Introduction
Abortion has always been controversial and will be the center of public debate for decades. It’s often discussed from various points of view including moral, religious, philosophical, ethical, and medical. The majority of people either have a personal experience or opinion concerning abortion. Abortion is a delicate topic that touches everyone — man, woman, and child.
Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The argument is that every child born should be wanted, and others who believe that every child conceived should be born. This has been a controversial topic for years. Many people want to be able to decide the destiny of others.
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The Immorality of Abortion
Abortion is not only an issue when it comes to ethics, but morally as well. There are two main opinions in relation to abortion which are, pro-life, and pro-choice. The countless amounts of opinions and beliefs make understanding the choices of abortion a tough topic to debate. Everyone has to make a decision based on their values, so it does not matter right or wrong. Different backgrounds make it harder to create a policy that would satisfy all parties. Strong arguments can be made in support of both pro-life, and pro-choice viewpoints. It is important to inform readers about both viewpoints, rather than choosing and trying to sway an audience to one side or the other.
Why Abortion Should Be Banned
The ethical argument defending the pro-life opinion begins with the idea of personhood. No one has the ability to take another life. Many beliefs, including the Catholic tradition, believe that personhood begins at conception. Therefore terminating a pregnancy at any time throughout the pregnancy is impermissible. Abortion is killing, and God is the only entity that is understandably allowed to take life. A human taking out the life of another human being is murder and disrupts the sanctity of human life. In 1982, the state of Pennsylvania passed the Abortion Control Act, which helps set precedent in the regulation of abortions. Although it did not outlaw abortions, it allowed guidelines that would make them get an abortion harder to obtain due to enforcement of informed consent. Informed consent enforced several provisions, including a 24-hour grace period in which women had to wait, and was provided with information regarding abortion treatment. Another portion of the act made parents of minors sign an info outed consent waiver to be sure that their parents or guardians were aware of the situation. Originally it also included that husbands had to be informed of their wife’s choice to terminate the pregnancy. People believe that when a woman ends a pregnancy, she is committing murder against an unborn child, while others argue that a woman has the right to choose life or abortion. There are different procedures to choose from when having an abortion, depending on the fetus's gestational age and the woman’s health.
The Procedures and Legalities of Abortion
An abortion can take place with a pill when the woman is up to 9 weeks gestation (mifepristone and misoprostol), but for women who are over 12 weeks gestation (late-term abortion), surgical abortion is used. In 1973, the supreme court ruled that abortion was to be legalized, due to the case of Roe vs. Wade. Women were given the legal right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and make the correct arrangements for their decisions. Different states have different restrictions on accessing abortion procedures, making the woman’s choice to terminate pregnancy less accessible. Restricting a woman’s access to appropriate abortion clinics limits her right to choose. There are different forms of abortion and reasons why some women might make the choice to terminate their pregnancy, including but not limited to, medical issues, domestic violence, rape, and having made irresponsible choices, but no matter the reason for the woman’s choice; it is her right to decide to have a child or to have an abortion. The choice to terminate a pregnancy due to medical issues with the fetus and/or woman can be overwhelming and very emotional.
The Right to Choose: A Woman's Perspective
Many believe that abortion is a woman’s choice, abortion should be banned because it is immoral and life begins at conception. Abortion is a woman's choice whether or not she wants to conceive one. Under the 14th Amendment’s ‘personal liberty,’ women should be given the right to receive an abortion. The concept of ‘personal liberty and restrictions of a specific state is enough to allow a woman’s decision to terminate her pregnancy. The right to choose to have an abortion is so personal and essential to a woman’s life that without this right women can’t exercise other fundamental rights and liberties guaranteed by the Constitution. The state can’t interfere in the private lives of a citizen. With the right to choose abortion, women are able to enjoy, like men, the right to use the powers of their minds and bodies fully.
A man can cease any contact with the woman as soon as he finds out about a pregnancy. There is no objection to his actions after that; he has made his choice to leave the woman. It is only fair to say that women should be given the same choice. If the woman doesn’t want to hold the responsibilities of a child then she should be able to have the choice of abortion on her own terms. Sometimes contraceptives fail, and because they are not always available or possible to use, abortion is necessary for people who can determine whether and when to have a child. Couples are able to choose 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 could prevent them from keeping their jobs, feeding their families, and possibly caring for themselves.
Laws prohibiting abortion made women fall into desperation, fear, and shame, and also took a heavy toll on women’s lives and health. Poor women and women of color suffered tremendously, as the ability to obtain an abortion, in a safe manner nonetheless, often depended upon their economic situation, their race, and where they lived. Women with money would often leave the country or find a physician who could perform the abortion for a high fee. Poor women, for the most part, were either at the mercy of incompetent practitioners with questionable motives or unable to find anyone who would perform the procedure. Many attempted dangerous self-abortion, such as inserting knitting needles or coat hangers into the vagina and uterus, douching with solutions such as lye, or swallowing strong drugs or chemicals. While many deaths weren’t officially attributed to unsafe, illegal abortions, it’s impossible to know the exact number of lives lost due to unsafe abortions. However, thousands of women a year were treated for health complications due to botched, unsanitary, or self-induced abortions, and many die. Others were left infertile or with chronic illness and pain.
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The Historical Context of Abortion
Women have been using abortion to control their reproduction in history, and in every society — whether abortion was legal or not. In the US, abortion was practiced before 1880, when most of the states had banned it except to save the life of the woman. Anti-abortion legislation was part of a backlash against the growing movements for suffrage and birth control — an effort to control women and confine them to a traditional childbearing role.
The availability 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 woman cannot choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, she is denied the right to possessing and controlling her own body. One of the most sacred rights of common law is to choose and if a woman can’t do this then their most important possession is taken away. Abortion isn’t only a woman’s right, it’s a woman’s choice. However, allowing abortion to be legal is immoral.
A preborn child is given the status of a product of pregnancy and never seen as the miracle only a woman can create. Compassion for the small one is drowned out under demand for rights, but what about the rights of the unborn. ‘A woman 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 its own rights to protect it. The zygote is a unique genetic being. If one was to abort an embryo 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 issues than by killing children.
A fertilized egg is the most beautiful, most innocent being that humans 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 then there would be no debate. A fetus feels pain. Ultrasound, 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 indicate 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 new 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 the head crushed. 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 the 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.
Life Begins at Conception: The Biological Argument
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 had 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 setup 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 course, 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, a 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 its body system is present. The baby dreams think and feel pain. This is definitely a child; no one would be here without being conceived.
Conclusion
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 it’s 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 its necessities to survive. Notice the operative word is before. Before birth the child’s 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 their personal problems, but in all, women are abandoning abortion because it weakens their great strengths: creation, compassion, and the ability to look beneath the surface of the appearance of things. Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and people will see the rights of the unborn as greater important than that of a personal right.
References
- Abolishing Abortion: The History of the Pro-Life Movement in America. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.oah.org/tah/issues/2016/november/abolishing-abortion-the-history-of-the-pro-life-movement-in-america/.
- Baird, R. M., & Rosenbaum, S. E. (2001). The ethics of abortion: pro-life vs. pro-choice. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
- Beckwith, F. (2008). Defending life: a moral and legal case against abortion choice. Cambridge University Press.
- Higgins, M., & Dellapenna, J. W. (2013). Roe v. Wade: abortion and a woman’s right to privacy. Minneapolis, MN: ABDO Pub.
- OBOS Abortion Contributors. (n.d.). History of Abortion in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/u-s-abortion-history/.
- Shettles, L. B., & Rorvik, D. M. (1983). Rites of life: the scientific evidence for life before birth. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Pub. House.
- Williams, D. K. (2019). Defenders of the unborn: the pro-life movement before Roe v. Wade. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Willke, J. C., & Willke, B. (1985). Handbook on abortion. Cincinnati, OH: Hayes Pub. Co.
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