The body of the paper being no less than 4 and no more than 6 pages in length.APA format is used. Includes headings with the following sections: Introduction; Pro; Con; Conclusion. State the issue and explain its importance in your introduction. In writing your pro and con agreements, present arguments and evidence for choosing one side of the issue. Next present arguments and evidence for the other side. The two arguments should be in balance. Finally, in the conclusion of your paper, state your conclusions and the basis for them.
Abortion remains a political issue, in spite of the fact the Supreme Court decision in 1973 that ensured the rights of women to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. Roe v. Wade reflects core Constitutional principles, ranging from the right to privacy invoked by the Supreme Court justices in the decision, to the tradition of separating matters of Church and State in American politics.
When it comes to abortion, there are essentially no real pros and cons; the debate mainly centers on whether or not abortion should be legal or not. Abortion is not something that women look forward to, but it is a procedure that ensures that unwanted children are not brought into the world unnecessarily. Abortion rights are essentially the rights of an individual to not carry an unwanted child to term. No one is "pro" abortion, but someone may be "pro" choice.
An abortion is a procedure to terminate an unwanted pregnancy; on that basic level there should be no moral or ethical debate. Anti-abortion activists usually claim that abortion is a form of homicide based on the assumption that the fetus is a human being with rights. This claim is based on intuition, emotion, and religious doctrine, rather than on fact.
Pro
There are far more factors, and facts, that favor abortion being a legal procedure. Legal abortion means safe abortions. Women who do not want to carry a child to term for whatever reason will opt for unsafe methods of terminating pregnancy. In a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO), Ahman & Shah (2007) show that mortality rates and health consequences are severe in countries with restrictive abortion laws. When abortion is legal, it also needs to be available and affordable to women in rural regions to ensure equal rights. As Cockrill & Weitz (2010) point out, one of the pros of abortion being legal is that women in regions without access to health care like rural regions are legally entitled to the same services that would be available in urban centers. Therefore, one of the main pros of abortion is that it maintains public health and health equity. Donohue & Levitt (2001) go so far as to correlate legal abortion with crime reduction. States with greater access to abortion had correspondingly higher rates of abortion, and also had the greatest rate of crime reduction (Donohue & Levitt, 2001). Of course, the results are correlational but could be significant. Perhaps because abortion prevents overpopulation and alleviates the burden of too many children on poor women, there is less strain in the community.
A key pro-in favor of legalized abortion is based on basic rights and liberties. The fact is that the woman is singularly responsible for carrying the child to term, even if she was not singularly responsible for the pregnancy. Banning abortion is basically forcing a woman to carry a child to term. The reasons for the pregnancy -- whether it was a broken condom or a missed pill -- are irrelevant. This is why the Roe v. Wade decision hinged on the constitutional right to privacy more than any other right (Balkin, 2007). Moreover, abortion rights reflect the rights of Americans to live in a society that values quality of life over religious fundamentalism.
Finally, a pro-of abortion is that it prevents misery and promotes a high quality of life. Children who are brought into the world unwanted are disadvantaged. If the mother keeps the child, she may be poor or emotionally incapable of caring. If the child is placed for adoption, there is no guarantee that child will lead a good life. There are already too many people on the planet, and abortion prevents overpopulation from becoming worse than it already is.
Con
More sensible voices from the con perspective discuss issues like the emotional and psychological well being of the pregnant woman. When empathy and caring permeate the healthcare system, such psychological problems are not an issue (Cockrill & Weitz, 2010). Likewise, when society ceases stigmatizing women for having abortions, emotional and psychological distress will also not be a factor. Instead, women would be congratulated because they would have prevented the needless suffering of yet another unwanted human being.
The con position asserts that the fetus is a full human being with rights equal to that of the mother. Because of this belief, it is concluded that an abortion is murder. If abortion were killing a human being, then it would be understandable that the "murder" argument would hold true. However, a fetus is a fetus. It has the potential to become a human being, but so does the egg inside the mother's body and the sperm inside the man's. Finally, the con position points to the Hippocratic Oath ("Should Abortion Be Legal?" 2014). All doctors have to say the Hippocratic Oath, which does in fact expressly forbid abortions.
The most vocal cons of abortion come from religious sects, the individuals who belong to them, and other irrational groups. For example, one politician in Australia claims that rapists and pedophiles are in favor of abortion because it destroys evidence of their crime, and therefore abortion should be illegal (Gordon & Cook, 2014). Many con positions on abortion promote the belief that the woman is to blame for the pregnancy regardless of whether she was raped or whether the condom broke. The view is that abortion is categorically wrong, no matter what the circumstances or consequences. The con position assumes that abortion is categorically wrong because of perceived moral or religious beliefs.
Conclusion
Based on an analysis of pros and cons, it seems there are far more pros, and far more reasonable arguments for abortion. Abortion is a fact of life, albeit an unfortunate one. However, women will have abortions whether they are legal or not. Abortions therefore need to be safe and legal. Furthermore, abortions do not reflect immorality; the greater immorality is the subjugation of women through enforced pregnancy and the proliferation of overpopulation.
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