, abortion was a womans choice. “Before abortion became the object of law, it was a subject of everyday life” (Roe v Wade BOOK p. 11). From early civilizations to today, abortion was and may still serve as a form of birth control. It has been observed that through abortion those of upper class avoided “unwanted childbearing and the lower classes used it to limit family size when 1 or more child
The topic of abortion is one of the most controversial and sensitive for the society and myself. The debates and confrontations between two opposite groups of opinion are long and sometimes even brutal. Both sides have strong supporting arguments: pro-lifers base on moral principals, which is life before birth, while pro-choicers defend political and social rights, such as right to privacy and right of choice. Neither side can be absolutely right or wrong; basically it is a matter of personal opinion. Mine is that although the abortion is originally wrong, in many cases it must be a legal option.
Abortion has always been a controversial topic in the United States for decades. Abortion is like taking the life of someone without their permission so it is technically “murder”. There is no such thing as an unwanted child, millions of families in the United States are always willing to adopt. On the other hand, there are circumstances where a woman can barely care and sustain herself so chances are that she will not be able to take care of her child. Or when a rape occurs, having an abortion is not as bad as when a woman has sex without protection and knows she has the chance to get pregnant.
The abortion question raises a number of issues that form the core of the abortion debate. Opponents and supporters of abortions have been battling over this particular problem for decades and still cannot come to an agreement. Being one of the most common and most controversial medical procedures, abortion tends to affect people on psychological and sociological levels. But while the discussion of the morality of abortion is an ongoing debate, the social issues surrounding abortion in most cases stay unnoticed. The social aspect of the issue is centered on the abortion policy. The main question of the abortion policy is whether the law should permit abortions and, if so under what circumstances. The other is whether the law should put the life of an unborn child first and legally protect it. The peculiarity of the abortion policy is that its measures are highly dependent on different public opinions.
Abortion is dividing America. Without a common understanding of abortion, this issue will always be divisive in America. Throughout the history of America, abortion has been an issue that has generally separated people into two camps, those in favor of abortion and those against abortion. However, these two groups, more often than not, have not approached their understanding of this issue from the same perspective. Generally speaking, those in favor of abortion see the issue of the personal rights of women. However, those against abortion, view the issue of the rights of the child. As a result, these two perspectives will never gain unity or a common understanding of abortion. The purpose of this paper is to not only give a clear understanding of both sides of the issue, but to argue that this issue will never be a unifying issue in American culture.
What subject has been more controversial for the last several decades than abortion? Since the decriminalization of abortion in 19731, thousands have been performed every year in the United States. Whether you are a pro-life or right-to-life supporter, or a pro-choice advocate, there are compelling arguments. Both sides use proven statistics, as well as emotional appeal to establish their points. Pro-choice groups speak to the rights of a woman to choose what she wants to do with her body as a matter of freedom. Aside from personal choice, they believe that there are certain circumstances where abortion may be required due to medical reasons. Pro-life proponents
Choice, what is choice? Choice is the right, power, or opportunity to choose. Everybody in society has a choice and these choices have many outcomes. A woman’s right to choose to have an abortion or not, is her fundamental right. If society outlaws abortion, society is interfering with the woman’s right to make decisions related to her own body. Many theorists believe that sexuality is what divides women from men and makes women less valuable than men; keeping this concept in mind it can be said that gender plays an immense role in social inequality. In one of Thomas Jefferson’s speeches, he explains how we should never put at risk our rights because our freedom can be next. (lp. org 2007) Roe.V .Wade is believed to have been the
One of the most frequently debated topics in bioethics is the morality of abortion, or the ending of a pregnancy without physically giving birth to an infant. Often times abortions are categorized into either spontaneous, a natural miscarriage; induced or intentional, which is premeditated and for any reason; or therapeutic, which albeit intentional, its sole purpose is to save the mother’s life. It seems however that moral conflicts on issue mainly arise when discussing induced abortions. In general, people universally agree it is morally wrong to kill an innocent person and in some people’s eyes induced abortions are the intentional killings of innocent persons, thus making them immoral. However not all individuals view fetuses as persons and consequentially argue it is not morally wrong to kill them.
Abortion is a controversial issue in many countries all the time and there are always two sides of abortion. Pro-life supporters believe that abortion is immoral, so they argue that it should be illegal because an unborn baby is life. However, they do not figure out that woman who is on the inevitable situation such as infection, rape, or extreme poverty would still have the abortion even though the abortion is illegal. Many women die due to unsafe abortion, which is illegal and performed by uneducated people. Therefore, the abortion should be legal to protect the life of ‘alive women’ because women’s life is equal to human’s right. I would like to provide more affirmative bases to support abortion in this paper.