
An 18 year old child, who is a honor student, captain of her high school basketball team, and has a full ride scholarship to the University of South Carolina to play collegiate level basketball. She is walking into an abortion clinic with five hundred in her hand debating should she do it? This research question is enticing to me, because it is a heavily debated topic but is not fully understood by many people. I would like to bring light to this topic and inform the many people of the United States that are disassociated from all the facts about abortion. The word value has multiple meaning and the way people analyze their value when it comes to abortion greatly varies. For me the abortion topic hits home, I believe that every life is worth given a chance to live, even if the parents do not want the child, there many couples out there that want children but unable to have them. The personal experience that affects me is my mother was in a hard time in her life and was not sure if having my little brother was the best things to do at the time. So she thought long and hard about having the abortion and went to my grandmother with five hundred dollars in her hand and was being asked to be taken to the abortion clinic. My grandmother ultimately talked my mother out of having the abortion. The moral of the story is that there was a life at hand for only five hundred dollars. My little brother amounts to no amount of money that anyone could ever pay, and imaging my family without him seem unrealistic. A monetary value to me does not amount to a life and a life shouldn't have the ability to be taken away so easily. At the time my mother was not able to take on the care of another child so what is the right choice? Who know but only the mother should be able to make her choice. If the mother deems herself unfit to care for the child there are other options, such as abortion. I have completed countless hours researching abortions from both the views of the arguments Pro-Life and Pro-choice. My mother's past experience actually brings in another side of the story that is a lot of the time untold, that being the parent or subjects at hand.


Abortion is not a relatively new idea in terminating the pregnancy, in the mid-1500 B.C Egyptians suggested in some of their medical text that plant fibers and crushed dates be placed in the uterus to start the abortion process (ProCon) . The abortion debate is long steamy argument that has brewing for decades now since the supreme court ruled that the procedure is "fundamental right" in the Roe versus Wade case in 1973 (ProCon).With the decision of the ruling being this open the doors for two types of abortion, initially this the medicated abortion in which it must be performed within the first 9 weeks of a pregnancy (New Health Guide). Then the second type of abortion allowed women who missed the first 9 weeks deadline to receive the medical procedure of a surgical abortion in which is legal up until the 14 weeks but in some states they allow the termination period to go up to 24 weeks (New Health Guide). 

Along with the two types of abortions there are two separate viewpoints on abortion, one being pro-life which means the supporters are against abortions and then the pro-choice side of the debate where its supporters believe that abortions is the mothers decision, and is ultimately her choice. The abortion argument hit one of its peaks in the 70's where multiple legisaltive works and court cases were decided concerning abortions. The most prominent was the Roe versus Wade decision in which Norma Mccorvey, she was named Jane Roe in court documents to protect her privacy, filed a lawsuit against Dallas county district attorney Henry Wade (ProCon). Mccorvey was wanting to end her pregnancy, but in the state of Texas where is from abortion is not legal unless the mother life is at risk if the baby is kept to full term (ProCon). This was the first time federal action was taken on abortion in which the supreme court ruled that most states anti-abortion laws were unconstitutional. The ruling stated that in the first trimester (0-12 weeks) legislative action is prohibited to intervene with the abortion, also during the second trimester (13 weeks to 28 weeks) the ruling allowed the states to regulate abortions in ways that are based off the mothers health (ProCon). In the third and final trimester (29 weeks to 40 weeks) the supreme court decision stated that the state could not only regulate but prescribe abortion if the fetus doesn't have a chance of living a promoting interest of a functional human life (ProCon). Cleary the women and the fetuses at hand are the direct stake holders but the indirect stake holders include the father of the child, the different families that are involved with the mothers pregnancy and then community as a whole are affected if a mother choose to kept the baby. 

   Abortion should remain legal because the government should not be able to tell people what to do with their on bodies. The first article I looked I analyzed was an argumentative article in which Israel's abortion laws were criticized and showed how the laws would compared to other countries. This is vital to look at the situation form a different perspective by showing what a similar country is battling and how the Untied States can relate. Also this article explains the ways that reforms to the system can occur to protect women's rights, which gives women the power to govern their own bodies in decisions such as abortion. The major concern of this article is if abortion is legalized that it would affect the Jewish heritage and might affect the Jewish population by the weakening of it women mentally (Steinfeld). The Jewish population would not be affected if abortion because the women would be able to be socially and economically apart of the society. Thus empowering them and potentially bettering the nation, since now there is no fear associated with abortion and women can control their reproductive lives. The political leaders of Israel also believe that the demographics of the Jewish population may be decreased due to abortion, because they are already battling to regain numbers from the Holocaust (Steinfeld).The credible author Rebecca Steinfeld,  has received her doctorate in politics focusing in on women rights and is a political scientist that specializes in the reproduction and genital alterations proving those claims valid (Steinfeld). 

When you think about a crime the first that you would think to commit the crime would not be in your on own home but domestic violence is a real issue in the United States and women are being raped and abused by their partners. Domestic violence is one of the many reason abortion should remain legal because it will allow those women that are raped or molested within their home to have help if the victims did not want to keep the baby (Mattingly). The next article was on the limitation of the power of women during the 1970's and how it relates to today's problems of domestic violence and how abortion plays a role in that. This article claims that women were underrepresented in the 70's and since then modern days are better but there is still work to be done (Mattingly). Some examples supporting that women abortion rights were secondary to other issues at the time, was the passing of the Hyde amendment which banned the federal government to pay for abortion which made it hard for the poor or any one who could afford a abortion to receive one. Also the failure of the passing of legislature for funding of the Office of Domestic Violence, which provided assistance for women in general. For instance, a women whom were rapped by there significant other they would get help with a abortion from the Office of Domestic Violence to help get away from the situation and get an abortion if they wanted to do so. The value of a women is  affected the most are women feelings of worthless in which they can not make the decision to have an abortion themselves unless they can afford the procedure.The author is Dr. Doreen J. Mattingly she heads of the Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State University where she has done many studies on domestic violence and transnational economies and gender relationships (Mattingly). 

The  word abortion has such a negative connation with is, because most people think the only way to get an abortion is the surgical procedure. If the fetus has not yet pass the first trimester then a medical abortion can be preform in which it is less invasive as a surgical abortion (International). The third article, gives more of an biological approach to the topic without the feeling that usually associated with abortions.The main claim of this article states that there is a shortage of medical staff needed to perform medication abortions and nurses with the proper training and procedures are just as qualified and are able to give medication abortions (International). The nurse had a success rate that was just as good as physician with their success rates differing on 1% falling within the 5% of allowed fluctuation in experiments (International). Patients were just as comfortable with their care of nurses as doctors. The nurses followed the same procedures as the doctors did when administering the medicated abortion. The author is trying to prove that abortion is not a complicated process and wants to allow more healthcare workers to be allowed to do it thus making abortion more available.



The topic of abortion is a emotional and touchy subject matter, it brings in many view and opinions form several different groups and types of people. For many religious groups such as Catholics believe that the fetus should be considered a human and alive at the point of conception when the women gets pregnant (John P.). Therefore the fetus is considered a life form and having the abortion process is killing the fetus, which murder of a human is against there beliefs (John P.). Catholics also believe that abortions should not be solely the mothers decision and that the process should not be decided lightly. Catholics feel that a choice of that magnitude should be a community decision in which the church is involved to help guide the mother through the pregnancy instead killing the unborn child (John P.). The church backs this claim with references to the bible by telling how wrong abortion is and if a women does receive an abortion she will be redeem by God in an negative way (John P.). They also believe that the young mothers who aborts or thinking about receive an abortion for  their child, needs to supported by the community the most (John P.). When the mother get to the point where she can not provide the church can come in and assist the mother, because at that points is where the mother believes she cant care for the child and results to abortion. Catholics feels that the moment the community stops showing support and guidance for young mothers the society altogether has choose death for the fetus at hand (John P.).

If a women has made the decision that she is no fit to have the child it should be her decision even if the community is affected by it. There are many Americans who are not religious may feel as if the Catholics are forcing their values and beliefs on them if they receive help and do not want the church interfering with their personal lives. Many women who are raped do not want to remember that experience ever again and if the victim gets pregnant that would be an everlasting memory especially if they had to keep the child. In some case the fetus will not be able to live a sustainable life due to a defect, in which someone would have to care for the child at all times may not what some families can handle therefore they choose to abort the child (ProCon).

Another reason why some believe that abortion should be illegal is that the fetus can feel the procedure being do and is causing extreme amounts of pain for the fetus. This statement is support by the research done by Associate professor of Neurology and Anatomy at the University of Utah revealed that the spinal cortex is developed enough at the 12th week of pregnancy that the fetus could feel the abortion and that it would be an immense amount of pain (Samuels). The some believe that the move of the fetus is the child reacting to the painful procedure and is causing more pain.

In contrast to the pain amount argument was a more recent study conducted in 2013 by  Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has evidence that proves with pain is felt by the fetus. The study states the most neurologist agree that the spinal cortex is developed at the 12th week of pregnancy but the cortex is not functional. The spinal cortex does not start reacting to pain until the 20th week and is not fully functional until the 26th week of the pregnancy (ProCon). Therefore feeling the sensation of pain is long after most abortion are preformed and most states prohibit abortion at the 26th week, when the spinal cortex is fully functional unless the mother life in endangered(ProCon). The Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist also proved that the movement of the fetus was is actually the reflexes of the muscles, tendons and ligaments rather than the fetus reacting to the pain stimuli (ProCon). 

The importance of supporting abortion has several benefits in which the mothers can choose different life style and better themselves in the future. With abortion remaining legal in the United States it would make the abortion more accepted socially instead of the girl who had a abortion being glared down and talked about by others who she might not even know. So the persistence of the Pro- choice supporter is crucial for abortion to continue to be legal and fight for the representation of women to control their rights.

 

In conclusion, you can argue his research question because abortion has variety of different meaning to so  many people. For example someone may believe that terminating the pregnancy at all should be illegal, while others believe if you terminate the pregnancy before the end of the first trimester you did not harm to the fetus (Abortion). Making abortion a very controversial, debatable and augmentative topic which is needed for a fully developed research paper. Some disagreements that I have found is that should abortion be funded by the federal government, does doctors or nurses giving the abortions affect the success of the procedure, and in what situations should the abortion be allowed.

