Abortion ReportI have chosen for my topic Abortion. I think that it is a topic that isvery important in today’s society however it is often dodged or avoided.
Different Presidents say different things and have different stances about it,and often it is had to know what to think about it. Basically there are twodifferent ways of looking at it: Pro-Choice, which takes the stance of sayingthat it is the woman’s choice if she wants to have an abortion and that it isonly her business. So basically they want it to remain legal. Then there isthe other stance of Pro-Life which says that it should not remain legal and thatit is just about as bad as cold-blooded murder. I happen to agree with this.
This is what I will be focusing on for the rest of my report.
I will first talk about Pro-Choice. Through the years this hasobviously been the thinking of our nation because abortion remains legal (BillClinton is Pro-Choice). This is also the thinking of many woman’s rightsmovements and organizations. From reading a paper on Pro-Choice it states asits heading that abortion should be a woman’s right to choose what she does withher body, and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. This rightis guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which contains the right to privacy. Thisbrings up a very interesting point, which is that the ninth amendment is astrong argument in the fight for Pro-Choice. It states that “The enumeration inthe Constitution, of certain rights, shall not construed to deny or disparageothers retained by the people.” This right guarantees the right to women, ifthey so choose, to have an abortion, up to the end of the first trimester.
Several cases have been fought for the right to choose. Many of these have beenhard cases but they stuck with it, and many people believe that that is why wehave some of the rights we do today. Here are some important cases:1. 1965 – Griswold vs. Connecticut. Upheld the right to privacy and ended theban on birth control. Eight years later, the Supreme Court ruled the right toprivacy included abortions.
2. 1973 – Roe vs. Wade. The state of Texas had outlawed abortions. TheSupreme Court declared the law unconstitutional, bur refused to order aninjunction against the state. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court voted theright to privacy included abortions.
3. 1976 – Planned Parenthood vs. Danforth. Ruled that requiring consent by thehusband and the consent from a parent if a person was under 18 wasunconstitutional. This case supported a woman’s control over her own body andreproductive system.
To conclude about Pro-Choice I will state what Dana Pentoney has said:Abortion deals with one’s private life and should have nothing to do with thegovernment. However, abortion should not be used as a means of birth control,but if a fetus will be unwanted, it is better to be aborted than to be abused orneglected.
Now onto Pro-Life. This is what Presidential hopeful Bob Dole believedin, and to start it off I will give some interesting facts on how our views onAbortion have changed throughout the years.
Asking the simple question What is Abortion? Here are the answers that youwould have gotten: 1859 – The slaughter of countless children; no meremisdemeanor or no mere attempt upon the life of the mother, but the wanton andmurderous destruction of her child; such unwarrantable destruction of human life.
1871 – The work of destruction; The wholesale destruction of unborn infants.
1967 – The interruption of an unwanted pregnancy.
1970 – A medical procedure.
There are many different methods of abortion each one more horrible than thelast. Some of them include:-Suction Abortion -Dilation and Curettage (D&C) -Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) -Salt Poisoning (Saline Injection) -Hysterotomy -Prostaglandin AbortionThere are also many risks and complications caused by having an abortion.
Some of the more widely known one’s are:1. Breast Cancer2. Complications in future pregnancies, including excessive bleeding, prematuredelivery, cervical damage, and sterility.
3. Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).
4. Uterine perforations.
5. Tubal pregnancy.
6. Placenta previa, which is extremely severe, life threatening bleeding infuture pregnancies.
7. Retention of placentaAs you can see there are many different factors that contribute toabortion, and many different risks that you take in having one. I think thatabortion will remain a huge topic that’s not going to go away easily. I believethat they should be illegal however through doing this report I have been shownthe other side of the story, the Pro-Choice side, and I have began to see therestandpoint-even though I might not agree with it. Science
