Essay About U.S. Supreme Court And National Records

Abortion and Teenage Pregnancy
Essay title: Abortion and Teenage Pregnancy
ABORTION AND TEENAGE PREGNANCY
In 1973 the U.S. Supreme Court issued an unprecedented ruling. Abortion, it said, is virtually a private
matter for the woman to decide. “This right of privacy . . . is broad enough to encompass a womans decision
whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (Roe v. Wade, slip opinion, pp. 37-38). Beginning in the fourth
month of pregnancy, the Court held, the state could impose some health restrictions on the performance of
abortion, if it chose to do so, and in the sixth or perhaps seventh month it could-if it so chose-extend some
protection to the “potential human life” in the mothers womb (full rights of human personhood are not to be
recognized by the law until at least birth). But, whether in the third, sixth, or ninth month of pregnancy, the
private right of the woman to obtain an abortion is always paramount.
The Courts tragic decision is based on two fundamental errors:
First, the life of the unborn child is assigned a moral value of zero.
Second, abortion is essentially considered in a vacuum, apart from all other human relationships.
The woman, in consultation with her physician, has the final power to decide whether and why the
abortion should be performed. No one else has any say in the matter.
YetЎXdespite what the Court saidЎXit is a fact that the generation of new human life is an event of
immense social importance. Court decisions do not create this reality, nor can they destroy it. Many aspects of
this process of generation are personal, but none can properly be called altogether private-that is, pertaining to
the individual alone. When the Court called abortion a private matter for the woman to decide, it adopted a legal
fiction-a fiction which helps society silently condone the performance of what it knows to be a morally
shameful act.
At least since 1969, when national records on the subject were first kept, about one-third of all legal
abortions each year have been performed on teenagers-upwards of 300,000 in 1974. Teenagers make up a
significant single group of abortion recipients. They are also the most humanly vulnerable group. In what
follows we shall discuss in some detail the situation of the pregnant, unwed teenager. We shall conclude with
several reflections on why changes are needed in public policy.
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities 1977
TEENAGE ABORTION
The incidence of legal abortion has been increasing dramatically since it was first introduced in an
appreciable way in several states in 1967. It is estimated that in 1975 the number of abortions in the United
States exceeded one million. Apparently, the annual figure has not yet peaked (a phenomenon which usually
occurs several years after a permissive abortion policy has been introduced). Teenagers, along with other age
groups, have increasingly turned to abortion, and this trend will probably continue for several years.
The available data do not make it clear how many of the teenagers who obtain abortions are married and
how many are not. However, it seems safe to assume that the vast majority are unmarried. The estimated
national figure for unmarried women obtaining abortions in all age groups was 70.9 percent in 1974. Most
likely, the figure for the teen years was even higher.
In light of this, one can hardly ignore the question of the relationship between the pregnant, unmarried
daughter and her parents. This question becomes even more important when we realize that an estimated 13,000
girls under the age of 15 obtained abortions in 1974.