Abortion: Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice Abortion: Pro-Life Vs. Pro-Choice “Abortion is the spontaneous or artificially induced expulsion of an embryo or fetus” (Abortion, 2002). An artificially induced abortion is the type referred to in the legal context. Abortions happen in different situations. The question comes when is it the right or wrong choice. The root question becomes the moment a fetus becomes a person and entitled to rights. The fetus could be a person at conception, during the pregnancy, or at birth. The deciding moment differs from the Pro-life group and Pro-choice group.
After critically analyzing four different arguments about the pros and cons of abortion, one will be able to understand the ethical, moral, and legal issues associated with this heavily debated topic more clearly. Women may choose abortion for many reasons. Some of these reasons are relationship issues, poverty, unstable home, rape or other sexual crime, and that raising a child hampers with every day routines – school, work, and current family. According to test studies and statistics from the 1970s and through the mid-late 1990s, children raised in a poverty-filled environment have a higher crime rate.
This is not necessarily because of not having the means to furnish the necessities in the home. Lower crime rates are linked to having the option for abortion. One example is “Low abortion states violent crime rose by 29. 2%, property crime by 9. 3% percent, and murder by 4. 1% percent. Meanwhile, in the highest abortion rate states, violent crime fell by 2. 4%, property crime by 23. 1%, and murder by 25. 9%” (Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph. D. and Laura Antkowiak, May 2001). Aside from those specific crimes, the amounts of prostitution, human trafficking, and domestic violence increased as well in states with low abortion rates.
Individuals of different cultural backgrounds of all ages commit the crimes. Sometimes adults do not just accompany the minors but also participate in the crimes. This helps to enforce the idea, using manipulation, and scare tactics to teach that it is acceptable in society to choose to contribute to illegal activities without consequences. Using and teaching these adverse techniques make it more difficult for the individual, or individuals, to comprehend, learn, and establish the understanding of what is right and wrong. In theory, teaching others to make the wrong decisions instead of
more acceptable decisions does not better the future of those persons. It adds to the confusion and the increase of the epidemic of widespread crime affecting millions of people throughout the United States. Another major issue regarding abortion is if a fetus feels pain. A study by Stuart G. W. Derbyshire examines the development of the fetus to decode when pain is acknowledged. Pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage” (Derbyshire, 2006, The Content of Pain).
Working with this definition, one can derive that an understanding of the senses and emotions should be present at some cognitive level to feel pain. Therefore, pain becomes a learned response instead of a natural one because the association between the senses and the reaction is not yet learned. “This is likely to strike anyone as strange because it is simply not how we intuitively believe pain to be… Not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain experience, is also yet to occur” (Derbyshire, 2006, The Development Process).
This is an important issue to study because if the fetus can feel pain, going through with the abortion could have some negative moral and ethical repercussions. From a moral standpoint, knowing that the fetus can feel pain signals a higher understanding of the fetus’ brain. This means that when an abortion occurs, and the fetus is forcibly removed from the mother. The fetus reacts to the abortion in a negative way and is caused discomfort before the heart stops beating. Because pain is something that human beings can relate to, it begins to feel immoral to do the abortion in the first place.
If it is 100% proven that fetuses feel pain during an abortion, the operation has some ethical issues. From a non-religious standpoint, it does seem more likely that the doctor has helped end a life. This goes against the oath the doctor takes. In addition, because the fetus would have made the necessary progress emotionally to associate a stimulus to pain, a small level of individuality would be reached. From certain ethical standpoints, an abortion does not consider the needs of the individual and becomes unethical.
Pro-choice followers in the United States fight for the right for a woman to make a more conscious choice about abortion. There should be rules and regulations about the correct time to perform an abortion. Critical thinking skills will be necessary to help create these rules and regulations. Facts need to continue to be researched and presented in credible ways to help further the knowledge of how a pregnancy progresses. These rules will help prevent women from taking unsafe routes, like taking it into one’s own hands.
Abortions are permitted in a more safe and clean environment with licensed health care providers in clinics and offices than in the past. These providers also offer additional options like counseling for before and after an abortion. This counseling helps better prepare for a later time to conceive. In contrast to these views from the Pro-Choice group, Pro-Life groups are completely against abortion. These individuals believe that abortion is morally wrong. The Catholic and Christian Churches agree that abortion is wrong in any circumstance. Their beliefs include life starting at conception.
“Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5; The International Version). Because man is made in God’s image, abortion is the taking of a life created in God’s image. Death is the enemy. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:26; The International Version). Another verse chooses life, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.
For the Lord is your life” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20; The International Version). Every child has a right to become a useful service to God, as stated in Jeremiah 1:4-5, “Before I formed you in the womb I know you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. ” Life is the alternative to death. Abortion is death. Therefore, abortion is wrong. Abortion is morally wrong for other reasons as well. Unless the woman’s life is in danger, or the pregnancy is a result of rape or traumatic experience, the only other reason is selfishness.
Women choose abortion because they do not want the responsibility of carrying and caring for the child. These women are “taking the easy way out. ” When a man and woman consensually agree to intercourse, they agree to the responsibilities of their actions. Yes, taking responsibility is tough, but so is life. People do not encourage others to commit suicide if that person’s life is tough. Parents do not allow children to slack off because it easier. Society does not allow someone to commit murder. Because life starts at conception, abortion is wrong.
Another immoral reason for abortion is in case the infant will be deformed or damaged. Society does not allow “the termination of the mentally or physically handicapped” (Lopez, 2012, pg. 513). With ethics in mind, one can look at the Hippocratic Oath. In it is a line about ethical decision-making and deciding what is right for the patient. A doctor has the ethical duty to do what is right for the patient, including the mother and child. There are some possibilities where the mother could die if the pregnancy were carried to term.
As the years have passed, other issues have arisen, such as the legalization of RU-486, also known as the abortion pill. This allows women who know they are pregnant and want to terminate the pregnancy to go to a pharmacy, get this pill, and terminate without going to see a doctor. During a presidential debate Joseph Lieberman stated that he found it” unacceptable to support a bill that would prohibit an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, regardless of the effect on the health or life of the woman” (Thompson, 2008). After this statement, the opposite ticket won the election.
This development helps show where the majority of the country stands on the issue of abortion. The Pro-life side is the more persuasive argument because the facts presented can be studied and tested; basing legal decisions because of what churches believe goes against the separation of church and state. Whereas the Pro-Choice statements are more emotionally persuasive, they do seem to be stronger in general than the ones presented by Pro-Choice. This is because those beliefs are much stronger and older than those of the Pro-Life group are. This is another reason why taking any Pro-Choice action is difficult.
The position chosen is a compromise in the middle: abortions should only be legal only within the 1st trimester, and only for very specific reasons (rape, etc. ). To help with children after they are born into these difficult situations, an organization should be created specifically to help these children find homes very soon (within less than six months) after birth. Research should be done about how these organizations should be funded and who would run them. References Abortion. (2002). In World of Criminal Justice, Gale. Retrieved from http://www. credoreference. com. ezproxy. apollolibrary. com/entry/worldcrims/abor
