Argumentative Essay On Abortion

Abortion. Just seeing or reading the word likely induces strong inner feelings no matter where on the broad spectrum you fall. Not since slavery has a social topic been the center of such controversy. The belief’s one has is usually the result of your religious or political background or quite possibly a mixture of both. The topic is as old as civilization itself dating back to ancient Babylon and has continued right through to modern times. While many would believe that this is a black or white topic, the reality is that there is a large gray area in the center that most Americans actually fall. Both sides truly believe that it is wrong to kill a person but cannot find a common ground about when life begins, conception, birth, or somewhere in between.
Even though abortion has been around for thousands of years, there has always been political and religious debate. Nearly 4000 years ago, in one of the first civilizations, the ancient Babylonians followed the Code of Hammurabi. It is one of the oldest set of laws on record. In a book by Stephen M. Krason (1984) titled The Law and History of Abortion: the Supreme Court Refuted, he states, “The written evidence of abortion reflects the interests of class and caste. Fines are listed in the Code of Hammurabi, ca. 1760 BCE, for the crime of causing a miscarriage through assault, with the amount varying according to the social rank of the woman” (p. 104). While the fines varied based on your social status, the fact remains, deliberately causing a miscarriage, was against the law. Civilizations throughout history have had their own interpretation as well. Aristotle believed that abortions were legal until the moment of quickening or the moment a mother feels the movement of...

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...ill” (p.417).
The debate will likely continue for decades to come. People on both sides feel strong and even extremely passionate about what they believe is the right thing. Even with recent polling that shows that most Americans actually have a common ground on much of abortion policy such as in cases of rape or incest. It is tough to understand why a bleeding-heart liberal seems to care about everything but the unborn fetus or why people think a poster with a picture of an aborted fetus will change a mind. Going to the extreme does nothing but further polarize us and religion and politics only complicate the issue further. It seems that many laws should be updated to reflect modern science with respect to the viability of the fetus. Even if changes are made to those policies that most agree on, the ultimate argument remains. At what moment does life begin?