For many years, the morality of abortion has been questioned by two perspectives: pro-choice and pro-life. While modern culture explains that abortion is a woman’s free choice if she does not want the unborn baby, the Catholic Church teaches the world that from the moment of conception there is a child with a soul within the womb, and to abort it would be to murder an innocent being. In the year March 1970, a woman dubbed Jane Roe took federal action against Texas abortion laws. These laws prevented Roe from terminating her pregnancy because abortions were only allowed in the scenario that the fetus was harming the life of the mother (Rosenbaum 63). Because Roe wasn’t in any way harmed by her pregnancy, she could not get an abortion. “Roe believed that TX statutes were unconstitutionally vague and that they abridged her right of personal privacy, protected by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments” (Rosenbaum 64). She wanted an abortion done professionally in a clean and safe environment (Rosenbaum 63). Women before the legalization of abortion would resort to unsafe methods to terminate their baby (Tribe 113). The aftermath of Roe vs. Wade, when Jane Roe successfully had abortion legalized in various places, many abortion clinics all over the country sprung up. Clinics like Planned Parenthood and NARAL “sought to give the right meaning by ensuring both the newly legal abortion would be accessible and that women seeking abortions would not be victimized by inflated prices or untrained doctors performing unsafe office abortions” (Tribe 142). There are many reasons women seek abortion. Many pro-choice people say that a rape victim should not have to give birth to her attacker’s child, and to do so is attacking ... ... middle of paper ... ...evil. To treat pregnancy as a disease that can be “cured” with methods of contraception and abortion is morally wrong. All people are specially made in the image and likeness of God from the moment of conception. The arguments defending pro-choice all describe how there are certain circumstances when an abortion must occur. However, unless the mother’s life is absolutely threatened, abortion is a sin that ends the life of a child of God. Works Cited 1. "AbortionFacts.com." Abortion Facts. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. 2. The New American Bible. Grand Rapids: World, 1897. Print. 3. Catechism of the Catholic Church. S.l.: Continuum International, 2000. Print. 4. Tribe, Laurence H. Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes. New York: Norton, 1990. Print. 5. Baird, Robert M., and Stuart E. Rosenbaum. The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-life vs. Pro-choice. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 1989. Print.
While deciding whether to be pro-life or pro-choice, many people consider the moral aspect of abortion and its consequences. On the pro-choice side, a woman should have the right to choose whether or not she wants to give birth. The argument is that it is her body and she is the one who will have the responsibility of caring for that child. The problem, however, with this argument is that it does not take into consideration whether abortion is right or wrong, and it does not deal with the morality of the issue. However, the arguments of the pro-life side may be more correct simply because they make a moral judgment. In Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, abortion is defined as the "termination of a pregnancy often accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of an embryo or fetus.
In the article Abortion As a Blessing, Grace, or Gift-A Renewed Conversation about Reproductive Rights by Valerie Trico, the author discussed different arguments pro-life advocates say about abortion. The author cites “Abortion is immoral. God hates abortion”. According to Tarico, is more immoral and irresponsible to bring a child into the world under “bad circumstances” such rape, teen pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies, where possibilities of success in life would be limited. According to the author abortion is a “sacred gift or blessing” that enables women to choose when to bring a child into this world, which at the same time will help their children to “flourish”. Tarico says that Planned Parenthood is a very important step that could prevent as much as “half of abortions in the future”. Tarico concludes that babies have the “right to be truly loved and wanted” and that parents should bring them into this world “when they’re fully ready to welcome them with open arms. In my opinion the author is right in pointing out that unplanned
Thomson, J.J. (1971). A defense of abortion. In R.M. Baird & S.E. Rosenbaum (Eds.), The ethics of abortion: pro-life vs. pro-choice (pp. 29-44). New York: Prometheus Books.
Abortion may be one of the most controversial topics in America today. Abortion is defined as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus” (cite dictionary). There are really only two sides on people’s opinion on abortion; pro-life which means abortion should be outlawed and pro-choice which means a woman should be able to decide whether she wants to keep her baby. Thousands of protests and riots have begun due to the fact pro-life activists believe abortion should become illegal. Both sides bring valid points to support their decision that could sway any person’s thoughts. The Roe v. Wade law has allowed abortion to be legal in the U.S since 1973 (Chittom & Newton, 2015). The law “gives women total control over first trimester abortions and grants state legislative control over second and third trimester abortions” (Chittom & Newton, 2015). Ever since the law was put in place, millions of people have tried to overturn it and still
Pro-Life supporters extenuate the unethical practices in removing a child from the womb, assert the act of aborting as murder and that it violates religious beliefs. On the other hand, Pro-Choice supporters rebuke these claims with the right of an individual, the promotion of a group called Planned Parenthood and the possibility of the unfair upbringing a child will have growing up in conditions his mother could not improve. Although abortion conflicts with certain morals and values, abortion should be legal to promote the education of family planning and sex through Planned Parenthood, to protect the rights women have and to save a child from a rough
In the case of individual’s right to abort or care for the baby; the court extended the privacy to a women’s decision in the court overruling of Roe v.Wade. What is missing from Roe’s distinct
Boss, Judith A. "Abortion." Analyzing Moral Issues. 6th ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1999. 619-24. Print.
Hinman, Lawrence. “Abortion: A Guide to the Ethical Issues.” May 13, 2010. University of San
In 1970, a pregnant woman under the alias Jane Roe challenged the state of Texas for denying her an abortion based on the Texas law stating that abortions could only occur if the mother’s life was at stake. This began the infamous case of Roe v. Wade. After much debate the jury finally decided on the verdict, which affirmed that states could not prohibit first or second trimester abortions and could not prohibit third trimester abortions if having the baby could be “harmful to the woman’s health.” Some of the situations the court believed to be “harmful” were: “stigma of unwed motherhood,” “distress associated with the unwanted child,” and “the...
The murder of innocents or, a woman’s right to choose; the Pro-Life/ Pro-Choice Debate, Which side are you on? The issue of abortion has been a topic of interest not only in the medical world but also in the political and religious worlds as well. The pro-life argument states that at conception the fetus is a baby and terminating it is taking a life. The pro-choice argument states that the unborn fetus, not baby, is just a blob of tissue and your terminating a pregnancy not a child. Both sides of the argument will be discussed in this essay along with the views of the church, politicians, women who have had abortion, and even a women who use to worked for Planned Parenthood.
Warren, Mary Anne , and Mappes and D. DeGrazia. "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion." Biomedical Ethics 4th (1996): 434-440. Print.
Before women had rights to decide whether they could keep their baby, some states didn’t allow abortion, therefore requiring women to give birth to their child. In today’s current issues, abortion is still a controversial subject with millions of people supporting it or not supporting it. Every woman has the right to make changes to her own physical body, and those rights should not be taken away, according to the constitution. In the very famous case in 1973, “Roe v. Wade”, the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the first trimester of pregnancy. In the article, “Roe’s Pro-Life Legacy”, it is explained how after this movement, the right to abortion, lives have changed and led to lower abortion rates (Sheilds 2013.) After Roe v. Wade gave women the right to an abortion, women felt that their rights have been restored. The act of aborting is a woman’s choice, in which women should not be taken their rights away because many women need their own rights protected in cases where they doesn’t want to feel obligated to carry the child of a rapist, go through pregnancies that could end up in death of the mother, give birth to a babies who will suffer their whole life because of a severe physical and mental dysfunctions, they’re not financially fit, or they don’t have the support from the father because he left the wife and baby.
The abortion debate is as passionate today as it was in 1973 when the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Roe v. Wade established a woman’s right to have an abortion. Roe was a pregnant single woman, who challenged the constitutionality of the Texas abortion laws. These laws made crimes out of obtaining or attempting an abortion except on medical advice to save the life of the mother. The court held that a woman’s right to an abortion fell within the right to privacy protected by the 14th amendment. The decision gave ...
To begin, abortion is immoral and wrong. Although pro-choice standers may agree that abortion is solely up to the mother, I, on the other hand, disagree. Yes, the termination of the infant’s life is up to the mother, but if the child is unwanted, having an abortion would be selfish. According to the World Health Organization, 56
If the mother is completely healthy, and if the unborn baby is totally healthy as well, then there is absolutely no reason to have an abortion and kill an innocent child. But overall, if the mother wants to abort the baby, just because she doesn’t want it, then it is 100 percent her choice (Borgmann 20-26). Ultimately it is her body, so therefor, it is her choice. It’s hard to tell when abortion is acceptable because it can be hard to tell when the fetus becomes alive. At 11 weeks, internal organs are present and functioning (Beeke, “Is Abortion Really so Bad?”). God’s word clearly treats personhood as commencing at conception. God forbids murder, and abortion is murder (Slick, “Is Abortion Wrong?”). Some people believe that when the male sperm and female egg combine, life begins (Beeke, “Is Abortion Really”). “This throws in the question of whether it is okay to have the abortion because the fetus isn’t even alive yet or it is not okay because the fetus is alive and it has become a baby” (“When is The Fetus ‘alive’?”). Instantly after conception the child is obviously already growing, and so therefor, it is alive (Sanders 15-19). It’s just whether someone wants to accept that or not. According to a student organization, since the legalization of abortion in 1973, over 56 million unborn children have been killed, that is more than the entire population of Spain. That is 155 babies per hour, about every 24 seconds (TFP Student. . .). That is a lot of dead kids. According to Andrew Napolitano who wrote about abortion, “a society that prefers death to life, not only cannot prosper: in cannot survive. The baby in the womb is a person” (“Is Rape Moral”).The point thrown out here is pretty plain to see. If our society as a whole prefers to kill people, not only people but children, because they don’t want to give birth to them, which is pretty selfish by the way, how can we fully prosper? The practice of abortion in