Abortion has become an issue Americans feel strongly about, and it has created enormous debates within the United States. It has been around for years, and is certainly not a new option for women who find themselves in an unwanted pregnancy. Even though terminations have become safer for women, there are still strong arguments against abortion. Whether one is for or against abortion depends on a combination of beliefs, as well as pressures from society. While some believe in the right to choose, others consider it as murder; in both cases the turmoil of abortion has an extreme affect on a woman.
Even though the United States has ruled abortions to be legal, there is still controversy. One may say that this is a growing problem in our country. However, for every problem there should be a solution. Erika Bachiochi argues that: “The state's suppression of a woman's right to choose [was] simply a perpetuation of the patriarchal nature of our society...To free women from [the] gender hierarchy, women must have a right to do what they please with their bodies” (22). She says that women have always been suppressed of their rights, and men believe that they have more power than women. Bachiochi, as well as many other women, believe that they should have choice over something as simple as their own bodies. Having a right to their bodies helps make women feel free from the idea that men are superior to women. Women have always been told how to act in society, but when it comes to abortion they believe that their voices should be heard. If women have no other right, at least let them have a right over their own bodies. The solution may be simple, but getting there may not be so easy. On this issue Eileen McDonagh proposes that, “The right...
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... will continue to advance, making abortions safer, and the fight for choice will become stronger. The issues of abortion has an enormous effect on a woman. Abortion has loud advocates on both sides of the spectrum. The touchy topic may never see its end.
Works Cited
Bachiochi, Erika. The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion. Encounter Books, 2004. 22-51. Print.
McDonagh, Eileen. "Adding Consent to Choice in the Abortion Debate." Society 42.5 (2005): 18-26. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 25 Feb 2011.
Pushaw Jr., Robert J. "Partial-Birth Abortion and the Perils of Constitutional Common Law." Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 31.2 (2008): 519-91. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 22 Feb 2011.
United States, Cong. “Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.” Gallagher Law Library, UW School of Law (2003): 1201-08. Web. 15 Mar 2011
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For some, abortion is a touchy subject like politics and religion. In America, abortion has always been a controversial topic of discussion. The Supreme Court in the case Roe vs Wade case set the way of guidelines and the right for women to have an abortion if she chooses. In 2015 abortions is still an ongoing debate amongst religious groups, politicians and normal citizens. People that are for the rights of women to abort are often criticized and ridiculed for standing up for their personal beliefs. There are people who have conditioned their minds to think that women should not be allowed to have abortions if she was not raped or a result of incest, which I strongly disagree with that type of thinking. However, it is the law of the land, it is a women’s right to choose and she has to live with the psychological effects of her choice.
Abortion is a controversial topic in today’s society as many opinions from different social groups on whether it should be legal or not create the big question: should the government be able to take away a woman’s reproductive right if it is to protect a fetus? In the United States particularly, much of the debate since the 1970s has focused on the Supreme Court case Roe v Wade, in which the court proclaimed women's’ rights to abortion but declared that the states could limit and regulate the procedure. That means that currently, the state of California allows abortions, but many groups against abortion, mostly called “pro-lifers,” still try to fight against it and want it banned. Women have a right to their own body and should
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.
The controversy over abortion has been going on for years. This movie portrays how the debate has changed over the decades in a befitting manner. It is about three different women who come upon having to make the choice of terminating their pregnancies. The setting takes place in the same house during the course of 40 years where a different women deals with the option of aborting her fetus. This movie shows the various reasons woman want to get abortions, each being a valid reason in a liberal point of view.
“Listen, honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” Gloria Steinem, a renowned feminist and abortion advocate (“Changing the World…”). Indeed, the truth is that women are marginalized material in a male-dominated society. Abortion is the right women should have accessibility towards, whether she wants to abort or not. In the past, the right to have an abortion was limited to those who could pay or had a supportive husband. Yet, today, women still do not have an equal right to have an abortion. As a feminist advocate, I am addressing why every woman in the United States should have the right to an abortion without being judged.
When analyzing both sides of the abortion issues, it is evident that both sides provide both strong and weak arguments. Abortion will always be a controversial issue in society and there will always be disputing sides to the matter. Each person must make their own decisions based on their beliefs and factual evidence. Both sides must learn to be open-minded to the other side and learn to respect the fact that they have different thoughts and views.
The Abortion Debate According to Dean Stretton, “The most plausible pro-life argument claims that abortion is seriously wrong because it deprives the foetus of something valuable. This paper examines two recent versions of this argument. Don Marquis’s version takes the valuable thing to be a ‘future like ours’, a future containing valuable experiences and activities. Jim Stone’s version takes the valuable thing to be a future containing conscious goods which it is the foetus’s biological nature to make itself have.
When abortion is brought up, the arguments are usually in defense of the pregnant woman. Arguments range from the mother not being financially or emotionally stable, to not being physically healthy to carry out a pregnancy. Some women just do not want to have children. Specifically, the arguments presented here reflect women’s need to have equality with men. First, women have the right of privacy to their own bodies, ...
Since the early 1970’s abortion has been an important issue to the United States (Tietze 1). The problem begins with whether it is the woman’s choice to keep or terminate her pregnancy or the government’s choice. When this problem happens, a woman loses her right as a person. Most women argue about this issue, but if you look at it, it is the woman’s body, and she should do with it as she pleases. I believe that if a woman, under the right circumstances, should be able to make her own choices in life and not be influenced by family or the government.
After more than a quarter-century of frenzied debate and denunciation (which began well before Roe v. Wade), one might think not. But there is at least one viewpoint that polls indicate is widely held but that is hardly ever heard amid the screams of ''Murderer!'' and ''Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!'' It deserves a full and reasoned exposition, however; it might even shed some light on the controversies about the confirmation of Dr. Henry Foster as Surgeon General and about harassment of abortion clinics. It is that abortion is justifiable only in extreme cases -- but that nevertheless the state must respect the right to receive and perform abortions. In other words, it is possible to be pro-life and pro-choice -- and as a matter of moral principle rather than political expediency.
In clip 2, I would like to work on questioning. I felt that I had a good grasp on questioning, but I would like to build on the answers of students. Then further question those students to have them think about the topic. For example, if we were talking about abortion I could ask the following; “Do you think we should punish mothers who drink alcohol or take drugs and then to endanger their baby, which may lead to abnormalities?” I assume most students will say yes, from this I can push further to say “Is there a difference between drinking while pregnant and causing issues with your baby and abortion? Should we punish both? As, at the moment, we can punish the mother for the abortion, but not mothers who abuse drugs during their pregnancy?”
Abortion has been accepted by the United States of America ever since the monumental Roe vs. Wade case in the early 1970’s, but is still a very controversial issue. Many people are for and against abortions. Some people say that the child inside its mother’s womb deserves the opportunity to live, while others believe that a mother has the right to choose whether or not her fetus can live or die. Other advocates for abortion claim that abortion helps keep the threat of overpopulation down. They also say that in many extreme cases, it is in the best interest of the mother and the child that the fetus be aborted. Abortion helps keep the crime rate low, so it should remain legal, they also say.