Abortion Example #2 Essay Example

United Nations Population Fund says: "Where abortion is safe and widely available, and other reproductive health services are in place, rates of abortion tend to be low” (Brown, 1999). Thus on grounds of public health, safe abortion should be freely available on request by the pregnant woman, at least up to some agreed time limit. Central to the debate on abortion is the biological, legal, and moral status of the fetus.

The "pro-lifers" believe that a fertilized ovum is a human being and that abortion is intentional murder of that little human being (Sharvy, 2005). They argue that every unborn baby has a right to live and no woman has the power to take the life of an unborn child though it may be embedded within her own body. Pro-lifers also argue that permissive laws encourage women to resort to abortions too often and they also ignore the sanctity of human life. By allowing a policy of abortion on demand, the pro-lifers feel, the law conveys the wrong attitudes about sex, parenthood, and what it means to be morally responsible.

Moreover, from the religion viewpoint, abortion has been banned by churches. The primary argument is about the status of the unborn fetus. Neither law nor science is able to provide information as to when life begins in the womb. No legal decision can be taken on something that is just a conjecture. From a strictly scientific point of view, there is no doubt that individual human life begins at conception and does not end until natural death. This is undeniable. What is denied, however, is that the unborn is a human person.

The Supreme Court verdict in the

Roe vs Wade case that legalized abortion in 1973 implies that the fetus cannot be considered a person. The verdict shows that the Court considers the fetus was not a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. That amendment instructs the states that they may not deprive "any person of life, liberty, or property. " As Justice Harry Blackmun, who wrote the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade, readily acknowledged at the time, if a fetus were a person, then its right to life would be guaranteed (Linder, 2007).

Researchers such as L. W. Sumner, have said that human personhood does not arrive until the fetus is sentient and acquired the ability to feel and sense as a conscious being (Beckwith, 2007). This, according to Sumner, occurs possibly as early as the middle weeks of the second trimester of pregnancy and definitely by the end of that trimester. The early fetus, although human, is neither sentient nor capable of independent existence. It would seem therefore to deserve less consideration than a live mouse (Brown, 1999).

Many of the pro-life arguments are based on the central argument that the fetus is a human being. Considering that this is just an assumption that cannot be scientifically validated, abortion during early pregnancy cannot be considered wrong. In Roe v Wade the Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman has a constitutional right, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to choose to terminate her pregnancy before viability as part of her freedom of personal choice in family matters (Wilson, 1994). The number of reported abortions in the U.

S. rose sharply after the Supreme Court verdict in 1973. In the 1980s, the number

leveled off at just fewer than 1. 6 million, but since 1989, the number has been declining (CNN, 1998). According to research by Meyer and Buescher (1994), a study of trends in maternal mortality in North Carolina, immediately during 1973-1977 when legal abortion became available, the maternal mortality ration for deaths related to induced abortion was almost 85% lower than the ration during the previous five year period (Meyer and Buescher, 1994).

There was also an overall decline by 46% in the total number of maternal deaths. This contradicts the argument of pro-lifers that legalization of abortion will lead to an increased permissiveness among women (Meyer and Buescher, 1994). Taking this counterargument further, Steven Levitt in his paper “The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime” cites that the legalization of abortion in the US was followed approximately sixteen years of reduced crime.

He argued that unwanted children commit more crime than wanted children, that the legalization of abortion resulted in fewer unwanted children, and so the legalization of abortion caused a reduction in crime (Levitt, 1999). Talking about the religious view point, it must be noted that in ancient days, abortion was not considered a crime in Christianity. St. Augustine (AD 354-430) said, “There cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation”, and held that abortion required penance only for the sexual aspect of the sin.

He and other early Christian theologians believed that coming alive of the fetus, occurred forty days after conception for a boy and eighty days after conception for a girl (CBC, 2007). It was only in 1869 that Pope Pius IX officially eliminated the Catholic distinction

between an animated and a non-animated fetus and totally banned abortions at any stage of pregnancy. This change is mainly because of the declining Catholic population during that period in Italy. Thus, religion cannot be a basis for banning abortion (CBC, 2007).

Both historically and legally, women can be given the right to choose whether or not to have abortion. Historically, abortion was not uncommon in colonial America. Herbal abortifacients were widely known, and cookbooks and women's diaries of the era contained recipes for medicines (Craig and O’Brien, 1993). Recent studies of the work of midwives in the 1700s report cases in which the midwives provided women abortifacient compounds. More significantly, these cases are described as routine and are unaccompanied by any particular disapproval.

The absence of legal condemnation of abortion in colonial America is all the more remarkable because both families and society valued children and population growth in a rural economy, with vast unsettled lands, where diseases of infancy claimed many lives. It must be remembered that the colonial period was when people who violated moral norms of the community were chastised. The absence of legal condemnation during this period shows that abortion has never been viewed as a crime or an immoral act since ancient times (Craig and O’Brien, 1993).

The legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision has been very controversial one. The Roe v. Wade decision holds that women have a right to choose to have an abortion during the first two trimesters of a pregnancy (Linder, 2007). It was then expected by the pro-lifers that the Planned Parenthood v Casey case of 1992 would be

the overturning point of the Roe decision. But the court retained the core right recognized in Roe while rejecting the trimester-based framework (Linder, 2007). The verdict has brought about new regulations such as 24 hour waiting periods.

The main point is that abortion is now legal. Newly instituted pro-choice policies have helped many poor women finance their abortions. By removing the criminal tariff and permitting the procedure to be done on an outpatient basis, legalization significantly reduced the cost of a simple abortion (Graber, 1996). Willard Cates of the CDC estimates that Roe lowered the price of an abortion from $500 to $150 (Cates, 1977) Prices dropped by 90 percent in some regions of the country when obtaining an abortion in a specialized clinic became a legal option (Jaffe et al, 1981).

Legalization permitted philanthropic organizations to subsidize abortion fees for those who could not otherwise afford to terminate a pregnancy. Many abortion clinics offer discounts and some waive payment entirely for indigent patients. Now, fewer women of all races and classes presently suffer botched abortions. Dr. Tietze estimates that as of 1984, legalized abortion had saved 1,500 maternal lives and prevented "several tens of thousands ... of life-threatening, but not fatal complications” (Tietze, 1986). Roe and hence pro-choice, has improved maternal health by replacing unsafe, usually illegal, abortions with safer legal abortions.

Most legal barriers merely delay the eventual abortion, thus increasing both the expense and risk of the procedure (Gold, 1994). As far as politics is concerned, though members of both major political parties belong passionately to some side of the issue, the Republican Party is often seen as being pro-life, since the official party platform

recognizes the right of the unborn child to life. In contrast, Democratic Party platform considers abortion to be a woman's right, while the group Democrats for Life is marginalized within their own party.

The US Green Party and US Libertarian Party both support abortion as a women's right. Thus the majority divisions among politicians seem to favor pro-choice. The pro-choice group seems to be the majority in the United States as well, according to a recent survey. A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in August 2005, which asked Americans if they considered themselves to be "pro-choice" or "pro-life," found that 54% answered "pro-choice" while 38% answered "pro-life. This study shows that majority opinion in the United States towards the issue of abortion is pro-choice (Earll, 2003).

Thus we find that legally, socially, historically, ethically, bioethically and morally, pro-choice is the rational solution to abortion. While pro-life people oppose the very concept of abortion, it is interesting to note that the other camp is pro-choice and not pro-abortion. Pro-choice allows the woman to make the final choice with laws guiding her to make the right decision. The pro-choice perception should guide a woman towards pro-life and this combined method would be the ethical way to decide the morality of the issue.

Reference

http://www.slate.com/id/33569/entry/33571/

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/abortion.htm