Definition Essay On Abortion

The technical definition of abortion is “the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often within the first seven months”, according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abortion In 1973, abortion became legal. Women typically get an abortion when their pregnancy is unplanned. For example, if they get raped and become pregnant, they usually feel like aborting the baby is the right thing to do because they believe the baby was not supposed to be born since the mother did not plan it.

There are at least six different ways of aborting a baby. These methods are used in the United States. They are called RU-486, Suction Aspiration, Dilation and Curettage, Dilation and Evacuation and Prostaglandin.

According to, http://www.justfacts.com/abortion.asp The average term of a full pregnancy is 38 weeks. Fertilization usually takes place within the first day of intercourse but can also take place

6 days after. At this time the baby is called an embryo. Within 3 weeks, the eyes and spinal cord are present, you are able to see them and the brain is developing. Within 4 weeks, the heart is beating, the brain is developed and the internal organs such as lungs have begun forming. Muscles and nerves begin working together within 7 weeks of the pregnancy. Within 9 weeks, the baby is almost completely formed. It looks like a tiny baby at this point. It is now considered a fetus. After 10 weeks from fertilization, the spinal cord is completely formed. The heart pumps blood to every part of the body. The whole body is sensitive to touch, except for a small portion of the head. At this age, they can even make facial expressions. At 12 weeks, electrical systems from the nervous system are measurable. After a baby has been aborted at this age, they are noticed trying to suckle. At 16 weeks, the baby starts moving his eyes around. At 18 weeks, the brain has the same amount of nerve cells as a human adult. The brain is fully developed. At 20 weeks, the preborn human sleeps, awakes and hears sounds. Taste buds and blinking are noticeable at 24 weeks. At 28 weeks, they can cry. The average baby is born at 38 weeks.

Abortions can be done in a hospital or a licensed abortion clinic.

For unmarried women, there is 510 abortions per 1,000 births and for every married woman there is 61 abortions to 1,000. Overall, that means per 2,000 births, 571 of them will be aborted. And on the average, there are at least 3 common reasons for why women say they want to get an abortion. One; It would interfere with school and work. Two; they say that they can not afford it at this time. Half of the women who get it done, say they don’t want to be a single parent, or they’re not in a good spot with their husband/boyfriend right now. Some options instead of abortion would be adoption or keeping it.

There are two different types of abortions. Medical abortion and surgical abortion. Medical abortion means you take pills that will slowly end the baby’s life. It can take anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks. This procedure will only work if you are under 10 weeks pregnant. Surgical abortion means the doctor will operate on you surgically. He/she will empty out your uterus and everything inside of

it.

Almost half of all pregnancies (49%) are unplanned and half of those result in abortion. 35% of women will have an abortion by the time they’re 45. Ages 20-24 have the most abortions performed. 14% of girls 15-19 have their babies aborted. 24% of women 25-29 have abortions. There were 1.005 million pregnancies this year and 3.96 million live births. That means 20.3% of all pregnancies in the United States alone result in abortion.

According to http://www.whyprolife.com/abortion-facts/, 0.3% abortions are performed because the woman was raped. 0.03% were because of incest and 0.2% were to protect the mother. That means that out of 1,000 women who had an abortion, 3 were because of rape and two to protect the mother’s life. Out of 10,000 women, 3 are because of incest. Overall, twenty one percent of pregnancies end in abortion.