The Reproductive Right Debate

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No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.

In a 2006 study conducted by the CDC, it was reported that 53-56% of abortions were performed on white women between the ages of 20 and 29. Among the 46 states that provided data consistently during 1996--2006, a total of 835,134 abortions (98.7% of the total) were reported; the abortion rate was 16.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15--44 years, and the abortion ratio was 236 abortions per 1,000 live births. During the previous decade (1997--2006), reported abortion numbers, rates, and ratios decreased 5.7%, 8.8%, and 14.8%, respectively; most of these declines occurred before 2001. During the previous year (2005--2006), the total number of abortions increased 3.1%, and the abortion rate increased 3.2%; the abortion ratio was stable. (CDC, 2009)

Until the mid 1800s, abortion was unrestricted and unregulated in the United States. The justifications for criminalizing it varied from state to state. One big reason was population control, which addressed fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly ...

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...bout_abortion/history_abortion.html#timeline

Pro-Life Action League,. (n.d.). Pro-life links. Retrieved from http://prolifeaction.org/links

Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, The. RCRC Member organizations. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.rcrc.org/about/members.cfm

Terkel, A. (2011, February 10). Nancy pelosi: women's rights face greatest threat 'in our lifetime'. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/nancy-pelosi- womens-rights-threatened_n_821536.html

US Congress, (2003). Partial-birth abortion ban act of 2003 (Public law 108-105). Washington, DC: Retrieved from http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-108publ105/ pdf/PLAW-108publ105.pdf

U.S. Supreme Court, (1973). Roe v. wade, 410, US. 113 (1973). (70-18). Retrieved from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=410&invol=113

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