In the four decades since the Roe v. Wade case, women across the United States of America have come to rely on the right to have an abortion. Abortion is defined under an array of definitions that has varied over the years, throughout medical and legal facilities and by individuals everywhere. With an increase on legal abortion cases increasing over the years, it is time to take a look into what the legal aspects of abortions includes and what a true definition of abortion consists of under the law. Under the legal definition, abortion refers to the termination of pregnancy by various methods, including medical surgery, before the fetus is able to sustain independent life (Abortion). With abortion comes many ethical issues In 1970, New York became the first state in the U.S. to legalize abortion on demand through the 24th week of pregnancy, followed by Alaska and Washington. After the 24th week had passed, abortions were no longer provided. With more states wanting to legalize abortion, this brought on one of the most well-known court cases in the United States, the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. This court case found that it is a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy in the first trimester. This statement is found under the right of privacy, founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty (History). Roe, a pregnant single woman, wanting an abortion, went about challenging the constitutionality of the Texas abortion laws. Under Texas law, it’s a crime to have or attempt to have an abortion, except under the medical advice to save the life of the mother. The defendant to go against her was the county District Attorney Wade. After much debating, the court proceeded to divide pregnancy into three trimesters to define what could legally be done through each trimester (Bioethics). Under the Supreme Court, abortions in the first trimester were to be performed with no contest, but leaving the decision to perform one in the hands of woman’s physician. They marginally allowed to states to perform abortions during the second trimester, but restricted and regulated the abortions performed. In the third semester, the ruling allowed states to severely restrict or completely ban abortions; unless something compromises the health of the mother. That’s the only exception during the third trimester. If doctors are caught performing late term abortions without medical necessity for the mother, they can be
Instead, the court recognized that the right to abortion was guaranteed under personal privacy. Thus, any law regulating abortion in any state across the United States was supposed to be justified by stating any of the compelling state interests. Additionally, any legislative enactment set forth should be tailored in meeting the compelling interests of all parties. The judges also agreed that the right to abortion was unlimited; therefore, it was important for the court to determine a framework that would balance the right to abortion and those of the government (Stewart et al. 307). The latter sought to protect the rights of all mothers and at the same time protect the human life. If the abortion law was completely unregulated, then there would be cases where individuals would practice abortion without factoring the important role of government in conserving life (Saad). As a result, the trimester framework that took the above issues into consideration was conceived. The framework established when the fundamental rights of women to issues relating abortion became absolute. It also established when the state's interests were more compelling than the rights of the woman. In the first trimester, the Court left the decision to the woman and the physicians. However, after the first trimester or at the end of the first trimester when fetal viability had been established, the state had a right to protect the health of the mother as well as the unborn child (Saad). The state was also required to regulate all abortion procedures so that they became reasonable. The procedures were supposed to protect and preserve maternal health. At the third trimester, the state interest would become compelling since the viability of the fetus becomes compelling. In such cases, the state has the right to regulate abortion to protect human life. Also, the
Abortion, is a safe and legal way to terminate a pregnancy. According to the Guttmatcher Institute (2015), abortions are common, and approximately three in ten American women have an abortion by the time they reach the age of 45. Additionally, a broad array of women in the United States have abortions. Yet, abortion is a controversial issue and has been for decades. It is a topic that many people hold strong feelings for or against. The conversations surrounding the topic of abortion has resulted in protests, dangerous, unfair policies, and violence. The abortion debate heightened in 1973, when the U.S. Supreme court overturned state laws that banned or restricted women’s rights to obtain an abortion during the
My name is Brittney Elbl. I’m 21 years old, attended the University of Iowa with a major in Journalism and Mass Communications, and now work as a full time journalist at TIME magazine. As a magazine focused on current events, we were very interested when abortion debates arose in conjunction with the 2014 election cycle. Abortion debates have been circulating since the dawn of its legality in the early 1900’s and still continue today. With this said, the recent election is spurring a vast increase in these debates claiming, “As a society, we cannot be afraid to discuss social and moral issues” (Raymond). As you can probably guess, there are very conflicting opinions on this topic, ranging from the Pro-Life advocates, demanding that abortion is murder and focused on the abolition of abortion all together, to the Pro-Choice advocates, who believe women should be allowed to make their own choice in what they do with their body. In each group’s opinion, there is not much of a grey area between the two conflicting ideas, which leaves little room for compromise. This kind of extreme opin...
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.
Abortions, ever since they became an option for women to terminate an unwanted baby either for personal or health related reasons, were always a touchy subject for people because on one side you are ending a possible human 's life, but on the other it is the woman 's body and her choice with what she wants to do with it. However, many abortions are done usually at the start of pregnancy and what the abortionist terminates does not resemble that of a baby at all. Partial-Birth abortions are different in that they are done in the second trimester on a fetus that, if not terminated, could live when extracted from the mother. This type of abortion is one of the most gruesome procedures that doctors have to do and after the passing of the Partial-Birth
In our society and culture, we are presented with many ethical controversies, all of which seem impossible to resolve. One of the most considerable debates in today's world is abortion. A person's value system and religious belief often influence their view on this complex situation. Since there are many strong arguments made for abortion and many against it, it becomes almost impossible to resolve. Among the many disagreements, some of the most common dealt with issues such as the right to live which makes abortion morally same as murder, along with a women having reproductive rights and the different circumstances that justify having an abortion such as abortion due to rape. In this paper we will briefly explore the pros and cons of these issues.
The case that I decided to write about is one of the most controversial cases that have ever happened in the United States. The Roe v. Wade (1973) case decided that a woman with her doctor could choose to have an abortion during the early months of that pregnancy. However, if the woman chose to wait until the later months of the pregnancy then they would have certain restrictions based on their right to privacy. This case invalidated all state laws which limited women’s access to abortions during their first trimester of their pregnancy which was based on the Ninth Amendment of the Constitution. The Amendment states that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people” (Cornell University Law School, 2013).
Anderson brings up point after point to support his opinion on pro-choice abortion. Anderson writes about how the government should have no say in a woman’s decision to abort even if she is past the first trimester: “Pregnancy and motherhood affect every aspect of a woman’s life - public and private, emotional and physical - and Roe v. Wade confirmed that it was an invasion of privacy for the government to step in and make reproductive decisions on a woman’s behalf” (Anderson, 2015). Anderson explains how he believes a woman who decides to have an abortion does it because it will negatively affect their life in a way that will be changed forever. The article goes on to explain some reasons why women choose to have abortions. To back up his
Wade by NEH Hull and Peter Charles Hoffer they state “thus before abortion because the object of law it was a subject of everyday life” (Hull & Hoffer 12). Meaning that any female that found out she was pregnant was able to get an abortion but then suffered the consequences of something going wrong. In the United States around eighteen hundred abortions became illegal, due to the lack of medical education, procedures and surgeries because they were very dangerous. As time came later medical advancements were made but women still had to rely on the back alley abortions which resulted in harming thousands of women. Abortion or premature termination of pregnancy can be accidental or on purpose. Both types of abortions can be legal or illegal. If the ongoing pregnancy becomes a medical threat, abortion is not illegal. Legal developments along with health care services are intertwined with each other. The American Medical Association stated that abortions were wrong and unsafe which made the National Abortion Federation make abortion into a “physicians- only” practice because they could be performed legally in order to save a women’s life. (National Abortion Federation NAF) It wasn’t until 1973 that abortions were made legal in the United States due to the “Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade ruling that Americans’ right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference” (NAF). In 1965, almost 300 deaths occurred due to illegal abortions, and of all pregnancy-related complications in New York and California, 20% were due to abortions. “If the US Supreme Court found constitutional grounds to extend the birth control cases’ logic that women’s bodies belonged to the women themselves, the concept of choice would become a core value in constitutional law.” (Hull & Hoffer
One of the most controversial and highly debatable subjects in the minds of the American public today is the topic of abortion. While abortion is seen as murder to some, others look upon it as an extremely safe procedure, offering numerous benefits to the recipient, predominantly being the right to choose. The argument has long been increasingly prevalent in the American political scene for decades, and is now being brought into new light as medical practices advance and technical flaws are effectively worked out. What cannot be altered, however, is the reality that what is being disposed of is in fact, a developing human life. It is this fact that the pro-life argument is based upon. The abortion debate not only revolves around the overall legality of the procedure, but also the conditions taking place that would condone such an operation.
Have you ever wondered how abortion came to be legal? It was decided in the Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was a major landmark in not only the abortion issue, but also in American government.
The Roe vs. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. It invalidated all state laws limiting women's access to abortions during the first trimester of pregnancy based on the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a part of the Bill of Rights. The Court's decision in this case was that the Ninth Amendment, "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," protected a person's right to privacy.
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).
There are so many different viewpoints on abortion, it isn’t even funny. Someone could say that abortion is morally acceptable because a woman was raped or the pregnancy could interfere with her health. Other people might say that it is murder and immorally unacceptable because the child obviously does not have a say in the abortion. The problem with abortions is that there is no real conclusion to the problem, whether it is legal or illegal. And this argument is only getting worse and worse.
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.