Abortion is and has been one of the most controversial moral issues for centuries. The ongoing debate on whether or not abortion is acceptable has been evident in not only government legislation, but social mediation as well. Pro-life activists insist that killing a baby while inside the mother’s womb is immoral and on the same level of manslaughter, and therefor should be outlawed. They say that homicide is illegal in the U.S. while in many states, abortions are not. How can one form of killing be criminal while another is authorized in more than half of the country? Pro-choice activists stress the importance of option, saying that different circumstances allow for different decisions by the woman that has been impregnated. The decision of whether or not a woman is to become a mother lies entirely in the hands of the woman, and no type of govemment ruling is to change that. There is no well-defined line dividing person from non-person.
Both the conservative and liberal standpoints are too extreme and abortions can be both justifiable and at times felonious. In the United States, women choose to end about 25% of their pregnancies through abortion. Still Pro-Life activists have been pushing towards legislation that will outlaw abortions entirely. They successfully influenced government officials to provide laws that restrict abortion, yet most of these laws soon prOve to be ineffectual and rarely pass through congress. Recent passage of the legal distribution of the RU-486 allows for the prescription of this pill, which will induce abortion. This antiprogestin is to be taken 49 days after the Start of the woman’s last period. It then triggers the immediate shedding of the uterine wall, or in other words, the start of the period. This eventually expels the embryo causing some discomfort to the female. As of May 2002, initial indications are that about 29% of women who are eligible to use RU-486, and to whom it was offered, have chosen it in preference to a surgical abortion. (www.religioustolerance.org) Many laws legalize or restrict abortions. One of the earliest and most famous was Roe vs. Wade in 1973.
The Supreme Court ruled that a woman could freely decide whether she wants to keep her child or terminate her pregnancy during the first trimester. This was decided after a pregnant woman, Roe, challenged the constitution of Texas which only allowed abortion in extreme cases, the decision left the judgement up to the impregnated Woman. A 1989 ruling in Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services the Supreme Court declared that human lite began at conception, and that Missouri owned property could not be used to provide abortions. Another distinguished case that further restricted abortion is Ohio VAkron Ct. for Reproductive Health, which ruled that a parent or guardian must be notified before an under-aged woman receives an abortion. In 1994, The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1994 (FACE) law significantly reduced the number of blockades of abortion clinics and protects institutions such as crisis pregnancy centers and abortion clinics. (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/law/clinic-access/) Opposition to widespread abortion access is tound more trequently among Fundamentalists, Evangelical Protestants, and Orthodox Jews, senior citizens, and conservatives. Most pro-choice activists fit are frequently among Catholics, younger people, those in the middle to upper class, political moderates and liberals, and Democrats. According to poll taken in 2000 called the Gallup Poll, Most American adults currently believe that abortions should be legal under some circumstances. 28% of American adults believe that abortions should be legal under all circumstances.
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Finally, 19%% believe that they should be always illegal. This poll also reveals that 50% of adults identify themselves as pro- choice, while 40% consider themselves pro-life. (http://www.religioustolerance.ong/abo_poll.htm) A major Pro-Choice argument is the death rate of women who get illegal abortions when the operation is deemed illegal. Before abortions where legalized, in 1974, many women died from illegal abortions that were done in a last attempt for control of the female’s body. Many also believe that a fetus does not become a person until birth. Even the Vatican says that science and medicine cannot tell when the fetus becomes a person and that theologians differ on when a fetus gains a soul, which for some religions marks passage into personhood. Pro-Choice activists feel that a human becomes a person at the pont that the individual expresses self-consciousness and an interest in their continued existence and therefor, abortion is by no means the same thing as homicide. Persons. . are members of a social community that shapes and values them, and personhood must be defined in terms of interactions and relationships with others.”
The bible in no way condemns abortions, so the arguments that say that abortion is against God’s will is simply absurd. According to the bible, life begins at birth or when the baby breathes for the first time. This is defined in several passages of the bible including Genesis 2:7, “.God…breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul” (Susan Sherwin. 1999. Ethical Issues: Perspectives for Canadians. Ed. Soifer, Eldon. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, p. 267) (Currie, Stephen . Abortion. : Greenhaven Press, 2000. P. 5) The majority of women have had an abortion because they are unready tor how a baby could change their life. A baby not only interferes with employment, but what about highschool teenagers that make the mistake of omitting a condom during sex? Or ever worse, teenagers that were mentally or physically persuaded into having sex with somebody that is not a potential father figure or any type of figure in the future life of a child. A woman should not be forced to raise a child that is a product of rape. A child that is not wanted will be brought into the world acting as a constant reminder of the woman’s experience.
Should a fourteen year old female be forced to drop out of school just to raise a child due to unjustlegislation? Babies are expensive. Many women need to have abortions because their financial situation simply prohibits them from feeding another mouth. Single parenthood is a major concern of women who ultimately decide to get an abortion and the responsibility that comes with a child is overwhelming for even the most adjusted couples. (http://www.pregnantpause.org/abort/choicarg.htm) Many Pro-Choice activists respond to the woman’s condition in a non-sympathetic way. They even suggest adoption, which has become one of the most controversial issues in the abortion debates. Pro-choice activists state that if a women is in no condition to raise a child, due to either age or status, she can go through the pregnancy and then give her child up for adoption to a family that cannot conceive. This seems like an ideal solution to the debate. For if one woman has a child that is not wanted, she can simply give her child to another woman or tamily where it is wanted. However, this is not so simple. Adoption not only puts a strain on the life of a child was unwanted and given away, but the condition of the mother is one that is indescribable. To carry a child for nine months just to part with it at the end of the pregnancy is an unthinkable request to the pregnant woman who endured months of pain and discomfort to have a child that is not hers for the keeping.
Mothers that give their babies up for adoption feel overwhelming loss for years and years and nothing can justify the abandonment of the child. On a different slant on the debate of abortion are the Pro-Life arguments. According to pro-life activists, abortion is murder and the government must intervene to make it entirely illegal. Homicide is against the law and abortion should be as well. Once sperm fertilizes a human egg, a new human being exists. All information conceming the child’s sex, hair color, eye color, and much more is already present from the beginning. From the time those 23 chromosomes become 46 onward, the unborn is a living, developing individual with a unique genetic makeup. Life is present from the moment of conception. Fetuses look like babies and possess characteristics of babies, including a genetic code that is both necessary and sufficient for being human. The mother’s life is important, but one cannot ignore or kill the little person inside of her. A body part is defined as something that shares a genetic code with the rest of the body; this is how humans have control over their body parts. However, a fetus’ genetic code differs entirely from the mothers and so this choice should not be present. For being inside something is not the same as being part of something. Abortion ends a human life.
No one can morally choose to end the life of another and so abortion should be illegal. (Alcom, Randy, Pro-Life Answers to Pro-Choice Arguments. Multnomah Books) It is always ‘prima facie’ or seriously wrong to take a human life, especially one that cannot speak for itself. There is also an issue about child abuse, that unwanted children will be unloved and abused. There are plenty of people that cannot have children and many couples wait for years to be able to adopt a newborn. Why kill a child when the unwanted infant can be given to one of these less fortunate couples, instead of being killed? There are also countless programs across the country that can provide counseling, housing, medical care, job training and other services for anyone with an unplanned pregnancy who would want to keep their child. Secondly, there is no correlation between unplanned pregnancies and the subsequent abuse of the children – in fact, it is most often the wanted children who are abused.
For instance, a study of 674 battered children in California found that 91% of the children were wanted compared to 63% for the control groups nationally. (Taking Sides, Clashing Views on Controversial Moral Issues. p 208 Is Abortion Immoral? Dushken Publishing, 1996) The loss of ones life is the greatest loss one can suffer. It deprives one of all the experiences, and activities that would otherwise have constituted ones future. This is why killing is considered the worst of all crimes, the cutting short of a future. The stealing of a life of someone who cannot save themselves. This is abortion. There is a large difference between woman rights and fetal rights. While woman rights stress the importance of choice and the powerful woman, it is not fair to give the woman opportunity to kill. That is abuse of the power of choice and should not be tolerated or allowed in our legal system. (http://www.abortionfacts.com/ 1998 Heritage House) Since there is virtually no defined line that separates persons from nonpersons, there is no way of judging whether or not abortion is fully immoral or always applicable.
The conservative and liberal positions are both very extreme in their views and after presenting both sides of this controversial issue, it is concluded that some abortions are justifiable while some are not. Although the fertilization of the egg produces a human, it is still not a living independent person until it can breathe and exist on its own. And while abortion is not mentioned in the bible as murder, many forms of abortion are just that. When a fetus is nearly a child and is ready to survive on its own, outside of the mother’s womb, it is morally wrong to abort it. When a woman decides to abort during her third trimester due any reason other than a serious health complication, abortion is not a legitimate procedure. (http://www.pregnantpause.org/abort/choicarg.htm)
Legislation prohibiting third trimester abortions is the solution. Many women cannot go througha pregnancy and take care of another human being due to age, life conditions or a variety of ditferent circumstances. When a female finds out that she is pregnant, she should immediately decide whether or not she wants to have a child. If this answer is no, then she should take all appropriate measures to abort the pregnancy. Legislation prohibiting an abortion for any reason besides the welfare of the mother or baby should be passed. A Woman is to decide what will happen to her child once she is impregnated, only then is she given a choice as to what the outcome of her situation will be. After the baby begins to grow, this power then passes into the hands of the government and abortion is no longer an option.
Partial birth abortion, which consists of “inducinga breech delivery with forceps, delivering the legs, arms and torso only, puncturing the back of the skull with scissors or a trochar, inserting a suction curette into the skull, and suctioning the contents of the skull so as to collapse it” is horribly wrong and is now illegal in over 30 states. (www.pregnantpause.org) A baby may not be aborted after reaching “viability”, that is, if he or she could survive outside the womb. Pro-Life activists would like to see all types of abortion banned, however this simply cannot happen because women do have rights to control over their bodies. As stated before, this control is only present until the fetus reaches viability. At this point, nothing aside from health risks should allow the female to abort her pregnancy. Some abortion is necessary, but when it turns into murder, the government must step in and create laws that prohibit this unjust homicide of humans with no voice.
