The Controversy Surrounding Abortion

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For hundreds of years, the United States of America has been a country defined by its promising opportunities and freedom. However, America has proven many times it is not the promised land that many residents of other countries have viewed it to be. Issues like euthanasia, death penalty, freedom of speech, and abortion have given rise to questions of the freedom in America. Abortion has proven to be one of the more tenacious issues that has brought controversy to America. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, abortion is defined as “the expulsion of a fetus from the uterus before it has reached the stage of viability” (Encyclopedia Brittanica). In simple terms, having an abortion is a pregnant woman choosing to not deliver her child. The Guttmacher Institute provides that there are 6.6 million pregnancies in the United States each year, and 51% are unintended (Guttmacher Institute). Further facts from the Guttmacher Institute states that around 358,000 women die per year because of pregnancy and the United States accounts for 60% of those maternal deaths (Guttmacher Institute). There is an estimated over 1 million abortions in the United States per year (Worldometers Real Time World Statistics). Death is one of the reasons of why women decide to have an abortion. More reasons in modern society include fear of parents, unplanned pregnancies, and financial instability. The controversy surrounding abortion is revolved around the two opposing sides which includes pro-life, the argument that abortion should be illegal, and pro-choice, in which people argue women should have the choice of whether or not to have an abortion. People in favor of pro-life support their decision with many arguments. They state that a fetus is considered a h...

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