Abortion : The Medical Or Surgical Termination Of A Pregnancy

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’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.

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)

Numerous states are also passing an Ultrasound bill, adding a paragraph to the already existing Woman’s Right to Know legislature requiring the physician to offer the woman the chance to see her ultrasound before the abortion. Oddly, though this bill frequently receives bipartisan support, some who claim to be ‘pro-choice’ object to the ultrasound bill, maintaining that it “interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, legislating the private conversations that occur about a legal medical procedure.”13 However, many women have rejected this excuse, returning that they asked to see their abortion and were denied. These women often say that they would have kept their unborn child had they seen the ultrasound as requested.14 The Women’s Right to Know bill and its additional Ultrasound bill protect the rights of the women, frequently initiating a change of heart without directly prohibiting the

Most recently the “no taxpayer funding for abortion act”, has abortion advocates reeling (Maguire, A-14). 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, 09). At the heart of the ethical dilemma for many in the medical profession is the viability of the fetus (USA TODAY). And just to make this whole dilemma more confusing, according to the United States Government, “The child in utero, at any stage of development in the womb”, is protected by the Unborn Victims Violence Act of 2004 (Unborn Victims of Violence Act, A-1). Medical professionals have the

Throughout the United States there has always been a big debate on whether or not abortion is ethically acceptable or not. Though many individuals see it as killing a child, many others can overlook that burden and see the consequences of having a child at that point in time. Individuals who are put in a pregnancy situation and have to look into all aspects of an abortion and the reasons for this procedure, while also realizing the biological development of the fetus, and the process of an abortion.

With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the

Abortion is the complicated act of removing a fetus from the womb of its mother before the full pregnancy has been completed. In the 13th century, women would be hung if they followed through with the act of abortion after six weeks of being pregnant, as it was considered homicide (Rich). Abortion between the fifteenth and eighteenth week was perceived as a capital offense well into the nineteenth century (Rich). Afterwards, abortion was denied to any woman, in England or the United States, unless the mother’s life was at risk (Rich). In the late twentieth century, a court case called “Roe v. Wade” created great controversy among the nation and served as a basis

This author has chosen to discuss the ethical issues of abortion. This is a highly debated topic that will exist amongst women. It is happening at high rates. “In 2013, 664,435 legal induced abortions

Ethical issues continue to weigh heavily in the way healthcare is delivered in the United States. Diversity makes the most sensitive issues settle in a grey area, rather than simply black or white. Many believe that abortion is ethically justified, when others believe it is morally wrong. The ethical differences in opinions will be explored in the following paragraphs, analyzing the issue from different perspectives. Yet the act of abortion appears to break the vows of non-maleficence that health professionals must remain committed to uphold.

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

Why do people want to destroy the life of an unborn child? Is their existence the end of the world? Why are people so obsessed with such an issue? Should we not think of the opinions of the unborn child? How would a person react if they were told that before they were born their own parents thought of discarding them? In our modern society abortion has become one of the most largest discussed issues. Politicians discuss abortion in debates with many questions being about abortion and the rights of woman toward abortion. Many opinions of Americans have been fairly constant on the issue of abortion. Others do not try to even think about it. Abortion is the expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it able to survive by itself. The baby basically

As many researchers suggested, abortion was not only a moral and legal issue, but also essentially a medical issue. Advances in medical sciences pertaining to abortion and child-birth led to new controversies in the abortion debate. For instance, particular advancements made in the case of Down syndrome raised the question that whether selective abortions aided by ultra-sonographic and nuchal translucency in the first trimester violated medical ethics (Khoshnood, 2139). The emerging cases of late-term abortions (also called partial birth abortions) owing to technological advances also also raised questions about the moral base of terminating a life that could possibly survive individually outside the mother’s womb (Miller, 497).

Typically, the issue of abortion in the United States has been one that has courted controversy and created a public, political, and moral divide. While some feel that abortion should be illegal, others feel it should be restricted. Still others feel it should be legal and freely accessed. Although there are many ethical phases which originate from the application of reproduction control in women’s health, the main issues that raise ethical problems following the development of assisted reproduction techniques are: the right to procreate or reproduce. Induce abortion raises ethical issues related to the rights of women versus the rights

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.