Abortion Final Paper
Robert Stockfleth
Arizona State University Abortion Final Paper
The issue of abortion has been a highly polarizing topic in recent decades, although abortion has been around for thousands of years. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary (2014) defines abortion as “a medical procedure used to end a pregnancy and cause the death of a fetus.” Today three highly debated points regarding abortion are: should it be legal, when does human life begin, and who should provide financial backing for the procedures?
According to a historical review by Williams, abortion was legal in the United States from the days of the early settlers until the nineteenth century. During the 1800s, several laws were passed prohibiting abortion, except in life-or-death situations for the mother. In the 1960s, several states started to relax their abortion policies, with a few entirely legalizing it again. This sparked several lawsuits that challenged abortion’s legality and there was little agreement among the lower courts (Williams, 2013).
Williams continued that in 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the case Roe v. Wade that a woman had a right to reproductive privacy. This meant she (with the help of her doctor) was able to make the decision to terminate a pregnancy without intrusion from the government. The Roe v. Wade ruling was extremely controversial and several states actually resisted compliance until they were forced to do so (Williams, 2013). According
Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making the choice for thousands of years. It has become a large dilemma since 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court passed a law making the procedure legal, and an even larger controversial issue. The controversy is divided into “Pro-Choice” and Pro-Life” views. Pro-Choice supporters believe that the woman should have to choice whether to abort or not. Pro-Life supporters believe that it should be illegal to abort and preformed. However, there are many ways for this procedure to be performed. Abortion still remains today a controversial issue, by who should determine if it is the right thing to terminate a pregnancy or not and by how the procedure should be preformed.
Abortion has been and still is one of the most controversial topics in American culture. The reason for the controversy is the different viewpoints of this very personal matter. Some believe that abortion is the same as murder. Others believe it’s a personal choice which only they have the right to make. Due to the nature of the procedure and the concerns associated with ending a pregnancy, abortion will continue to top the list of “touchy” subjects in American politics and culture. As a pro-choice advocate, it is important for the right to have an abortion to be established and protected.
These illegal abortions were unsafe, and could be fatal to most women, and put their lives at risk. Jane Roe was a twenty-one year old woman that was pregnant, who represented all of the women who wanted abortions but could not get one. Henry Wade was a Texas attorney General who had defended the state’s law. The Supreme Court ruled for Roe and stated that America’s right to privacy included: the right for a woman to choose whether or not to have her child; and the right for a woman and her doctor to make this decision without state involvement within the first trimester of the pregnancy. It made it possible for woman to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners. Consequently, there was a dramatic decrease in pregnancy related deaths.
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 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.
Debate and policy about when life begins has circulated the Unites States since at least the 1700s, and still the question remains the same; when does life begin. Anti-abortionists assert that science proves life begins at conception. Similarly, pro-choice advocates believe there is not enough evidence to say exactly when life begins. There is tension between the two groups, which leads to poor communication. Both sides refuse to give up any ground because the stakes are high, but it’s important to find a solution to an escalating problem. This literature review considers whether abortion should be outlawed by responding to the following questions:
In today’s society, there are many topics that cause a lot of uproar and controversy. Certain topics like politics, homosexuality, and climate change are just a few topics that are debated on a daily bases. One other topic that has been debated on for centuries is abortion. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy before birth; this results in the death of a fetus or an embryo. Abortion happens in different countries around the world, but it is commonly known in the United States. The United States is one of only seven countries in the world where abortion is legal in some states. Many people know about abortion and what it is, but what some people do not know is that there are several different types of it. Just a few types of abortion are early abortion, late-term abortion, and partial-birth abortion. There is early abortion, which is when the pregnancy is terminated before the fetus is available, and then there is late-term abortion, which is when an abortion is performed after the second trimester. The most crucial type of abortion, partial-birth abortion, is a form of late-term abortion that ends a pregnancy in which the fetus is removed intact and results in death. Although some people believe abortion is not the best decision to make and that it should be illegal, early abortion is a little better than late-term abortion. All in all, late-term abortion should be banned because it is similar to killing a fully developed child.
Abortions were widely used in the early eighteen hundreds and kept secret due public scrutineer. Not only were they considered against the law in some places but were risky due to high risk of infection from unsterile equipment used to perform the actions.” Without today’s current technology, maternal and infant mortality rates during childbirth were extraordinarily high. “(National abortion Federation, 2016) as time contained states changed and modified their laws to accommodate political agendas, these opposed to legal abortion had begun to fight absent any stated funded abortion clines. Then there was Roe v. Wade this was the first major Supreme Court battle based on abortion laws and ethics. Roe v. Wade decision of the courts said that they “considered the constitutionality of a Texas statute made it a crime to obtain an abortion except when it was necessary to save the life of the mother”. (Harris, 2014) There was another Supreme Court case that changed the views of the courts based on how they judge the frame work of decision on the trimester model. The ethics involved in this are not just solely left to the mother of the potential life but in the network of people
The topic covered in this research paper is abortion. This paper looks into the history of abortion, the pro-life view of abortion and the pro-choice view of abortion. Under history of abortion the information included is the time line of significant events of abortion such as becoming legal, also different ways in ancient times women would try to use abortions. The upgrading of technology making abortion safer and even if abortion was illegal women would still find a way to abort a baby are also covered under the history of abortion. Under pro-life choice for abortion looks into abortion murder, the rights of human and the rights of the unborn and that a women doesn't have a right to terminate her own fetus. Under pro- choice
How would you feel if someone took away your ability to live? Imagine not having any say in whether or not you want to have a life. Well babies don't have a choice in their mother’s womb. If a woman decides to abort her baby, they can't do anything about their life being taken away from them. Their whole future is demolished. I believe abortion is wrong when committing it for a selfish reason.
The topic of aborting an innocent fetus has been overwhelmingly controversial in the United States. The two sides to this ongoing debate is pro-life advocates and pro-choice advocates. Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo before it can survive outside the uterus; whether it is an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Abortions are most often performed during the first twenty-eight weeks of pregnancy and can be performed as a medical or surgical procedure. Medical abortions include two types of abortion pills; while the surgical procedures include vacuum aspiration and dilation and evacuation. Ultimately, I am one of the many “pro-lifers”, and I strongly agree that abortion should be illegal because it negatively affects our people. Women across the nation are becoming impregnated and following a short amount of judgement time, turn to abortion to solve their problems but in the end hurt themselves with this decision. Abortions should be illegal because it is immoral and unconstitutional, causes severe mental and physical issues, and negatively impacts the economy. “During the ancient Roman times it has been supposed that abortion and the destruction of unwanted children was permissible, but as our civilization has aged, it seems that such acts were no longer acceptable by rational human beings, so that in 1948, Canada along with most other nations in the world signed a declaration of the United Nations promising every human being the right to life”
Did you know 80% of women abort their kid if they have down syndrome? Abortion is where they end the baby’s life well it is still in the womb. Abortion has been an issue since the 1960’s and continues to grow today. About 1/4 of pregnancies end in abortion and 1/3 of americans before the age of 45 have gotten an abortion. ( (Guttmacher.) Abortion should be illegal considering the reasons for it, ethics and medical effects.
Abortion is a debatable question that has been argued over a long period of time. The controversy of abortion has caused or may cause deaths and several violent conflicts between, should abortion be legal or illegal. Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed worldwide also known as elective termination of pregnancy (History,2016). Abortion is the destruction of the fetus or unborn child while the child is still in the mother’s womb. This procedure can be done almost anyone from the mother herself to back alley, most common, abortion clinics. More than 40% of all women will end a pregnancy by abortion and remains common in the US. But the questions is should abortion be legal or illegal?
One of the most controversial situations in the United States is abortion. A couple of decades ago when abortion was illegal, thousands of woman died for attempting to terminate the child’s life themselves or with unprofessional help. On January 22, 1973, in the Roe v. Wade case, Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states. This has saved thousands of woman’s lives and should remain legal.
Abortion is a highly-debated topic of whether it is ethical for a woman to decide to have one. Abortion is any of various surgical methods for deliberately terminating a pregnancy. When we speak of abortion today, we mean induced abortion performed by trained doctors, not including miscarriage (MacKinnon & Fiala, 2015). Some current methods of abortion are morning-after pill, mifepristone, uterine or vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage, saline solution, prostaglandin drugs, hysterotomy, and partial birth abortion. Abortion involves questions about rights, happiness, and well-being, as well as the status and value of human life. The people who think it is ethical to have an abortion stand on the Pro-choice side and the people who think it is unethical stand on the Pro-life side. The liberal view of abortion supports abortions and the conservative view opposes abortion. There are many legal, religious, and medical conflicts that are included in the debate over abortion. The arguments made from both sides help us better understand whether a woman should have an abortion.