Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy and is most commonly preformed in the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Most surgical abortions are safe but can be expensive which cause many people to get unsafe abortions. About 47,000 women die from complications from these unsafe abortions. Due to the many different views of abortion, it is a very controversial topic today. Abortion can be looked at in numerous ways based on the following theories, Structural-functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interaction.
An ethical dilemma today in society is that of abortion, which one would define as a deliberate end to a pregnancy. Various arguments exist questioning if an abortion is morally justifiable. Some say the state should decide on the legality of an abortion, some politicians say the federal government should decide, and many believe it should be up to the women since it pertains to their body. In this paper, I will analyze what a utilitarian’s perspective on abortion would be.
Abortion has been performed for a long time. It was legal in the United States from the beginning it was created/founded. “At the time the Constitution was adopted, abortions were openly advertised and commonly performed.”(History of Abortion) But in the mid-to-late 1800s some states began passing laws that made abortion illegal. The motivations for anti-abortion laws varied from state to state. But in 1973 the supreme court “recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians.”(Planned Parenthood Roe) This was called Roe v. Wade. So abortion is federally legal in the U.S. but different states may ban it or not for their own personal reasons. This topic is very controversial because many different people have different opinions on this topic. For example the two main opinions are called pro life and pro choice. The people who support pro life believe that all life is important and that an abortion should never happen unless to save the mother. The opposite opinion of pro life is pro choice and these people believe that it 's the woman 's choice to decide whether or not they want to have an abortion.
“I 've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”- Ronald Reagan. All people deserve respect and deserve the right to live their lives until natural death. The right to make their own memories, to start a family of their own, and the right to drive their parents up the wall, are all basic needs everyone deserves. A child starts out life as an innocent human being, a person who has yet to discover the world, a person, who is on this earth for a reason. To be truly pro-life means respecting life from natural conception until natural death, and respecting people of all walks of life.
“I cannot understand anti-abortion arguments that centre on the sanctity of life. As a species we've fairly comprehensively demonstrated that we don't believe in the sanctity of life. The shrugging acceptance of war, famine, epidemic, pain and life-long poverty shows us that, whatever we tell ourselves, we've made only the most feeble of efforts to really treat human life as sacred.” - Caitlin Moran Abortion does what contraception does not necessarily do: it works. Let the abortion be as it is, it is the mother’s body and she can abort it as she wishes. The mother is not neglectful to have a baby, the mother may not be able to financially provide, the mother could have been raped, the mother could have not believed in adoption. The mother could have
On January 22, 1973, in a 7-2 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down it’s landmark decision in the case of Roe v. Wade, which recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians (Planned Parenthood). There are many moments in history when Roe v. Wade has been so close to being overturned, yet it is still in place. Abortion should stay legal, or not overturned, for the health of women everywhere.
“77% of Anti-Abortion Leaders are men, 100% of them will never be pregnant” (Barbara Kruger). Whether to continue or end a pregnancy, has been a long debated topic, extending long after the Roe v. Wade case that went all the way to the Supreme court (ProCon). Abortion is defined as the intentional termination of a pregnancy, frequently performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy (Oxford University Press). Each year, over one million women in America chose to have an abortion (WebMD). What would happen if that right to choose was taken away?
For an extended number of years, society has had opposing views of abortion, the act of ending a pregnancy before birth, resulting in the death of an embryo or a fetus. Before and during the 1800s, all surgical procedures were risky due to the lack of education, sterilization and hospitals, and abortion was merely a thought. Once medical techniques resulted in more success, abortion became not just a thought, but an option for many women, though the procedure was usually done by illegal practitioners. Because of the newly formed American Medical Association calling abortion an immoral and dangerous act, abortion was fiercely looked down upon. By 1910, all but one state had criminalized abortion except where necessary. In the years 1967 through
Abortion has been a medical procedure for in the United States since as early as the 1880s. Historically it has been a medical procedure that was used when a woman’s life was in danger for medical reasons, rape, or incest. The Landmark case that set a new standard for Abortion in the United States came in 1973 in the state of Texas. “On January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Roe v. Wade, a challenge to a Texas statute that made it a crime to perform an abortion unless a woman’s life was at stake. The case had been filed by “Jane Roe,” an unmarried woman who wanted to safely and legally end her pregnancy. Siding with Roe, the court struck down the Texas law. In its ruling, the court recognized for the first time that the constitutional right to privacy “is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Roe v. Wade, 1973). Roe has come to
The pro-choice/pro-life is a major argument in politics in the United States today. However it is not so simple as pro-choice and pro-life. Pro-choice has been coined to mean that women should have the right to choose abortion and it should be a legal option. Pro-life has been connected with the banning of abortion and looking at a fetus as a life so abortion is basically murder. However this pro-life view has gotten very convoluted. Often times recently people who believe in pro-life do not care about the child after they are born. Their lives are not cared for past birth. Pro-birth is a new term has been made for people who believe in the banning of abortion but not any of the legal aid to help the children and their families after the child is born. With the introduction of the term “pro-birth” pro-life’s meaning is slowly evolving. It is not only pro-life but “pro-woman, pro-adoption,
Abortion follows the moral framework of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism, otherwise known as consequentialism, is the moral theory that holds than an action can be considered good or bad in relation to its end result (Burkhardt, M.A. & Nathanial, A.K., 2014). The only factors that makes actions good or bad is the outcomes, or the end results, that are derived from them. For example, imagine the story of a woman who is mother of four, is recently divorced, and works at McDonalds, then finds out she pregnant with her fifth child. If she knows that having a fifth child would put even more financial stress on herself and would take away time from her other children who she already feels distanced from, then having an abortion is a decision she
Abortion is a huge problem, not just in the United States but also all over the world. Abortion is a termination of a pregnancy, usually within the first 28 weeks. Some people believe abortion is murder, while others believe it is not. Abortion is a social problem. In order to be a social problem, the issue must affect a group of people. People who are pro-life, believe abortion should not be legal, while some people believe that the fetus is not a living person therefore it should be legal. There are also people who are in the middle, they are neutral, they are neither for or against abortions. If abortion is illegal then it will still happen. Women would still find a way to still have abortions but, they will be taking a greater risk in having them done. Abortion affects many people. Some women disagree with the idea, while others agree. Some religions believe it is a sin to have an abortion. Abortion
Jost, Kenneth, and Kathy Koch. "Abortion Showdowns." CQ Researcher 22 Sept. 2006: 769-92. Web. 27 July 2015
Tanya Luhrmann upholds her evidence behind every premise regarding abortions, the unfair treatment of the fetus, and “Pro-Life” beliefs. She explains that, “...the issue that provokes such anger surrounds the fetus’s right to life--its status as a potential human being” (Luhrmann, 1979, p. 1). Luhrmann addresses the importance of legalizing and creating safe procedures during abortions
The conflict over abortion in America has been a major social problem in our nation for decades. During the 1960 's and 70 's with the coinciding civil rights movement and women’s rights movement, abortion became the new national issue that we still see today between two opposing ideologies, grouped into sides coined as pro-life and pro-choice. It is one of the biggest debates over whose morals and beliefs are adequate for our society that make the abortion issue such a controversial and divisive one. Each side believes that their views and beliefs are what we are a society should follow and belief.