What do you consider to be the Strengths and Weaknesses of the British Approach to the Regulation of Abortion? Abortion is a procedure carried out to terminate a pregnancy. In 1967, liberal Member of Parliament David Steel introduced the Abortion Act. This legally permitted abortion to be carried out by a medical practitioner in England, Scotland and Wales (Glennerster 2000). Since the implementation of this policy, numbers of abortion have gradually increased. In 2010 almost two hundred thousand procedures were carried out in England and Wales, ninety-six per cent of which were funded by the National Health Service (Department of Health 2011). To access the strengths and weaknesses of abortion regulation a number of areas must be considered. Following a brief section about the background and development of abortion policy, the legal requirement of two doctor consent will be discussed. Repercussions of this legality will be used to justify why the requirement is considered an outdated obligation that weakens abortion regulation. The extent of abortion provision will then be argued as a weakness by sending a troubling message to society. This will interconnect with the need for restrictions in abortion provision, a concept supported by the further discussion of related health risks. Counterarguments will then consider the procedure step by step and suggest that regulations enable a process efficient and suitable for both the hospital and patient. Finally, medicalisation will be discussed as the most prominent strength of the British approach to abortion in regards to safety. When looking at the development of abortion policy, it is clear that it has always been a subject of controversy. Campaigns for the legalisation of... ... middle of paper ... ...rvices as a cause of the sexual attitudes, patterns and trends existent in society today. Undoubtedly, a multitude of wider factors are to blame. The extent of availability has also been deemed a weakness due to potential health complications. However, no medical advance or regulation reform can rid a procedure of risk. From looking at the strengths of the approach, it is clear that regulations inflict little disruption on the lives of patients. Most importantly, the British approach to abortion eliminates any desire or need to undergo an unsafe termination. Changing regulations in regards to restrictions of abortions may undermine this strength which may cause the re-emergence of high maternal mortality rates. Therefore, the strengths overpower any of the aforementioned weaknesses. The British approach to the regulation of abortion is in no serious need of reform.
Caplan, A., & Arp, R. (2014). The deliberately induced abortion of a human pregnancy is not justifiable. Contemporary debates in bioethics (pp. 122). Oxford, West Sussex: Wiley.
In the later half of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, many states adopted laws against abortion because abortions were performed in unsanitary conditions, which made the operation dangerous for women. Plus, society believed killing a possible life was immoral. However, as time progressed and morals changed, people begin to question weather or not the government had the right to interfere with peoples’ carnal matters.
The current issues concerning a woman’s right to an abortion include the debates between pro-life and pro-choice groups that promote either restrictions or extensions to a woman’s ability to receive abortions respectively, along with debate about the role that the government should play in the process of limiting or extending rights. Pro-life groups argue many points against abortion including the beliefs that life begins at conception, adoption is a viable alternative to abortion, the procedures sometimes cause medical complications, a...
The debate of abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades. According to Jone Lewis, “In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820’s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy” (1). This indicates that the abortion controversy has been debated far back into American history. Beginning in the 1900’s, legalized abortion became a major controversy. In 1965, all fifty states in the United States banned abortion; however, that was only the beginning of the controversy that still rages today (Lewis 1). After abortion was officially banned in the United States, groups such as the National Abortion Rights Action League worked hard on a plan to once again legalize abortion in the United States (Lewis 1). It wasn’t until 1970 when the case of Roe (for abortion) v. Wade (against abortion) was brought...
In general, the debate over abortion can be attributed to conflicting opinions about morality. Pro-life advocates believe terminating a potential life is immoral, whereas pro-choice advocates consider restricting the rights and freedoms of a mother is the greater evil. Morality, however, is not the power that rules over this nation – the law is what determines what actions are and are not permitted. Consequently, since the...
As one knows, some unwanted pregnancies could often be harmful and distressing for a woman. Women should have the right over their body to choose to sustain the fetus or not. In the past decades, women did not have their freedom of abortion in many countries of the world. There have always been controversies going on about abortion. Each individual has dissimilar views on the legality of abortion. Some people are against abortion for personal religious purposes and beliefs. For those who don’t believe in abortion, it is because they see it as killing a fetus, which is a human being. Others support abortion because they believe in women’s rights. Laws of abortion vary in each country, and abortion is not legal all over the world. It is illegal under any conditions but only permitted to save woman’s life if in countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, and Ireland. However, abortion is legal without any restrictions in countries like Canada, Albania, and Italy. It the past decades Abortion was considered as criminal act in Canada. “If an abortion was carried out without such approval, the woman was liable for imprisonment for 2 years, an...
Sauer (1978) found that some pregnancies in the 19th century were desperately unwanted by woman. Because of this, desperate measures such as baby farming, infanticide and abortion were carried out to discard of the pregnancy. Abortion, which is the termination of a human pregnancy, was made illegal in 1803, but was still carried out in the backstreets of Britain (Knight 1977). However, only a few cases were brought to attention as according to Latham (2002), there was difficulty in detecting abortion, yet Bulwer- Lytton (1833 as cited in Sauer 1978) still believed abortion took place frequently in towns for reasons such as illegitimacy.
Over the duration of the last century, abortion in the Western hemisphere has become a largely controversial topic that affects every human being. In the United States, at current rates, one in three women will have had an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45. The questions surrounding the laws are of moral, social, and medical dilemmas that rely upon the most fundamental principles of ethics and philosophy. At the center of the argument is the not so clear cut lines dictating what life is, or is not, and where a fetus finds itself amongst its meaning. In an effort to answer the question, lawmakers are establishing public policies dictating what a woman may or may not do with consideration to her reproductive rights. The drawback, however, is that there is no agreement upon when life begins and at which point one crosses the line from unalienable rights to murder.
Overall, the United Kingdom has faced challenges in respect of breaches of human rights elements under the European Convention on Human Rights and more recently, the Human Rights Act 1998. However, specifically on the area of abortion, this is one area that has remained relatively ‘unchallenged’ at domestic level, and as such, it would not be unreasonable or incorrect to assert that here at least, human rights law has not had any direct impact, negative or otherwise.
Abortion has been an ongoing issue since the 1820s where people have been debating should abortion be acceptable or should be banned this issue has caused two different groups of form. These two groups are know...
Abortion is arguably the most controversial topic in all the issues revolving around reproduction. Women of all different races, classes, and religions have been practicing abortion since before the colonial era in America. The laws pertaining to abortion have changed many times, adding and removing discrepancies and stipulations throughout many years, and still to this day. The views of abortion in society during different time periods have also changed and adapted. At the time of Sarah Grosvenor’s decision to abort, the laws pertaining to abortion did not make the act fully illegal. However in years after Grosvenor’s case abortion was outlawed. The law played a minor part in women’s decisions to have an abortion, however society, and gender played the most prominent role in the decision of abortion.
To conclude, in the United States the right to an abortion is being restricted by various factors. These factors include the limitation to services or not allowing the women to make the decision on their own. Other factors include the importance the states holds on a woman’s right this is important because if a particular state believes that a women’s right to privacy is necessary then they will ensure that there exist access to service or the other way around if they don’t see it as something that is right they will restrict it. If the United States does not enforce a change then the right to an abortion will continue to decrease and be limited until there is no right at all.
An abortion is when a pregnancy is ended so that it does not result in the birth of a child. For many years abortion has been the subject of criminal law in Australia and has been a current legal issue facing Australia today. Recently many people have started to question the clarity of the laws and whether they are appropriate for their current place within the criminal code. Various stakeholders have argued that the laws fail to give certainty to both doctors and patients. These current issues have led to an increased pressure for the states of New South Wales and Queensland to decriminalise abortion. The current Queensland abortion laws are not clear and fail to give certainty to both doctors and patients. Due to this, the Queensland abortion
Expecting to completely eliminate abortions from the face of the earth by making them illegal and getting rid of the facilities that provide them is an awfully absurd idea due to the fact that abortions will never cease to exist. Induced abortions have taken place all over the world, and “societies have [been struggling with] the issue of abortion for millennia” (Abortion). Within countries where abortions are essentially illegal, many turn to unsafe abortion methods, usually performed by unskilled practitioners (Chapter 5). These procedures are “often unsanitary… and [result] in the death or mutilation of many women” (Abortion). In areas where these services are not attainable, many women are prompted to seek out specialists to assist them in dangerous and surreptitious methods of abortion such as repeated blows to the stomach and the insertion of bizarre objects in the vagina and cervix. However, abortion-related deaths are usually quite rare in developed countries where the service is both legal and accessible. It is estimated...
On the same note, the prohibition of abortion often results in deaths of women. Scholars have noted that the prohibition of abortion would not essentially stop women from undergoing the procedures. In instances where they feel that it is imperative that they go through the procedure, they always undertake it albeit in secret and dangerous circumstances where they cannot access medical care (Boonin, 20...