book

Research Paper - Abortion

21 Pages 2886 Words 1557 Views

The topic covered in this research paper is abortion. This paper looks into the history of abortion, the pro-life view of abortion and the pro-choice view of abortion. Under history of abortion the information included is the time line of significant events of abortion such as becoming legal, also different ways in ancient times women would try to use abortions. The upgrading of technology making abortion safer and even if abortion was illegal women would still find a way to abort a baby are also covered under the history of abortion. Under pro-life choice for abortion looks into abortion murder, the rights of human and the rights of the unborn and that a women doesn't have a right to terminate her own fetus. Under pro- choice is the women's rights, and the rights to the women and also how abortion isn't murder due to the fact that fetuses cannot feel pain and how a women has a right to her own body and whether or not she decides she wants to carry a pregnancy to term. Conceiving a baby through a planned pregnancy can take many years, or it can take one meaningless night of excessive drinking and unprotected sex resulting in an unplanned pregnancy. There are many times when a woman does not know she is pregnant until she visits the doctor, and since it is an unplanned pregnancy it leaves her with a hard, unwanted decision. She can chose to carry on with the pregnancy or choose to terminate it. Abortion is the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end the pregnancy. Each year, more than 6 million American women become pregnant. More than half of those pregnancies are unintended. Laws for abortion have changed over many years of arguments and debates, and this has affected its legal status. Abortion has a long history behind it, from starting off illegal in the early 1820s. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in all 50 states, announced that a woman’s right to choose whether or not to carry her pregnancy to term outweighs the government’s interest in protecting the possible life until the point at which the fetus is viable. At that point, the Court ruled, the government has an “important and legitimate interest in protecting the potentiality of human life.”1 The majority of justices agreed that, until it can survive outside the womb, a fetus is not a person, and therefore cannot be said to have rights. They based the woman’s right to abort the pregnancy on the right to privacy in other words, the right to decide personal matters without government interference. Although this right is not clearly stated in the constitution, the justices found that it was implied in the 4th, 9th, and 14th Amendments. Today, there are restrictions in order to better educate the women concerning what they are about to do and parental consent for minors. However, abortions are one hundred percent legal and cannot be denied to any adult woman.  The first known conviction for the "intention to abort" was handed down in Maryland in the year 1652. Four years later, also in Maryland, a woman was arrested for murder after getting an abortion, but the case was thrown out when she married the only witness, who then refused to testify. A 1710 Virginia law made it a capital crime to hide a pregnancy and then be found with a dead baby. Likewise, a 1719 Delaware law made anyone who advised abortion or infanticide an accessory to murder. Olasky notes that at this point in history, "infanticide was probably the most frequent way of killing unwanted, illegitimate children." While individual state laws were different and didn't always have specific legislation for abortion and infanticide, those that did all shared a common problem. It was almost impossible to produce the evidence necessary to convict. Pregnancy was hard to confirm, there was almost never a corpse or witness, and there was always a great deal of jury sympathy for desperate and abandoned women. Nevertheless, there were plenty of non-legislative factors working against the widespread use of abortion and infanticide. One of the chief of these factors was the existing social pressure that expected a man to act honorably and propose marriage if he impregnated a woman out of marriage. "In one Massachusetts County during the 1760's, over 80 percent of non-martially conceived births were legitimated by the marriage of their parents, and counties in other colonies had similar records Where fathers resolutely refused marriage, courts in Virginia and other colonies ordered payment. Thus economic desperation was unlikely to drive most unmarried, pregnant women to infanticide or abortion."7 Abortions are performed in a myriad of different procedures, which are based upon how far along into the pregnancy a woman is. During the first trimester of pregnancy, there are four options. In most cases, there is a choice between medical or surgical abortion procedures during the first trimester. Medical abortions are only available u

Read Full Essay