Persuasive Essay On Abortion

“Abortion, it is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish” (Mother Teresa). “A sixteen-year-old girl named Jenny, from a rural North Carolina town, got pregnant by her high school boyfriend. She kept the news from her father who was a stern Baptist pastor. Jenny was raised with the conviction that abortion was murder and, knowing her father’s extreme condemnation of premarital sex, she couldn’t confess her pregnancy to him. Trapped by two unthinkable alternatives, she ignored the situation until it was too late and she secretly gave birth in her bedroom. She then panicked and felt that disposing of the baby was the only way to make her problem go away. She suffocated the baby by closing it in a plastic bag and

then putting it in a garbage can outside of a fast food restaurant. Shortly after, a restaurant worker discovered the dead infant and reported it to the police, who successfully traced it back to Jenny. Investigators considered that the baby might have died naturally before it was placed in the bag. They gave Jenny the benefit of the doubt without pushing the matter too far. She was not charged with a serious crime, and was only required to go to counseling.”
Unfortunate stories like this happens too often, and demonstrate how women of all ages are “imprisoned” by unwanted pregnancies with no easy solution for their crisis. “Abortion is an option, but it is a very controversial one and, in fact, probably the most contentious moral issue we have today” (Fieser, Abortion 2008). Women and teenagers should be given other options such as giving their unwanted child up for adoption.
Why is it that women have abortions? Seventy four percent say that having an unwanted baby would disturb their social life as well as their professional life. Seventy three percent say they cannot afford to care for a child. Forty eight percent say they do not want to be a single parent, or deal with problems with their partner. Less than two percent say that they became pregnant from rape or incest (United States abortion statistics). Each year, 1.7% of women from the age of fifteen to forty-four have an abortion. Half have had at least one previous abortion. At least half of the American women will have an unwanted pregnancy by forty-five, and for 2008 abortion rates, one in ten women had an abortion by the age of twenty, one in four by the age of thirty, and three in ten by the age of forty-five. The latest statistics of abortion is 56, 405, 766 from 1973 to 2013 (Reported abortions in the United States, by year). “Women want and deserve their equal right, especially to their own body” (Aspen Baker founder and Executive Director, Exhale Huff Post Politics).
”In the history of the United States, abortion was practiced until about 1880’s. In most states this practice was illegal, unless it was to save the life of the women” (Obos Abortion contributors). Looking back in history, families were big in number. Couples were having up to seventeen children. These children helped their parents work the land and became farmers and agricultures. In that time, there was an anti- abortion legislation, but this became a backlash against the movement on suffrage and birth control because they wanted to keep the tradition of getting women bare-foot and pregnant.
“This legislation was also a way for the medical profession to tighten its control over women’s health care, as midwives who performed abortions were a threat to the male medical establishment. Finally, with the declining birthrate among whites in the late 1800s, the U.S. government and the eugenics movement were concerned about “race suicide” and wanted white U.S.-born women to reproduce.” Whether women were able to have an abortion depended on her economic status. Women with money would travel to other states where no one knew them, have the abortion, and return home without saying a word about it. On the other hand, women who were poor turned to “home remedies”. Midwives, or incompetent practitioners, putting their health at risk. Poor women as well as women of color who couldn’t afford the treatment (medical insurance was not available) went through drastic measures to abort the unwanted pregnancy. “These procedures included, inserting knitting needles or coat hangers into the vagina and uterus, douching with dangerous solutions such as lye, or swallowing strong drugs or chemicals.
Women were subject to desperation and shame.” “Many women were bold enough to go through such horrible procedures. But the end results lead them to seek the very thing they were unable to afford… clinical care. Women were faced with health complications such as botched, infections due to the use of unsanitary tools many died, or were left infertile or with chronic illness and pain” (Obos Abortion contributors). Previous to Roe vs. Wade, which granted women the constitutional right to terminate their pregnancies, the state legislatures and governors found numerous of limitations in ways they can control abortion rates. In US history, abortion was illegal.
Many state laws which were legislated in the nineteen and twentieth century mainly pursued professionals who practiced abortion, rather than the pregnant women who wanted to terminate their pregnancy.

The purpose of these laws was to protect the life of the woman and the fetus. The intentions were not to prosecute the women (Pew Research Center). Meanwhile this issue was going on in the early twentieth century, social forces such as women’s suffrage and the feminist movement moved forward the country towards political and sexual freedom for all women. For example, in the year 1967 the state of Colorado was the first to extend the conditions in which a women was able to legally receive an abortion. Another example would be in the year 1970, when eleven other states made comparable adjustments to their abortion laws.

Four other states had legalized abortion when pregnancy is at an early state. These states were, New York, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska. Simultaneously, abortion rights advocates initiated a series of court disagreements disputing that the laws were unclear, or that they went against the right to privacy or equal protection under the law guaranteed under the United States Constitution. The State and Federal Courts rejected the

arguments.
But why did abortion became a serious issue in society today? We already know that in the history of the Unites States, including other countries, this was illegal. But with time comes change, and with change comes acceptance. In today’s society, it is evident how slowly but surely there has been a decline in Christian values. More people are drifting further apart from biblical morality and are embracing a more liberal free choice kind of lifestyle. Before, it was said that abstinence was the best way to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. In the present time, women of all ages are given options when faced with an unwanted pregnancy due to unprotected sex, promiscuity, or rape and incest.
In the United States, protests are made against this issue and there are organizations such as Prolife Movement which are highly motivated by the multitude of abortion practiced in the states. Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 with the case of Roe vs. Wade 1.5 million abortions have been done each year. Another example would be Britain, were six million pregnancies were terminated since 1967 when it was legalized. In China, abortion was legalized in 1957… more than one hundred million abortions have been performed in the last four decades. Around the world, it is estimated that between forty and fifty million abortions occur annually (The Abortion Debate, Kulczycki, p. 5). This means that about one in every four pregnancies are ended by induced abortion—poisoned, dismembered or suctioned out and discarded. “In Germany, during World War II, Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement killed an estimated six million Jews in what has become known as the Holocaust. After the war, those responsible for this barbaric act of cruelty were tried and convicted of crimes against humanity, and a morally outraged world saw them hanged for their crimes. Today, however, tens of millions of unborn babies die every year—many in the very same nations that sat in judgment at Nuremburg” (Winnail, Abortion the modern Holocaust). It is interesting to say that it is no wonder why some people call the world wide massive act of abortion, the modern holocaust. The staggering amount of unborn babies killed, due to the legal and social acceptance of abortion has exceeded the numbers killed in Germany under the Nazis, in Russia under Stalin…and so on (Winnail).
There have been major turning points on the issue of abortion. In 2008, a notable political shift occurred during this election year. It all began in early June when Senator Barack Obama organized a meeting with conservative leaders to address social issues such as abortion and gay rights. “Steve Strang, founder of Charisma Magazine, came out of the meeting saying he found Obama to be "more centrist than expected." Catholic "pro-life" leader and former Reagan adviser Doug Kmiec, who had already given an endorsement of sorts for Obama in February, was at the meeting as well and less than a week later wrote in Chicago Tribune that “disagreement or not, it is abundantly clear from our conversation that Obama shares a common aspiration to reduce the incidence of abortion.”
Let’s see an overview on abortion under President Obama’s administration. Federal funding for abortion is banned, “abortion will not be covered in the pre – existing condition Insurance Plan, except in the case of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is endangered” (President Barack Obama). Obama is a strong supporter for adoption. Not only is Obama committed to protecting this constitutional right, but he is also in favor of policies, initiatives, and programs which help prevent unwanted pregnancies, give young women the support they need, while establishing healthy relationships and promote adoption. One issue President Obama does not agree with, is parent notification. He believes that before a young women considers getting an abortion, she should consult with their parents. But, he realizes that not all young women can turn to their parents in times of trouble. For these reasons, he suggest they seek the guidance and support of a trustworthy adult. Lastly, Obama is supportive of embryonic stem cell research. He sighed the Executive Order 13505, removing barriers to responsible scientific research involving human stem cell on March 9, 2009.
You might come across an issue in which you might want to rethink what you stand for. In recent news, a terrible case has torn apart the South American country known as Paraguay. A mother of a ten year old girl took her daughter to the nearest emergency room with what seemed to be abdominal pain. After the doctor had performed a physical exam, he regretted to inform the parent, that her child was twenty two weeks pregnant. The parent immediately blamed her husband (the child’s stepfather) as the predator who raped her child. The step father who goes by the name of Gilberto Benitez age forty two, went into hiding as Paraguayan authorities initiated a manhunt. While all this is happening, the child’s parent demands an abortion to be practiced on her daughter. But Paraguay, a devoutly Catholic country, allows abortion only in cases where the mother's life is at risk. Which in this case it is, when the answer was no, a fierce public debate began in social media using hashtag #NiñaEnPeligro (girl in danger).
The issue was brought to the attention of Amnesty International (advocate for social injustice). They called for the government to intervene on behalf of the child and allow her to terminate her unwanted pregnancy on grounds that… “The physical and psychological impact of forcing this young girl to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is tantamount to torture,” said Amnesty International's Guadalupe Marengo in news release. “The Paraguayan authorities cannot sit idly by while this young rape-survivor is forced to endure more agony and torment.” But the plea fell in deaf ears. Paraguayan Health Minister Antonio Barrios insisted that the girl was in good health and that a late-term abortion would be risky. “The pregnancy will not be interrupted,” he said. “We've already completely ruled out abortion.” It is evident that the country is torn apart.
The community (society) says that the child needs an abortion, she cannot physically go through a full term pregnancy. The government says, young girls like her go through this every day. With the proper medical care and supervision, she will be fine. Sadly to say, almost seven hundred girls between ten and fourteen years old gave birth in 2014 in Paraguay. A country of 6.8 million people. Twenty-eight minors died last year in Paraguay due to complications from childbirth, Vice News reported. Meanwhile, fourteen underage mothers died due to failed abortions, also according to Vice News. In one last twist, the child’s mother was incarcerated for enabling her daughter’s abuse. The pregnant child was warred to the state. “The Justice Department will determine later who will have custody of the mother and child” after the birth, Mr. Barrios said (Miller, The horrific child abuse case that is tearing Paraguay apart).
On a theoretic point of view Christian realism, it states that “Christian ethics begin with love. Love is a natural requirement for humans” (Bauer, Justice in a Pluralistic Society 121). Self-sacrificial love requires a selfless identification with the needs of others. “It is characterized by disinterestedness, lack of self-interest, and a concern only for the life and well being of the other” (Bauer 122). The number of couples experiencing infertility in America are staggering. The number of women ages fifteen through forty four with impaired fecundity (impaired ability to get pregnant or carry a baby to term) 6.7 million. The percent of women ages fifteen through forty four with impaired fecundity: 10.9 percent. The number of married women ages fifteen through forty four that are infertile (unable to get pregnant after at least 12 consecutive months of unprotected sex with husband) 1.5 million. The percent of married women ages fifteen through forty four that are infertile: 6.0 percent. And finally, the number of women ages fifteen through forty four who have ever used infertility services: 7.4 million (Key Statistics from the National Survey of Family Growth, data are from 2006- 2010). If young women who are faced with an unwanted pregnancy looked at their predicament with an unselfish perspective, abortion rates in a whole would decrease. A child no matter in what manner it was conceived, should be given the opportunity to live a long healthy life. Women tend to forget that an unborn child (although they tend to call it a fetus) carries half of her chromosomes (twenty three to be exact) in other words, the child is part of her. If they learn to love the better half of their baby, if they only took the time to self-sacrifice themselves for the good of others ( first including the baby), they might give their child the opportunity to live and make an infertile couples dream of having a family come true.