Essay on Evaluating the Current Law on Abortion

Unlawful abortion was defined as “unlawful if performed not to save the life of the mother in question.” (Queensland Parliamentary Library, 2003) However, in 1969, the Menhennitt ruling was established in the case R v Davidson. This more liberal interpretation stated that abortion could be ‘lawful’ under strict guidelines and circumstances; establishing that “abortion is lawful if performed to preserve the woman from serious danger. However, the danger must be equal to the dangers imposed by an abortion.” Since the Menhennitt ruling, no new interpretation have been made introduced, nor has any official legislation been introduced, leaving the decision up to the judge, and in some cases, a jury (Cica, 1998). This leaves abortion law hazy and unclear; evidenced by the fact that 14,000 abortions occur every year in Queensland. Stakeholder groups with conflicting views are in uproar over this

The Partial Abortion Act was brought to the attention of the courts in 2003. Before this law, the method for abortion, usually during the fifth month or later, was partially delivering the baby alive before the skull was injured. The spinal cord was “snipped” by the physician, and the baby was killed. This gruesome act was being performed daily by physicians. This law recognized that the fetus was now a different “being” than the mother, instituting of murder, because the fetus was partially delivered alive, then killed by severing the spinal cord. (The National Right to Life Committee Incorporated, 2014).

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”

According to the authors of a medical dictionary called; the free dictionary, online version, “abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable.” Viability for a fetus is usually greater than 500 grams, or prior to 20 weeks gestation as noted by those same authors. An abortion may be spontaneous, commonly referred to as a miscarriage, or induced which describes the deliberate interruption of a pregnancy. Those authors assert that it is the viability of the fetus that is the determinate criteria when deciding the legality and morality of induced abortion. Undoubtedly, there is no public consensus on the matter of abortions, not only in this country but worldwide. Declarations by those authors are that, there are those who believe that the fetus is a human being at the moment of conception and morally oppose on the grounds that destruction of a human body is tantamount to murder. On the other hand, others declare that a woman 's right to choose what happens to her body is of utmost significance. Before continuing on with the ethics of abortion I would like to briefly discuss the history of abortion in the United States.

Abortion is an intentional termination of a pregnancy during the first twenty-eight weeks. The debate of whether or not abortion should be legalized has been a key political topic for years. Based upon a survey done by the Pew Research Center, as of September 22, 2014 “a majority of Americans (55%) express the opinion that abortion should be legal in all or most cases; four-in-ten say it should be illegal in all or most cases.”(Abortion, n.p.). Abortion should be legalized based upon the mothers’ medical circumstances, for the fact that abortion is not a threat against the mental health of patients, and to the rights of privacy and bodily integrity of females must be kept. Moreover the religious views of others should not be taken as a factor against a person’s decision for abortion.

Opening statement and paper focus- abortion is the most controversial right being debated today Abortion is the deliberate ending of a pregnancy by removing

According to the Australian Government, abortion is “the termination (end) of a pregnancy” (Australian Government, 2015). In Australia, each state and territory have differing laws regarding abortion. In Queensland, under sections 224, 225 and 226 of legislation, abortion is illegal under the criminal code, however, it may be regarded as lawful if performed to prevent serious danger to the woman’s physical or mental health (does not include economic or social pressure) (CCAI, 2015). 65% of Australians are strongly opposed to abortion (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2013) on the basis that it is murder. However, there is much divergence of opinion surrounding the issue. Reproductive Choice Australia supports women’s choice of abortion as a “right to bodily and psychological integrity, which includes the right… to make decisions concerning reproduction” (RCA, 2015). This means that women should be and are able to make decisions surrounding their own body and needs. Additionally, they state that abortion is not murder as “"personhood" is an epiphenomenon of the human brain, it should be clear that if there is no fully functional brain, and then there is no personhood” (RCA, 2015), implying that abortion cannot be viewed as murder because the foetus has no functioning brain. Hence, abortion is a debated topic throughout Australia, however; there is much divergence of opinion surrounding the

Similar to “adolescent” and “adult,” the terms “embryo” and “fetus” are used to describe different stages in human development. It would be preposterous to consider an individual to be more human the older and bigger they get. With this, all innocent human life is equally deserving of respect and has the right to live. The current system surrounding abortion fails to ensure that this right is equally distributed among the earliest stages of human life. In order to ensure that this right is protected in all stages of human development, the current system must be revised. Abortion policy should be reformed because the current system disregards alternative solutions, endangers the mother, and lacks proper limitations.

An Abortion is the ending or termination of a pregnancy before the developing foetus is ready to be born or able to survive. There are two types of abortions, spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or an induced abortion which is deliberate termination of a pregnancy, with removal of the foetus and placenta from the uterus (Bailey). Abortion is a highly controversial issue in modern day society, with debates over the rights of the mother to choose and the right of the foetus to be given the opportunity to life. Abortion is one of the safest and most common medical or surgical procedures yet it is criminalised females under Queensland law. Criminalisation affects accessibility of services, availability of information regarding options, and implies

This is all within the first trimester, and the baby already has developed human characteristics that can declare it a person. Within these few weeks, women do not have enough time to get an abortion because of the ROE decision that women must go through steps given by the government to ensure they have a thoughtful and informed decision for the moral significance of the abortion decision (Scott, 2004). The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada’s stats revealed that 46% of abortions in 2014 were during the 9-16 weeks of pregnancy, with only a 28% of abortions being within 8 weeks or less. With that being said, it can be concluded that these babies are inhumanely being murdered because if we killed a child that it outside utero the way fetuses are killed, being torn away, sucked away into a vacuum limb by limb, the murdered would be prosecuted to the fullest extent and disowned from our society. Therefore, why is it that these developing children do not have the right to live compared to any child outside of the mothers

Premature births are one of the plentiful subjects that numerous individuals have a supposition on. As portrayed by the 2014 Merriam-Webster word reference, a fetus removal is, "the evacuation of an incipient organism or baby from the uterus keeping in mind the end goal to end pregnancy." Abortions have dependably been a dubious subject, and will no doubt keep on being a point each individual won 't concede to. In the profundities of the discourse, two gatherings have surfaced. These two gatherings are pointed out as ace winnow and expert life. Star life backers request that life begins at origination, so fetus removal anytime in the pregnancy is pulverization, as reported by Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Star life supporters request that life is useful and the life of the normal child has the same power as the mother. Master winnow advocates, in actuality, proclaim that its the ladies ' energy to choose what she does with her own particular body. Genius separate promoters accept that master life supporters are really contradicted to free select instead of the end of the embryo and the privileges of ladies. Master life and expert separate promoters contrast in a large number of their assessments, solidly, concerning when life starts, influences premature births have on the mother, and how legislative issues and religion assume a part in premature births. To plenarily see any point, an unsurpassable explanation is needed. Along these lines, the historical backdrop of

No, on the grounds that the law denies it, but since it conflicts with all our good and moral convictions about the significance of human life. Why then are individuals permitted to end the life of an unborn kid? The Catholic church expresses that all life is sacrosanct regardless, whether conceived or unborn has no effect. A contention from Abortion Equals Murder distributed July eighteenth, 2005 states that fetus removal is not simply killing, but the total torment. The author clarifies that no precautionary measures what so ever are taken to ensure the child is anesthetized. They go ahead to state that amid the three primary strategies utilized amid a fetus removal, the infant is slaughtered in presumably the most horrendous and agonizing way that could be available. Contentions against this express since the infant is not "alive" then it doesn 't feel any agony. There are numerous premature births played out every year in the United States. Seventy-five percent of all premature births in the U.S. are performed on ladies more than twenty years old, yet the legislators attempt to focus on the 186,000 teenagers that have a premature birth every year. In 1990, there were almost 400 fetus removal bills were that were acquainted with forty-one lawmaking bodies. Up until now, upwards of twenty states have passed laws that require an adolescent to have a guardians assent before having a fetus removal. This may help decrease the quantity of premature births every year.

Abortion is one of the most heated moral debates. It can be said that a person’s view on this issue speaks to the type of person they are in general. Most would say that someone who has a more liberal view of the world is pro choice and someone who is more conservative is pro life. Although there may prove to be a correlation between political view and view on abortion, there are people in this world on both sides of the issue. Some support a woman’s right to choose abortion, while others think the right to life is more important than a woman’s right to choose. Many people are in the middle of the issue, and support it on a situational basis. People tend to be unsure until the situation is explained and the individual takes their

Contrary to popular belief, I feel as if abortion should be illegal in all states. Abortion should not be taken lightly. There are helpless, unborn babies being murdered every day. Unable to stop what is happening to themselves, they put their life in the hands of their makers to do the right thing and give them the best chance at a healthy life. Before the child is even given a chance at life, their fate is decided for them. Whether that be stepping up and being a parent, or giving the helpless child a new home with a loving family that will love and care for them. There is no reason to take the life of an innocent child. That is murder. It is the equivalent of going out and shooting someone in cold blood. No matter how its worded, nothing can change the fact that in an abortion a life is being taken before it has even started. Even then, the mother and father of the child know the

Abortion should be illegal, unless the life of the one carrying the child is put at risk. It should be saved for emergencies. In 1958 , a law was passed that gave women the right to abort pregnancies, Roe V. Wade. Since that time there have been over 59 million aborted pregnancies (NLRC). That’s the population of the Cayman Islands! The methods of abortion are freakishly inhumane. One of the methods is even banned in the United States, it is so dangerous! The banned method is called Partial birth abortion, ”Forceps extract the live baby by the feet until the head is just inside the cervix. Scissors then puncture the skull, allowing the abortionist to collapse it by suctioning out the contents. The dead baby is then fully removed from the mother. This method is banned in the United States” (Guttmacher