When it comes to fetal rights and homicide it is not a new issue in legislative terms. “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act has been vehemently attacked by pro-abortion groups such as NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and the ACLU. Even though this law deals with acts of violence other than abortion, the pro-abortion lobby’s ideology apparently compels it to deny the very existence of unborn human beings in any area of the law” (The National Right to Life Committee, 2000). Between pro-life and pro-choice advocates the upper hand in which everyone wants to claim has become a continuous issue. Over the years the debate in which a fetus is killed by a violent act against a pregnant woman has grown over time, in regards as to what philosophies there are as to the start of life. In some areas the penalties have grown more significant, viewing them as fetal homicide. Where others refuse to do anything in which a fetus is recognized as a separate individual, stating that a fetus has no rights. There have been various arguments to the different sides of the situation in regards to the separation of a woman and her fetus and whether or not it is appropriate to ignore the harm to the pregnant woman and unborn child. “Those who were allied with these groups, offered “single-victim substitute” proposals. These bills would have codified the doctrine that a crime against a pregnant woman has only a single victim, while also creating a new federal crime of “interruption to the normal course of the
For starters let us look at this situation from a political standpoint in favor of pro-choice advocates. In the infamous case of Roe v. Wade, Jane Roe’s two lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee, “sought to challenge the legality of Texas’s antiabortion law” (Roe v. Wade). In any level of government,
One of the first moral issues addressed by both sides of the abortion debate concerns a pregnant woman’s so-called natural “right” to make “reproductive choices.” (“The Rights of Pregnant Women”) Anti-abortion advocacy groups claim that “the only way to actually protect the mother’s rights will be by enforcing laws that secure her child’s right to life,” (“Argument 2”) whereas pro-abortion groups contend that these laws “create a dangerous precedent for wide-ranging government intrusion into the lives of all women.” (“The Rights”) With two fundamentally contrasting viewpoints at odds with each other, it is apparent that one of the core issues concurrent with abortion is a woman’s rights versus the rights of her unborn fetus.
In contemporary America it can be argued that nothing is more contentious and controversial of an issue than abortion. From the vehement pro-life movement to the impassioned pro-choice coalition, this policy issue is one that has become increasingly important in our society. This debate has raised important questions regarding the value of human life, at what stage of development does a fetus have it’s constitutionally ensured rights take hold over that of the mother and at what stage can a state start regulating abortions.
Abortions were widely used in the early eighteen hundreds and kept secret due public scrutineer. Not only were they considered against the law in some places but were risky due to high risk of infection from unsterile equipment used to perform the actions.” Without today’s current technology, maternal and infant mortality rates during childbirth were extraordinarily high. “(National abortion Federation, 2016) as time contained states changed and modified their laws to accommodate political agendas, these opposed to legal abortion had begun to fight absent any stated funded abortion clines. Then there was Roe v. Wade this was the first major Supreme Court battle based on abortion laws and ethics. Roe v. Wade decision of the courts said that they “considered the constitutionality of a Texas statute made it a crime to obtain an abortion except when it was necessary to save the life of the mother”. (Harris, 2014) There was another Supreme Court case that changed the views of the courts based on how they judge the frame work of decision on the trimester model. The ethics involved in this are not just solely left to the mother of the potential life but in the network of people
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).
While parts of both may be true, both cannot stand side by side as completely true when discussing abortion. As they stand today, fetus rights and female rights are incompatible in arena of abortion. Even the “other side” agrees that the two cannot stand shoulder to shoulder. In a chapter entitled “Abortion Does Not Violate Human Rights”, Christian Beenfeldt quotes Brian McKinely when claiming that female rights have a higher precedence than fetus rights: “It’s actually quite simple. You cannot have two entities with equal rights occupying one body. One will automatically have veto power over the other.” So one question remains, which more important, fetus rights or female rights? The winner of this question can be decided by one simple factor: is the fetus to be considered a true, living human being at the point of conception, or does true human life not begin until after birth? A clarification should be made here, however. In this paper it will be assumed that everyone involved in this debate considers a newborn child to be a human being. That is, at the moment of birth, a child either becomes a human being or continues to be a human being; regardless of the fetus’s life state before birth, it will be assumed that all agree that birth “confirms”, so to speak, the life and human existence of the newborn.
Laws and added politics restrict freedom during pregnancy. Rights toward the mother are infringed upon while “fetal rights” are enforced by judicial interventions. It is all about quantity of life not quality of life, they feel supporters are not practicing pro-life but in reality it’s more pro-birth (Jost).
We have seen a monumental amount of political and social activism coming from Pro-life and Pro-choice proponents in the 25 years following the Supreme Court 's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. Far from settling the issue of a woman 's constitutional right to an abortion, the Roe decision galvanized pro-life and prochoice groups and precipitated many small "battles" in what many on both sides view to be a "war" between fetal protection and women 's access to reproductive choice (Oliveri, 1998). Now, the choice to abort a child in what is now being deemed as “late-term” abortion is something that activists and political leaders are wanting.
Although abortion has been a very controversial issue throughout history, I will inform you on the recent law and policy in which has developed over the past forty years. Beginning in the early seventies, the famous Roe v. Wade decision began the controversial segregation of the right to abortion. The decision stated that “women, in consultation with their physician, have the right to have an abortion in the early stages of pregnancy.” (“Induced Abortion in the United States,” July 2014). Roughly twenty years later, and in the early nineties, the Planned Parenthood v. Casey readdressed the policy of abortion and gave the states more power to assist
The United States has been divided now over the issue of abortion for thirty-three years since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973. As of today, over 45 million legal abortions have been performed in the United States. Pro-choice advocates hold these 45 million abortions as being 45 million times women have exercised their right to choose to get pregnant and to choose to control their own bodies. To pro-life, or anti-abortion, advocates these 45 million abortions constitute 45 million murders, a genocide of human life in the United States propagated by the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade. The debate over abortion in the United States is thus a debate of two extremes. One side argues from the personal liberty of the mother. The
1969 was not a normal year for eight month pregnant Teresa Keeler and her unborn baby. Sadly Teresa was beaten very badly by her ex-husband. Before the incident happen her husband told Teresa that he was going stomp out of her .with God mercy, the unborn baby was delivered a live with fractured skull. The persecutor tried to accuse the ex-husband with the beating his wife and attempt of murder of the fetus. Unfortunately, the California supreme court dismiss the murder charge by calming that the fetus was not a human being. Due to the public pressure the court had to amend the rule saying fetus murder only apply if the fetus is eight week and older.
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act is a federal law that establishes a further persecution towards the protection against Fetal Homicide. This policy makes it so that when a pregnant woman is attacked and/or killed, it is viewed as two victims and not one. This criminalizes any injury or death to the child in the utero as a result of violence. At any stage of development, that is carried in the womb, is classified as a victim. This means the child is given human rights and is considered a member of the Homo sapiens, or recognition as a human being (Unborn Victims of Violence Act, 2004).
In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that an unborn fetus has no constitutional rights until the third trimester. The reasoning being that the fetus is not capable of making decisions on its own (Luhrmann). Though pro-life arguers may bring up the point that an infant and an unborn fetus are equal on the social scale, the difference seen to a pro-choice arguer is that the born infant requires at least very little interaction. The only interaction between a person and the unborn fetus is the mother, who if aborting, would have the power to make the decision (Luhrmann). In 2013, an 11 year old girl became impregnated due to a rape incident. Unlike many females, she said that she wanted to carry through with the pregnancy because she wanted to love the baby and give it life. Although she would deal with the memory of what she went through for the rest of her life, she said she was willing to follow through with it and give the baby what it deserves. Being only 11, President Pinera and many others vouched for her to go through the process of abortion due to the fact that she doesn’t have the mental capacity to make these vital decisions (Gordts). This rings true to any other adolescent who is, or has gone through the same scenario. Just like Pinera, many pro-choice debaters would agree that the decision should be out of her hands due to the fact that she is so young and
Sensitive topics such as abortion have always caused turmoil in society, either because of religion or politics. Regarding the issue of abortion, there are two “sides” or groups called pro-choice (supporters), and anti-choice (non-supporters). Moreover, the real problem begins when violence comes up from any group, and this will always be an issue no matter what subject we are referring to. On the article “Violent anti-choice rhetoric must end, or anti-abortion violence never will” the author, Jessica Valenti, expresses her frustration about the violence and misuse of words from anti-choice supporters towards women and pro-choice supporters specifically, implying examples of shootings on clinics or threats over the phone made by anti-choice
Before the Public Law 108-212 was ever put in place, the unborn child was not recognized as a separate victim when involved in violent acts of crime. As stated before, for years now, many unjust cases in the United States have been brought forth in the fight for the rights of an unborn child to be recognized as a loss of human life. In turn this has led to many cases being unjustified, as many people have put forth the action to fight for the rights of the unborn child to be recognized as a loss of human life. In 1989, the Weber versus Roe reproductive health services and the other groups of pro-choice supporters declared that, “‘the life of each human being begins at