Abortion: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Abortion: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Abortion is a very common topic nowadays in society. Most everyone knows what abortion is, and knows someone who may have thought about having it done or actually ended up having an abortion. It is more common among the young kids in the United States. Abortion is defined as from Guttmacher Institute, “the removal of an embryo, or of a fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy” which in many of the cases the pregnancy is an unplanned pregnancy. Some people say abortion should be illegal and that abortion should be considered murder because it is killing an innocent child even before they get any chance of living. Others say it is a very necessary procedure to do because well, accidents do happen. Some people believe so strongly that abortion is murder, they are sometimes considered extremists. In some cases those certain people have killed doctors, who prescribe pills to end pregnancy, and also make procedures to end females pregnancies have even been killed just for the sole fact of their work. In 1993 Emily Bazelon of the New York Times explained how on one sunny clear day in March a man by the name of Randall Terry was extremely opposed to abortion. Terry even had gone to the extent to say “We’ve found the weak link is the doctor. We’re going to expose them. We’re going to humiliate them,” he had the idea that its all the doctors fault for abortion, so if people would rid the doctors, then there would no longer be abortions. An extremist against abortion would think that. Then a few days after Terry had said his statement a doctor by the name of David Gunn, who was an abortion provider, was murdered outside his own clinic in Florida. The location of where he was shot was about 500 miles away from where Randall Terry made his statement. The murder of Dr. David Gunn was the first of eight murders of abortion providing doctors. Many circumstances come up where women will want to get an abortion. The most common one is of a young female, who got pregnant, unplanned, and at the wrong time. Actually surprisingly one in every three females will get an abortion before the age of 45. If you are under the age of 18, in many states, the state will require you to get permission from both your parents before making a decision that really could affect your life in many ways. You may need to think of the situation in a way you may not be. If a woman got raped, and she ended up being pregnant from it, would it then still not be right h=for her to get an abortion? The woman did nothing wrong, in a sense. She didn’t plan on having sex; it was not an accident by a partner of hers or anything of that matter, it just happened. Would you still want to have the baby? A baby you did not want to have, a baby that really is not your fault or that you did not plan on having. Maybe if you did have that baby when you look at it it’s a constant reminder of a horrific incidence in your life. Some people say, yes you should have that baby and if you don’t, and you get rid of it, then you murdered the child. Abortion is not the only option for woman if you do not want to have a child. You could always stick it out through the nine months of pregnancy and instead of killing a baby in the fetus you could put the child up for adoption. Adoption is a very good thing to do, for not only yourself, but others as well. Some husbands and wife’s want nothing more than to have their own child, one that they can call their own, but in some cases they simply can’t. Whether the problem is that either the male or female is able to become fertile, or sometimes simply the woman is too weak to have a pregnancy, whatever the case may be many couples are looking to have a child of their own. Adoption may be the only way for them and so that is what the couple will go for. Your child may also be coming home to a very good house every single day. This as the biological mom should make you feel happy. In just about every religion abortion is the not the right answer. Abortion is a sin because you are committing murder. From the religious standpoint, people value human life, even unborn human life. The Teachings of The Twelve Apostles states: "You shall not kill the child in the womb or murder a new-born infant." This for a religious person really can hold a lot of weight, being that it is from the Bible. Pope John Paul II wrote a letter that was called Evangelium Vitae, translated in English means the Gospel of where he had said "the sacred value of human life from its very beginning," and that rules out the use of abortion. An adoption can actually have a serious affect later on in a woman’s life. Abortions make it very possible in the future to have miscarriages due to what you have done in the past. The chance for a woman to get PID, or Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, is greatly increased. If you were to decide to get an abortion you need to think not only for the baby that you are getting rid of and the future for him or her, but also yourself. Abortion is also recorded to cause frequent psychological pain and stress in a person. The abortion is such life changing experiences that in many cases the woman can’t just let go of the child they got rid of. Randy Alcorn, a pro-life abortion enthusiast states that “The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy, what about forcing a woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?” Alcorn has a very good point in saying this. It is the woman’s choice whether she wants to have a baby or not. In saying that it is wrong for her to get rid of it, isn’t that taking away her civil right? In many cases a woman had an unplanned pregnancy. She did not mean to get pregnant and that is why she is trying to get rid of that child because she was not planning on having one in the first place. Many United States Citizens pay taxes, and therefore they are against woman to get abortions. It is those United States citizen tax payers who are paying for some women to get their abortion. In many cases it is their fault to begin with why they got pregnant. Shouldn’t that person be the one to pay to get rid of the baby? Joe Messerli, an anti abortion enthusiast says that “Taxpayer dollars are used to enable poor women to access the same medical services as rich women, and abortion is one of these services. Funding abortion is no different from funding a war in the Mideast. For those who are opposed, the place to express outrage is in the voting booth.” Messerli is very correct in stating this, why should you, a tax payer, pay for someone else’s mistake that could have been prevented in the first place? That doesn’t seem fair to you. The money you pay in taxes should go to something more useful that may have some affect in your life or in your family’s life, maybe not know but sometime in the future, not another person’s mistake. Many of the abortions that happen today are from young females. Most of those females who get an abortion are in school and that is a very good reason to get an abortion. If you’re in school and doing your homework, doing your class work, studying, etc. wouldn’t having a child just add another layer of stress, and take away from your schooling, may it be in high school, or in college. Messerli makes a statement that “Teenagers who become mothers have grim prospects for the future. They are much more likely to leave of school; receive inadequate prenatal care; rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or end up divorced.” Messerli has a very good point stating this. In order to care for the child and take care of the child, wont you need some sort, or form of an income? What does that mean it means that now the mother will have to take away some of her times with the child, and take away some of her time for schoolwork and studying to have a job? Having a job just adds one more stress level to the new parent. In many cases that would be very hard on the mother and it’s very possible the mother will drop out so she can have more money and be able to be a good mom, and take care of her baby. In any society, across the world, any form of a harmful act against a human, or the act of murder is wrong. This is understood across any level in every country. Every country has their own way of dealing with these wrongful acts, but what about abortion? Alcorn informs us that “No civilized society permits one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another human without punishment, and abortion is no different.” and by stating that he makes a very good point. If a country punishes a person for harming a life, or taking a life away from another, then shouldn’t abortion be the same? You are taking the life away from an innocent baby who didn’t even get a chance to live his or her life. Wouldn’t you want to at least have a chance to live your own life? Why take others away. It is easy to see that in one aspect of life, abortion might have to be the answer. It may be against your best wishes, and against the best wishes of the child to be born because you know you can’t provide for him or her or take care of him or her as you should or would like to. That would not be fair to either of you. In the other aspect, you put it on yourself. You could have not engaged in the activities that you did to have that baby. Which makes the argument, you made the mistake and now you’re killing an innocent baby to correct what you did wrong. Getting rid of the baby because you messed up and you need to focus on school and not him or her, wouldn’t that be selfish? There are many ways you can go on this. For each person or family it may be different. With that being said, there is no law stating what you can or can’t do, so in the end it is up to you and it’s solely your decision. It’s in your hands. In society today, you may do what you think is right, and what works best for your interests for the child.

Works Cited
American Pregnancy Association. “Types of Abortion Procedures.” Americanpregnancy.org American Pregnancy Association, September 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 2012.
Bazelon, Emily. “The New Abortion Providers.” Nytimes.com. New York Times, 14 July 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2012.
Hurlbutt, Edmond C. “Abortion Rights and the Duty Not to Know.” Human Life Review. 37.3 (2011): 63-71 Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Sept. 2012
Lopez, Raquel. “Perspectives on Abortion: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and What Lies in Between.” European Journal of Social Science. 27.2-4 (2012): 511-517. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2012.
Lowen, Linda. Woman’s Issues. About.com, 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012
Society For the Protection of Unborn Children. Society For the Protection of Unborn Children. SPUC, 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012.

Cited: American Pregnancy Association. “Types of Abortion Procedures.” Americanpregnancy.org American Pregnancy Association, September 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. Bazelon, Emily. “The New Abortion Providers.” Nytimes.com. New York Times, 14 July 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Hurlbutt, Edmond C. “Abortion Rights and the Duty Not to Know.” Human Life Review. 37.3 (2011): 63-71 Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Sept. 2012 Lopez, Raquel. “Perspectives on Abortion: Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and What Lies in Between.” European Journal of Social Science. 27.2-4 (2012): 511-517. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Lowen, Linda. Woman’s Issues. About.com, 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012 Society For the Protection of Unborn Children. Society For the Protection of Unborn Children. SPUC, 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2012.