Abortion Is Not A Social Problem

The American Medical Association was founded in 1847 and had pushed for state laws to restrict abortions, and most did by 1900. The American Medical Association voiced its concern about abortion, not just because of the danger to women, but also because of the possibility of a woman overlooking the duties imposed on her by the marriage contract. The act of having an abortion had become banned and was only permissible when necessary to save a woman 's life. The Comstock Law was passed by Congress in 1873. This was a federal law that had made it a crime to sell or distribute materials that could be used for contraception or abortion.

Although abortion is a political topic that seems very recent, in the United States it dates back to before the early 1820s. Connecticut is the first state to have passed any laws regulating abortion. In 1821, they pass a law prohibiting the use of any sorts of a toxic substance that causes a miscarriage after quickening (the moment a pregnant woman first feels fetal movement) (Wilson, Jaque). Many other states followed Connecticut’s lead (Wilson, Jaque). Besides trying to humanely discard of fetuses, states began banning abortion for population control reasons as well. “In the mid-to-late 1800s states began passing laws that made abortion illegal. The motivations for anti-abortion laws varied from state to state. One of the reasons included fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly arriving immigrants, whose birth rates were higher than those of ‘native’ Anglo-Saxon

     Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth. An abortion results in the death of the embryo or fetus and may be either spontaneous or induced. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. The history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even milleniums. Today, policies regarding legal abortion in the U.S. is being debated everywhere. Many myths and misconceptions confuse this issue. A better understanding of the history of abortion in America can help provide a context for an improved policy in the future.

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)

One of the most controversy issues that have had many Americans debating over the years is abortion. But why so much controversy? Well to start with we have to understand what abortion is. According to the Oxford dictionary, abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. There are also 2 types of abortions. The first one is Therapeutic abortion, which the baby is aborted for the safety of the mother, and elective abortion, in which the abortion is performed due to a choice that the mother has made for an unborn child. In other words, abortion is the end or the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus by natural causes or by clinical methods before it is able to survive independently.

Historically, abortion was not regulated in the United States until the 20th century. Prior to the 1900s, abortion occurred regularly and was performed by midwives, along with other reproductive health care procedures (Ehrenreich & English, 2010). The rise of the medical industry and a growing immigrant population led to more interest amongst doctors in restricting abortion (Davis, 1983; Solinger, 2015). The American Medical Association began to lobby for the criminalization of abortion and the medicalization of birth, claiming to be interested in protecting women from the harsh chemicals used to induce abortion (Solinger, 2015). Solinger (2015) writes:

Abortion has been legal and commonly practiced from the time of the earliest settlers. By federal law, abortion is legal, although many states have their own individual regulations and restrictions. Various states began passing laws to make abortion illegal in the mid-to-late- 1800s for fear that they would become overpopulated with children of newly arriving immigrants (national abortion federation ).Even though abortions can hold many risks today, they were especially dangerous in the 1800s where hospitals and antiseptics were not common (national abortion federation). Hospitals were not as common back then and doctors had basic training. Doctors wanted to criminalize abortion so that untrained physicians etc. could not steal their patients.

In 1821, Connecticut passed the first law in the United States barring abortion subsequent to the practice of “quickening” which were usually performed by administering poison to the woman after the fourth month of pregnancy (Thiroux 255).

In the mid-1800’s, abortion was made illegal under most circumstances in most states. For decades following that decision, illegal abortions became the cause of death for many women in the United States. In 1930, 1940, 1950, and 1965, illegal abortions were the official cause of death for 2,700, 1,700, 300, and just under 200 women, respectively. Between 1950 and 1960, illegal abortion ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. Leading up to the court case Roe v. Wade, the only circumstance to get an

Abortions have been around for hundreds of years. In fact, the first abortion law was established in Connecticut in 1821. This law prohibited women to abort through poisoning. The most important abortion court case took place in 1973. The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case ruled that women have the right to have an abortion since it is protected by the 14th amendment, which states that “no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law”. Many years after the decision was made, a lot of people have been rebelling against the idea of abortion. Many believe, mostly religious and conservative individuals, believe that abortion begins at conception and therefore should be aborted. On the other hand, non-religious

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.

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before birth, resulting in, or accompanied by the death of the fetus. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, dramatically changed the legal landscape of American abortion law. The result of the ruling required abortion to be legal for any woman; regardless of her age and for any reason during the first seven months of pregnancy, and for almost any reason after that. ("Status of Abortion in America"). In the Roe v. Wade case, Roe (Norma McCorvey), had claimed she was gang raped and attempted to have an abortion in Texas. ("Roe and Doe"). After hearing the case, the Supreme Court ruled that an American’s right to privacy included the right of a woman whether or not to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference, at least in the first trimester of pregnancy. ("Celebrating 25 Years of Reproductive Choice"). The moral issue of abortion—whether or not it is murder—has been debated since it was legalized in 1973. Roe v. Wade has been one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions of the 20th century. ("Roe No More"). More than two decades since the Supreme Court first upheld a woman’s right to abortion, the debate over the morality and legality of induced abortion continues in the United States. ("Abortion," Encarta 98). Abortion is one of the most divisive and emotional issues facing United States policy makers today. ("Economics of

What is abortion? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Abortion: the premature expulsion of a [foetus] from the womb; an operation to cause this.” Abortion has been a controversial topic for many years. Some people favor adoption and some are against it. “In 2008 an estimated 1.21 million abortions were performed in the Unites States.”(Jones, and Kooistra). Many opinions collaborate in abortions rights or abortion legislation. “In 2008, 84,610 women obtained abortions in Texas, producing a rate of 16.5 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Some of these women were from other states, and some Texas residents had abortions in other states, so this rate may not reflect the abortion rate of state residents. The rate decreased

Since 1973, when it became legalized, abortion has been of the most controversial ethical issues in America. In the court case of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court came to the conclusion that women have the right to privacy which includes the right to having an abortion. This ruling has caused many controversies and millions of people throughout America protest against abortion every year. Abortion is an operation of other intervention to end a pregnancy by removing an embryo or fetus from the womb. Since its ratification, more than forty-eight million unborn children have been killed by means of abortion in the United States since the Roe vs. Wade judgment (Abortion in the United States).With abortion outlawed, these lives could have been

Abortion has been around since a lot of years in every inhabited corner of the globe. It has always been accepted as a means to prevent the suffering of both woman and potential child. It has been practiced widely in every society for many reasons including famine, war, poverty, overpopulation, or simply because a woman felt she was not ready for a child (Whitney 40). No one ever questioned a woman’s right to this procedure till the 1800’s. During this era of change people began to turn their attention in a new direction, the fetus. They began to protest abortion as cruel, inhumane, and murderous. Abortionists who were once revered and depended upon were scorned and threatened. Though abortions still happened with regularity, they were kept silent and seen as a matter of shame. “Over the next hundred years, public sentiment for fetus continued to rise until the inevitable happened in America during the early 40’s; Abortion was made illegal.” (Cohen 17). The pro-life supporters had succeeded in saving the lives of innocent babies who would have been slaughtered for the convenience of selfish, ignorant and irresponsible women. This new law had made women actually settle down and raise families or give birth to beautiful children. We all know that, it has been proven time to time throughout history that the human spirit will not allow prohibition. Something inside us feels the need to strike out at that, which restrains us and holds us from the