Abortion And Sociological Research

A social problem is an issue that people in a community view as being undesirable. Most people would agree about some social problems and their undesirable outcomes, such as premeditated murder and driving while intoxicated. However, other social problems are more controversial, creating a “grey area” in a black and white set of rules. Some of these more controversial issues include: inequality, racism, abortion, quality education, and gun violence. In narrowing my research topic down to Abortion in America, it was discovered that there are countless scholarly journals and respected publications who discuss this highly controversial topic. An abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, resulting in the death of the fetus or

embryo. This issue is extremely important to discuss because the conversation surfaces in almost every American election, statewide race for governor, or federal contest for Congressmen.“Abortion issues have polarized American society since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure 1973 within the Roe v. Wade case (Gill).” The issue of abortion, whether it should be legal for a woman to terminate her pregnancy, highlights the question of who has rights and why do they have them. On one side of the debate, the argument states that a woman owns her own body, as well as right to create a life, and has the power to do what she pleases to it. Conversely, others believe that the growing fetus within the woman is not actually her property, and itself has the right to life and, morally, can not be aborted.
Sociologically, this debate specifically reveals to the American that “a wide gap exists between the language of the public debate and that of private decision making.

The language of private decision making reflects a moral standard used frequently by women yet virtually ignored in the public debate (Patterson).” The sociological imagination (also referred to as the sociological perspective) helps us realize how larger social normalities influence our individual lives. Also, the sociological imagination allows us to place our focus on the social context of a situation, to see how it shapes or influences our personal ideas, attitudes, even our emotions. The social context is experienced within intricate levels: broad and narrow. The broad social context in reference to the abortion debate includes historical events such as case studies in which laws were put in place and our courts overruled different approaches to the idea. Dating back to 1971, “Dr. Jarvis Thomason triggered decades of robust debate about abortion with a series of analogies, most famously including one involving an uninvited violinist requiring attachment to a host’s body for nine months to survive (McCurdy).” The narrow social context refers to race, ethnicity, gender, and social class. Specifically, this topic is narrowed down to a woman, but this woman can be of any gender, ethnicity, or social class. A subdivision of the abortion rights debate also asks if Planned Parenthood facilities (where abortion

procedures take place, as well as contraceptives are prescribed) should be defunded. What would defunding do to our women without health coverage or access to affordable health care? A common argument in favor of abortion is that the current population growth is unsustainable, and that this is contributing to environmental, social and economic problems. The implication is that if every pregnancy resulted in a birth, we would have even more people than we have presently. It is argued immensely the social and economic hardships overpopulation would put on America as a whole, especially if these children are born from lower class families who were unable to afford the procedure while pregnant.
A social problem such as abortion is characterised by two essential components.

The first is an objective condition, a condition of society that can be measured or experienced. With abortion, this objective condition includes whether abortions are legal, who obtains them, and under what circumstances they are performed (Ex: within a marriage, age, rape or not, etc). The second component is subjective concern, the concern that a significant number of people have about the objective condition. For abortion, subjective concern goes in two directions: Some people are concerned that some women give birth to unwanted children, while others are concerned that some women terminate the fetus’ growing within them. Before 1973, its objective conditions were based on abortion being illegal, especially the dangerous conditions in which most abortions took place because of the fact they were illegal. “The subjective concerns prior to 1973, people were not happy because women who wanted abortions could not get them and that women faced dangers from botched abortions (Henslin).” As a growing number of people became concerned for women’s health and safety being put at risk because they could not have legal abortions, America worked to change the

law.
Factually, “In the year 1974, the year after decriminalization, the maternal-mortality rate in New York State dropped 45 percent (Pollitt).” It is forgotten by many how under advanced our medicine was at the time of decriminalization and how many adult lives were saved by allowing termination of unwanted pregnancies. Marc Worrell, Author of Abortion - a Matter of Human Rights and Social Justice, points out the fact that induced abortion is one of the most commonly performed medical interventions in every country in the world. As such, the legalization prevented unnecessary harm and deaths for millions of women around the world. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention collected statistical data around this social debate and their findings were surprising. In an ongoing study between the years of 2005 and 2014, abortion rates had actually decreased by 9%, and in 2014 there were 186 aborted fetuses per 1,000 live births. Many who argue that abortions are commonly performed past 21 weeks gestation are statistically incorrect. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention also gathered in their 2005-2014 study that 91.5% of abortions were performed at less than thirteen weeks old, 7.2% were performed at 14-20 weeks, and 1.3% were performed after 21 weeks gestation.
Raquel lopez, Author of Perspectives on Abortion: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and What Lies in Between, discusses the impact of moral relativism in her journal entry. She states, “Some scholars defend relativism, stating that the lack of moral norms is based on the fact that individuals have dichotomous perspectives of values (Lopez).” Pro life advocated respond to her claim by stating because people do not agree on a matter and create a social conflict, that does not constitute a lack of truth to the matter. The heated debate surrounding the idea of whether or not an unborn fetus should be given full rights is an extremely moral subject. The two approaches of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life have very different ideals from one another. Pro-choice supporters believe that an unborn fetus lacks ability to reason and self-awareness. Pro-Life supporters argue this lack of ability to decide for themselves and self-awareness is compared to mentally handicapped adults, and the fact that there is no law favoring the termination of those humans. From a religious point of view, most Catholic and Christians believe all life is sacred, and abortion terminates their life, therefore they are against this procedure.
In conclusion, the social argument of whether or not abortion should be legal has a multitude of aspects to it, allowing for a widespread debate as we can see today. I believe this topic is especially important because I feel as if it is inhumane to bring children into this world unplanned and have them struggle in life. Whether they are born to broken families, homelessness, lack of resources and abuse, not every woman is fit to be a parent. Our foster care system is corrupt and overflowing with children in every single state of America as it is, enough is enough. The abortion debate will always be more complex than I can fathom, as I realized beginning my research. But what is considered deviant behavior is ever changing, just as teen pregnancy is much more accepted today than it has been in past times. Fifty years from now, birth control may be extremely difficult to afford with health care prices skyrocketing, and Plan B pills and/or abortion could be a woman’s only option. As social times and normalities change, our opinions change to mold what we are being taught by society.