Abortion
Rachel Uribe-Raya
Ethics Essay
P.2 Najera
Abortion: A Life That Could Have Been
Abortion is one of the most persistently controversial issues in American culture and politics today. Since the 1973 national legalization of abortion, competing groups have fought to either restrict or increase access to the procedure, leading to heated debates among political activists, religious organizations, state legislatures, and judges. Almost no one remains untouched by the abortion controversy. Patients and clinic workers are sometimes prevented from entering medical facilities because of blockades and threats of violence. Ordinary people are exposed to television commercials, billboards, and other forms of media that promote antiabortion and pro-choice beliefs. Although there have been a few attempts to find common ground, both sides of the debate find little to agree on.
The history of abortion in the United States is far more complicated than most people imagine. It has been an issue of varying contention in this nation for the last 200 years. Around 1962, the Model Penal Code began to influence abortion law, making it so a woman could receive an abortion for other reasons besides risk to her own health. In 1970, New York was the first state to legalize elective abortions done by a licensed physician before the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Nevertheless, abortion has never enjoyed such universal protection under the law as it has since 1973. As it stands today, American women have the legal right to obtain an abortion in all 50 states, through all nine months of pregnancy, for virtually any reason at all. This has been true since the Supreme Court declared that autonomous abortion rights are built into the Constitution, and that any legal barriers which prevent mothers from aborting their children are unconstitutional. This ruling was arrived at on the premise that the 9th and 14th Amendments, according to legal precedent established during the 1960's, guarantees a woman's
Ethics Essay
P.2 Najera
Abortion: A Life That Could Have Been
Abortion is one of the most persistently controversial issues in American culture and politics today. Since the 1973 national legalization of abortion, competing groups have fought to either restrict or increase access to the procedure, leading to heated debates among political activists, religious organizations, state legislatures, and judges. Almost no one remains untouched by the abortion controversy. Patients and clinic workers are sometimes prevented from entering medical facilities because of blockades and threats of violence. Ordinary people are exposed to television commercials, billboards, and other forms of media that promote antiabortion and pro-choice beliefs. Although there have been a few attempts to find common ground, both sides of the debate find little to agree on.
The history of abortion in the United States is far more complicated than most people imagine. It has been an issue of varying contention in this nation for the last 200 years. Around 1962, the Model Penal Code began to influence abortion law, making it so a woman could receive an abortion for other reasons besides risk to her own health. In 1970, New York was the first state to legalize elective abortions done by a licensed physician before the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. Nevertheless, abortion has never enjoyed such universal protection under the law as it has since 1973. As it stands today, American women have the legal right to obtain an abortion in all 50 states, through all nine months of pregnancy, for virtually any reason at all. This has been true since the Supreme Court declared that autonomous abortion rights are built into the Constitution, and that any legal barriers which prevent mothers from aborting their children are unconstitutional. This ruling was arrived at on the premise that the 9th and 14th Amendments, according to legal precedent established during the 1960's, guarantees a woman's