Abortions have been legal in the United States since 1973 after many lawsuits. Now there are controversial issues surrounding the topic of abortion. Is it right or is it wrong? Many people believe that it is wrong, but there should be exceptions when it comes down to it. There is also the issue of human rights and no legislators should be able to tell a woman what she should or should not do to her body. It should be the choice of the woman and most women make the right choices when it comes to a baby inside them.
Abortion is a voluntary termination of pregnancy that kills a fetus or embryo. Abortions in the United States are legal up to the third trimester. Abortions has caused a huge contemporized debate on whether it is right or it is wrong. “Almost all state Democratic Party platforms support abortion while almost all state Republican Party platforms oppose it” (Gill, K. , n. d. )
Abortion has existed in almost every society and was legal under Roman law. Abortion was legalized in 1973 when the U. S. Supreme court ruled in Roe v. Wade. This stated during the first trimester, a woman has the right to decide what happens to her body. In addition, the court ruled that the state could intervene in the second trimester and could ban abortions in the United States in the third trimester. I believe that it is just that a woman should decide what happens to her own body, and it is in just to invade her privacy with banning abortions.
Many of the women that go through with abortions do it for a good reason. They should not have to explain their selves to anybody. It is their body and they should have the right to do as they please. According to The Center for Reproductive Rights which is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and defending women’s reproductive rights worldwide. “International human rights agreements support a woman’s right to make decisions that affect her own body.
Right to privacy, which allows her to decide to have an abortion without government interference; the right to life, under which she should have access to a medically safe abortion that will not endanger her life? If a woman decides that an abortion is in her best interest, governments should respect that decision and recognize that she is excursing her basic human rights” (Thomson, 2005). This is absolutely right a government should not interfere with a woman decision to have an abortion.
Every year out of 175 million pregnancies 75 million of those are unwanted pregnancies, in some cases women will accept the responsibility and carry the pregnancy to term. There are others that look at her own familial relationships, hopes for the future, economic concerns, health needs, and also the way she had gotten pregnant to determine her decision. When the odds do not look good for her or the baby the pregnancy will most likely end with abortion, which is only her God given right as a human being with rights.
Some pregnancies also might end later in pregnancy if a woman finds out that the unborn child will have a disease that will enable them in their life time. Every year about 45 million pregnancies, out of a total of 175 million, end in abortion. Almost half of the pregnancies are medically unsafe, resulting in the deaths of nearly 80,000 women a year. This is the most sensible reason to turn to an abortion for a woman. There is ectopic pregnancy, which is when an embryo implants itself on the wall of the fallopian tube rather than the wall of the uterus. This type of implantation can cause the mother to die.
The fallopian tube will eventually rupture which then will cause death. This is when abortion is highly recommended, it is better to save one life instead of losing two mother and child. “There are a few other problems that can cause difficulties for the mother but not severe enough to cause her to die. Conditions such as Toxemia (swelling, elevated blood pressure), Placenta Previa (placenta covers all or part of the cervix), and Placental Abruption (placenta detaches from uterine wall) occur occasionally but mother can be treated and, if need be, the delivery can be attempted earlier than normal” (Harm, 2008).
As it goes to show there are exceptions for abortion when there are health problems with the mother, and it should be her right to choose to go on with the pregnancy. Abortion should also be permitted when the unborn child is going to have a disability. According to a Ivy League director of an ethics program, “he believes that prospective parents have a moral obligation to undergo prenatal testing and to terminate their pregnancy to avoid bringing forth a child with a disability, because it is immoral to subject a child to the kind of suffering her or she will have to endure” (Bauer, 2005).
This is not an easy thing to deal with especially when you are so excited with having a baby. I know this from experience when I was pregnant with my son the doctors confronted me stating that it was possible that my unborn baby might have a disease called Tresomy 18, which is a genetic disease. They asked me if I would like to have an aminotesis test performed so that I would be aware of the situation. This way I would be able to decide to continue with the pregnancy or take my chances. If the baby was diagnosed with the disease they said he would only live a couple of days.
I knew that would be too much for my family and I t handle and had the test performed. The baby did not have the disease, I am so grateful, but if he had I would probably had gone through with the abortion because I know I would not be able to handle my newborn child dying in front of my eyes. A lot of parents go through with abortions because the child will have a disability, and it may be easier to avoid the hurt they will cause to themselves and the child. There is also the question of can I really afford to deal with this situation financially as well, if not the child will also suffer tremendously.
It can be a difficult situation for the parents of a child with disabilities. Therefore they should have the choice of abortion to prevent a lot of suffering. Women shall also have a choice to terminate a pregnancy when a child is conceived due to rape or incest. Nearly one percent of abortions are in fact done because of this reason in particular. After a woman is raped they deal with an aftermath of both physical trauma and psycholocological trauma, and in most cases can not deal with a pregnancy as a result of the rape.
It may also be easier for a woman to move forward in life without a child as a result of being a victim of rape. The child will serve as a constant reminder of the crime that was committed against her. Pregnancy is not good for a woman that has been raped because the most common side effect of being raped which is depression, which can last for months. “Suicidal indentation and attempts to suicide occur, which can be very unhealthy for an unborn child” (Rautio, 2008).
There should be no restriction what so ever on abortion due to rape or incest because the effects of the crime itself will have a lasting effect on a woman. If it is her choice to abort a fetus then nobody should stand in her way. There is also a lot of ethical controversy surrounding this issue of abortion is it ethical or unethical? It all depends on what you as a person believe in. There is no ABORTION 7 definitions in out there that defines abortion as murder or the government would never allow it. Many anti-abortionists had given the name “Partial-birth abortion” also known as intact dilation and extraction.
This time period refers to the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, which a nonviable fetus is removed from the woman’s uterus. “Anti-abortionists emphasize that the fetus’s skull is collapsed in this procedure, so that it can pass through the woman’s undilated cervix. The details of the procedure make many people uncomfortable, but the fact is that all abortions involve the destruction of the fetus. The fetus is not a person, and a woman should have the right to abort it, through whatever a doctor recommends” (Thomson, 2005). “God never condemned nor condoned legal abortion in the bible.
God recognized the official beginning of human life as being at birth when a human could breathe the first breath of air” (Loonan, 2003). If abortion is banned many woman will be at risk with their health because if they cannot obtain a legal abortion they will go the other route and get an abortion illegally. “Prior to the court decision of Roe v. Wade many poor women had little access to legal abortion, and more affluent women often had to travel to another state to obtain one. Illegal abortions were common and very dangerous, and many deaths fell dramatically when Roe v.
Wade passed if overturned, poor and disadvantaged women will suffer the most” (Gold, 2006). Illegal abortions have disadvantages one is death and this affects not only the woman that dies but also her family, especially her children that will lose their mother. Those who do not bleed to death will most likely get affection from the non-sterile instruments used to perform the abortion, and also can get permanent health effects. It only goes to show that banning legal abortions is not only unfair to woman alone but also her loved ones.
On January 22, 2010 it marked the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling that woman have a constitutional right to control their own reproductive health. ““Motherhood by choice, not chance” was a cry of woman in 1973, and unfortunately the fears behind the cry remain valid over 30 years later” (Hanson, 2006). Let’s face it each woman goes through state-mandated counseling “informed consent” or “Women’s right to know”, and are also required to visit the abortion provider on two separate occasions to be sure of the decision she is making.
If the woman has not changed her mind by then that means she knows what she wants to do, and most likely have good reasons behind their decisions. This right should not be taken away from them because some people disagree with abortion. If it is not their body they should have no concern. Abortions should be acceptable in situations such as rape, harm to the mother, or to prevent suffering to a child that would be born with a disability. There are also many more reasons why a woman will go through with an abortion, and it should be her right not to explain her situation to anyone.
That should be the woman’s decision and hers alone. No law should be able to tell you what to do with your body; it is a violation of human rights. I do understand there are a lot of controversial issues because there are many woman and young girls that do take advantage of abortions because they lack responsibility. The people that do it for the right reasons should not be punished because others make bad decisions.
References
- Bauer, P. E. (October 18, 2005). The abortion debate nobody wants to have. Retrieved June 8, 2010, from http://www. washingtonpost. om
- Gill, K. (n. d. ). Abortion. Retrieved June 8, 2010, from http://www. uspoliticsabortionissues. htm
- Harm, M. (August 16, 2008). The health of the mother. Retrieved June 8, 2010, from http://www. prolifeblogs. com
- Rautio, D. (December, 2008). Rape victims. Retrieved June 9, 2010, from Http://www. web4health. info
- Thomson, G. (2005). The ethics of abortion. Farmington, MI: Greenhaven Press.
- Thomson, G. (2006). Abortion. Farmington Hill, MI: Greenhaven Press. Effects and after math of rape. (n. d. ). Retrieved June 9, 2010, from http://www. widipedia. org
