A nineteen year old girl lies frozen in the fetal position; taking three positive pregnancy tests has thrown her into a nightmare. Reflecting on one poor decision she made- one pill she skipped- she imagines foregoing all of her dreams of getting a doctorate in order to become another working-class single mom. She disregards this option upon much deliberation and decides to have a medical abortion. Holding no beliefs about souls residing in unborn embryos or fetuses, she is relatively unshaken by the procedure and makes a commitment to be more vigilant moving forward.
This girl, like all women, has the inalienable right to determine what they do with their bodies regardless of faith or personal opinions of others. Fetal development occurs within the confines of a woman’s body, and is therefore subject to any decision she may make. Unplanned pregnancies occur in the contexts of all walks of life under many circumstances, whether consensual unprotected sex, incest, or rape. Those who hold opinions against letting women choose to terminate pregnancy have judgments clouded by predetermined dogmas, such as religious beliefs and cultural backgrounds. This is a substantial problem because ethical issues such as abortion are most effectively debated in the realm of objective viewpoints. By putting personal beliefs aside, people could learn to think better, do better, and ultimately be better when it comes to allowing others to make their own decisions.
The timeless debate over the right to abortion services has been reinvigorated in light of safer medical procedures, new legislation, and increased media coverage. The hot topic, however, has been mostly affected by the new identity of women in America. Generation X and Y has bred a race ...
... middle of paper ...
...nce and more about contraception, and they are more independent and accountable for their actions. This generation is one that hasn’t been suppressed from proper sexual education, and a free-thinking rational woman should equally not be oppressed from considering termination when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
Works Cited
Dadlez, E. M., and William L. Andrews. "Post-Abortion Syndrome: Creating an Affliction." Wiley Online Library. July 7, 2009. Accessed April 27, 2014. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8519.2009.01739.x.
"Religious Groups' Official Positions on Abortion." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. January 16, 2013. Accessed April 27, 2014. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/01/16/religious-groups-official-positions-on-abortion/ .
Vaughn, Lewis. Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010.
She is so young; she deserves to have the choice over her own body for many reasons. For example, this girl may get kicked out of her house, or won’t even be able to support the baby financially. She might even lose her education just trying to take care of the child. I support the idea that she learns and understands from her mistake and ultimately it was her decision to do what she wished with her body. Rather than put her in a state of repression, the results from her experience would be social maturity and evolution. With abortion, none of these issues would be a concern accept then she would have to deal with the emotional part of determining to terminate the fetus. Personhood begins after a fetus becomes able to survive outside the womb or after birth. This baby should not be coming into this world unwanted. What I mean by this is that having a child is an important decision to make that requires consideration, preparation and planning. A girl at a young age is not even ready to support herself financially. Woman who had the most abortions after the first trimester in 2008 were more likely to be black, and to be young, less educated and/or living in poverty. Banning abortion would hurt the most vulnerable in our
The birth of a child is usually a wonderful and priceless occasion. However, on June 5, 2015, an eleven-year-old girl gave birth to a newborn girl. Approximately a year before she gave birth, her 40-year-old father repeatedly sexually assaulted her. In this case, the unprepared eleven-year-old child decided to have the baby. This is a prime example that illustrates that the right to abortion should always be vested in the woman. Abortion, which has been debated for centuries and will continue to be fought upon for centuries to come, is a hot issue among social, political, and religious entities. This research paper will inform the reader about abortion using scholarly journals to define abortion, specifically when a fetus becomes a human being,
A Defense of Abortion In her argument on abortion, Judith Thomson discusses some major points about abortion. She deals with extreme cases and those extreme cases help us to realize a single perspective of abortion. For example, she talks about the violinist attached to you. In that example, you keep everything constant and focus on a single point, violinist being dead if you unattached him.
Over the course 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 regard to her reproductive rights.
Three Works Cited Many people believe abortion is only a moral issue, but it is also a constitutional issue. It is a woman's right to choose what she does with her body, and it should not be altered or influenced by anyone else. This right is guaranteed by the ninth amendment, which contains the right to privacy. The ninth amendment states: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." This right guarantees the right to women, if they so choose, to have an abortion, up to the end of the first trimester.
After Abortion. N.p., 23 Nov. 1999. Web. The Web. The Web. 15 Mar. 2012.
Abortion is a sensitive topic globally, culturally, and socially. There’s more than forty percent of women that end their pregnancy by abortion. In every nation of the world a woman makes the choice for an abortion. Abortion is a procedure that allows a woman to end the life from her pregnancy. There was a time when unsafe abortion was one of the many causes of maternal death. Unsafe abortion went down over the last two decades. When abortion became legal the tragic health issues for women reduced as well as death. There are thirty-six countries willing to allow a woman 's abortion if the female 's life is threatened. Those few countries make the exception depending on her situation of rape, incest, and fetal damage. Now abortion is known as a safe and legal way for a woman to end an unwanted pregnancy. In a woman’s first trimester
Abortion’s legalization through Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade, has allowed for one in three pregnancies to end in abortion. This means that 1.5 million abortions are performed in the United States each year (Flanders 3). It ranks among 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.
Abortion has been a controversial debatable topic for years. Should women and young teens have the final say in if they feel the need to keep or abort an unwanted baby. In the case Roe v. Wade marked the legalization of abortion by a supreme court, which started the debate over abortion. Educating women and young teens on the dangers of abortion will help them make safe sound decisions on abortion and the many alternatives to consider before aborting a baby. The pros and cons of this debatable topic raises some serious issues of why women and young teens consider abortion to what time frame after conception is the embryo considered a life..
The permissibility of abortion has been a crucial topic for debates for many years. People have yet to agree upon a stance on whether abortion is morally just. This country is divided into two groups, believers in a woman’s choice to have an abortion and those who stand for the fetus’s right to live. More commonly these stances are labeled as pro-choice and pro-life. The traditional argument for each side is based upon whether a fetus has a right to life. Complications occur because the qualifications of what gives something a right to life is not agreed upon. The pro-choice argument asserts that only people, not fetuses, have a right to life. The pro-life argument claims that fetuses are human beings and therefore they have a right to life. Philosopher, Judith Jarvis Thomson, rejects this traditional reasoning because the right of the mother is not brought into consideration. Thomson prepares two theses to explain her reasoning for being pro-choice; “A right to life does not entail the right to use your body to stay alive” and “In the majority of cases it is not morally required that you carry a fetus to term.”
Most people agree that abortion should be a rare procedure. To accomplish that ideal, our society must proactively, by providing resources and support, offer pregnant women the hope that carrying their babies to term is not the end of their plans and dreams. Then their difficult decisions would really be true choices vice acts of desperation. After all, it is just as much “pro-choice” for a woman to take charge of her life and courageously carr...
Lawlor, Jessica. (2002). Long Term Physiological and Psychological Effects of Abortion on Women. Retrieved March 21, 2001 from http://www.cirtl.org/syndrome.htm
We cannot play God nor be so judgmental when others decide to make a choice that we do not sit comfortably with. They have to live their lives to the fullest and we must do the same. There are many cases where the woman was impregnated due to an assault, and decided to get rid of the child because it brings them so much hurt and pain knowing that this child that has been conceived was unintentional and would bring negative thoughts, behaviors and plenty of aggression to that child later in life. Some decide to keep the child but those that aborted them see that there is still hope for the future even if they do not have this baby at that moment. Some argue that the baby is not really a baby until after twenty-six weeks. The positive out looks of an abortion does not put weight the negative aspects of an abortion. But this does not give us the right to determine someone 's fate or future based off of their choice to abort a child. Many women become rape victims and must then choose to have the child or not and when that person decides to abort the world forgets her damage and begins to condemn. A woman has the choice to be as free as a bird with no cage. This is being described as having freedom to do whatever she wants and achieve her own goals while not living in anyone 's shadow. She could have the abortion but it should not be forced, or she
Abortion is an extremely controversial issue and one that is continually on the forefront of debates. Those who oppose the idea (Pro-lifers), thinks it is an act of woman playing “God” who live from who dies. Yet, whether an unborn baby constitutes a normal person is questionable; a pregnant woman, on the other hand, has the undeniable right to choose whether she wants to have a child or not. Therefore, the decision to have an abortion is the personal choice and responsibility of the woman, because prohibiting abortion impedes freedom of choice and endangers the physical and mental health of women.
To this day there are still many individuals against abortion no matter what stage the embryo or fetus is in. An embryo grows and evolves every day in the womb. One of the central arguments starts with viability of the fetus. Meaning, when is a baby able to live on its own outside the womb. To which I argue that a new baby born can breathe on its own, but cannot take care of itself on its own and survive without help. The new born still needs its mother or care taker to feed it and cloth it so it can survive. Much like a fetus needs the womb to grow and breathe. Marta can have her baby and decide to keep her baby and still accomplish her dreams of becoming a nurse or she can choose another option such as adoption. At 17, Marta, knows what is right and wrong. Her parents are Catholics, so this means she was probably raised as a Catholic child. Presently Marta is an agnostic believer. She is still figuring out if she believes in God or not. Although she may currently be an agnostic believer, she needs to take responsibility for her actions and have her baby. There are two sides to every scenario, with that being said I will now illustrate the opposing view in Marta’s