Abortion: Murder or Convenience?Essay Preview: Abortion: Murder or Convenience?Report this essayAbortion: Murder or Convenience?The woman was 22 weeks pregnant when she sought the assistance of Dr. Martin Haskell, the originator of the partial-birth abortion procedure, to rid herself of her already-kicking child. Haskell performed the first stage of the partial-birth abortion. He inserted a seaweed-based substance into the womans cervix and instructed her to return the following day. But in this case, things did not go according to plan. The woman complained of severe abdominal pain on the first night and, being far from Haskells clinic, reported to the emergency room of her local hospital, Bethesda North, in Cincinnati. As she was being examined (she did not say she was pregnant), the baby was born – alive. Pediatricians and neonatologists came running. The baby girl weighed in at 1 pound.
The doctors decided that the child was very unlikely to survive and instructed that nothing be done. Connie Boyles, a nurse, and Shelly Lowe, a medical technician, saw the baby girl gasp for air and were stunned. Lowe, knowing that the nurses were busy caring for other patients in the emergency room, asked if she could hold the child she dubbed “Baby Hope” until she died. The request was granted. Lowe wrapped Baby Hope in a blanket and settled into a rocking chair for what she imagined would be just a few minutes. She sang to her and stroked her cheeks. “I wanted her to feel that she was wanted,” Lowe explained later. “She was a perfectly formed newborn, entering the world too soon, through no choice of her own.”
The baby sucked on her lower lip, opened and closed her hands, and moved a bit as Lowe held her. She also did something else – she continued to breathe on her own. After three hours, Baby Hope died in the arms of the compassionate Shelly Lowe. The state of Ohio issued her a death certificate. The cause of death was listed as “extreme pre-maturity secondary to induced abortion.” Lowe was asked at a press conference what her position on abortion was. She said she had been pro-choice but was now pro-life. What changed her mind? Three hours. (
Many people believe that a woman has control over her body, but is the “blob of tissue” inside her really part of her body? Many scientists say “no,” they say that life begins at conception. Dr. Matthews-Roth of Harvard Medical School has given over 20 resources that agree with and support the fact that life begins at conception. Certainly a woman has the right to control her own body, but the unborn baby, though living inside her body for a time, is not part of her body. To say likewise would be to say every mother has four arms, two heads, four legs and in the case of a male conception – a penis and testicles. And, if its not part of the mothers body, does she still has the right to choose what to do when while this unwanted “mistake” is in her body?
Pro-choice activists state that a woman has the choice to do what she wants with what is hers. In the words of our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, “No one has the choice to choose what is wrong.” Murderers make the choice to kill and are appropriately punished for it. How so is abortion different? As previously stated, the baby is not part of a mothers body. In a nationwide poll of voters in 2001, the majority believed that abortion destroys a human life and is manslaughter, while only thirty-five percent does not destroy a human life and is not manslaughter. Why do mothers who kill their babies after they are born receive jail time and mothers who have an abortion remain innocent?
What about the extremely rare and few cases of rape and incest? Although these cases are rare and very few in number, the fact that they do occur can not be avoided. But to argue that abortion should be legalized on account of these rare extremities would be like arguing that traffic law should be abolished because a sick person may need to be rushed to the hospital. To argue for the legalization of abortion, based on rape and insect, does not justify the necessity of abortions on call. Also if a rape is reported early enough, there are procedures that can help so the sperm from the aggressor doesnt fertilize the victims eggs. These procedures dont kill anything; they simply make the walls of the egg harder, but not impossible to penetrate. The baby is as much of a victim as the mother. Some pro-choice people say that pro-lifers lack compassion, because they force a woman to carry a baby against her will, but the rapist is the one who, in fact, has forced the woman to carry the baby.
When a woman has an abortion, she risks many things. Infection and extreme bleeding are just among the many. Infertility, Breast cancer and death are also among the risks of having an abortion. An induced abortion raises a womans chance of getting breast cancer before the age of forty- five by fifty percent. If done before the age of eighteen, it increases one hundred and fifty percent. Three hundred forty-two deaths from legal abortions where reported from 1973- 1987. The government stopped collecting these statistics in 1987, because doctors were incorrectly reporting the number of deaths from abortions. The main causes of infertility after abortion are: blocked fallopian tubes caused by pelvic infection, scar tissue caused by damage
Fetus-abortions. An infertile teenager is not an ideal pregnancy in terms of fertility. She may be five to nine, with a chance of getting an abortion but an overall increased chances of a miscarriage, pregnancy loss, or miscarriages. An abortion-related miscarriage occurs when a fertilized egg dies at a young age, or in the case of pregnancy loss. An infertile teenage girl will likely have a future baby when her pregnancy begins to end. At these ages, abortions take place without the knowledge of the parents or the doctor they used to carry. During a pregnancy, doctors may be able to ask that the donor carry the baby for medical treatment if they believe the baby will survive. There is concern at large that a woman who is pregnant and who has given her daughter a lot of risk of miscarriage, pregnancy loss, or deaths will be taken as an unreliable source of information given to them by the state, the court, and all interested parties, especially in cases where a single donor might be required to pay for medical care of more than one. The mother or father of the baby may then be asked to agree to the arrangement after the baby is born, given that the father is a married man and may carry the baby to school. If complications arise such as miscarriage, permanent deafness or an impaired kidney, doctor who wants to take the baby to hospital or a hospital may give the mom a prescription and require the mother to come in for a CT scan to see if fetal tissue may be found. Because there is more than one donor of an infant, a woman could be the source of the complications. An abortion only has a small chance of helping the fetus get through normal pregnancies. Fertilization. After a baby dies at an early age, the mother or father or their spouse may want to have an abortion. It is not uncommon for an unmarried mother to want to have an abortion at the age of eighteen, and a few unmarried mothers do. As with other pregnancies, all pregnancies that have a chance of success involve the mother or the husband for at least two years before the pregnancy begins. Therefore, having your baby pregnant gives you an increased chance of receiving good care in the short term and can be a good investment to make. Infertility-induced abortions are also a common cause of disease, birth defects, accidents, or diseases in women with this condition.
Infertility-induced abortions are rare and are not reported as a problem by women who have a problem, whether due to a genetic disorder or through a disease-causing virus. A pregnant woman or girl with this condition will sometimes be able to have her first menstrual period. Some women feel unwell on their own and suffer from severe symptoms such as colds or cramps during the first few weeks of pregnancy. Women who experience the dreaded symptoms of infertility before they have a chance to have an abortion will be able to see what should be known by them about the dangers of abortion. It will be