RU-486 - The Debate Continues
Professor’s comment: I am excited to submit this research paper to 123HelpMe. It will provide an excellent model for other students. This student wisely sidesteps the emotional “Abortion: Pro or Con?” element, focusing narrowly on RU-486, the so-called abortion pill. She draws our attention primarily to scientific and medical controversy, with forays into history, politics, and economics, drawing attention to facts instead of emotional or personal appeals. Her research and careful approach challenge the assumption that pro-choice must favor legalization and antiabortion must oppose it. She helps us to see RU-486 as a separate issue with specific benefits and drawbacks, making her own nicely balanced contribution to the controversy.
Picture yourself as a sixteen-year-old girl. Your friends and family used to describe you as happy, vivacious, and carefree. But as you have been awaiting your period, now two weeks overdue, you have become sullen and agitated with worry. Two more weeks go by and you buy a home pregnancy test. You perform the test only to find out what you already know. It doesn’t really matter how you got pregnant—the condom tore, your boyfriend lied about pulling out, you forgot to take your birth control pills—it just matters that you are and you don’t want to be. To complicate matters, let’s say that you are from a strict Catholic family with very devout parents, and you cannot possibly bring yourself to talk to them about it. After a few weeks of seemingly endless painful deliberation that you thought you would never have to endure, you have your best friend take you to an abortion clinic. Picketers block the front door to the clinic carrying signs that read “Abortion = Murder.” Before you can even begin to process the words on the signs, your best friend grabs you by the arm and pulls you past the crowd and into the small lobby of the clinic. Expecting an ordinary doctor’s office waiting room, you are unsettled by the unfamiliarity of the stark décor. The lobby is nothing but an entryway with a front desk encapsulated by bulletproof glass. While checking in you speak to the receptionist through a hole in the glass, as though you are paying for gasoline at a station after midnight. Now more than ever you feel scared and alone.
Since the legalization of surgical abortions in 1973, this has become a common scenario for women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
the most complex and controversial issues, arousing heated legal, political, and ethical debates. The modern debate over abortion is a conflict of competing moral ideas and of fundamental human rights: to life, to privacy, to control over one's own body. Trying to come to a compromise has proven that it one cannot please all of the people on each side of the debate. Many people describe the abortion debate in America as bitter and uncompromising, usually represented on both sides by people with
Abortion is not as harmful as its opponents claim it to be. Instead of viewing abortion as "murder," society as a whole must consider abortion as a necessary alternative. Abortion can save a woman's life, physically, mentally, and emotionally. In today's society, the following reasons clearly impact the abortion dilemma. First, the definition of "life" the anti-abortionists provide us with is self-contradictory. Second, abortions are safer than ever in the past. Third, abortions help society avoid
choosing abortion. Although abortion is legal in the United States, many people continue to voice their opinions on how it is a human rights violation and should be illegal everywhere. The practice of abortion should be banned in society because it terminates the life of an innocent unborn child, causes long-term emotional effects, as well as major health risks for women who opt for abortion. The debate of abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades
Having an abortion is a moral choice. The essay “A Moral Choice” by Mary Gordan discusses many issues concerning abortion, the author clearly favors pro-choice. The debate about when a fetus is alive (437) is a concern as to when it is acceptable to get an abortion. As well as the morality of abortion judged in the media, religion, society, and by self. The women who get abortions are critiqued as cold and technological (441). These normal everyday women have made this moral decision for centuries
Opposing views on abortion divide America today. The debates have sparked nationwide controversy and sometimes violent acts. Government laws allow abortion and permit the medical procedure. However, though abortion is legalized throughout the nation, pro-life advocates still believe it is considered an act of murder unlike pro-choice supporters who contend that it is a woman’s right to decide her parental fate. Two political and religious views about abortion are the pro-life and pro-choice.
The cornerstone of all human rights for individuals is the right to life that is afforded to us by society because we are human. The right to life has initiated the debate over exactly when life begins which has led to laws and regulations granting latitude to humans regarding reproductive rights. But regardless of the laws granting reproductive rights there a great many others that take issue with them based on their personal moral and ethical codes. Ethical Conditions Under Which Physicians
all those tragedies happening. The problem shouldn’t be killing an egg that isn’t fully evolved into a baby, the problem should be having children but later neglecting or mistreating them to the point where they cant be a happy child. 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
hold the opinion of letting the woman choose for herself, also known as pro-choice, and others hold the position of wanting to protecting the unborn’s right to life, known as pro-life. If a law is not put in place banning abortion, then people will continue in the murder of innocent humans; therefore, couples should be given the option of adoptive parents, fines should be implemented, and pregnancy prevention should be provided. To start off, the history of abortion is an important part to understanding
paper ... ...ricans should work together in understanding legal restrictions do not stop abortions, but instead make it more dangerous for women. Therefore, laws should be governed in support of pro-choice. Works Cited Bauer, Gary. "The Abortion Debate Needs to Include the Forgotten Fathers." Christian Science Monitor. 18 Jun. 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 Apr. 2014. Coomson, Emmanuel K. "Unsafe Abortions." AllAfrica.com. 14 Oct. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 07 Apr.
speak and state their opinion. Men were the only ones allowed to speak. Stanton and Mott came together in an attempt to build a platform to address the rights of women. This action was the start of the women’s rights movement. There is a continuing debate worldwide regarding the topic of women’s rights and equality. Some have stronger opinions than others but in the long run it is shown that women have come a long way since the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 as well as the Civil Rights Movement in
are very strong opinions for and against this issue, but no one can deny the vast gray area of abortion. A person’s stance on the situation is often determined by how he views the fetus: a part of the mother’s body or as a human being. Abortion continues to be a moral issue because people have various views on the rights of the fetus and mother, the circumstances of the pregnancy, and their own religious convictions concerning the issue. In the most recent study, 1.21 million abortions took place
The Shift in Abortion Policy in the 1800s "In 1800 no jurisdiction in the United Sates had enacted any statutes whatsoever on the subject of abortion... Yet by 1900 virtually every jurisdiction in the United States had laws upon its books that proscribed the practice sharply and declared most abortions to be criminal offenses" (Mohr p. VII). Societal Changes from the Early 1800s to the Mid 1800s During the early 1800s, abortion at the beginning of a pregnancy was neither immoral nor criminal