FREE ESSAY ON ABORTION

ABORTION

Abortion
During the past quarter century, abortion has joined race and war as one of the most
debatable
subject of controversy in the United States. It discusses human interaction where ethics,
emotions
and law come together. Abortion poses a moral, social and medical dilemma that faces
many
individuals to create a emotional and violent atmosphere. There are many points of view
toward
abortion but the only two fine distinctions are pro-choice and pro-life. A pro-choicer
would feel
that the decision to abort a pregnancy is that of the mothers and the state has no right
to interfere. A
pro-lifer would hold that from the moment of conception, the embryo or fetus is alive.
This life
imposes on us a moral obligation to preserve it and that abortion is tantamount to murder
(Kolner
5).
In the United States about 1.6 million pregnancies end in abortion. Women with incomes
under
eleven thousand are over three times more likely to abort than those with incomes above
twenty-five
thousand. Unmarried women are four to five times more likely to abort than married and
the
abortion rate has doubled for 18 and 19 year olds. Recently the U.S. rate dropped 6
percent
overall but the rate of abortion among girls younger than 15 jumped 18 percent. The rate
among
minority teens climbed from 186 per 1,000 to 189 per 1,000.
The most popular procedure involved in abortions is the vacuum aspiration which is done
during the
first trimester (three months or less since the women has become pregnant). A tube is
simply
inserted through the cervix and the contents of the uterus are vacuumed out. The most
commonly
used type of second trimester abortion is called dilation and evacuation. Since the fetus
has bones,
bulk and can move, second trimester is not as simple. When as much of the fetus and
placenta are
vacuumed out then tweezers are used to remove larger parts. After this, or the beginning
of the fifth
month abortion is serious and actually induced as childbirth. That is, the mother is
given substances
which puts her into labor and delivers the fetus as she would a full-term baby. About 40
percent of
Americans believe that abortion should remain legal and 40 percent believe it should be
banned
except when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother or is the result of rape or
incest. Also 15
percent b eveit should be illegal in all cases. Although abortion is regarded as a
women's right, it
should be banned with exceptions because it's considered murder, has many psychological
side
effects and there is an alternative.
Abortion is a women's own right and choice. In 1973 the Roe v. Wade decision proved this
by
recognizing abortion as a fundamental constitution right and made it legal in all states.
The law now
permits abortion at the request of the women without any restrictions in the first
trimester and some
restrictions in the second trimester to protect the women's health. The National Abortion
Right Act
League argues that without legal abortion women would be denied their constitutional
right of
privacy and liberty. The women's right to her own body subordinates those of the fetus
and the U.S.
Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade argued that the women's right to privacy overruled the
fetus's right to life. If abortion was illegal it would force poor women to bear and
raise children they
can't afford to bring up. There would be a number of unsafe abortions in back allies. It
would also
force women to give up their dreams and stay home to bring up babies. Worst of all, it
would
condemn victims o apeand incest to carry and nurture the offspring of their
rapist.(Kolner 5)
Abortion is necessary for women to have control over their own bodies and life. One
activist said,
If I hadn't had that abortion my life would have been a disaster. I wouldn't have made it
to medical
school. I was married at that point to a very ill man and it would have been terrible to
have to have
my baby. People who need abortions are in some kind of turmoil and it's really a
life-saving
thing.(Blender 4) To ignore the rights of others is selfish and injustice. Women must
have the right
to control the functions of their own bodies. Revern George Gardiner pastor of the
college Hill
United Methodist Church, told the council that the ordnance would have done little good.
Young
women need the freedom to make choices for their reproductive life when their family
can't
guarantee them parental support.(Lynn B6-7) Women should not be forced to have babies
they
don't want. They must be able to decide what happe ns to them and have a safe plus legal
way of
doing so. Women are in control of their own bodies and lives. Legislators have no right
to interfere.
The practical assertion that since pregnancy involves a women's body, the choice of
continuing that
pregnancy must be hers alone. This was the first given buerful theoretical articulation
and defense by
Judith Thomson.(meilander 3)
However, abortion is considered murder by half of all Americans. Pro-lifers believe that
human life
begins at the moment of conception. When the merge of the egg and sperm is complete, they
are
fertilized and known as the zygote. The zygote contains a full set of 46 chromosomes
which is
required to create a human life. Scientists identify that at the moment of fertilization
the ovum takes
on a entirely different destiny, life. About 15,000 genes from the sperm and ovum form a
unique
combination. This is nothing less than a new human life at its earlier stage of life. In
the United States
many infants will not make it to puberty, old age or even their second birthday. Just
because of their
shortened life, it doesn't mean that it never existed. Dr. Nathanson stopped preforming
abortions
after becoming aware of the horrors he observed. A woman has the right to go to bed with
who
she wants, but she can not choose death for her child. It's a direct violation of human
rights. (Koval
i grid c-7) Anthony Simpson has a photo of a aborted fetus and believes that abortion is
nothing less
but ruthless murder. In southern Kentucky, Robert Hollis brutally assaulted his wife in
effort to abort
the fetus he suspected wasn't his. He successfully did so and Caroll believed Hollis set
out
intentionally to kill that fetus and that is in fact murder. Kristina Kleg a graduate
from high school has
recently become pregnant and decided against abortion. She feels that it's an innocent
child inside of
her. It has a brain and a heart therefore it also has a right to life. Abortion is the
unnatural end of
pregnancy. That child has a right to life that is equal to the mothers right. One cannot
kill another
human being just because they wished it wasn't around. Abortion is murder of the
innocent
practiced on a national scale. (Abortion: The Personal, Medical and Social Dilemma)
Overall it has
been proven that the fetus is a real person. It responds to noise, has feeling and fears.
To h ave an
abortion it will destroy an innocent life which is directly connected to murder.
Scientific research has successfully shown that abortion causes many psychological side
effects. It
leaves the woman with many strong feelings about their desicion. They feel sadness,
wishing things
could have been different and grief for a lost life. Guilt arises because they know a
fetus represents
an independent life. Anger builds up towards other people having to do with their
desicion.
Sometimes the mother may feel that she has infact been abandoned. Most of all the mother
feels
ashamed and embarrassed about her action. People close to the mother may be angry at her
for
ending her pregnancy and make it difficult for her to deal with. Even years after the
abortion, women
tent to remember the regretful experience. They usually wonder what the baby would have
looked
like and its birthday. Thirty-three year old Michelle Urbain of south Florida has had
five abortions
so far. She realizes now that they all left emotional scares her that are unbearable. It
wasn't just a
mass of cell t was children I was killing. (Kovaleski c-7) It maybe a month or a year but
feelings do
catch up with the mother. Symptoms like nightmares, panic attacts and flashbacks are
signs of a
recently discovered Post Abortion Syndrome (PAS). According to a study published by
Association for Interdisciplinary Research in Valves and Social Change, one in five women
studied
had diagnosable stress disorders. (Lyons d-11) Also two in five had sleep disorders and
flashbacks
following abortion.