Abortion
...are unable to sufficiently raise and take care of a child, then they should have the right to make their own decision. An argument also presented is late term abortions, also called partial birth abortions. These type of abortions are very rare and when they do occur, it is frequently because the parents have discovered late that their prospective child suffers from a serious birth defect or malformation. Late term abortion procedures are very low because 80 percent of all induced abortions are preformed during the first trimester (first three months of pregnancy), and more than half are preformed within the first two months (Planned Parenthood 1). A bill was presented to the 104th congress which tries to force women to give birth to such babies. It was titled the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act by its sponsors. The bill was passed by both houses of congress twice in late 1995 and was vetoed twice by President Bill Clinton in April 1996. Why not give the child up for adoption rather then having an abortion? Some ask this question but most women feel uncomfortable about giving birth to a child that they will never be able to raise but will continue thinking about. It might feel as a missing piece of them for the rest of their life, unlike a abortion which is just a little part of a women’s life in a brief moment in the past that they felt was right. For example, if you discuss something with a lawyer or a doctor, you have the right that that information will be kept confidential. A doctor can not preform surgery on you without your consent, even if the doctor feels it is in your best interest to have the operation. A women who has a family history of breast cancer and fears that she will get it herself has the right to have a surgeon remove her breasts, even though they are perfectly healthy and the operation is medically unnecessary. Therefore, abortions should be just as private and personal. Pro-choice activists believe that neither the government, the Church, or pro-life protestors can tell a women what to do with her body. For women who have no dependable partner, or are poor, too young to responsibly care for a child, or emotionally and physically unprepared to become mothers, the thought of being forced to continue a pregnancy and then have the responsibility of caring for a child would be devastating. Abortion have been legal since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case in 1973. This makes it constitutionally impossible for states to prohibit abortion at any time for any reason during a women’s pregnancy. Eliminating the possibility to have an abortion would hike the level of out-of-wedlock births from its already high level of 30 percent to 49 percent (Muller 29). Abortion is not murder because it is not a separate human life because it is not able to live outside the woman’s body (Sloan 40). It is a developing mass of tissue as part of the women with no separate social existence. It has the potential to become a human, but is not yet. It is not yet a separate social being that should have separate social rights. For that it must have entered society as a separate identity, that is, it must have been born. The fetus is not yet recognized as a human being yet, it does not have a social security number, a birth certificate, nor any record of its life until it is born. Before birth it is not a child, or a person with an independent existence (Worker 56). If abortions are not legalized, lives can be lost to those people who are so desperate that they attempt to preform the procedure on themselves. What if a women becomes pregnant as the result of rape or incest? Sixteen thousand women report that they have abortions each year because of such circumstance (Day 9). She has to keep that baby if abortion is legal, it wasn’t even her choice, some man deliberately took advantage of her with out her consent, and now she has to live with it. That is a devastating issue and the innocent women most likely will be emotionally damaged for the rest of her life, having to raise a child she did not even want, and was forced to have. There are many different reasons why a women would get an abortion, and they are all valid, she should not feel guilty for terminating and unwanted pregnancy. Pro-Life advocates are people who don’t believe in the right to an abortion or oppose it. They believe abortion should be illegal under all circumstances, for all reasons. One of their reasons for believing this, is that they think it is murder. They believe the fetus is a human being from the time of conception. From the moment the egg and sperm unite, is when they believe the fetus has a legal right to life. The believe it is immoral, a particularly heinous crime because it kills an innocent human being who has not yet been born. But it is not murder, it is a group of tissue in the women body, part of her, therefore it is neither and individual human being or considered murder. Also people have reason from abortions, they are unable to go through with them until they have had a 24 hour waiting period which the Supreme Court allows states to require. The women that have abortions think about it long and hard, they are in a tight unfavorable predicament. It might even be the hardest decision of their life, but if they feel they are not yet ready to raise a child then it should be their right to choose what is best for them and also the future of a baby. Fetal abnormalities occur during pregnancies also. Each year, more that 250,000 babies are born with physical or mental disorders (Day 35). Prenatal test can now identify some fetal defects, such as Down syndrome. 97 percent of women who were told of fetal abnormalities detected through early screening procedures ended their pregnancies (Day 36). Some women feel unable to handle the emotional and physical burden of raising a severely handicapped child. They also may not have enough money to do so and struggle their whole lives. 20 percent of abortion are done based on genetic reasons, 80 percent are purely elective (Dr. Martin Haskell 2). This evidence is not accurate, because he is taking the estimation on just his particular experiences and case. This is not base on any other doctor in any other clinic or state. It does not represent the United States and is just his opinion, so no one can truly be sure. There is no defining line between where life begins (Coulter 266). Religion also plays a role in why people disagree with abortion. Some cultures and religions believe it is wrong to take a life of a living human being, only god has the ability to decide if that should be done or not. An argument presented is that rape does not justify abortion. They say that it will only traumatize the rape women further, when the women realizes she has killed her own child. They say its wrong to discriminate against people who have been born because of the manner in which they came into the world. However, It should be a personal decision dictated by the women’s circumstance. Looking at that child everyday may remind her of that horrible ordeal. Knowing that she become pregnant and had a child that was totally against her will. ...