Women's Rights And Abortion In The United States

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.

One of the strongest arguments for abortion is the government has no right to interfere with a woman’s reproductive health decisions. The United States is not ruled by God, and the constitution is a non-religious document which affords us a right to privacy. The Supreme Court agreed with this argument as evident by their decision in the Roe vs. Wade case of 1973. Seven Supreme Court justices ruled in favor of Roe while two dissented. Blackmun, one of the justices in favor, based his decision on three arguments: First, abortion laws were originally intended to protect the mother, not the fetus. Second, abortion procedures were improved and safer. Finally, the fetus had not been granted legal status as a person. The following excerpt is from “Roe vs Wade: Abortion and a Woman’s Right to Privacy” by Melissa Higgins. “Regarding the Fourteenth Amendment, Texas’s abortion law violated the due process clause, which protects a person’s right to privacy from state action. This included a woman’s right to end her pregnancy. On this point, Blackmun wrote,

Women’s reproductive rights have been endangered from early history. A woman’s job included housework and child birth. Around 1920, women started receiving their choices and rights. In the 21st century, women are looked at with fairness and receive equal opportunities, but there is one right being stripped from women: the choice of using birth control and aborting pregnancy. Society frowns upon aborting a fetus in the womb, but it fails to realize the circumstantial standing each woman is placed in and should accept the decision a woman decides for her future whether it is to use birth control or abort her pregnancy.

The ability for women from all walks of life to have access to affordable and safe healthcare including abortion is something I’m passionate about. It is appalling to me as both a woman and as a citizen of the United States that women have had their reproductive choices made for them or extremely limited by legislatures, especially when these decisions seem to come from a place of ignorance. It’s been incredibly disheartening to watch the reproductive rights of women within the United States be chipped away and restricted over the past decade by state and federal legislatures.

Abortion has been progressively restricted in many states across America, and this strong push is coming from believers. This act affects The United States in many ways; Amanda Marcotte from Alternet writes, “thanks to increasingly restrictive state and local laws and overzealous law enforcement, we are seeing a return to pre-Roe back-alley abortions and increasingly criminal treatment of women.” These restrictions, promoted by believers, infringe on women’s rights and contribute to danger of female health.

The issue of abortion is notoriously controversial. Since the Supreme Court’s 1992 ruling in Casey v. Planned Parenthood, states have enacted different restrictions on the procedure. These restrictions vary from state to state. Nineteen states currently have laws prohibiting partial-birth abortion, and forty-one states strictly prohibit abortions except in cases of life-endangerment. One particularly incendiary area of abortion law is that of public funding. However, as of this year there are only seventeen states that cover abortion procedures through public funding. In this paper we will discuss federal abortion legislation, while describing the laws and political ideologies of the following states: Texas, California, New

Since 1973, a total of 57,496,011 abortions have been reported to the Centers of Disease Control and that number keeps rising. This does not include the self-induced abortions or the abortions your body causes, also known as miscarriage. There are so many different procedures throughout the years. In the early years, many women did not seek help from licensed medical assistance. They attempted removal of the fetus with a coat-hanger also piercing of the fetus with a knitting needle, crochet hook, hat pin, bobby pin or similar device inserted into the uterus through the cervix. Many women also used douching methods linked to miscarriage to abort the baby such as Clorox bleach or lye which could also cause chemical burns. In the 1960s women also used Coca-Cola to send their bodies into aborting the fetus. The Induction abortion takes approximately three to four days to complete. On the first day, the young woman is given an ultrasound to determine the age of her baby. Then, the abortionist with the help of an ultrasound to guide them. The patient will then receive a lethal dose of the heart medication Digoxin, a generic drug, is injected into the baby’s heart or into the amniotic fluid directly through the woman’s abdomen or vaginally, the Digoxin will give the baby a fatal heart attack. Although the reason for killing the baby first is to avoid a live birth. After the drug is injected, the woman’s cervix is inserted with Laminaria sticks or tent, a thin tampon-like

“The 27-year-old Salvadoran garment worker and single mother had miscarried without ever knowing she was pregnant….hospital staff had suspected her of inducing an abortion and reported her to the police.. A judge sentenced her to the maximum punishment for murder: 40 years in prison” (Albaladejo, A Witch Hunt Against Poor Women,27). This tragic story is sadly not the only one that has happened in countries where abortion laws are not as free as those of the United States, which since the Roe vs. Wade has confirmed women’s rights to abortion. Domestically, the United States seems to be progressive compared to other countries such as Nicaragua, Chile, and Haiti who according to Albaladejo “Have complete bans on abortion” (A Witch Hunt Against

Abortion in United States of America is still one of the controversial issues and it is difficult to address even through the presidential campaign. Abortion was allowed almost in thirty states and legal only in special circumstances like pregnancies resulting from rape or incest in twenty states. Due to restriction laws unsafe abortion which is preventable, it still one of important causes of maternal morbidity and mortality.

In the United States the abortion has become a big deal in American political landscape. Also is very sadly because is consider it moral issues rather than personal rights or civil liberties.

For the better, since this those who have passed due to abortion-related situations have significantly decreased

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics in contemporary society. People that are “Pro- Choice” agree that you should be able to have an abortion. People that are “Pro- Life” think it is wrong. Abortion should be legal in America because i is a woman's constitutional right to be in control of her body. . If you have a legal abortion, you reduce the chance of injury and death than if you have an illegal abortion.

Secular Europe has more restrictions on abortion compared with the U.S., based on the latest poll by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.

Abortion was legalized when the Roe v. Wade court was held the decision was made in 1973.

What is abortion? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “Abortion: the premature expulsion of a [foetus] from the womb; an operation to cause this.” Abortion has been a controversial topic for many years. Some people favor adoption and some are against it. “In 2008 an estimated 1.21 million abortions were performed in the Unites States.”(Jones, and Kooistra). Many opinions collaborate in abortions rights or abortion legislation. “In 2008, 84,610 women obtained abortions in Texas, producing a rate of 16.5 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Some of these women were from other states, and some Texas residents had abortions in other states, so this rate may not reflect the abortion rate of state residents. The rate decreased