Research Paper: Pro-Choice

\"Women's rights advocates believed the 1973 Supreme Court decision was a landmark ruling, one that saved the lives of many pregnant women who, before Roe v. Wade, might have resorted to unsterile, backroom abortions.\"

\"Antiabortion laws give little consideration to such scenarios, and instead impose rigid constraints on a woman's right to chose what is best for her and her potential child.\"

\"A woman has a fundamental right to privacy and personal liberty under the Constitution that protects her right to have an abortion during early pregnancy. A fetus, on the other hand, is not considered a person under the Constitution and is not entitled to the same sort of protections as a newborn.\"

\"More than 50% of induced abortions occur before the eighth week of gestation, they point out, when the fetus is still only about an inch long and has fewer cells, less animation and less brain functioning than many insects. Many medical abortions (those induced by drugs), they add, occur during the first few weeks after conception, when the fetus is just a few millimeters large.\"

\"Abortion-rights advocates frequently use the analogy of a building to underscore the difference between human chromosomes and a human being. Skyscrapers are erected based on written instructions, or blueprints, that detail how the various parts of the building will be coordinated. Yet the blueprints, which consist of ink and paper, are distinct from the building--an assemblage of metal, cement and other materials.\"

\"Abortion-rights activists say that the chromosomes in the fertilized egg are like those blueprints. The chromosomes in a living cell provide a map for a human life but they are not themselves human. Just as the blueprints for a building are drafted long before a skyscraper is built, chromosomes exist in living cells long before an actual human being comes into existence, they claim.\"

\"Pro-choice proponents argue that a fetus cannot be considered a distinct human being meriting rights until its body systems are working as a whole and it can survive independently.\"

\"Some argue that, as long as the mother's body provides sustenance to the fetus, the woman has the right to make decisions for the fetus regarding its physical well-being, including whether it should live. Using a similar line of argument, others contend that a woman cannot be legally forced to sustain another human being in her body against her will.\"