Abortion: the most controversial issues in America

Nina Emmrich English 1 Abortion Guy Thorvaldsen 14, April 14, 2013 Abortion, this is one of the most controversial issues in America. It’s been an issue for over 200 years. In 1973 it was protected under law. But today it isn’t. Most American’s believe that it’s a sin to have an abortion while others see it as a choice to do it. There have been many legal cases against and also for abortion. Many have won but many have lost. This issue will never end. It will always be an argument. By having an abortion the mother is killing and innocent child who has no say in it.

The family and father should also have a say in it as well. A little before the 1800’s states practiced some form of the English Common Law which happened to also lack codification. Abortion and unwed pregnancy didn’t exist in this time period. Finding the history of abortion is more difficult than people can imagine because there aren’t very many records of it to go off of. Starting in the 1600’s, there was the first conviction of the intent to abort a child. This went down in the state of Maryland, and then four years later another girl was arrested for murder because she had an abortion.

This also happened in Maryland, but that case was dropped after the woman married the only witness who of course refused to testify. Another case that happened was in 1710 where Virginia Law made it a capital crime to be pregnant and then be found with a dead baby. In 1719 Delaware made it that anyone who counseled abortion or even infanticide an accessory to murder. According to Olasky’s notes “infanticide was probably the most frequent way of killing unwanted, illegitimate children”. “Abortifacients were known to and used in the early America.

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But by using them “was like playing Russian roulette with three bullets in the chamber”. So already there are beginning to make it a crime to have abortions. (abort73. com) There are many key factors that went into the process of deciding a case. They didn’t always have specific legislation for abortion and infanticide, those who did happened to have the same problem. It was impossible to have the right evidence to convict someone, and even more so pregnancy was hard to confirm. There was never a corpse or a witness to prove it. But on the bright side there was a great deal of the ury that had sympathy for the abandoned and desperate woman. Either way there was a lot of non-legislative factors that had been working against infanticide and abortion. A major factor was that the man should “act honorably” and propose to the women if he got her pregnant before they were married. (abort73. com) To give more to the influence of the society was the religious and scientific community. They condemned abortion both for how the bible speaks of an unborn child and also for the well-known testimony of church pillars like John Calvin who forbade abortion.

From the 1600’s-1800’s the scientific community believed that babies actually existed before they were conceived. This was also another anti-abortion influence. The difficulty confirming pregnancy before quickening made early abortions almost impossible, and late term abortions ruined marriage prospects, and were extremely dangerous. (Abort73. com pg. 2) There’s more to the history than just the community. Lawmakers had to start dealing with abortion in the late 1800’s. It was 1821 when the first abortion legislation had passes in Connecticut.

The lawmakers everywhere else tried to keep up. New York legislation changed on abortion 10 times between 1828 and 1881. (Abort73. com) Abortion should be illegal. When women have abortions they are killing innocent children. It’s a sin to do so. Of course it’s a choice of the mother but what about the family. What about the father? Don’t they have a say in what happens to their child. As America grew and expanded, most of the support mechanisms that helped provide for women during their crisis pregnancies had begun to want.

The increase in social isolation and separation through urbanization had removed the societal and familial safety net for pregnant and non-married women had to fall back on. The concealment of a women’s pregnancy alone with smothering the baby after it was born was then considered a choice. Therefore abortion was beginning to get a foothold, but it was still not considered legitimate or legal. The frequency of was increasing as more young women found alone and pregnant. Dr. John Trader of Missouri stated that “contended that men were (the ones) pushing women into abortion”.

So it goes to show that the men are also part of the abortion’s happening. (abort73. com) Slowly the opposition of abortion began to lose a lot of its moral framework. In the med. Books abortion was beginning to be counseled against for the potential risks as it had been presented to many women instead of the life being destroyed. It was said that “the right to destroy” became the central belief to a women named Margaret Sanger. She began to expose it in publicity. She would celebrate the virtue of sexual promiscuity and she would attack any women’s shelter.

She then would have gone on to fount Planned Parenthood which still today remains the largest abortion provider in the United States. The government funding was required to remove all religious indoctrination and professional social workers replaced the evangelically-oriented matrons. The compassion shifted from helping to do what is right to doing whatever people feel like doing. (abort73. com) The birth control issue split the pro-life community for many years and hamstrung their efforts during the crucial 1960’s. (abort73. om) In the year of 1962 there were reports of a women who died form and illegal abortion and she was then cut into pieces which had horrified the entire nation. Sherri Finkbine became famous women for having an abortion in Sweden because she was worried that her child was going to be disabled. An average American had begun to see illegal abortion instead of abortion itself as the real problem. In the year of 1967 Colorado and California became the first states to legalize abortions for only pregnancies that resulted in rape, incest, or pregnancies that threatened the life of a women as well as a pregnancy of a severely handicapped child.

Then within the next three years, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina and Virginia soon followed. Then in 1970 New York became one of the first states to offer unrestricted abortion, but only during the first 24 weeks of the women’s pregnancy. Then in 1971 the Roe v. Wade case came to trial. The verdict was decided in 1973 which was that all state laws regulating abortion were strict. And the demand became the law of the land. So as you can see that abortion had a lot of history in front of it, but does it still make it right for it to be legal?

Some believe that abortion should only be legal for certain reasons, such as Rape victims. While many disagree with this option there are many who do agree. A woman who was raped and is carrying the rapist baby should have the right to decide what she would like to do with the baby. It's not the court's decision it's hers. It's been a woman's right since the Roe V. Wade case that abortion is legal. This caused an outrage. There were protests out on the steps of the courthouse where people were screaming that they are allowing woman to kill innocent children.

And they have a point too. Killing a child when they have no say in it is considered murder to some people. Anytime you kill a human being is murder so how is this any different. A woman in the army was 19 and was in an abusive relationship and he had gotten her pregnant. She didn’t want to tell him. She was called a whore, a tramp and embarrassment to her family. They told her to come home and discuss it as a family. Well little did she know they had made an appointment for her to get an abortion. No matter what she said it was all wrong.

Her oldest brother whom she respected wouldn’t even talk to her he was so ashamed of her. Her family kept telling her to get an abortion but she was against it. The argument lasted 3 hours and finally she went to bed. But her family wouldn't leave her alone until she made a decision. She was denied food that night and when she awoke the next morning she was denied food as well. So she finally gave in and they drove her to the clinic. She had the abortion and she saw a 16 year old girl in there and she hugged her and they cried together.

Her parents as well as her brothers never apologized for their actions. Her take away from this experience is that she can be compassionate to young teens that have made the horrible choice of having an abortion. She is now 47, married with 2 children and adopting a third. This story shows that there is regret to getting an abortion. She never stopped thinking of her first child. She told her now 21 year old daughter who had gotten pregnant 19 about what happened and her granddaughter is now one year old. There will always be that regret of having a child. (abort73. om) There was a case called Roe v. Wade. This was a case between a single pregnant that brought a class action challenge to the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws by procuring or attempting an abortion on medical terms for the mother. A licensed physician named Hallford who had to cases pending against him was somehow permitted to intervene. A married couple who were unable to bare a child separately attacked the laws as well based on alleged injury from the failure of contraceptives, pregnancy as well as impairment of the wife's health.

Roe and Hallford were standing to sue and presented justiciable controversies. The court decided to that the abortion status void as vague as those plaintiff's Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments. The District Court granted declaratory relief to Roe and Hallford. It was then decided in 1973 that the Court's ruled that the Texas criminal abortion statures are unconstitutional. (Cornell. edu) There are places that do abortions. These are called abortion clinics. The main one that is most popular is Planned Parenthood. These places should not exist.

Allowing young teens to come in and murder their child is wrong. In the case Planned Parenthood v. Casey the Supreme Court considered a Pennsylvania law that imposed the regulations on abortion. This case was not directly connected to Roe v. Wade. Although the Court didn't contend that Roe v. Wade was a correct application of reasoned judgment. In extreme arrogance the Court declared "where the performance of its judicial duties, the Court decides the case in such way as to resolve the sort of intensely divisive controversy reflected in Roe and those rare comparable cases….

Contending sides of a national controversy to end their national division by accepting a common mandate rooted in the constitution. " In this case Planned Parenthood because of the case Roe v. Wade and how abortion is legal because it's a national law. (Lifenews. com) There are so many reasons as to why abortion should not be legal but we have to look at the other side of the picture. We have to look at reasons why is should be legal and the reasons behind that. The big reason is Rape victims. Why should they have to carry the rapist's baby. They should have every right to get rid of it.

And with abortion being legal they can. To them it's not a sin. They are getting rid of something that was part of a horror that they went through. They have the right to decide and to them they aren’t doing the wrong thing they are doing the right thing. No one can stop them. They have the freedom to choose. Abortion is used for many different reasons. Those reasons can be that the mother was raped and didn’t want to keep the child or if they didn’t abort the mother would die. These are two serious reasons as to why some people are for abortion.

It can save someone's life when it comes to the decision of life or death. Or it could be the free release from something tragic that happened to someone. Abortion isn't all bad in some ways. Those two reasons are important to some people. A mother who doesn't want to carry a rapist's baby shouldn't have to. And if the child is killing the mother and abortion is the only way to save her life then do it. There are medical reasons to do abortions. Not just personal. Not only is it the mother's decision but it should also be the father's decision as well.

He should have a right to decide whether the baby lives or not. He helped create it. It's unfair to think that he will never be able to see is child because the mother aborted it without him knowing. It's unfair. Every father should have the right of say in what happens to his child. Then there's the issue of the family. The family should also have a say in what happens as well. They can help take care of the baby. Be there for the mother. Help her along the way. Help her, guide her. Give her and the baby love. They will be there for. The mother should want that, should have that.

The families are supposed to be there for their children. Love them no matter what happens to them. They will love their grandchildren just the same. So they should have a right of say as well. They will help guide the mother through the tough times. They will be there for her and the child, no matter what. So with all that history and all that information, have you come to a conclusion as to whether you are for or against it. You should be against it. It's murder. Killing an innocent child is just wrong. Everyone has the right to do as they please but in common sense it's the worst thing you could do.

There are other options like keeping the baby or giving it up for adoption. Why kill the baby when you can give it life. Give it a home, a place to eat, sleep, live and be happy. Or give it to a family whose always wanted a child but could never have one of their own. Give that baby a future. Don’t kill it. It deserves to live. Everyone deserves to live. Not die. It's wrong. So with all this information, I hope you've made the right decision as to whose side you're on. Killing an innocent child is wrong, and it needs to be stopped.

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