Abortion Is Murder

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Right to Life Educational Foundation, an estimated 58 million total reported abortions have been performed since 1973. Without a doubt, there continues to be an increase rate of abortions performed per year in the United States. With so many methods for prevention of an unwanted pregnancy readily available to women, abortion shouldn’t be one of them. There also seems to be misconceptions in regards to whether or not interrupting a pregnancy during the first or second trimesters would be the equivalent of “murder” to another human being. Additionally, many women fail to realize the complications and the possible health risks associated with performing abortions. This

Of course, by definition according to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. Consequently, a legal abortion would not fit the requirements to be considered “murder” by definition. However, many pro-choice individuals will claim that a fetus is not a baby until it is born and therefore cannot be considered killing. Most of the time, pro-choice individuals may also refer to the procedure of an abortion as “emptying out the uterus” or as “products of conception” or “tissue” instead of the actual term: Baby (Sarah Terzo, 2013). According to the Endowment of Human Development, at 2 weeks and 4 days of conception, the brain is the first organ to appear during embryonic development and by 6 to 7 weeks of conception, brain waves are detected and the heart begins to beat at around 120-140 beats per minute (Interactive development timeline, 2017). Around 6 to 7 weeks is typically when women find out they have become pregnant, which means the “embryo” or “fetus” is already considered to be alive. Additionally, abortion is referred to as ending a pregnancy before fetus (unborn child) is born and can live independently outside

We have already covered that the “embryo” or “fetus” has a heartbeat and brain activity is detected, so proceeding with having an abortion does lead to death of this being. There are two types of abortions that can be performed, depending on how far the pregnancy has progressed, which are medical and surgical abortions (Nancy Brown, 2013). Medical abortions are typically performed during the first 49 days of pregnancy and uses two different types of drugs known as methotrexate or mifepristone, which may be followed by another drug called misoprostol (Nancy Brown, 2013). This type of abortion does take longer to work and requires multiple visits to the physician’s office or clinic. The other type of abortion is known as a surgical abortion which is the most common and involves medical sedation. The procedure takes place after careful view of the fetus through an ultrasound and begins by dilating the cervix of the uterus and uses gentle suction to aspirate uterine contents (Planned Parenthood, 2017). This procedure is typically performed up to 16 weeks of missed period, however after 16 weeks a D&E or, in other words Dilation and Evacuation, would be performed which uses both suction and medical tools to empty the uterus (Planned Parenthood, 2017). How late a woman can perform an abortion typically depends on individual state laws and