Comparison of Pro Life and Pro Choice in Abortion Essay Example
A second-trimester abortion is killing a baby when the mother is in week 14 to week 27 of pregnancy. In the 14th week of pregnancy, a baby can make facial expressions. You can find out if you are having a little boy or girl in weeks 16-20 unless you are waiting for an amazing gender reveal. Week 19 your baby can hear outside noises such as your heartbeat and your voice. At the 24th week, the baby’s brain is growing and functioning, and they are just about a foot long. The baby is living, and in the 27th week even practicing breathing in amniotic fluid (Pregnancy Week by Week). No one should have the right to chose this; the baby has a right to life, no matter what. Abortion, in its simplest definition, is the termination of a human pregnancy. It w
...as legalized in 1973 when the U.S. Senate declared in Roe v. Wade that Abortion was within the woman’s right to privacy. Nineteen states have limits of abortion till the 20th week, six till the 24th week, eighteen till the baby is viable to live outside of the womb, and seven do not have any limits on when the woman can abort (US Supreme Court Filing Guides) (An Overview of Abortion Laws). As it stands, women have the right to choose whether their unborn child lives or dies. Many believe that women deserve the right to choose abortion. However, abortion should not be a right, for it is unlawful and rejects the rights of the unborn.
The practice of abortion is immoral and undermines the rights of unborn children. Abortion is taking a life, plain
and simple. It is still the death of a living human being. Life does not begin when the heart starts beating at 5 weeks or when the brain is functioning at 24; it starts at the fertilization. According to Bradley M. Patten, Ph.D., author of Foundations of Embryology, the moment when the ovum is penetrated by the sperm it QUOTE “constitutes the culmination of the process of fertilization and marks the initiation of the life of a new individual” END QUOTE (When Does Life Begin?). So, when does life begin? The exact moment the sperm and the ovum come together to create something more. The union begins the unique process from a zygote to a fully formed baby. From the very first moment as a zygote, life is completely unique, making up one of the approximately seventy trillion, three hundred sixty-eight billion, seven hundred forty-four million, one hundred seventy-seven thousand, six hundred sixty-four different allele combinations possible in the human genome (Evolution of Modern Humans: Early Modern Human Culture). The sequences of genes made up by the alleles make up the 23 chromosomes all humans have and the building blocks for the babies to develop. The moment fertilization occurs, the baby has all of these building blocks necessary for development. Unless unforeseen circumstances arise, the zygote will develop into a child and be born. Therefore the only definitive point in which life begins is the very beginning, and in this case, the very beginning is the moment of fertilization. Many believe abortion to just be terminating a pregnancy, but this is an extreme understatement. To think of abortion as anything other than taking a life
is immoral in all sense of the word. When an attempted murder occurs or the actual murder of a pregnant woman, the killer is charged with the crime for both the mother and the unborn child as a separate offense. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 states that no matter if the killer knew the woman was pregnant or not, they could still be charged for the crime. However, under Subsection C of this act it states that if a person QUOTE “intentionally kills or attempts to kill the unborn child, that person [will] be punished as provided under sections 1111, 1112, and 1113 … for intentionally killing or attempting to kill a human being” END QUOTE (Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004). Section 1111 is murder, defined by killing with malice, or evil, afterthoughts. Section 1112 is manslaughter, killing without malice afterthought, intentional or unintentional. Section 1113 is attempted murder or manslaughter. When an expecting mother is murdered, the killer is not charged with just one death. Under this law, the unborn child is a separate death the killer is charged with. If the unborn child counts as another death, that means that it had to have been a life. In order for death to occur, life must end. So, the unborn child under the Unborn Victims of Violence act counts as a life. When this life is attempted to be or taken away, it is the killing or attempted killing of a human being, as stated in Subsection C. However, in this act, everyone involved in abortion: anyone who consents for the woman to have an abortion, the medical professionals
performing the abortion, and the woman herself getting the abortion are protected from this law. We are contradicting ourselves with this addition to the act. In the first sections, it establishes the unborn child as a human being who has a right to life just as every other human does. We cannot say in one instance the unborn child is a life and in the other, it is not. We cannot let the unborn innocents of our future be killed without justice. We cannot let abortions continue to be legal. Therefore, the practice of abortion is completely unethical and denies the rights of the unborn child.
However, some believe that abortion is a human right and women should have the ability to choose it. After the trial of Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion in the United States was made legal nationwide, however, the states could still make their own limitations of when abortions could occur. The Supreme Court declared QUOTE “every woman possesse[s] a constitutional right to privacy” END QUOTE which guarantees all women the right to choose abortion (US Supreme Court Filing Guides). Pro-choicers believe that since abortion is legal, people should not be able to contest this law and accept abortions as a human right. Though the other side believes protecting women's right to abortion is justified, it should have never been a law in the first place, as it defies the Declaration of Independence in which our countries morals were founded upon. The Declaration of Independence written by our Founding Fathers directly refutes the ruling of Roe vs Wade as it states that all people are created equal and have QUOTE “certain
unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness' END QUOTE (The Declaration of Independence: Full Text). All three unalienable rights are taken away from unborn children who are killed by abortion. The right to life was taken away, as abortion itself is the killing of an unborn child. The right to liberty was never given in the first place, as the baby was never given the freedom of life. The right to the pursuit of happiness was never given to the baby either, as it was killed before they could pursue their happiness. It should not matter that a woman has the constitutional right to privacy since the unalienable rights protect the unborn baby from an abortion. To say that abortion is justified under the right to privacy would be to use the right of one person in order to ignore the rights of another. If a law allows the rights of one human being to take away the rights of another human being, then that law should be abolished. Pro-choicers also believe that if we make abortion illegal, we would be violating woman’s rights. Bodily autonomy is a right given to all people, and a common argument used against pro-lifers is that if abortion is made illegal, it would be in violation of this right. According to University of California Santa Barbara, QUOTE “bodily autonomy is defined as the right to self-governance over one’s own body without external influence or coercion” END QUOTE (SexInfo Online). Everyone is given the right to bodily autonomy, and if abortion is made illegal, it would be taking away a woman’s right to bodily
autonomy because of the baby dependence on the mother’s body. However, if bodily autonomy shall be given to the woman, it must also be given to the unborn child, as stated earlier, the unborn child is a human being with all the rights granted to human beings. In the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States of America, it states that the government may not pass any law that would QUOTE “deny to any person … the equal protection of the laws” END QUOTE (LII Staff). All human persons, born or unborn, have the right to equal protection under all laws. What does equal protection mean? It means that a human being shall be treated the same under the law. The unborn baby has the same right to life as the mother and should be equally be protected under the law. It should not matter if the woman has a right to govern her body, as the baby has a right to govern their own body as well. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, the unborn baby has the same right to bodily autonomy as the mother does. The unborn child has a right to self-govern their own body, without external influences. The unborn child being aborted is an external influence that violates the baby’s right to govern its own life. The unborn child is killed without consent infringing on their right to self-government of their body. They are not given the choice to live or to die. Their right to bodily autonomy and the right to equal protection is being taken away. Therefore, abortion should be made illegal because it violates the right to bodily autonomy, as
well as the rights of human beings stated by the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
The killing of unborn children and disregard of their rights should not be legal, nor be a human right. Abortion contradicts laws designed around the idea that unborn children are lives. Abortion ignores scientific fact. Abortion not only rejects the ideas put forth in the Constitution but also the ideals that this country was founded upon. If America is to stay true to itself and its laws that protect the rights of all its citizens, born or unborn, it must make abortion illegal.
