Gleaning from these opposing views, abortion as a method of birth control is generally and fundamentally not morally permissible. Although a woman has a right to her own body and her own choice, there are limits to her right to choose and abortion should be resorted to only in certain conditions and under strict regulations.

Not only does nature ordain that a mother must bring her pregnancy to full term

It moved the right and power to decide from the state to the mother. In setting the limits of state power and individual freedom, the Supreme Court ruled that medical judgment of the mother's qualified physician shall be the basis for abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy; the regulation of the abortion procedure in the second trimester in favor of maternal health; and the State's interest in the promotion of potential life of the unborn child or the prohibition of abortion in preserving the life or health of the mother (Doerr). Rather than be restricted to certain circumstances, such as rape, incest, physical or mental deformity, this 1973 Supreme Court ruling re-established the coverage of a mother's rights to all circumstances but that her right to her own body or privacy was not unlimited but must be weighed against state interests in regulation (Touro Law Center 2005).

In response to the opinion of Professor Judith Jarvis Thompson in her defense of abortion, the right to life is stronger than the right to decide as nature itself makes evident by establishing that an unborn child must remain in its mother's body for nine months before it can have a life of its own outside the mother's body. There appears to be no excuses for terminating a pregnancy as nature intends. Blood relationships are not based on choices yet exact moral obligations (Courttv.com 2005). This is why courts punish negligent parents and oblige them to support even unwanted children or unplanned pregnancies. A mother's rights and liberty must be tempered by morality if she must live in a civilized society.

, but also that respect for human life must cover the beginnings of that life. As the pro-life movement advocates, human life begins at conception, the very moment when the offspring acquires a full and distinct personhood with an identity and rights of its own apart from those of the mother. Scriptures also teach that human life is sacred and that the human soul forms at conception, not at a later time. Abortion or the termination of pregnancy at any time constitutes murder, transgresses the fifth Commandment of God and is, therefore, inherently wrong (Callahan 1998).

The 1776 Declaration of Independence stated that all men are created equal and possessed inalienable rights, such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, upon which the governments are founded. The 1973 Supreme Court in Roe v Wade, however, ruled that the Declaration or the US Constitution does not include the unborn child in its definition of "person" and that an unwanted pregnancy constitutes an assault on the inherent right of the mother to privacy, thus overruling all previous anti-abortion laws and turning over to every woman or mother the fundamental decision to choose to continue or not to continue a pregnancy. The same SC ruling said that anti-abortion sentiments merely grew out of Victorian censorship of illicit sexual conduct. Nonetheless, through the recent decades, the majority of Americans favor the use of abortion as a birth control method only within the first three months of gestation. Other court decisions, such as on the double-murder indictment of Scott Peterson of his wife and unborn child, recognize the personhood and rights of such unborn child.

In response to the above objections, the majority of the citizens believe that the right to decide on terminating one's pregnancy belongs to the woman or the mother, rather than the state. The 1973 Supreme Court ruling in the Roe v Wade case was arrived at during the time of the Vietnam War, former President Richard Nixon's second term and fall from power, a steep increase in family disunity and disruptions (Glendon 2003). It was a rare event in the history of populations that in barely 15 years after Roe v Wade, birth and marriage rates decreased and divorce

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2580
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)