The Pros And Cons Of Abortion

Should a woman get to choose whether she has to keep an unwanted pregnancy or get an abortion? This debate has gotten a lot of heat recently with the recent accusations of Planned Parenthood selling parts of fetuses after they’ve been aborted. One would think that a women’s right would be to make decisions about her own reproductive choices. Currently people are pursing that a fetus has rights before it is able to live on its own, and those rights outweigh the rights of the mother. Supporters of fetus’s rights over the mother are called pro-life. Supporters of the mother having the power to make decisions over her own body are called pro-choice. I support the pro-choice argument based on fundamental rights of the mother, ability to reduce

The practice of abortion has been dated back to Greek and Roman times. Then the fetus was not considered really living till for males 40 days after conception and 80 days for a female. And it was acceptable to abort a fetus, unless the father wanted the child ("Historical Attitudes to Abortion"). The idea of terminating a pregnancy is not something new. Let us fast forward to around 1880 in America, at this time abortion was being practiced, but illegal in most states, unless to save the life of the mother. Until now, women were in more “traditional” roles, the mother and home keeper. Anti-abortion legislation attempted to put down women’s suffrage and birth control, keep women in a childbearing role. This also came about due to the fact of midwives who would perform abortions were considered a threat to male medical practices ("History of Abortion in the U.S."). With this vital health care need being declared illegal it was dependent upon a women’s economic status, race and where she lived as to if she could get an abortion, and not necessarily a safe one either. Women were at the mercy of unskilled practitioners who would

It is a women’s fundamental right to choose what happens with her own body. In many cases it is not her choice to become pregnant so why should she be forced to carry a child for nine months and then experience excruciating labor for hours to bring it into the world. With abortion being frowned upon so heavily now and pro-life supporters protesting abortion clinics many women still seek unsafe abortions to save their mental health. The stigma that has been placed on abortion leads to roughly 68,000 women dying from unsafe abortion a year (Haddad and Nawal). If women were not so put down for seeking out abortions there could be so many lives saved a year by safe practices. And there could be so many sick lives saved a year by the use of facilitating the fetal tissue for research. Fetal tissue used in medical advance research has helped saved lives and the health of millions of people a year. For instance, fetal tissue helped develop an effective vaccine for rubella, an infection that caused 5,000 miscarriages per year (Culp-Ressler). With aborted fetuses being rich in source of stem cells, donations can help them study new ways to treat diseases such as AIDS, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, cancer and eyesight loss. The possibilities are endless when they are able to continue utilizing fetal tissue donated from legal