Persuasive Essay: Pro-choice Abortion

Wyler, G. (2013, August 23). Doctors Urge More Hospitals to Perform Abortions | TIME.com. Retrieved March 03, 2016, from

Many individuals fail to understand the sheer magnitude of bloodshed, tribulation, and despair legalized abortion has initiated into the human experience – both in the United States and worldwide. Far more human lives have been violently ended by this immoral decision than any other war or genocide in history. It is one of the most controversial issues in today’s society. Abortion is the intentional decision to murder a human fetus by chemical, medical or surgical procedures. Those who support the rights of abortion argue that women should be able to decide what can be done to their bodies, yet the unborn baby inside a woman is a living being, and terminating that pregnancy is the equivalent of murder. These innocent children should not be held responsible for your mistakes. Don’t terminate pregnancy now, because you may not have children in the future at all.

Abortion has been one of the biggest controversies of all time. Many people believe it is 100% wrong and even consider it to be murder. The definition of abortion is; “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth.” These pro-life believers do not support the idea of abortion and believe it should be illegal. Many of these supporters do not know that if abortion were illegal they would still be performed, unfortunately by an uneducated staff. Over 70 thousand maternal deaths occur every year because of unsafe abortions. These women die, so the idea of supporting pro-life is contradictory, this is why the nation should be pro-choice.

No women can call herself free when she can’t control her own body. Abortion is the termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. 44 years after Roe v. Wade, with the verdict as it’s a woman’s decision to have an abortion throughout the country, the right to an abortion remains one of United States’ most controversial issues. Abortion is a personal choice for women that should be granted as a right regardless if it’s morally right to everyone’s beliefs on abortion. It is unthinkable to allow complete strangers to make such personal decisions for someone else.

Assuming that abortions have continued at the same rate since 1996, a cumulative total of at least 39.7 million legal abortions have been “performed” in America from the late 1960s through 1999. If all these abortions had instead been live births of children who lived normal lives, the population (taking into account the small fraction of natural deaths that might have been expected) would today be about 38.9 million — or fourteen percent — larger than the actual population of 275 million.

Since the landmark decision of the Supreme Court Case Roe v Wade in 1973, abortion was made legal across the United States. The court found that it was unconstitutional within the right to privacy to have abortion illegal under the Fourteenth Amendment; therefore, women obtained the right to decide their own medical decisions without political interference. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), since the Roe v. Wade case abortion procedures are now 99% safe. This raises the question: if abortion has been legal for more than 40 years, why is the topic still a main issue today? Though legal, a majority of states have made certain regulations to limit these practices. The issue

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

Although many think of abortion as a legacy from the 1960’s, abortions were as frequent on the eve of the Civil War as it is now (Olasky, 1992). There were roughly 160,000 abortions in 1860 in a population of 27 million (Olasky, 1992).This was almost comparable to the abortions today (Olasky, 1992). The number of abortions continued to rise during the second half of the 19th and the early years of the 20th centuries

Approximately 68,000 women die annually due to unsafe abortions(), the majority of these are from countries where it is illegal. This goes to show that outlawing abortion doesn’t decrease the number of abortions, it just increases the amount of unsafe ones. Abortion is currently legal in U.S., but pro life movements are making it harder and harder to r23 January, 2017

S. Henshaw, L. Finer, The Accessibility of Abortion Services in the United States, 2001, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Volume 35, Number 1, January/February 2003. Grimes, DA. Clinicians Who Provide Abortions: The Thinning Ranks, Obstetrics & Gynecology, 1992, 80: 719.

During the year of 2012, 699,202 abortions were reported in the United States. The abortion ratio was 210 abortions per 1,000 live births. Adolescence aging from 20 to 24 years old accounted

II. Hopefully, if anyone you know is faced with unplanned pregnancy, he/she will remember this speech and decide to not terminate their pregnancy, there are other options. (pic of baby) References: "Abortion in the United States." : Quick Stats.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “In 2014 652,639 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas” (Center of Disease

(1993), every year the number of woman who chooses abortion is about 1.5 million in United States. Almost half of American women get unplanned pregnancy, and 54% of these end in abortion (Finer LB & Zolna MR, 2011). Nearly one fifth of pregnancies end in abortion (Jones RK &

Abortions is one of the most frequent medical procedures undergone by women aged 15-44 in the United States, partly because of the unintended pregnancy.