An abortion is the act of removing the fetus from the uterus of a female before giving birth. Since 2700 BCE, women have used various methods to obtain an abortion, including the use of herbs and sharp instruments. Luckily, techniques have advanced significantly since then to allow for a safer procedure. However, there are still debates even today about whether or not having an abortion is constitutional. There are facts for and against this decision including the assessment on if the growing child inside the pregnant mother has their own right to live yet. To a great extent, the fundamental US documents, court case decisions, national and state laws, and presidents’ opinions reinforce the right for women to have abortions.
The fundamental US documents are used to guide the federal government in governing the people. For example, the Declaration of Independence lists the fundamental unalienable rights that are given to the citizens of America. These are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. The government is required to give these rights to the citizens of the United States and that has not changed since the birth of the United States. Its meaning, however, has changed based on who are considered American citizens. When the Declaration of Independence was written, only land-owning white males were considered citizens and therefore had the rights that were listed. Over time, “citizenship” has changed to include all people that were born in the United States and those who have naturalized. Does this include unborn babies who have not yet taken their first breath of fresh American air? Some people argue that the unalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence guard the unborn child’s right to life. However, in the...
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...Gerber Fried (Boston: South End Press, 1990), p. 100.
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"Transcript of the Constitution of the United States - Official Text." Transcript of the Constitution of the United States - Official Text. The Charters of Freedom, n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. .
J. C. Mohr, Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800–1900 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).
Leslie Reagan, When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine and Law in the United States, 1897–1973 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), pp. 11–12.
McBride, Alex. "Roe v. Wade (1973)." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013. .
Backhouse, Constance B. "Involuntary motherhood: abortion, birth control and the law in nineteenth century Canada." Windsor YB Access Just. 3 (1983): 61.
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. A defense of abortion. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1.1 (Fall 1971): 47-66.
Mohr, James C. Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800-1900. Oxford University Press: New York, New York. 1978.
Frohock, F.M (1983) Abortion: A Case Study in Law and Morals. United States of America: Greenwood Press. Retrieved on June 9, 2008.
Abortion, which is defined as a deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, is one of the most controversial issues in society. Many people believe that abortion is unethical and morally wrong, while others believe that it is a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body. According to www.census.gov, “the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has leveled off at 1.2 million a year” (1). This statistic supports how many women are choosing abortion. Although abortion is legal in the United States, many people continue to voice their opinions on how it is a human rights violation and should be illegal everywhere. The practice of abortion should be banned in society because it terminates the life of an innocent unborn child, causes long-term emotional effects, as well as major health risks for women who opt for abortion.
Abortion laws first developed in the 1820’s within the United States. These laws were forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy (2). By the 1900’s, the American Medical Association and legislators outlawed the act of abortions and by 1965 abortion was banned in all 50 states(3). In 1973, the permissibility of “abortion” was innate with the proceedings of Texas’s “Roe v. Wade”. [410 U.S. 113 (1973)] which was the most consequential legal juncture on abortion.
Until the mid 1800s, abortion was unrestricted and unregulated in the United States. The justifications for criminalizing it varied from state to state. One big reason was population control, which addressed fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly ...
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.
Warren, M. A. (1973) 'On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion', Monist, vol. 57, no. 1.
There are two important factors in the 19th centuries that are underlying the increased practice of abortion. The first is the common law notion of quickening. Most women in America at this time did not consider a pre-quickened fetus a “distinct human being with a separate existence of its own.” Quicken means a fetus show signs of life. The second was the legal status of abortion in the U.S. It was never ...
2. Life in the Balance: Exploring the Abortion Controversy, Robert N. Wennberg, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1985.
Milbauer, Barbara. The Law Giveth: Legal Aspects of the Abortion Controversy. Atheneum, New York: 1983.
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.
Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth. An abortion results in the death of the embryo or fetus and may be either spontaneous or induced. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. The history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even milleniums. Today, policies regarding legal abortion in the U.S. is being debated everywhere. Many myths and misconceptions confuse this issue. A better understanding of the history of abortion in America can help provide a context for an improved policy in the future.