Abortion is Woman’s Right to Choose

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Abortion is Woman’s Right to Choose

With so many women choosing to have abortions, it would be expected that it would not be so greatly frowned up, yet society is still having problems with its acceptance. Every woman has the fundamental right to decide for herself, free from government interference, whether or not to have an abortion. Today, more than ever, American families do not want the government to trample on their right to privacy by mandating how they must decide on the most intimate, personal matters. That is why, even though Americans may differ on what circumstances for terminating a crisis pregnancy are consistent with their own personal moral views, on the fundamental question of who should make this personal decision, the majority of Americans agree that each woman must have the right to make this private choice for herself. Anti-choice proposals to ban abortions for “sex-selection” or “birth-control” are smokescreens designed to shift the focus of the debate away from this issue and trivialize the seriousness with which millions of women make this highly personal decision. Any government restriction on the reasons for which women may obtain legal abortions violates the core of this right and could force all women to publicly justify their reasons for seeking abortion.

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...

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...h wish that there were better solutions that could make abortion unnecessary, or prevent pregnancies in the first place. We'd like to see the demand for the procedure reduced, by resolving women's problems and alleviating the pressure for abortion. We can go along this road together as far as we can, and there will come a time when pro-choicers are satisfied and pro-lifers want to keep going, but that doesn't mean we can't go together for now.

Bibliography:

Family Planning Council, 2000. http://www.familyplanning .org/

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 1998-2000. http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

Periodicals:

Greene, H. Fields. “Conservatives fighting congressional battles over choice.” Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service 15 July 1998: 71-73.

Mathewes-Green, Frederica. “The Abortion Debate Is Over.” Christianity Today 6 Dec. 1999: 86

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