Women, every day are faced with decisions on whether or not to abort their unborn child, or more commonly, stricken with miscarriage. To educate one’s mind, this is an article on the procedures and tragedies women endure every day. Procedures for inducing abortion include vacuum suction, dilatation and evacuation, hysterectomy, and induction. Abortions can be induced for medical reasons or because of an elective decision to end the pregnancy. Spontaneous abortion and early spontaneous abortion is usually due to fetal malformations or chromosomal abnormalities. The law was quickly challenged in the courts, and a federal judge declared it unlawful in 2004 in part because of its lack of a health exception, but the Supreme Court with two new conservative
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.).
Prior to the landmark case of Roe vs. Wade, abortion was legal in the United States under common law and with several stipulations. It was legal under the advice of medical personnel or in the attempt to save a mother’s life. Though abortion were widely available it was considered a secretive and “back alley” procedure that threatened the life of the patient and the persons conducting the abortion. In 1965, illegal abortions made up one-sixth of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. A survey conducted between 1965 and 1967 found that 8 in 10 low-income women in New York City who had an abortion attempted a dangerous self-induced procedure (planedparenthood.com).
Abortion is a touchy subject in today’s society and has been debated among the general public for decades now. Before legalization for abortions, women sought abortions in any way they could. If a woman had money then she could get away with leaving the United States and having a procedure done at a foreign country or she could pay off a doctor in America though many risk were included. Many homemade methods were also created among desperate women, which included douching with soup or bleach, or inserting a wire coat hanger in attempt to terminate the fetus (OBOS, 2014).
Imagine yourself in mid-1960, let’s say 1966, you were violated at your workplace, you do not have the money nor the support to raise the child. Now, you’re desperate for looking a solution, then you heard rumors of do-it-yourself methods and tools such as douches, herbal drinks, falling down stairs, inserting many tools (including knitting needles, crochet hook, hat and bobby pins and yes, coat hangers were the most common.) But those ideas seem too dangerous for you and your health. Until one day your friend offered you to go to a clinic where she had hers, with no any other choice, you agreed and went. When you arrived, you were asked to be blindfolded and be taken to a room, now feeling terror
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.
Before abortion was made legal in 1973, women would seek illegal methods called “back-alley” abortions. These methods were performed at home with coat hangers and knitting needles, by medical professionals, or by the use of herbs. Health Research Funding estimates that five to ten thousand women died each year due to illegal procedures. Illegal procedure would also cause infertility among women due to the injuries sustained. Thankfully, with the passing of Roe V. Wade, abortions today are much safer. The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated “Abortion is one the safest medical procedures performed in the United States.” A woman’s risk of dying from a modern abortion is 0.6 in 100,000 while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher at 8.8 in 100,000. A study by Obstetrics & Gynecology in January of 2015 reported that less than 2.5% of the 1.21 million abortions every year lead to major health
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
One of the nine reasons found that we should not legalize abortion is the laws against abortion kill women (Kilinger). Many women are killed each year during childbirth, but almost four times more women are killed when they have an abortion (Lowen). Women need to know the health risks involved with abortions before making that choice. Having an abortion has many long lasting effects such as: emotional disorders, blood infections, and an increase in breast cancer (Lowen). The leading causes of death for the women who had an abortion are infection, hemorrhage, bowel injuries, clotting disorders. If air was to get to the amniotic fluid, or fetal tissue to get into the woman’s blood stream they would die (Kilinger).Sometimes abortions are not effective, and
On August 30, 2017, Judge Lee Yakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas temporarily banned a law on a commonly used type of abortion. This ruling required doctors to stop the fetus’s heart before starting the operation of dilation and evacuation. Dilation and evacuation is when the cervix is dilated and the fetus is removed in pieces. “Proponents of the new law say this would ensure the “humane termination” of the fetus.” (Astor) This quote is from an advocate against abortion and it is a clear example of the initial benefits of the second trimester abortion ban. People against the ban believe that this issue will cause women who desire abortions to undergo medical procedures that have not been tested or cause them
Abortion is the practice of termination of a human fetus within the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion has been around since at least “ancient times”. Women have been receiving medically-induced abortions since the 1800s. Before then, women were given abortions by ingesting mixtures of herbs, being impaled by a sharp object, or by having pressure applied to the abdominal area. It was not until the mid-1800’s that abortion was deemed illegal. After abortion was outlawed, women resulted to receiving illegal abortions, also known as “back-alley” abortions. “Back-alley” abortions were also a great resource for women who did not want to bear the stigma of abortion and did not want to be stereotyped. The abortion stigma and stereotypes weighs too heavily with negative connotation. The abortion stereotypes and stigma manifestations must be reduced and stopped because it is indispensable to women’s reproductive health.
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
Partial-birth abortions in the third trimester, and the recent “day-after” or the RU-486 pill, now add a new attitude on the abortion issue. Partial-birth abortions and abortions in the third trimester are exceedingly controversial, because they involve the termination and/or expulsion of an actual fetus from the womb, whereas many early-prenatal abortions involve the expulsion of the embryo. In some countries, and for a while in America, partial-birth abortions meant that the baby was breached halfway through the womb, and then its neck was broken, which killed the baby instantly. Since then, the United States has banned it as a result of the many infuriated pro-life and even some pro-choice members who found it to be extremely inhumane. The RU-486 pill sends messages telling the brain that the woman that was inseminated, was already pregnant, and that the ovum that had been created, is removed because the body believes it is already impregnated. These operations raise many of the same problems as abortion itself.
Abortion is a very tedious act to remove a fetus out of the womb before it has the chance to live on its own. There are two different types of abortions, medical abortion and surgical abortion. Medical abortion is the act of taking “methotrexate or mifepristone, which may be followed by another drug called misoprostol within the first forty-nine days”(pamf.org, “abortion”). Surgical abortion is a procedure done by vacuuming out the uterine lining during pregnancy typically in the first trimester.(pamf.org,”abortion”). There have been problems with abortion for centuries. The most known case concerning abortion is a case called Roe V. Wade in 1973. The case ruled a Texas law banning abortions other than those to save a mother unconstitutional because it violated the right to privacy. A woman named Norma L. McCorvey (“Jane Roe”) “claimed that although her life was not endangered, she could
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.
Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).