Prochoice/prolife
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Thesis
Abortion is one of the most controversial and painful subject in America. Ever since Roe vs. Wade over thirty years ago, we continue to debate whether or not abortion should be legal. The reason for this has to do with whether or not expulsion of the fetus is murder or in the interest of the mother. Pro-life activists debate that all life in the instant of its conception is innocent and deserves a chance at life. Many Christian Pro-life activists claim that God chooses peoples time of life and death, not the mother. Pro-choice followers often argue in favor of the United States Constitutional Ninth Amendment, as well as science, which hold freedom of choice sacred. Women should have the right to choose what is best for them. Women will terminate their pregnancies for many reasons such as; being to young, being to old, having enough children, not wanting anymore, being financially unstable, etc
Years ago, women had no choice. If they got pregnant they would “have to get married” or go to a home where they would have the baby and give it up for adoption. Women who were desperate to terminate an unwanted pregnancy would resort to whatever it took to end the unwanted pregnancy. They would at times actually put their life on the line. They went to illegal abortionists were they would bled to death or even die of infection. Sometimes, women would perform self-mutilation procedures in an attempt to end the pregnancy. They would use coat hangers in the uterus, slippery elm in the uterus, anything they could think of that would cause sponteneous abortion of the fetus. At times these women were no longer able to reproduce. Many of them needed to have hysterectomies, had pelvic abscesses, or were infertile. When it came time for them to have children they were unable to reproduce. Doctors were not performing abortions due to threats of the loss of their license. “Abortion was strictly illegal, and [you] would not only face, of course, incarceration, but loss of your reputation. So the general attitude was that abortion was absolutely not a part of the practice of medicine, and abortionist was a dirty word. There were a few doctors who provided safe abortions, but for the most part, it was a hidden, kitchen-table sort of thing (Pellatreau, (2003).” Women would pay thousands of dollars for an illegal abortion but they felt that the more they paid the safer it would be in the long run.
We must realize that having no choice would put us back in the stone ages. We would end up going back into the alleys and performing the procedures our self. Abortion is the right of the woman to choose what is best for her and the fetus. If, the woman decided to continue the pregnancy then that would be her choice, but if she feels that the pregnancy cannot continue it should still be here choice. The bodily dependence on a pregnancy by an unborn child on its mother creates a significant physical burden. To legally require a woman to continue a pregnancy and deliver the baby when it can harm her and her body is like treating here as a means to the child she is carrying.
There is no other time in the law of the United States that would require one person to support another person with bodily life. Even the law does not require parents to rescue children when doing so would put the parents own safety at risk. A mother nor, a father is required to rush into a burning building or donate an organ. To carry a pregnancy to term when doing so risks the women’s health confirms our worst fears that pregnant women have no autonomy, but that pregnant women have no right to protect their own existence. We must remember that we need to keep woman and the country in the 21st century. We must protect our rights of choice and freedom. I believe that the choice of having an abortion is up to a woman. Women should always have the right to choose.
Anti-thesis
The society we live in today is full of rights for everything. Yet, we still find the unborn unprotected.
Since the legalization of abortion in 1973, there has been a loss of a generation. The pro-life side has one simple message: “It’s a baby!” We persist in saying that the life in the womb is a human child, showing sonograms, repeating that the heartbeat begins at 21 days, declaring that every third child dies from abortion.
This is a vey effective message. It is the most significant argument we have to convince and galvanize, and for that reason I uphold it as the primary factor in a persuasion stance. The unborn child is fully human from the time it is conceived. Abortion is the death of the unborn child intentionally. That means that abortion allows the killing of the unborn child intentionally. This killing is unjustified, since the unborn child has the right to life.
“The real question today is not when human life begins, but, What is the value of human life? The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mothers body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being. The real question for him and for all of us is whether that tiny human life has a God-given right to be protected by the law- the same right we have (Reagan, 1983).”
Pro-life is also about protecting the innocent. We protect them for many reasons. One, because they are young and cannot protect themselves. Two, because everyone should have the right to be protected and three because they bear the likeness of God. The image that they will have even once they are grown (Kaveny 2005). Yes, abortion is wrong. The lord said, “You shall not murder (Exodus 33:13).”
Even though cases of abortion due to rape and incest only make up one percent of the total number abortions performed, there is still no reason why 15,000 unborn babies should be murdered annually. Why should the unborn baby be condemned to death because of a crime committed by another person? The unborn baby is innocent of the offense and does not need to be murdered because of the act of another. If innocent people should be condemned to death because they are a result of a crime, then instead of imprisoning or putting to death a convicted murderer, we should kill one of that prisoner’s family members.
If the woman does not want to have the baby, she could either carry the unborn baby until full term and give the child up for adoption, or go within 24 hours to a hospital and have the rapists semen removed before conception.
Having a choice is definitely the issue. The choice is to make the right decision. Choose not to have sex until you are married. Choose to use