Abortion According to Marx, Weber, Simmel, and Bourdieu Essay

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.

Since technology has developed rapidly over the last several years, many endless controversies have broken out in America. One particular controversy that has become a continuous issue in America is abortion. Over the last decade the controversy over abortion has become a dividing conversation in America. The introduction to this paper is to discuss the controversy of abortion and its connection between individual rights and government control. Several people believe abortion is a version of murder while others view it as a right. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pro-life and pro-choice sides of abortion and the blurred line between individual rights and government control. The paper consists of background information on abortion, both sides of the controversy, and how it politically affects America. Several Americans argue that abortion is a right and should not be a religious or government choice but a personal choice. Without this choice, women will find harmful, illegal ways to have an abortion that could cause more issues. People also argue that illegalizing abortions would violate women right to privacy. Others although believe abortion is murder and that life starts even before they come out of the womb and abortions are killing of an innocent child. They also believe it is unfair for couples who are waiting to adopt a child. Abortion as a whole has become a debate over individual rights and government control. In J.S Mills book On

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.

Born in 1818, Marx grew up as the world watched the aftermath of the French Revolution unfold. It’s not surprising that in a feudal society, where social mobility was limited and there were scant opportunities for fulfilling work, that a grand shift in the reach of industry, and capitalism, would have a profound impact on a young Karl Marx. At the core of his work is an emphasis on power relations and class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat – it was Marx’s belief that society remained in a state of conflict as a result of competition for limited resources, and that social order was achieved through domination by the ruling class, rather than through democracy and/or conformity; this was characterised by the division of labour, and the consequential exploitation of the working class. This earned Marx his title as a conflict theorist, as well as a reputation as a

The social conflict over abortion has been and remains one of the most debated controversial issues in America. It first surfaced as an issue over two centuries ago, however, the argument has become very pronounced since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling of, Roe v. Wade, in 1973 which legalized abortion. It holds two opposing ideologies coined as pro-life and pro-choice. Both groups have powerful and challenging arguments for and against abortion, which gives us reason to believe that not only one side or argument is correct. The issue is one that questions a person's morality and ethics. The pro-life movement, or the right-to-life movement, in the United States contains elements that support its legal prohibition. Being pro-choice, on the other

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.

Karl Marx believed that struggle or conflict among classes was an inevitable feature of capitalism based on the argument that various groups in a society or social classes perpetually fight and compete for resources and power, hence the groups remains polarized against each other. The Karl Marx’s conflict theory views behavior from the perspective of conflict or tension among two or more groups. The conflict does not necessarily translate to violence but rather takes the form of struggle within political negotiations, business, philosophical ideologies or personal attitudes. A critical analysis of Karl Marx conflict theory’s point of view reveals that the conflict of social classes is the major aspect of societal conflict, and is mostly propagated by the differences in economic statuses and inequalities in distribution.

Abortion has been one of the biggest controversies of all time. Many people believe that women should get to decide what she would do with her body. The definition of abortion is; “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth”. Abortion is one of the most controversial topics today. Although there are two sides of the debate pro-choice and pro life, arguments are mainly centered around the Roe v. Wade decision, women’s rights and state restrictive laws.

Abortion has been a heated debate in the United States for decades. Since before the ruling on Roe v. Wade, it is clear that this is an issue that is far from ever being decided upon. Between those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice, scholars from both sides work on disproving the morality of the other side. With the evolution of abortion laws and regulation through the decades, it is difficult to imagine the United States without conflict pertaining to abortion. Despite pro-life and pro-choice agendas, the country is in ever-changing opinion when it comes to abortion.

The United States has been divided now over the issue of abortion for thirty-three years since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973. As of today, over 45 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States. Pro-choice advocates hold these 45 million abortions as being 45 million times women have exercised their right to choose to get pregnant and to choose to control their own bodies. To pro-life, or anti-abortion, advocates these 45 million abortions constitute 45 million murders, a genocide of human life in the United States propagated by the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. The debate over abortion in the United States is thus a debate of two extremes. One side argues from the personal liberty of the mother. The

The right of a women to control her reproductive decision is highly debated in the US because of the idea that abortions, to some people, are considered murder. A woman’s ability to make reproductive choices is a fundamental right protected by the

Few issues have embodied such controversy as abortion has. The various people involved in the abortion debate not only have strong beliefs, but each group has a self appeal that clearly reflects what they believe to be the essential issues. The abortion supporters see individual choice as central to the debate: If a woman cannot choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, a condition which affects her body and possibly her entire life, then she has lost one of her most basic human rights. These issues of abortion believe that while a fetus is a potential life, its life cannot be placed on the same level with that of a woman. On the other side, the anti-abortionist

Today’s society is made up of such an abundant number of controversial issues. One of the most controversial issues being abortion- the act of intentionally termination a pregnancy resulting in the death of the fetus (Kreider, A. personal communication, March 24, 2011). Abortion is both constitutionally and morally wrong, and should be illegal in the United States in all but two cases: if the mother was raped (and pregnancy was as a result of the rape) or if the mother’s life would be put in endangerment by the pregnancy. Abortion is murder at any stage of pregnancy, and acts against the U.S. Constitution. Not only does abortion harm innocent babies, but abortion also rises the risk of medical complications for the mother. Majority of

Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)

Abortion is a controversial topic that has plagued the country for decades. Even after the 7-2 Supreme Court trial (Roe vs. Wade) made it legal for women to choose to get abortions. This decision was based off the right of privacy coupled with the agreement between the woman and the state. Due to this decision abortion rights vary from state to state, in fact, about 85% of United States counties do not provide abortion services. Even though, abortion is ten times safer than the actual process of giving birth and 68,000 women died from resorting to “back-alley abortions.” Knowing all this, there are still two main groups arguing