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Abortion legal and ethical issues
Abortion legal and ethical issues
Critically examine the causes and effects of abortion among young girls
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No Wire Hangers!
Years ago I remember stories of girls with unwanted pregnancies going to a rear 'back-alley” apartment located in the Voyageur Bus Station in my small town for abortions. I am sure some of the tales were fabricated on hearsay, some might have had some merit, but the word coat hanger kept popping up in conversations. Once in awhile I would walk by that building and wonder what really went on in there and feeling every sad for girls that had no choice. In 1963, my mother's friend told us the only patients that got dialysis were septic abortion 'survivors'.
In 1968-69 the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 introduced by Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government, legalized abortion in Canada as long as a committee of doctors signed off that it was necessary for the physical or mental well-being of the mother. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R. v. Morgentaler that the existing laws were unconstitutional and struck down the 1969 law. Abortions in Canada are provided on request and funded by Medicare, to Canadian citizens and permanent residents (as with most medical procedures) in hospitals across the country. While the Canada Health Act has been interpreted by the federal government as requiring provinces to fund abortion clinics fully, Nova Scotia provides only limited funding, and New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island provide no funding for clinics. (Wikipedia)
Could I have made a personal choice to have an abortion? Probably not, but I believe each woman should have control over her own body and make their own decisions. Since 2010 at least 54 abortion providers in 27 American states have closed or stopped performing the procedures. Another 16 closed in Texas after lawmakers passed some of the tough...
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...al diabetes, etc. She is the one that quite literally could be putting her own life on the line. And please stop repeating the ridiculous idea that women are using abortions for mere birth control. No one would prefer an expensive, invasive medical procedure over using birth control.
This is an issue that doesn't only affect women and it's up to all of the American people. In the 50's there was way too many criminal abortions on teenage girls, many of whom developed sepsis and renal failure, and died for lack of human medical care. It took many years to improve this wrong, and now narrow-minded and frankly ignorant self-serving politicians are taking us back down that primrose path. This is not how cogent, civilized, and humane people work and it must stop. Personally I think it's only a matter of time before the state of Texas outlaws the sales of coat hangers.
Abortion is a national issue, but in Canada they handle things differently. Although abortion is legal in Canada, there are so many barriers that can restrict the access to women having abortions.
Abortion, which is defined as a deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, is one of the most controversial issues in society. Many people believe that abortion is unethical and morally wrong, while others believe that it is a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body. According to www.census.gov, “the number of abortions performed annually in the U.S. has leveled off at 1.2 million a year” (1). This statistic supports how many women are choosing abortion. Although abortion is legal in the United States, many people continue to voice their opinions on how it is a human rights violation and should be illegal everywhere.
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.”
Even back in 1892 when Canada was much more conservative and Christian compared to today, there was many reports of women seeking abortions and upset due to the first Canadian Criminal Code that prohibits abortion and the sales, distribution and advertising of contraceptives. However this made sense due to Christian values. As Canada progressed and its culture changed, this law was considered outdated and was changed in 1969, contraceptives were allowed but abortions could only be performed under special circumstances. Many Canadians, particularly women and feminists disagreed with this law and believed it should be their own decision, not someone else and so many protests, petitions and illegal abortion clinics began, particularly by Dr. Henry Morgentaler. In the 1980’s most Canadians were pro-choice as a Gallup poll showed that 72% of Canadians believed that an abortion decision should only be decided by the pregnant woman and her doctor. By 1988, as previously mentioned, the law was abolished and all abortion restrictions removed. Now, there is talks of a law again yet Canadians have very mixed views on abortion whereas before 72% of Canadians wanted a change. The country must educate themselves more before a change is made to avoid the unrest it had before 1988. Many believe there should be restrictions to limit abortions in Canada yet compared to other democratic countries with abortion restrictions like Australia, France, Sweden, the United Kingdom, excluding Ireland, and the United States have higher abortion rates per 1000 women between 15-44 years old than Canada according to Maclean's. Canada has had much more issues when abortion laws than it has had without them. There isn’t a clear majority supporting a specific change like last time and the restrictions aren’t needed anyways as there are no problems. Canada does not need abortion
Numerous people are uninformed about how unhealthy pregnancies are on women. There are an overabundance of health risks for pregnancies, including high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney problems, autoimmune disorders, infections, diabetes, cancer, and as well as miscarriages. These health risks can cause permanent damage to the mother. World Health Organization reports that “Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth.” All of these deaths could have been prevented. If abortion is made illegal, then these women have no choice. They either risk dying, risk their child dying, or both. A person might not often hear much about women dying during pregnancy, but it happens often. Nearly 287,000 women died because of childbirth, according to World Health Or...
Being a mother is a lifelong job that requires copious time, energy, and money. There are myriad different reasons in which a woman would consider getting an abortion. The decision is often tragic and painful for the mother. It is one of the biggest choices a woman will make. Many people have strong beliefs about abortion, and if a mother makes a decision that they do not agree with they sometimes turn against the mother, and enkindle egregious feelings about their decision for the rest of their life. Indeed a woman may not get an abortion for selfish reasons or out of convenience, but out of a desire to protect certain important values such as her own health or a decent standard of living for the other members of the family. Additional intentions for having abortion include rape, financial difficulties, obligation by family members, or danger to the baby’s health (Roleff
Many people have their own opinions on abortion, that a fetus is a human being with a right to live so abortion is similar to murder. While other groups argue that a woman has certain rights, especially the choice whether to bring another life into the world. The groups that are for it think that abortion gives women the control over their own bodies, which it is their choice when and whether to have children or giving an option to choose to bring or not to bring a child with abnormalities to the world. Some children are born with severe disorders and some parents, being unable to care for their disabled child seek abortion as their one and only option because taking care of a child, especially born with abnormalities is tough work to do as a parent, so they decide whether bring a life into the world. They look ahead on what is best for them, and it is selfish. Or even having in mind that some do not want to become a single parent taking up two roles; a mother and father and they feel like every child should come into the world feeling wanted, loved and cared for. Another reason some women have an abortion is because they do not want to stop work or schooling, and these reasons are consistent across many countries, including America. Other reasons are because of societal pressures, women get little to no social support. But
In 1973 the Supreme Court was presented with Roe v. Wade. The ruling on this case caused an addition to be made to the the 14th Amendment, extending the right to a woman’s decision to have an abortion. Abortions can currently be done legally, yet out of the 44 million abortions done each year, half are done unsafely. Regardless of this statistic, many religious beliefs oppose the idea and condemn an individual who decides to have one. However, while many people believe abortion is an act of murder, abortion should remain legal because a large percentage of the female population will always need this option available for reasons such as a lack of income, family support, or medical issues.
...oing on. We need some one to step up and make the issue known to all Americans. Most are too afraid to talk about this due to the fact that they don’t want to be looked upon badly for talking about an issue that is usually a “hush-hush” topic. So I encourage you to please stand up and say what you think, feel, and believe towards this issue and help us all fight to stop abortions in America before it becomes a tragic epidemic like teen pregnancies.
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.
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)
Our Nation was built on the ideas of freedom and independence. With that concept, I believe that our government needs to trust that women have the capability to choose what is best for their future. Our society should respect women’s independence and grant them the freedom to decide what is right. This issue is important to me because history has shown that restricting abortions, not only undermines women, but can also be very dangerous.
Women should have the right to decide whether or not they would like to have an abortion. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines abortion as; “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” The idea of a woman’s right to have an abortion being taken away is merely incomprehensible.
Abortion is an extremely controversial issue and one that is continually on the forefront of debates. Those who oppose the idea (Pro-lifers), thinks it is an act of woman playing “God” who live from who dies. Yet, whether an unborn baby constitutes a normal person is questionable; a pregnant woman, on the other hand, has the undeniable right to choose whether she wants to have a child or not. Therefore, the decision to have an abortion is the personal choice and responsibility of the woman, because prohibiting abortion impedes freedom of choice and endangers the physical and mental health of women.