The issue that I have been researching this semester is the debate on abortion rights. I have come to the conclusion that I support the pro-choice movement due to the fact that I strongly believe that people should have the right in deciding what happens to their bodies. However, the question that I am going to attempt to solve in my research paper is how we can work towards decreasing the number of unwanted pregnancies and ultimately decreasing the number of abortions in the United States. Instead of arguing for one side entirely, I am going to be proposing ways that we can all work towards decreasing the number of abortions. I say this because I have had two people in my life that have needed abortions. Both my Aunt and my sister's best friend needed the procedure, but the process that they had to go through to actually get the abortion was shockingly difficult. Because of the difficult process that they both went through, I became interested in the issue surrounding abortion rights. I am interested in why states are putting up laws and legislation that regulates abortion if abortion rights are protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. As I said earlier, I am a strong believer in people deciding what happens to their bodies, and with the laws being put into place to regulate abortion I feel very strongly about this topic, but it doesn't change any values that I hold. I think that due to my passion on the subject, and the personal experiences that I have had with abortion, I am qualified to write about this topic -- even more so when I have done more research.

I figured that in my paper I would introduce the topic by beginning with background information on the debate and how it started, which is why my first source is a case summary on the Roe vs. Wade trial. The trial, conducted in 1973, began with Roe filing a suit that challenged the constitutionality of the abortion laws in Texas. The source gives a very in-depth summary of the case, including the 7-2 ruling that abortion is a right that is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. The case summary talks about how this sparked the beginning of the anti-abortion movement, which is the major interest at stake. The ruling over the trial led to the formation of the anti-abortion movement, which sparked the beginning of the debate between pro-choice advocates and pro-life advocates. The case summary was written by Martin H. Kelly, and in the case summary there is no bias, there is only information regarding the case and what happened.

As a part of my paper, I wanted to bring in some real-life examples of women who weren't given proper treatment when it came to abortions. With that being said, my next source is the story of a woman named Megan Padilla who describes what she went through when getting an abortion for a child that would have a chromosomal disorder. Due to her first hand encounter with poor access to abortion, she is a credible author for this topic. She touches on the stares that people would give her, how she had to travel to another state to receive the abortion because the hospital in her hometown refused to perform the procedure, and how the procedure led to a near-death experience due to the unequal treatment that she received. The issue that her story presents is that even though abortion is legal in the United States, there are laws being put into place which in turn effects the treatment that women receive and leads to things going wrong with the procedure.

I also wanted to bring in stories of people who believed in the pro-choice movement for different reasons than I do, which is why the last source I have chosen is about a woman named Kelseigh who describes how her infertility made her pro-choice. She brings up reasons like how people who are able to reproduce don't owe the public the children that they cannot afford, it is unfair to make someone go through the exhausting experience of pregnancy against their will, people shouldn't be denied access to birth control, and a woman should have the ultimate decision over what happens to their own bodies. The major issue presented in her argument is that the government is trying to control what happens to women with abortions, and they shouldn't be. She has done extensive research on the subject shown through her writing, which makes her a credible author for this subject.

The decision is either pro-choice or pro-life, and everybody has their different opinions on the issue, which makes the topic of how we can decrease the number of abortions arguable. There are always going to be people who don't agree with abortions and want to get rid of abortions for good. The arguments that the articles propose have led me to become more passionate about my belief in pro-choice, because they all support the pro-choice movement, but all for different reasons. I think that with the exigence I have I will be able to write a twenty-five-hundred-word paper.

