The history of abortion is almost like a game of tug-roar. Decisions on it were never clearly made, there were loopholes at times during different abortion acts, and whether legal or illegal it was never difficult for a woman to get an abortion. Going back to 1861, the Offenses Against the Person Act made it illegal to supply or use any “poison or other noxious thing” or to use “any instrument or other means” to cause a woman to miscarry. It outlawed abortion by either the woman or any other person such as a doctor, nurse, midwife or pharmacist. Carrying on to 1938 Dir.
Bourne would illegally perform an abortion on a 14 year old girl who was raped by a soldier. He went on to turn himself in but when he went to trial he argued that, “If this girl were to go through with this birth she would have been a mental wreck for the rest of her life. ” As it turns out he would not be charged for performing the abortion, because of this many new abortion cases would be allowed as long as the doctor believed the child would cause any kind of pain or danger to the mother. This was a major loophole in the system and would soon get out of hand.
In 1966, David Steel IMP introduced the bill into parliament that became the 1967 Abortion Act. The Abortion Act would require two signatures from any such doctors and as long as they agreed to the following; Continuing on with the pregnancy would create bad health issues or mental problems for the mother and/or her family then if the baby was born. The other factor being that there was a risk the child would be born with a disability. Even though abortions would now be allowed, officials would not allow a baby 34 weeks in to be aborted.
In 1929 the Infant Life Preservation Act would mean that no baby unborn could be killed who was capable Of being of being born alive. Instead of months now, weeks are how we measure the length of births, so after 28 weeks, under no circumstances is an abortion to take place. Now we shift forward to 1990 where both the Human Fertilization and Embryology Acts would add more drama to abortions. Between these two acts a child with any sort of disability could now be aborted up until birth. Since then, doctors have diagnosed unborn children with Spinal Biffed and Cleft Palates as major disabilities, which would allow for a late-term abortion.
To conclude with the history of abortion there are two powerful statistics that should be addressed. First being that 4 out of 1 0 unintended pregnancies (which is more often then you think) perform abortions. Second being that approximately 1. 2 million abortions take places in America each year. It is no wonder why abortion is such a crazy topic. As said before there is a huge debate whether or not abortions should be legal or illegal. Many have made their list of the great things about abortion and others have made a list of the terrible things about abortion.
First let’s kook at the pros of abortion. “Reproductive choice empowers women by giving them control over their own Many doctors believe that if a woman has total control over her reproductive life, it will empower her in her economic and social life as well. “Person hood begins after a fetus becomes “viable” (able to survive outside the womb) or after birth, not at conception. “(l) People like to make the statement that fetus and embryos cannot live independent, therefore when a mother has an abortion it is a stopped pregnancy not a killing a baby.
It is also very a popular argument hen people come out with, well technically the American Census does not record those 9 months as part of our actual age thus meaning that those fetus are not”accounted” for yet. The last pro that came across was, “Abortion gives pregnant women the option to choose not to bring fetus with profound abnormalities to full Especially with today’s amazing technology, most doctors can tell you everything about your baby in the first month or so.
Which gives the mother more time to see her options. These are just a fraction of pros that chose to believe in about abortion. Where one side believes the good another side will believe the bad. Here is a small list of cons of why people believe abortion should be stopped. Lets start with the big one, “Abortion is murder. “(l) Even if the baby is unborn yet it is still the killing of another human-being. The Federal Government even accounts for unborn babies as citizens of the united States. Life begins at conception, so unborn babies are human beings with a right to Every person is made up with a unique genetic identity and will remain with that for the rest of his/her life. It is only fair for the decision to be made by this individual and should be protected otherwise. “Fetus feel pain during the abortion procedure. ” (1) “If the fetus is beyond 20 weeks of gestation, I would assume that there will be pain caused to the fetus. And believe it will be severe and excruciating pain. ” (1 ) This statement was said by Bernard N.
Matheson, MD who has performed many abortions in his career. Again, these are just a few of the many arguments people will make for cons of abortion. Before I even began to write this paper had a strong belief against abortion. After further research and learning today’s statistics I have come to n stronger belief that abortion should be no more. First off as a Christian I believe that every person’s life at conception should be in the hands of God not some 16 year old girl who made a bad mistake or a 42 year old woman who is not married and wants no part of having children.
None of us should have the responsibility or power to take away another human-beings life, even if that person is still in the womb of their mother. Just listening to the two major reasons why a woman decides to have an abortion are absurd. The first one is usually “well I was not planning this at all, I am way to young or old o be having another child”, or “this was not how it was suppose to happen. ” Those Statements are extremely frustrating to me. As a country America is sometimes so caught up in ourselves we do not even realize the selfishness of our actions.
There always seems to be another way out, or as most call it “an easier alternative route. ” The fact that any woman would make those arguments from above does show that she lacks many qualities to being a mother, but I do know that if anything will mature any person in a life (including males) it is having a child. Even though there are so many recitations a couple can make so that the woman does not get pregnant, we as a country still throw in the termination of a beautiful life as a plan B.
It is just so disheartening sometimes that people can agree to take this route. Can not even start the list of great people in this world that were so close to being aborted as a child. The second reason why many women decide they need an abortion is the birth defects, which as we mentioned earlier, some of the deformities doctors choose are an absolute joke. Know it must be an extremely hard situation when you are told things like you’re child may never elk or talk, or is born with down-syndrome, but is that still a right to take away their life?