The Issue Of Abortion
Abortion. Is there any other word that creates such hatred and charged emotion? The word abortion means "the loss or removal of an embryo or fetus before it can survive outside the mother's body" (Day 7). The meaning of abortion, however, is completely different. To people who are pro-life, abortion is a vicious and murderous word dripping in blood and silent screams. To people who are pro-choice the word is just as emotional. It represents women being able to control their own thoughts, feelings, bodies, and futures. The question facing Americans today is, "Should abortions be illegal for women to obtain?" In the middle of the nineteenth century, the newly formed American Medical Association (AMA) placed restrictions abortions. This is exactly what is needed. With restrictions abortions can be performed safely and with as little pain as possible. Ending abortions is not the answer: abortions should remain a legal choice in the United States.The government cannot have control over a woman's body. It is her body, her rights. The freedom to make choices and decisions for ourselves is the base of this country. Taking away the rights of the mother is a horrific mistake. To deny the basic freedom rights that our forefa
A common myth is that if abortion were outlawed, all of the unwanted children would be adopted. The cold hard fact is that unwanted children would cause more problems for our society. This statement is one that no one wants to hear. The idea of unwanted children scares many Americans, and thinking of what unwanted children must live through is even scarier. But however harsh it may be, it is true. It is a fact that in a perfect world every child should be a wanted child, but sadly Americans are not living in that perfect world. In 1900, in New York alone, more than 62,000 children were living in foster homes and over 129,000 child abuse and neglect cases were reported (Flanders 34). While the pro-life forces are claiming that the answer is adoption, not abortion, the reality of the situation is that all over the country children are being abused, abandoned, and neglected because no one will take care of them. In our country alone, 1.6 million abortions take place (Lowenstein 17). If the United States is facing problems now with the unwanted and abused children, think of the problems when 1.6 or more million babies are added to the picture. The government cannot have jurisdiction because the fetus is not a living person. It cannot feel pain or live outside of the mother's body. Pain in a fetus starts as an electrical signal in the body's pain receptors. This signal is sent through nerve pathways to the spinal column, then to the thalamus - an egg-shaped structure within the brain. Finally, the signal is transferred to the cerebral cortex where it is sensed as pain. In a fetus, the pain receptors develop around seven weeks after conception, the spino-thalamic system in about thirteen weeks, and the connections to the cortex are established at about twenty-six weeks ("Can a fetus feel pain?"). Many pro-life advocates claim the fetus can feel pain while these systems are partly formed and forming. Pro-choice advocates feel that it is necessary for the synaptic connections within the fetus' brain to develop in order to feel pain. The issue is so heavily biased by a pro-life/pro-c
Some common words found in the essay are:
Obstetricians Gynecologists, Association AMA, Polly Bergen, Abortion Myths, , Los Angeles, Pat Schroeder, feel pain, fetus feel, unwanted children, fetus feel pain, abortions performed, abortions illegal, Women's Health, twenty-six weeks, outside mother's body, saying abortion, perfect world, restrictions abortions, mother's body, twenty-six weeks fetus,
Approximate Word count = 1420
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
