Oklahoma became the first state to establish by law a public school educational program to focus on the humanity and the development of an unborn child. Pro-life Oklahoma State Governor Mary Fallin signed the “Humanity of the Unborn Child Act” into law on June 7th. The “Humanity of the Unborn Child Act” requires the state Department of Health to authorize informational material about the development stages of an unborn child during the nine months before birth. This optional public educational program will be offered to high school students. The program’s message will clearly teach the students that abortion kills a living human being and may not be seen as an option for an unwanted pregnancy. If a student is pregnant, the program will provide
Palmer, Louis J. Encyclopedia of Abortion in the United States McFarland & Company, Inc. 2002
The federal policy issue that I choose to research and write about is The Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, or PDA for short, is an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Title VII of the Civil Rights Act it states that “[…] and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-¬related purposes” (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). The PDA was enacted in the year 1978 and it prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. The Act was developed as a result of the 1976 Supreme Court decision General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert (PDA-Historical Perspective). The employer offered its employees a disability benefit
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.
In America abortion is one of the most heavily debated topics in recent years. Pro-life or pro-choice? Many people believe it is immoral and even consider abortion to be murder. The definition of abortion states “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth” Did you know that 1 in 3 women in the U.S. will have an abortion in their lifetime? (Baker, Aspen. "A Better Way to Talk about Abortion." Aspen Baker:. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2016.) When first researching this topic I wondered, “What’s the big deal? Why would it matter if someone who was never even born, died?” And I realized that babies that would have been born due to abortion,
Though the population experts have not yet aligned themselves on the side of abortion-law reform, something is beginning to happen. Seven states--Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New Mexico, and North Carolina--have amended their laws to permit abortion not only to save life but also to protect the health, mental and physical, of the mother, in cases of rape and incest, and to avert the birth of defective offspring (Governor Reagan forced the omission of this ground in the California law). Many other states have been and are now considering abortion reform or repeal bills but usually without the support of the powerful groups who are backing other forms of population control.
The subject of abortion has created some of the most controversial, social, and moral debates in United States history. On Jan. 22, 1973, in the case Roe Vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that it was a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion during the first trimester of the pregnancy (The Ruling). Still other interest groups argue that human life begins at conception and having an abortion is murder to an unborn child. These opposing viewpoints create a delicate political and social debate in which the lives of unborn children are placed in the center. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the RU 486 “abortion pill”, citing that the “overall safety of the pill is excellent”(Food and Drug). This scientific development has the potential to make abortions much more accessible and private to American women. I believe that the abortion pill harbors great qualities for women who choose abortion, yet is an enormous medical setback because it will cost the lives of so many more unborn children.
The right to choose, right to pursue and right of speech has been a natural right our founding fathers have strived to preserve since the day it was violated. Though, the right they fought to preserve only benefited if thou were a white male, we slowly have come to include the rest of our population regardless of sex or of racial orientation. Women, in particular, have come a long way since their debut in World War II and continue to dismantle the misogynistic traditions we have deeply ingrained into our society. However, women are facing another obstacle: the right to abort an unwanted child. The controversial topic of abortion has been touched upon by politicians, religious groups and the women themselves and although it has been marked
The 1973 Supreme Court decision in the case of Roe vs. Wade is the foundation for our current abortion policy as well as the cause of so much controversy today. Though always an issue, nothing prior can compare to the momentum that it has now. In the span of 30 years since the ruling, the combination of science, morals and religion have spun off numerous sub-issues to the effect that people have been left either aligned to one side of the argument, or caught in the middle, unable to choose. The key issue at hand is whether the 1973 ruling of Roe vs. Wade should be upheld or should all abortions be illegal. The issue is so divisive because abortion brings up closely related but unresolved moral issues, and tries to bring a legal answer to them. The consequences would be monumental for those who have a stake in a resulting decision. Women’s rights, first and foremost, would be affected because many women in the pro-choice movement believe this decision is a reflection of the amount of power the government should have over the individual, women in particular. They would take the results as a major setback in the women’s rights movement should abortion become illegal. Pro-life groups see this as a moral debate over life, with the elimination of abortion meaning that the fetus has been recognized as a living human being with rights like any other. Religious advocates, particularly those siding with the pro-life movement see the attitude towards abortion as a reflection of sexual permissiveness in the American people. As for the American people themselves, while having strong feelings about abortion, are not ready or willing to get rid of it. Though both sides push for common things like better sex education for th...
Perhaps one of the most controversial issues debated between lawmakers and legislatures is abortion. Disputes concerning abortion began during the 1820s. By 1965, with a few exceptions, abortion had been made illegal in all states. Abortions were only permitted when the fetus was deformed, or if birth of the baby would harm the mother’s life. All of this changed however in 1973 during the landmark Supreme Court Case of Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion. The Supreme Court recognized that it is solely a mother’s choice whether to become a parent. The court also recognized that an issue as significant as child bearing warrants the highest level of constitutional protection. According to the Court, a state’s interest in potential life is not “compelling” until there is a status of viability—the point in pregnancy at which there is a reasonable possibility for the sustained survival of the fetus outside of the womb. The Court also affirmed that the right to privacy is not absolute and that a state does have a valid interest in safeguarding maternal health, maintaining medical standards, and protecting potential health. Under the Court’s decision, a state may, but is not required to prohibit abortion after viability, except when it is necessary to protect a women’s life or health.
In my freshman year of high school, I had taken an ROTC class. My instructor brought up in a discussion on opposing abortion or not. The students in my class disagreed with the right of abortion, while I quietly sat back and listened to their opposing views. They thought of abortion as murder, and considered that there are other alternatives to take other than that route. Later on, I remember my mother and I both agreed to abortion having its reasons to be considerable. That the reality of keeping a child is being able to financially support the baby, house-hold family issues that abide by certain morals by life’s standards, and the mother of the child may still being school, which leads to a stressful environment. Later on the discussion of abortion was brought up again when attending Bowie State in my health class. By watching a video, I learned how more people involved in a group called pro-life opposed abortion because it was looked at as a form of murder. I disagree because the baby isn’t fully born yet, and if aborting a chil...
Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion with a landmark court ruling in 1973, yet abortion remains one of the most controversial debates due to the myriad of political and moral issues. Somehow, woman still face many of the issues that the roe v wade ruling was supposed to prevent. Carrying an unintended pregnancy to term can be very problematic to a woman’s mental and physical well-being whether it was a rape or not. The magnitude of damage an unwanted pregnancy can be catastrophic to the child as well. Extreme cases, newborns are killed because a woman could not afford an abortion. Most Americans agree that abortion is okay under dire circumstances like rape. There are countless other circumstances in which a pregnancy can be devastating to a woman, but rape is singled out as socially acceptable because on the surface, it appears to be a definitive, black and white reason. Finding a middle ground that allows woman to decide for themselves what constitutes a dire circumstance might be a more realistic and compassionate choice. The option to have tax-funded, safe, legal abortions is choosing to improve the quality of lives that already exist and is a realistic approach to an emotional issue.
Abortion is unlike any other subject debated today; millions of women have aborted a child, and the loss, pain, and emotional need to justify what was done, both on the part of the mother and on the part of her loved ones. Abortion is a gut-wrenching debate that has been going on for centuries, and does not plan to cool off anytime soon. The Supreme Court case in 1973, Roe vs. Wade, placed abortion on the map for the United States. The result of the Roe vs. Wade case legalized abortion to protect women’s health, however the good intentions of the ruling opened the doors for people to take advantage of the case outcome. Approximately 1.06 million abortions took place in the United States in 2011, which goes to show that women maybe abusing the privilege of the rules set in place to protect their health and practicing abortion as a form of contraception. Abortion is not only a dangerous procedure for women to endure, however it is also unethical to abort a child. Abortion is immoral because life begins at conception, people need to live with the consequences and not take the easy way out, and there are other available options.
According to Kenneth W. Krause, “abortion might be the most inscrutable cultural issue of our time.” As a result of this enduring controversy, two opposing groups emerged: those who feel that abortion should be illegalized, the “pro-life” side, and those who believe that even though it may be an undesirable practice, abortion must remain legal, the “pro-choice” side. With research supported by science and ethics, it is evident that abortion is a “necessary evil” (Williams). The legalization of abortion provides protection of a woman’s right to control her own body, supports the prevention of risky, illegal abortions, and ensures that there will always be a choice concerning the immense, life-long responsibility that accompanies bringing a child into the world.
Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)
Abortion in the United States is a legal form of murder. Each and every year over a million babies are murdered and it must be stopped now before it will continue to get out of hand each and every day. We have discussed in this essay that a fetus is a living humans and not something that can just be thrown away. An unborn child is still a child and he or she needs an opportunity to grow and live a long successful life just like the rest of us have gotten the privilege to do. Abortion cannot go on any longer. More and more live are lost every day.