Abortion in Canada Should Remain Legal

In 2008, twelve women taking resident in the U.S. died due to legal abortions performed during the second or third trimesters of pregnancy. Abortion should be available to all females living in the United States, but must be a legal citizen to have late abortions, which are during the second or third trimesters of pregnancy. Abortion is a right that women have, and the Fourth Amendment “Search and Seizure” supports it. Fewer women will exercise abortion if it is kept legal in the U.S. Late abortions are dangerous, so only legal citizens of the U.S. may have second or third trimester abortions.

In 1973, American philosopher Marry Anne Warren created a list of five different characteristics that a person should have, known as Warren’s Basic Criteria for Personhood (Warren 2). Since the creation of this list, people have added to it or slightly adjusted the list but it is still pretty relevant. Warren initially created this list to verify that a fetus should not be considered a person, but it ended up raising a question about infants. If you analyze her criteria, you begin to notice that infants shouldn’t be considered a person either (Warren 7). I will argue against Warrens claim that a fetus cannot be considered a person.

During the second three months of the pregnancy the state have the right to pass legislation to restrict women's right to an abortion, but the state has to justify that the laws is to protect the health of women. In the last three months of the pregnancy the state has the right to prohibit an abortion to protect the state of being of the pregnant women or the child's life (Medoff, 577) .

The topic of abortion is quite a controversial one, many people are both for and against the motion: “Should abortion be legal in the U.S.?”. The main arguments for this topic are “You are taking a child’s life when aborting.” but others may say “Women deserve the right to their own health decisions.” Many people are also in the grey spot with this topic, many believe under certain circumstances such as medical complications, that abortion should be legal.

Science tells us that from the moment of fertilization, a fetus is a human. Despite this, however, there is a swarm of controversy surrounding question, when does a fetus become a human? Many people believe that once a baby is conceived, it is considered a living human being. Many of these people believe that whether or not a fetus is a human is chiefly a scientific question. “The question as to when a human being begins is strictly a scientific question, and should be answered by human embryologists - not by philosophers, bioethicists, theologians, politicians, x-ray technicians, movie stars or obstetricians and gynecologists” (Irving). While Irving has a valid point in saying that whether or not a fetus is a human is a question mainly for

In the 19th century, after tremendous progress in surgical processes, abortions were then conducted by surgeons on a wide scale, while medical abortions are used concurrently. However, as abortion technology prospers, legal restrictions came with it. In 1803, a English statute abolished the previously-legal first trimester abortions. The act “condemned the willful, malicious, and unlawful use of any medical substance when used with the intent to induce abortion” (Stern, 1968). In 1821, Connecticut enabled the first statute in the United States regulating abortions. Within 10 years, states like Illinois, Ohio, New York, Alabama, and others enabled abortion restriction statutes, and by 1968, 50 of the 51 jurisdictions in the United States have prohibited abortion except in the case women’s life is endangered (Ibid., at 3). In 1965, Britain, however, legalized abortion for “medical conditions of the mother, for socio-economic reasons, for eugenic considerations, and for pregnancies which resulted from rape or incestuous intercourse”, which is still law today (Ibid, at 4). In Canada, abortion has been legalized since 1969 through Bill C-150 if “a committee of three physicians determined that the pregnancy was a threat to the woman's life or health” (Norman, 2012). In 1988, Canadian Supreme Court struck down bill C-150’s provision requiring committee approval to receive an abortion in its decision R v Morgentaler, legalizing abortion across Canada for any reasons (Ibid.).

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”

As in other countries, Abortion was once illegal in Canada, and only allowed to be performed on the criminal law principle of necessity to save the life of the pregnant woman. When it comes to 1988, however, Supreme Court of Canada has decriminalised the abortion law since Section 251 (the law regarding to abortion) violated Section 7 of the Canadian Chart of Rights and Freedom, which guarantees the right to live, liberty, and security of the person. Therefore, it is now permitted in Canada for a woman to have an abortion for any reasons which she desires.

It has been over 25 years since the Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion. In 1988 the court declared that section 251 of the Criminal Code of Canada, which did not allow women access to abortion services without the consent of a physician, infringed on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These rights guarantee the “security of person” which the court determined included access to medical care and procedures that include abortion services (Bourgeois, 23). In principle the amendment of this law has been instrumental for women’s rights and their autonomy in reproductive health decisions, but in practice this might not be the case.

Approximately 57 million unborn children have been affected by the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize abortion since the Roe vs. Wade court case according to a study conducted by the Director of Education and Research at the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon. If abortion remains legalized in the United States, it will only continue to contribute to the dangers of abortion that women are faced with as well as resume to kill unborn children. Furthermore, adoption is a much better option for anyone in an unwanted pregnancy.

Since Parliament has jurisdiction to protect the child within the womb, it cannot make abortion a right. However, the fact that this was matter was taken to Canada’s highest court, and 5-2 decision was made is slowly leading to more freedom of their own body for women.

In the third trimester: There is fetal viability, so the state can outlaw a late term abortion except to save woman’s life.

If a fetus was not born it cannot be considered a being because it has no physical existence outside the female. Up until close to birth, the fetus is not entirely developed and does not yet obtain all the essential qualities to being a person such as the ability to be self-aware.

If a pregnancy is unwanted or unplanned, does that mean the life of an unborn child should go to waste? Abortion cannot be the solution, it promotes that human life is disposable. If Canadians are uninformed about the abortion guidelines it can affect their decision to abort the child. In Canada, there is a 24-week deadline for women to have abortions. Many factors impact a woman’s judgement to have an abortion, one of which includes religion. However, physical and emotional factors can also impact the mother when terminating a pregnancy. Canadian guidelines should be changed to further restrict “late-term” abortions; abortions should only be permitted under special circumstances due to the numerous valid ethical implications that go hand in

For instance, is an unborn baby a person or a mass of cells? When does the unborn baby become a person? This is just one of the difficult questions encountered when viewing abortion. I believe a person is a rational being, one who can take nutrition on their own outside of a woman’s womb. Others will state that a person is actually a being as soon as the cells begin to form. So you see, defining a person is a complicated activity for both sides of the fence to agree upon. My definition of a person could be different than the next persons but either way, how we define a person will impact the decision on the ethical dilemma of weather abortion is right or