Monday, May 11, 2009

Abortion

Every year, thousands of women are impregnated either by accident, lack of contraception, incest, or rape. These are women that do not have the money to afford a baby, they are usually teenagers, and are not responsible enough to raise and support a child. These women do have a way out; they have the option to have an abortion. There are approximately 3,700 abortions per day in the United States. According to John Keown, the professor of Christian Ethics at the Georgetown University, "As early as the mid-thirteenth century the common law punished abortion after fetal formation as homicide." The first case that allowed abortion legally was Roe vs. Wade case in 1973. The Supreme Court had decided that abortion is protected by the right to privacy. Abortion is a very controversial issue in society now. Those who are for abortions say that it is the women’s rights to decide whether to keep their babies or not, and those who are against abortions say that the fetuses are human beings and that their rights should be protected as well. Those who are against abortions have run a campaign to protest against abortion law ever since the constitution allowed abortions as legal.
I think that abortion should be allowed to prevent social inequalities. If abortion is prohibited, then low-income households would struggle more and not be able to provide a kid a good care with much love. According to Jennifer Barber, the research associate professor of sociology, a recent study documents the negative effects of unwanted childbearing on both the mother and her family. Women who have had unwanted births sustain lower quality relationships with all of their children, not only the child resulting from an unwanted birth. These lower quality relationships translate into socialization problems for the children, affecting their development, self-esteem, personality, educational and occupational attainment, mental health and marital relationships. Women would lose a right as a mother to choose whether to keep a pregnancy or not. Rape victims would have no way of performing an abortion other than performing illegally privately. Before arguing abortion to be allowed or prohibited, the social inequalities that might occur related to abortions would have to be solved; until then, to prevent greater problems with social inequalities, an abortion law would have to stay as now but also provide funding to poor women for abortion again.

4 comments:

  1. I agree that at day one a fetus is a human being. It takes only days for it to be recognizable as a person with little eyes and the beginnings of hands and feet. It is very to sad to think of that little person and know that its life that has not yet begun is going to end. What is more sad is the thought that that same little person could be brought into the world to spend it's first 18 years going from one foster home to another. These children possibly never having a stable family that it can call home. Adoption is one of the first arguments I hear for an alternative to abortion. The reality is that the foster care and adoption system is overloaded with children already. Once a child reaches a certain age they are passed over by the majority of adoptive parents that are looking for babies. Not to mention that the first few hours and days of a babies life are possibly the most crucial to their emotional life. There are current studies being done about the harm of cesarean sections taking away the bond for a child because they do not go right to the mothers, also the inhibiting of a hormone that is created by a mother during labor that a new born can sense. If people are arguing that women should not be choosing C sections how can they say that giving a baby away as soon as it is born is any better. I personally have a different opinion for my own life and actions but do not believe that this right should be taken away from any mother to be if she feels that it would be best for her and the child that she has accidentally created.

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  3. I understand that women have abortion due to unwanted pregnacy from rape because it bring back or reminds them of unpleasant memories, but some women have abortion from enjoyable sex from their partner. These aborted children might be valuable to society and their parent. I think abortion is consider a sin, a crime, and a murder. Women should judge the disadvantages and consequence of abortion before decided on having abortion. women should also think about the life of the inoccent child, the suffer, pain, and sorrows they go through. Society and people in general need to be more willing or open, to those who have unwanted pregnancies.The bottom line is one should not have sex, if they don't want to get pregnant.

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  4. On the issue of abortion, I tend to agree with the pro-choice side of the debate. What kind of life would a mother and/or father (if he is present, because in most of these situations the father is not there) provide for a child if they know beforehand that they do not have adequate resources? This is a debate the American people really need to come to terms with because it’s eating away at the social fabric of this nation. I see it as a dividing issue when we should really come together as a people. First we need to come to an understanding and then present some possible solutions. Every case isn’t similar to the previous one. It has gotten so technical that we are confused about when life actually exists. We have trivialized and made mockery of one of nature’s most unbelievable phenomena: birth.

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