Ever since the women’s rights act started, around the 1960’s, things such as abortion have become a much debated topic. For over 40 years on the most debated and argues about topic in women’s rights, is abortion. According to Oxford Dictionaries, the definition of “abortion” is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. There are two different types of abortion, Spontaneous abortion and induced abortion. A spontaneous abortion is usually a miscarriage; a spontaneous abortion is one that was not on purpose. Lots of natural affects can cause a miscarriage. The top 5 leading causes of miscarriage include, Hormonal Problems, the Lifestyle of the mother, Implantation of the egg, Maternal age, and Maternal trauma (Miscarriage: Signs, Symptoms, …show more content…
treatment and prevention).
The “lifestyle of the mother” category of miscarriage is a topic that is debated in the spontaneous abortion category. Lifestyle miscarriage is caused when the fetus is exposed to smoking, drug use, malnutrition, and other toxic materials. The other form of abortion, induced abortion, is an abortion that is wanted. The way induced abortion works is by removing the fetus from the womb. The two most common forms of induced abortion are a surgical procedure or through a form of medication. One of the first few legalizations happen in 1967, when Colorado legalized abortion in cases of rape, incest, or physical or mental disability in the child or mother. Then in 1969 the California Court found that under the California Constitution, that woman could choose to have an abortion. The final act was in in 1973 in the Supreme Court case of Roe V. Wade. The Supreme Court proclaimed that the 14th Amendment gave women the decision to have an abortion (Findlaw). In this essay I will show the two sides of abortion, the one side that is for abortion, and the side that is against …show more content…
it. Pro-Choice activists believe the women have the overall call to what happens in their body, and if they want it to happen or not.
The first movement for women’s rights was in the 1920’s, when women got the right to vote. That was the first spark in the women’s rights movements. The next movement in women’s rights happened in the 1960’s after WWII. From 1970-1987 pregnancy in America rose 500%. (Mathewes-Green) Women’s rights activist fought for the right of women to be able to make their own choice in pregnancy. In 1821 Connecticut became the first state by law to criminalize abortion. In the early 1900’s abortion in most states was still considered a felony. “By the 1960s, public health officials, medical professionals, and women's advocates were raising awareness of the consequences of illegal abortions, which could result in permanent injury to the woman or even death” (State Abortion Laws). In 1973 the Supreme Court affirmed a woman the right to abortion in the case of Roe vs. Wade. What happened in that case was not just the legalization of abortion, but also a whole new debate started that is still debated till today. Women wanted the right to able to seek and be provided the right to abortion. In cases where rape, incest, and mental illness are in play, women wanted a voice
(Findlaw). A former Rep. Todd Akin started a huge controversy by stating “it is unnecessary to allow rape victims to get abortions because pregnancy rarely occurs from it.” Or a statement by Indiana Senate Richard Mourdock who said “makes an expectation for abortions in the case of rape because pregnancies are something that God intended to happen.” (Press, 2012) These words from a member of the government we follow really sparked the women. Women were angered and wanted a change in what was happening. In the 2012 election the main points for the women’s health issue were reproductive rights. Women’s rights activist believe it is the woman’s decision if she wants the pregnancy or not. The activist says, if a woman wants an abortion and it is illegal to do so, they will still go through with their plans and do it in an illegal and unsafe manner (Abortion.” Issues & Controversies). Throughout the 20th century, many young women became pregnant without planning it. According to Lisa B Haddad a MD, many women were not given any legal rights to what they wanted to do, so they decided to do illegal and very unsafe procedures underground. This led to many females either being killed by the procedure, or left with irreversible medical problems (Haddad, 2009). Woman’s rights and people who are urging the legalization of abortion are all for “pro-choice”, while all activists against it are considered “pro-life.” Pro-life activist believe in the opposition of abortion and euthanasia. The majority of the people, who are pro-life, are under that category because of religion. According to tfpstudentaction.org, the first reason under the “Abortion is Evil & Not a Pro-choice” article, to why abortion is bad is because “Abortion offends God.” The people who support this claim, main points revolve around the area of God and how it’s not in God’s vision (TFP Student Action). People never stop to think, if the women does not believe in a God, why should she take on what others say about a God, and have to make her decision upon that? Pro-life activists also believe the act of abortion should be considered as murder. Since the act of abortion is terminating a possible human, they believe this is a form of early murder. Pro-life activist also has another claim Women’s rights V. Human right. Human rights are the rights all humans deserve upon being born, while woman’s right is talking specifically about women. They believe that human rights should apply to babies also, even in the fetal position. So when a mother decided to abort her un-born baby, should the baby have been given a right in his or her life? Activist for Pro-choice argue by saying, almost all abortions happen in the early stages of pregnancy, they also say human rights are given to humans at birth, not in conception. A form of abortion is an injection into the mother’s womb with a saline. Saline is a toxic solution that once in the womb, strips the baby’s skin, burns the lungs, and then blinds the child. The solution, then cuts the oxygen to the baby off, and suffocates the baby until death; this process can take a few days. Gianna Jessen, is a lady who survived saline injection chosen by her biological mother. Gianna was 7 months in her biological mother’s womb, when her mother was advised to do an abortion. Gianna survived the horrific cruelty and now is a woman’s activist against abortion, and specifically for human rights. Gianna was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Gianna’s main point in her speech to congress was “If abortion is about woman’s rights, then what are mine?” (Ehrenman) Gianna’s story tells us that not only are woman the ones who are fighting for rights, the children in the body also want rights, rights that they can’t express. Pro-life activist advises people who are considering abortion to instead, go through the adoption process (James D. Torr). Other options instead of abortion include Foster care, which is placing the child in the support of others, this is sort of like adoption but this process can be a temporary action or a permanent. Adoption is the safest and most recommended option; this is giving up the child completely. There are many agencies and other adoption services available for anyone and everyone. Pro-life V. Pro-choice is a debate that will not be resolved. Pro-life activist will stick with their beliefs of god and human rights, while pro-choice activist will stick with the facts that all women should have the choice in whether they want the child or not. There are steps that can make both sides happy. One step that can make both sides happy is, Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is planning on wanting a child or not, and following steps according to your decision. If you don’t want the child things such as a safe sex, birth control, and other things can be taken place. If you do want to have a child, things such as Planned Parenthood and other precautions will be needed. When a man and woman sit down and talk about a child and if it’s the right time to have a child, then both the pro-choice and pro-life can be happy. The ongoing debate about this will never end, but choosing a side to support is what people can do for now.
Before abortions became legal, women felt the need to turn to someone for an abortion that was not sanitary or performed the correct way, many either died or left extremely ill. One specific woman felt the need to bring to everyone’s attention, that she should have the right to abort her baby if she wanted to. She fought for her right and many stood behind her and supported her. The case Roe v. Wade legalized abortions in 1973. Norma McCorvey, known as Jane Roe, fought for women’s rights against the state of Texas on two different occasions. Roe v. Wade made a huge impact to women around the country, by legalizing safe and reliable abortions.
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. The debate on abortion continues to be a controversial problem in society and has been around for many decades. According to John Lewis, “In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820’s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy” (1). This indicates that the abortion controversy has been debated far back in American history. Beginning in the 1900’s, legalized abortion became a major controversy.
Abortions have been performed for thousands of years. In the 1800s abortions began to be outlawed. The reasons for anti-abortion laws varied for each state. Some people did not want the world to be dominated by newly arrived immigrants. Abortion in the 1800s were very unsafe due to the fact that the doctors had a limited educations and hospitals were not common. The outlawing of abortions from 1880 to 1973 led to many woman attempting illgeal abortions. (add author). Almost two hundred women died from attempting illegal abortions in 1965. Between two hundred thousand and one million illegal abortions were given each year. In states where local laws restrict the availability of abortion, women tend to have the lowest level of education and income. Additionally, in those states, less money goes toawrds education, welfare, fostercare programs, and adoption services. (Anderson, 5).
There are people who have conditioned their minds to think that women should not be allowed to have abortions if they were not raped or a result of incest, which I strongly disagree with that type of thinking. However, it is the law of the land, it is a women’s right to choose and she has to live with the psychological effects of her choice. Contrary to common beliefs, abortion has been a hot topic 200 years prior to 1972 Roe vs Wade. According to an article by Brian Young, “Life before Roe”, “the first US law against abortion, adopted by Connecticut in 1821, criminalized the administration of poison or of any "destructive substance" to induce a miscarriage. In 1840, however, Maine became the first state to pass a law that expressly protected all babies.”
As one knows, some unwanted pregnancies could often be harmful and distressing for a woman. Women should have the right over their body to choose to sustain the fetus or not. In the past decades, women did not have their freedom of abortion in many countries of the world. There have always been controversies going on about abortion. Each individual has dissimilar views on the legality of abortion. Some people are against abortion for personal religious purposes and beliefs. For those who don’t believe in abortion, it is because they see it as killing a fetus, which is a human being. Others support abortion because they believe in women’s rights. Laws of abortion vary in each country, and abortion is not legal all over the world. It is illegal under any conditions but only permitted to save woman’s life if in countries such as Brazil, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, and Ireland. However, abortion is legal without any restrictions in countries like Canada, Albania, and Italy. It the past decades Abortion was considered as criminal act in Canada. “If an abortion was carried out without such approval, the woman was liable for imprisonment for 2 years, an...
No other element of the Women’s Rights Movement has generated as much controversy as the debate over reproductive rights. As the movement gained momentum so did the demand for birth control, sex education, family planning and the repeal of all abortion laws. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision which declared abortion "fundamental right.” The ruling recognized the right of the individual “to be free from unwanted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” (US Supreme Court, 1973) This federal-level ruling took effect, legalizing abortion for all women nationwide.
Abortion is defined as the premature expulsion of a fetus so that it does not live. Abortions can happen as a result of natural occurrences, but the interest of this paper is abortion that is induced. Abortion has been the topic of heated debates in many places. Nicole Miller went through an abortion at the age of 18, now 20 and is attempting to talk about the experance that it put her through. The government has had long difficult battles over the aspects of abortion. Legal cases have set benchmarks that are somewhat vulnerable. The church has had to analyze doctrines to decide whether abortion is right or wrong. There has also been violence in the way of abortion clinic bombings, assassinations, and political protest.
Abortion cannot be discussed unless you know the origin of the debate. In December 13, 1971, the argument of abortion surfaced (“Roe v. wade,”). The class action suit was brought by a pregnant single woman who challenged the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which proscribe or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother’s life (“Roe v. wade,”). Proceeding Roe v. Wade, abortion was illegal in almost every State. In 1973, the courts ruled and abortion became legal again.
In the early 1960’s, inspired by the antiwar and civil rights movements, women began to fight earnestly for their rights. They took on the taboo subject of abortion, began to tell personal stories to other women about their experiences, rallied, and marched for pro-choice. With the help from civil liberty groups, reform came gradually. A few states legalized abortion but the cost was still high, and with very few allowances, little to no women benefited. The struggle continued.
In the second part of the twentieth century, women’s rights once again gained a lot of momentum. The women’s liberation movement was born out of women civil right activists who were tired of waiting for legislative change for women’s rights. Even though women are being recognized more in society, they still face difficult issues. Sexism –especially in the workforce –is becoming a major issue, birth control pills are still not popular, and abortions are frowned upon in society. The case Roe v. Wade is about a woman with the fake name of Jane Roe who wanted an abortion but the state of Texas would not let her unless her life was in danger. She sued the district attorney of Dallas County saying that it violated the right to privacy under the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Usually, some arguments for being against abortions are because it is like killing a life, religious reasons, and less chance of future pregnancies. Some arguments that approve abortion are the rights of privacy and the mother to make her own decision. I decided to pick the landmark case Roe v. Wade because there are many ways to argue for and against abortions, so I wanted to give it an overarching view before I personally pick a side. Roe v. Wade is a significant case because it shows how rights in the Constitution do not have to be explicitly mentioned for it to implement and the change in abortion laws that affect women.
Over the course 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 regard to her reproductive rights.
Abortion has been an issue since 1820. In the beginning the problem was more about protecting doctors who have licenses. “Regular doctors thus had an incentive to ban abortion as part of an effort to drive irregular doctors many of whom were women out of business” (Straggenborg, p.211). The AMA (American Medical Association), which was the group that the regular doctors made, started a campaign that made the people believe that the white population was getting smaller and the population of the immigrants was rising. Abortions were made illegal to insure the stability of the population of American citizens. It seems odd that the only reason that abortions were made illegal at one point was because of money issues and a lust for white supremecy. It seemed to have nothing to do with the rights of a child or a woman. One of the reasons why abortion came into question in the beginning of the 1950s was due to the fact that a lot of doctors and lawyers were seeing many cases of illegal abortions and it was becoming a large social problem. Since there was a lack of competition for legal abortions, doctors found no problem making them legal again -- “They felt that abortions were justified under certain circumstances, and they begun to see the laws against abortion as an infringement on their own medical discretion” (Straggenborg, p.212). And so the issue arose again with many pro- choice groups speaking up. Then with court cases like Griswold v. Connecticut and Roe v. Wade, abortion again became legal in the United States.
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.
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by destruction of a fertilized egg, embryo or fetus before birth, prior to the time when the fetus attains viability, or capacity for life outside the uterus (Encyclopedia, 1995, p.43). Currently almost twenty-five percent of pregnancies in the United States are aborted. About one forth of people who abort are teenagers, fifty-seven percent are younger than 25, and almost eighty percent are unmarried. During the first trimester is when most of the abortions take place. Only about ten percent are performed later in the pregnancy (Slife, 1998, p.329). Abortions go back as far as Ancient Greece where it was used as a type of population control. Then in the Roman Times men had total control over the procedure. “Man could give law-enforced command that his wife have an abortion, or he could punish or divorce his wife for having one without his consent” (Encyclopedia, 1995, p.43).
Abortions have always been a very controversial topic. Over the years we continue to fight for or against it. One can say that is one of the most talked and argued topic in the United States. An abortion is when a woman terminates her pregnancy before the fetus is viable using various of methods. Some argue that abortions should be illegal and considered murder, while others, from a religious point of view, say that no one has the right to take away the life of a person, in this case the fetus. However, others insist, that abortions are a basic women’s right.