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two contrasting views about abortion
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For centuries, people have longed for an effective means of birth control. Before birth control pills and surgery, there was no way of preventing a pregnancy. However, if women did get pregnant, they could choose to have an abortion. In early societies, unwanted children were often disposed of after they were born. Infanticide was common. Sometimes babies were killed outright and other times they were simply abandoned. In 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States by the Supreme Court’s decision on the case Roe vs. Wade and it has become one of the most controversial topics in America ever since then. This case divided the nation into two groups, pro-life and pro-choice. The term pro-life refers to the groups of people that oppose abortion and pro-choice refers to the groups that support it. Pro-life supporters argue that abortions are murder and extreme cases of child abuse. For most pro-life supporters, their religious morals oppose the killing of another human being. From the moment of conception, the embryo is alive and its life imposes a moral obligation to preserve it. ...
Abortion is a very controversial and sensitive topic in today’s society. Two different sides to this argument is pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-life proponents believe in the right to life for unborn fetuses saying that abortion should be considered murder regardless of how far along in the pregnancy the woman is. Pro-choice advocates people who believe the woman carrying the fetus should be able to make her own decision on aborting the fetus.
Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth; it causes the termination of the embryo or fetus inside the women. There are two different types of abortion, a spontaneous abortion, which is also known as a miscarriage, and an induced abortion, where the embryo or fetus is purposely removed from the women’s body. The topic of induced abortion has been widely debated for hundreds of years. The issue of abortion was argued way back in the time of the ancient Hebrews. In the United States it became illegal around the mid 1800’s and not until the 1960’s was the argument for the right to abort brought back to the table. In 1973, the Supreme Court case “Roe vs. Wade” made abortion legal. The case stated that abortion was legal in the first trimester (three months) of pregnancy (O’Brien par. 17). Since that day over 30 years ago, there have been many cases in which abortion has been disputed. Congress has passed many laws restricting abortion rights, including in cases such as Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services and Stenberg v. Carhart (O’Brien par. 18). There are many other cases like these and each time is seems more likely that a woman’s right to choose could be overturned (“Reproductive Rights” 26). There are many different ranges of beliefs about the morality of abortion, whether or not one should have an abortion, and under what conditions the termination of pregnancy is acceptable. Many argue at what point in the process of pregnancy a human person comes into existence. People disagree about whether anything from an ovum to a fetus is a form of human life. No person knows this information, but it is debated among the two major sides on this issue. The first side are those that believe abortion should be forb...
The current issues concerning a woman’s right to an abortion include the debates between pro-life and pro-choice groups that promote either restrictions or extensions to a woman’s ability to receive abortions respectively, along with debate about the role that the government should play in the process of limiting or extending rights. Pro-life groups argue many points against abortion including the beliefs that life begins at conception, adoption is a viable alternative to abortion, the procedures sometimes cause medical complications, a...
”The pro-life movement seeks to force their moral beliefs on others - grounded in their own religion or personal philosophy. The pro-choice movement doesn 't make claims on the morality of abortion - we leave that as an individual choice for every woman faced with an unwanted pregnancy. If they feel abortion is wrong and they want to give their child up for adoption, or keep it, we will support their decision. Pro-life people say "Abortion is wrong;" we only say
Pro-choice versus pro-life argues over the issue of what should be the right stance when dealing with the life of an unborn child. From the perspective of a person who is pro-choice, they believe that “individuals have unlimited autonomy with respect to their own reproductive systems, just as long as they don’t violate the independence of others.” Pro-choice also argues that the government should not have the right to decide whether a woman should exterminate her pregnancy or not. From their viewpoint, they believe that what should be legal in the eyes of the government is contraception use, celibacy, abstinence, and abortion for the first two trimesters of pregnancy. On the stance of pro-life, they argue that the government has a right
America is synonymous with freedom. The pursuit of freedom is a journey that we as American’s find ourselves challenged by with each growing generation. Ideological challenges such as the issue of abortion define today’s journey as Americans. There are different issues that come up when the subject abortion is mentioned. the arguments of being “pro-life” vs “pro-choice”. Before reviewing the main debates on abortion, one should understand the accepted definition by both sides of the debate. Abortion is the act of the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. Pro-choice is favoring or supporting the legal right of women and girls to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy to term. Pro-life is supporting the right to life of the unborn or against abortion. The debate of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” has clearly become more complex within the last 30 to 40 years. When examining the issues on abortion, one has to look at its history and main issues that surround the subject matters of abortion, whether religion is a factor and if the government should have a say in a woman’s choice.
Many people are familiar with the term abortion and its popular controversy in society today. Anyone who is familiar with the term should also be familiar with the two groups that form the controversy of abortion: pro-life and pro-choice. The article I chose is written by Terry O’Neill and is titled, “Legal Abortion Can Be a Lifeline”. The article was published on January 22, 2013, to U.S. News. It argues that abortion saves lives rather than taking them. O’Neill’s claim “abortion is a lifeline” rests upon the questionable assumption that a baby inside a womb is not considered life.
Abortion is the killing of the defenseless unborn. Throughout its history this practice has been recognized as a human right for women. Two movements that have emerged from this controversial topic are Pro-Life and Pro-choice. Pro-choice declares that the choice is up to the mother while Pro-life states that the unborn has the right to live. But by examining the history of abortion, court cases it is clear that the killing an unborn is morally wrong and unfair for some.
One of the most debatable topics even in today’s society is the right to abortion. Some people believe that life starts at conception and that even an unborn child deserves the same legal protections as an adult. Pro-life advocates argue that ending its life is similar to murder (POLS210, n.d.). Mean while, others also known as Pro-Choice believe it begins at birth and that with laws that restrict abortion it gets in the way with the right of a woman to make a decision of what is in her own best interest (U.S. History, n.d.).
The murder of innocents or, a woman’s right to choose; the Pro-Life/ Pro-Choice Debate, Which side are you on? The issue of abortion has been a topic of interest not only in the medical world but also in the political and religious worlds as well. The pro-life argument states that at conception the fetus is a baby and terminating it is taking a life. The pro-choice argument states that the unborn fetus, not baby, is just a blob of tissue and your terminating a pregnancy not a child. Both sides of the argument will be discussed in this essay along with the views of the church, politicians, women who have had abortion, and even a women who use to worked for Planned Parenthood.
Anger and heated debate have long fueled the controversy over abortion. Whether pro-life or pro-choice, both sides of the argument are convinced of the righteousness of their beliefs. There is, however, some confusion surrounding the term “pro-choice” – it does not directly pertain to the spread and use of abortion, but rather, “pro-choicers” advocate the continued legalization of abortion in order to make the choice available and to ensure that women’s fundamental rights are not subjugated. The stance that abortion should be available has its roots in economic concerns, psychological evidence, moral dilemmas, and the Constitution.
One of the most controversial issues in this day and age is the stance people take on abortion. The two main positions that people take are either of pro-choice or pro-life; both sides, although polar opposites, tend to refer to both the issue of morality and logical rationale. The pro-life side of the debate believes that abortion is an utterly immoral practice that should be abolished. On the contrary, abortion should remain a legal procedure because it is a reproductive right; its eradication would not only take away the pregnant person’s autonomy, but would also put more children in financially unstable homes and the adoption system, and would cause an increase in potentially fatal, unsafe abortions.
Abortion has been a complex social issue in the United States ever since restrictive abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s. By 1965, abortions had been outlawed in the U.S., although they continued illegally; about one million abortions per year were estimated to have occurred in the 1960s. (Krannich 366) Ultimately, in the 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade, it was ruled that women had the right to privacy and could make an individual choice on whether or not to have an abortion during the first trimester of pregnancy. (Yishai 213)
Those who adamantly oppose abortion are regarded as pro-life and those who are supporters of abortion are considered pro-choice by contemporary standards. Even among those who advocate abortion, there are discrepancies in their views such as up until what point in the pregnancy is abortion morally permissible. In my opinion, abortion is morally permissible at any stage in a woman’s pregnancy. This is ethically acceptable because a woman should have the right to control what goes on within her body. Along with this, fetuses are still far from personhood (having the qualities of a human being); therefore, we cannot liken abortion to any variety of murderous activity.
There are two fractions in this controversy that are apart in their views on abortion whereas the pro-choice movement contends that a women’s right to abortion is absolute, the pro-life choice asserts that a fetus’s right to life is indisputable. Because of this debate the 1973 U.S Supreme Court ruling in Roe VS Wade which legalized abortion based on the 14th amendments right to privacy.