Abortions Should Remain Legal

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Recommended: The impact of the federal state system on abortion rights

Abortion has been preformed for over thousands of years. It was first started for the fear among the “native” Anglo-Saxon women. They believed that the population would be dominated by the children of the incoming immigrants, who had higher birth rates at the time. In the mid-to-late 1800s, states began legalizing abortion but antiseptics were unfamiliar, hospitals were not common, and doctors did not have the knowledge to understand abortion. As years went on, the scientific method began to take over medical practice, technology and it increased the prevention of infection. Abortion procedures became more effective and much safer. The only problem was the states that were anti-abortion, led women who needed abortions to get them from illegal practitioners or get “back alley” abortions. About 1.2 million women received illegal abortions per year. To get an abortion was a dangerous and deadly procedure which resulted getting debilitated or killed. In 1973, there was an important defining moment in public health history. A Supreme Court case, between Jane Roe and Henry Wade, made it possible for women to get safe and legal abortions from trained medicals practitioners. Roe, a 21-year-old pregnant woman, was representing all women who wanted abortions but could not get them legally or safely. Texas, at the time, was anti-abortion state unless it was to save a woman’s life, which was supported by Wade, a Texas Attorney General. The Supreme Court ruled that Americans have the right to privacy; this includes the right of a woman to decide whether to have children without state interference. Many communities were enraged and did not agree with the court’s decision to legalize abortion. Soon after, anti-abortionist began working to prev...

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There is no scientific consensus as to when human life begins. Personhood at conception is only a religious belief. Abortion has positive benefits for women's lives and health. Laws have never stopped abortion, but only made it unsafe for women. Legal abortion helps parents limit their families to the number of children they want and can afford.

Abortion ProCon.org. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://abortion.procon.org

The debate over whether or not abortion should be a legal option continues to divide Americans long after the US Supreme Court's 7-2 decision on Roe v. Wade declared the procedure a "fundamental right” on Jan. 22, 1973

Roe v. Wade | LII / Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/410/113

Gonzales v. Carhart. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.endroe.org/gonzales-v-carhart.aspx

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