Kymberly Burress Oct. 7, 2011 Pros and cons Essay Ms. Shuchter Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy at any stage that does not result in birth. What a lot of people don’t realize is a miscarriage is also considered an abortion even though it is not medically induced; it is called a spontaneous abortion because it is not a medical procedure. Recently a study was done and it showed that the number of abortions worldwide have gone down considerably because of family planning, having reasonable birth control methods introduced, the prices for them lowered and the availability of them are accessible by the younger generation.
More and more we are seeing young women using abortion as a birth control method, this is making the process look like a non-viable medical procedure not to mention it is abusing the woman’s right to choose and making it extremely difficult for the women who have real reasons whether they be medical or unstated to receive safe and anonymous abortions, done by a medical professional. While there is still major controversy over the legality, ethics and women’s rights more than 90% of this world (not just the United States) has a pro-life or pro-choice opinion on the situation.
While a lot of people don’t agree with the abortion procedure it has been practiced since the early times. Early Egyptians have hieroglyphs depicting a demon of sorts beating on the abdomen of a pregnant woman. Around 1150 B. C. China and the Roman Empire were logging the use of herb mixtures such as pennyroyal, sage and lavender to make a herbal abortion helper, also sharp implements were used for the process, though the practices are no longer in use at the time they caused many maternal deaths, organ punctures and caused severe internal bleeding.
Abortion is very taboo in many of today’s cultures; the Islamic faith, Catholicism and North Africa have made a stand on the issue calling it immoral, evil, unjust and murder. Then on the opposite side of the spectrum you have religions and regions that are understanding and even may condone a safe and medical abortion. The Dali Lama has been quoted saying that abortion is “negative” but there are exceptions. He said “I think abortion should be approved or disapproved according to each circumstance. ” The Methodist church, Evangelical church and the Lutheran church are pro-choice.
The Unitarian Universalist church supports abortion declaring “The right to choice on contraception and abortion are important aspects of the right of privacy, respect for human lives and freedom of conscience of women and their families. ” (1978). As far back as the 2nd century methods for abortion were known almost worldwide, while most didn’t use surgical or medical methods, they preferred more erratic methods such as herbal baths, heavy lifting, jumping making sure the heels of the feet touched the buttock of the woman and riding animals such as horses and bulls.
So as you can see the pro-choice pro-life debate has been going on for centuries. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice it is your responsibility as a person in a society and as a human to listen to the other’s opinion and respect that person regardless of your outlook on abortion. Today we see far too much fighting and waging war on our own people because of this “issue”, while we are fighting across seas why don’t we at least hear both sides of the story and maybe just maybe we can see through each other’s eyes for once.
You never know, the one person you look up to more than anything may just have different ideas and an obscure outlook on life as far as you’re concerned; are you going to treat them differently now because you don’t see eye to eye? I’m sure we can all agree that life is a precious gift, but at what point is life considered life? This sounds like a rhetorical question but this question has been thrown back and forth for many years. There is a middle ground on the subject where a percentage of people could care less.
Then you have the hard core pro-lifers and pro-choicers. The pro-choice movement argues that women have the fundamental right to terminate their unwanted pregnancies. To them the debate over abortion is irrelevant, abortion is about liberty and privacy; every woman has the right to make decisions over her own body without the worry of the government stepping in. Restricting abortion demeans the woman and makes her ill-equipped to make decisions on her future, destiny and reproductive life. destiny and reproductive life.
Pro-choice advocates argue that in early pregnancy when the “zygote” is just a mass of cells, there is no way to let it claim rights; Also 50% of pregnancy’s that are aborted are within the first 8 weeks of gestation when the zygote had less animation, brain function and cells than most insects. If you take building into consideration, you can access that you are going to need blue prints, contractors and basic details regarding the building; the blue prints are completely different from the actual building which is concrete, sheet rock, metal and glass.
In the same idea a zygote is the blue print for the actual human being, the chromosomes are a blue print in the way that they are a map to evolve into human life but are not exactly human yet, chromosomes are in the human egg and sperm long before they are mixed, so is that to say that every time a man ejaculates or a woman receives her menstruation they are causing a baby to die? “A person is more than a collection of cells created by 46 chromosomes. To focus on the biological realities of genes and chromosomes present at conception neglects the spiritual nature and characteristics of humans. (John Swomley, professor of social ethics at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. Speaking from a religious perspective). Swomley argues that the notion of life beginning at conception actually devalues the meaning of human life. He says “that when the bible describes humans as beings created in the image of God, it was not referring to biological similarities, but to the ability to have love and reason; to the capacity for self awareness and transcendence, and to the freedom to choose rather to live by instinct. Those traits, he says, are lacking in a fetus. Pro-choice advocates bring back the time when abortions had to be done in the “back alley” also known as back alley abortions, these occurred a lot in the early 1900’s to the 1960’s in America. While abortion was illegal, thousands of women died in these procedures, these procedures included coat hangers which made these women suffer from internal bleeding until they die and serious deformities to their insides. This table below shows the countries and the availabilities or restrictions of abortion.
Table 2 Case Studies: Abortion Rates and Ratios Abortion rate(1) Abortion ratio(2) Countries in which abortion is available on demand Puerto Rico 22 20 Cuba 58 45 Countries in which abortion is restricted by law Mexico 23 16 Chile 45 35 1. The abortion rate is the number of legal abortion per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15-44) years. 2. The abortion ratio is the number of abortions per 100 pregnancies (excluding involuntary miscarriages and stillbirths).
Source: Adapted from Yamila Azize-Vargas and Luis A. Aviles, “Abortion in Puerto Rico: The Limits of Colonial Legality,” in Abortion: Unfinished Business, Reproductive Health Matters Series, No. 9 (May 1997). After looking at the table it’s interesting to see how other countries view and validate abortions, so as you can see it is basically a tug of war all over the world as far as legal and illegal matters are concerned. Now on the other side of the spectrum we have the pro-life movement.
According to Debopriya Bose, “Women who demand complete control of their body should also shoulder the responsibility of preventing unwanted pregnancy. ” Pro-lifers believe that life begins at conception and that all pregnancys are a gift from God. Source Citation Sangillo, Gregg. “Abortion’s Shaky Middle Ground. ” National Journal (2009). Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. Source Citation Rayas, Lucia. “Criminalizing abortion: a crime against women. ” NACLA Report on the Americas 31. 4 (1998): 22+.
Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. Source Citation Anderson, Ryan T. “Protected in law, cared for in life: the new health-care act fails to satisfy pro-life principles. ” First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life 215 (2011): 41+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. Source Citation “Abortion: When does human life begin? ” Issues & controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & controversies. Facts On File News Services, 22 Aug. 2005. Web. 5 Oct. 2011. <http://www. 2facts. com/article/i0400010>