Many have pondered upon the meaning of abortion. The argument being
that every child born should be wanted, and others who believe that every
child conceived should be born (Sass vii). This has been a controversial
topic for years. Many people want to be able to decide the destiny of
others. Everyone in the United States is covered under the United States
constitution, and under the 14th Amendment women have been given the choice
of abortion. In 1973, Harry A. Blackmun wrote the majority opinion that
it’s a women’s right to have an abortion. Roe v. Wade legalized abortion.
Even though these people have been given the right, the case is not closed.
Pro-life activists carry a strong argument, and continue to push their
beliefs. They feel so strongly about these beliefs that violence has
broken out in some known instances. Pro-choice activists, on the other
hand, also carry very strong points. They believe that the child inside
them is their property and it’s life doesn’t be until birth. In 1973, the
United States Supreme Court decided that as long as the baby lived in the
womb, he or she would be the property of the mother. Because of this
decision almost every third baby conceived in America is killed by
abortion, over one and a half million babies a year (Willke vii). Many
countries have followed our decision on the abortion issue and some of
these include Canada, England, and France. Other countries still believe
abortion should be illegal, they include Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Although many believe that abortion is a women’s choice, abortion should be
banned because its immoral and life begins at conception.
Abortion is the choice of a women whether or not she want’s to receive
one. Under the 14th Amendment’s “personal liberty” women are given the
right to receive an abortion. The 14th Amendment’s concept of “personal
liberty” and restrictions on state action is enough to allow a women’s
decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. The right to choose to
have an abortion is so personal and essential to women’s lives that without
this right women cannot exercise other fundamental rights and liberties
guaranteed by the Constitution (Paltrow 72). The state can’t interfere in
the private lives of a citizen. Without the right to choose an abortion
the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of liberty has little meaning for women.
With the right to choose abortion, women are able to enjoy, like men, the
rights to fully use the powers of their minds and bodies (Paltrow 73). A
man can withdraw from a relationship as soon as he finds out about a
pregnancy. There is no question of his involve t after that, he has made
his choice. It is only fair to say that women should be given the same
choice. If one doesn’t want to hold the responsibilities of a child than
she should be able to have the choice of abortion in her options. ” Because
contraceptives fail, and because they are not always available or possible
to use, abortion is necessary if people are to be able to determine whether
and when to “bear or beget a child”(Paltrow 72). Couples choose the
alternative of abortion so they can start or expand their families when
they feel most ready and able to care for them. Women choose to have an
abortion because pregnancy and childbirth can prevent them from keeping
their jobs, from feeding their families, and from serving others in ways
they consider necessary and appropriate. Pregnancy and child birth may
determine whether a women ever gets to start or complete her education,
which will significantly influence her ability to support herself and her
family. The availabilit y of abortion makes it possible for people not
only to choose the number of children they want, but also to create the
kind of family life they have always wanted for themselves, to meet their
responsibilities. If a women cannot choose to terminate an unwanted
pregnancy, she is denied the right to the “possession and control” of her
own body. One of the most sacred rights of common law is to choose and if
a women can’t do this than their most important possession is taken away.
Abortion isn’t only a women’s right, it’s a women’s choice.
However, allowing abortion to be legal is immoral. A pre-born child is
given the status of a “product of pregnancy” and never seen as the miracle
only a women can create. Compassion for the small one is drowned out under
a demand for “rights”, but what about the rights for the unborn. “A women
has a right to her own body” is an idea more and more women are realizing,
but that idea ignores the unborn child’s right to his or her body. Never,
in modern times, has the state granted to one citizen the right to have
another killed in order to solve their personal, social, or economic
problems. the embryo is its own being that should have it’s own rights to
protect it. The zygote is a unique genetic being (Zindler 27). If one was
to abort an embryo than that embryo, that human life would never be
duplicated. A scientist that may have found the cure to A.I.D.S. would be
killed. There is a better way to solve our problems than by killing
children. A fertilized egg is the most beauti , most innocent being that we
could ever create, and can redeem even the worst of our mistakes. This
fertilized egg is not just a mass of tissue, for if it were than there
would be no debate. A fetus feels pain. Ultra sound, fetoscopy, study of
the fetal EKG (electrocardiogram) and fetal EEG (electroencephalogram) have
demonstrated the remarkable responsiveness of the human fetus to pain,
touch and sound (willke 64). The fetus responds to light, heat, cold, and
taste. Observations of the fetal movements in saline abortions indicates
that the fetus experiences discomfort as it dies. One doctor who, the New
York Times, wrote “conscientiously performs” saline abortions stated, “when
he injected the saline, he often saw an increase in fetal movements”
(Willke 64). In another case, a film using mew sonographic techniques,
shows the outline of the child in the womb thrashing to resist the suction
device before it tears off the head. Then you see the dead child
dismembered child and t he head crushed (Edwards 40). This is murder.
Nobody who sees this film will speak again of “painless” abortion. After
the doctor who performed this procedure saw this film, he never performed
another abortion again. But, many doctors still do perform abortion, and
in some instances a live child is killed. “About once a day, somewhere in
the United States, something goes wrong and an abortion results in a live
baby” (Willke 76). Forty five out of six hundred and seven mid trimester
abortions done in Connecticut in 1974-1976 resulted in live births (Willke
76). In these cases the child was killed in cold blooded murder. It is
immoral to kill, therefore abortion is immoral.
Finally, abortion should be banned because life begins at conception.
The individual sex cell consists of 23 chromosomes. It is only through
combination, however, that the sex cells contain the full complement of
heredity units that defines a human being (Shettles 17). This procedure of
combination defines conception. After the merger of the two sex cells 46
chromosomes are present. This is what makes a human being. The merger is
complete within twelve hours, at which time the egg is fertilized and
becomes known technically as the “zygote”. The inherited characteristics
of a unique human being has been established, and in no circumstances will
it change (Shettles 17). Nothing from this time on, until death, will
anything be added. The definition of alive is that a being is growing,
developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cells. It means not being
dead. At the very time conception begins the zygote is growing,
developing, maturing, and replacing its own dying cel It’s alive. The
single-celled fertilized ovum cannot by any stretch of the imagination be
considered part of a women’s body. This new living being has a genetic set
up unlike anyone else’s, totally different from the cells of the mother’s
body. It makes no difference to assume that human life is more human
post-born than pre-born. What is critical to figure out is if it is or
isn’t human life, and of coarse it is human life. At 18 days the heart is
pumping through a closed circulatory system, with blood whose type is
different from that of the mother. At 40 days the brain begins to
function. In the 16th week motion has been detected. At 6 and 1/2 weeks
all twenty milk-teeth buds are present. During the eighth week the baby’s
stomach secretes gastric juice, and all it’s body system is present. The
baby dreams, thinks, and feels pain. This is definitely a child, and no
one on the face of this earth would be here if they weren’t conceived.
In summary, abortion can be justified by a women’s right to choose, but
it should be banned because it’s immoral and life begins at conception.
Women have been given the right to have an abortion under the United States
Constitution, but this right is still being protested by the people that
fight for the unborn’s rights. Pro-life activists claim that its immoral
because it is simply defined as murder. Life begins at conception is
another strong point brought up by pro-life activists. Before a child is
born it is given all it’s necessities to survive. Notice the operative
word is before. Before birth the childs heart beats, the gastric juices
flow in the stomach, and all its necessary organs have been made present.
This is a child that thinks, dreams, and feels pain. Yes, some women may
look at having an abortion to solve her personal problems, but in all,
women are abandoning the abortion because it weakens their great strengths:
creation, compassion and the ability to loo eneath the surface of
appearance of things. Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and
people will see the rights of the unborn as greater importance than that of
a personal right.
