An Editorial Essay For The Illegalization Of Abortion

Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The

argument being that every child born should be wanted, and others

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.