Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The
argument being that every child born should be wanted, and others
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who believe that every child conceived should be born (Sass vii).
This has been a controversial topic for years. Many people want
to be able to decide the destiny of others. Everyone in the
United States is covered under the United States constitution,
and under the 14th Amendment women have been given the choice
of abortion. In 1973, Harry A. Blackmun wrote the majority
opinion that it’s a women’s right to have an abortion.
Roe v.
Wade legalized abortion. Even though these people have been
given the right, the case is not closed. Pro-life activists
carry a strong argument, and continue to push their beliefs.
They feel so strongly about these beliefs that violence has
broken out in some known instances. Pro-choice activists, on the
other hand, also carry very strong points. They believe that the
child inside them is their property and it’s life doesn’t be
until birth. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court decided
that as long as the baby lived in the womb, he or she would be
the property of the mother. Because of this decision almost
every third baby conceived in America is killed by abortion, over
one and a half million babies a year (Willke vii). Many
countries have followed our decision on the abortion issue and
some of these include Canada, England, and France. Other
countries still believe abortion should be illegal, they include
Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand. Although many believe that
abortion is a women’s choice, abortion should be banned because
its immoral and life begins at conception.
Abortion is the choice of a women whether or not she want’s
to receive one. Under the 14th Amendment’s “personal liberty”
women are given the right to receive an abortion. The 14th
Amendment’s concept of “personal liberty” and restrictions on
state action is enough to allow a women’s decision whether or not
to terminate her pregnancy. The right to choose to have an
abortion is so personal and essential to women’s lives that
without this right women cannot exercise other fundamental rights
and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution (Paltrow 72). The
state can’t interfere in the private lives of a citizen. Without
the right to choose an abortion the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of
liberty has little meaning for women. With the right to choose
abortion, women are able to enjoy, like men, the rights to fully
use the powers of their minds and bodies (Paltrow 73). A
man can withdraw from a relationship as soon as he finds out
about a pregnancy. There is no question of his involve t after
that, he has made his choice. It is only fair to say that women
should be given the same choice. If one doesn’t want to hold the
responsibilities of a child than she should be able to have the
choice of abortion in her options.” Because contraceptives fail,
and because they are not always available or possible to use,
abortion is necessary if people are to be able to determine
whether and when to “bear or beget a child”(Paltrow 72). Couples
choose the alternative of abortion so they can start or expand
their families when they feel most ready and able to care for
them. Women choose to have an abortion because pregnancy and
childbirth can prevent them from keeping their jobs, from feeding
their families, and from serving others in ways they consider
necessary and appropriate. Pregnancy and child birth may
determine whether a women ever gets to start or complete her
education, which will significantly influence her ability to
support herself and her family. The availabilit y of abortion
makes it possible for people not only to choose the number of
children they want, but also to create the kind of family life
they have always wanted for themselves, to meet their
responsibilities. If a women cannot choose to terminate an
unwanted pregnancy, she is denied the right to the “possession
and control” of her own body. One of the most sacred rights of
common law is to choose and if a women can’t do this than their
most important possession is taken away. Abortion isn’t only a
women’s right, it’s a women’s choice.
However, allowing abortion to be legal is immoral. A pre-
born child is given the status of a “product of pregnancy” and
never seen as the miracle only a women can create. Compassion
for the small one is drowned out under a demand for “rights”, but
what about the rights for the unborn. “A women has a right to
her own body” is an idea more and more women are realizing,
but that idea ignores the unborn child’s right to his or her
body. Never, in modern times, has the state granted to one
citizen the right to have another killed in order to solve their
personal, social, or economic problems. the embryo is its own
being that should have it’s own rights to protect it. The zygote
is a unique genetic being (Zindler 27). If one was to abort an
embryo than that embryo, that human life would never be
duplicated. A scientist that may have found the cure to A.I.D.S.
would be killed. There is a better way to solve our problems
than by killing children. A fertilized egg is the most beauti ,
most innocent being that we could ever create, and can redeem
even the worst of our mistakes. This fertilized egg is not just
a mass of tissue, for if it were than there would be no debate.
A fetus feels pain. Ultra sound, fetoscopy, study of the fetal
EKG (electrocardiogram) and fetal EEG (electroencephalogram) have
demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to
pain, touch and sound (willke 64). The fetus responds to light,
heat, cold, and taste. Observations of the fetal movements in
saline abortions indicates that the fetus experiences discomfort
as it dies. One doctor who, the New York Times, wrote
“conscientiously performs” saline abortions stated, “when
he injected the saline, he often saw an increase in fetal
movements” (Willke 64). In another case, a film using mew
sonographic techniques, shows the outline of the child in the
womb thrashing to resist the suction device before it tears off
the head. Then you see the dead child dismembered child and t he
head crushed (Edwards 40). This is murder. Nobody who sees this
film will speak again of “painless” abortion. After the doctor
who performed this procedure saw this film, he never performed
another abortion again. But, many doctors still do perform
abortion, and in some instances a live child is killed. “About
once a day, somewhere in the United States, something goes wrong
and an abortion results in a live baby” (Willke 76). Forty five
out of six hundred and seven mid trimester abortions done in
Connecticut in 1974-1976 resulted in live births (Willke 76). In
these cases the child was killed in cold blooded murder. It is
immoral to kill, therefore abortion is immoral.
Finally, abortion should be banned because life begins at
conception. The individual sex cell consists of 23 chromosomes.
It is only through combination, however, that the sex cells
contain the full complement of heredity units that defines a
human being (Shettles 17). This procedure of combination defines
conception. After the merger of the two sex cells 46 chromosomes
are present. This is what makes a human being. The merger is
complete within twelve hours, at which time the egg is fertilized
and becomes known technically as the “zygote”. The inherited
characteristics of a unique human being has been established, and
in no circumstances will it change (Shettles 17). Nothing from
this time on, until death, will anything be added. The
definition of alive is that a being is growing, developing,
maturing, and replacing its own dying cells. It means not being
dead. At the very time conception begins the zygote is growing,
developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cel It’s alive.
The single-celled fertilized ovum cannot by any stretch of the
imagination be considered part of a women’s body. This new
living being has a genetic set up unlike anyone else’s, totally
different from the cells of the mother’s body. It makes no
difference to assume that human life is more human post-born than
pre-born. What is critical to figure out is if it is or isn’t
human life, and of coarse it is human life. At 18 days the heart
is pumping through a closed circulatory system, with blood whose
type is different from that of the mother. At 40 days the brain
begins to function. In the 16th week motion has been detected.
At 6 and 1/2 weeks all twenty milk-teeth buds are present.
During the eighth week the baby’s stomach secretes gastric juice,
and all it’s body system is present. The baby dreams, thinks,
and feels pain. This is definitely a child, and no one on the
face of this earth would be here if they weren’t conceived.
In summary, abortion can be justified by a women’s right to
choose, but it should be banned because it’s immoral and life
begins at conception. Women have been given the right to have an
abortion under the United States Constitution, but this right is
still being protested by the people that fight for the unborn’s
rights. Pro-life activists claim that its immoral because it is
simply defined as murder. Life begins at conception is another
strong point brought up by pro-life activists. Before a child is
born it is given all it’s necessities to survive. Notice the
operative word is before. Before birth the childs heart beats,
the gastric juices flow in the stomach, and all its necessary
organs have been made present. This is a child that thinks,
dreams, and feels pain. Yes, some women may look at having an
abortion to solve her personal problems, but in all, women are
abandoning the abortion because it weakens their great strengths:
creation, compassion and the ability to loo eneath the surface of
appearance of things. Maybe soon the abortion issue will
reverse, and people will see the rights of the unborn as greater
importance than that of a personal right.