Why Do Women Receive Abortion?
Circumstances such as rape, incest, and health of the mother or baby are advocates of unrestrained abortion but in reality these “hard cases” only represent one to three percent of all abortion cases in the United States yearly ( Johnston, 2012). Most women would not want to carry a baby for nine months from a case of rape or incest. A mother of an unborn child may prevent a life of suffering for the child, by terminating the pregnancy due to early-detected health problems of the fetus. Overall, these cases represent such a slight percentage as to why women get abortions. What is the central reason for abortions if these “hard cases” are so misrepresented? A total of forty-two percent of women in a survey had an abortion because they were “unready for the responsibility” and “could not afford the baby” (Johnston, 2012). This percentage almost represents half of why women get abortions every year. No matter what the reason is, a woman has the right to receive an abortion. “The United States Supreme Court has declared abortion to be a “fundamental right” guaranteed by the United States Constitution (“Should Abortion Be Legal,” 2015). This law gives every woman the
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choice to keep or terminate her pregnancy.
In the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, women had little rights or control over their own body and were undermined by men during this time.
Women take pride in their achieved personal rights over the century, and refuse to let them be taken away. The freedom of abortion was all started in 1973 with an activist named Jane Roe. Young women today learn about the rise of woman’s rights in the court case Roe v. Wade in 1973; “a lawsuit claiming that a Texas law criminalized most abortions which violated a woman’s constitutional rights” (McBride, 2006). In the end, women were granted the right to have legal abortions under all circumstances, without being criminalized. Since this court case in 1973,”nearly 53 million legal abortions were performed in the United States” (“Should Abortion Be Legal,”
2015).
A common argument for pro-choice; meaning that an individual supports the ideas of abortion, is that a fetus is not considered a human or actual life. Certainly the fetus consists of DNA from both the mother and father, but does this circumstance make the fetus a human-being? A fetus needs its mother for at least eight to nine months before it can survive outside of its mother. Therefore, “personhood begins after a fetus can survive outside of the womb or after birth and not at the time of conception” (“Should Abortion Be Legal,” 2015). The fetus does not have a sense of self-awareness, nor does it have emotion like a child does when he or she first comes out of the womb. A woman may have an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy which results in an abortion. If a mother is not ready to be a mother, than she should not welcome the unborn child into the world. Thus, abortion helps prevent a child from having to suffer an underprivileged life; perhaps living at the poverty level. The second argument “for” abortion states that “A baby should not come into the world unwanted or unprepared for (“Should Abortion Be Legal,” 2015).
choice to keep or terminate her pregnancy.
In the beginning of the nineteen hundreds, women had little rights or control over their own body and were undermined by men during this time.
Women take pride in their achieved personal rights over the century, and refuse to let them be taken away. The freedom of abortion was all started in 1973 with an activist named Jane Roe. Young women today learn about the rise of woman’s rights in the court case Roe v. Wade in 1973; “a lawsuit claiming that a Texas law criminalized most abortions which violated a woman’s constitutional rights” (McBride, 2006). In the end, women were granted the right to have legal abortions under all circumstances, without being criminalized. Since this court case in 1973,”nearly 53 million legal abortions were performed in the United States” (“Should Abortion Be Legal,”
2015).
A common argument for pro-choice; meaning that an individual supports the ideas of abortion, is that a fetus is not considered a human or actual life. Certainly the fetus consists of DNA from both the mother and father, but does this circumstance make the fetus a human-being? A fetus needs its mother for at least eight to nine months before it can survive outside of its mother. Therefore, “personhood begins after a fetus can survive outside of the womb or after birth and not at the time of conception” (“Should Abortion Be Legal,” 2015). The fetus does not have a sense of self-awareness, nor does it have emotion like a child does when he or she first comes out of the womb. A woman may have an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy which results in an abortion. If a mother is not ready to be a mother, than she should not welcome the unborn child into the world. Thus, abortion helps prevent a child from having to suffer an underprivileged life; perhaps living at the poverty level. The second argument “for” abortion states that “A baby should not come into the world unwanted or unprepared for (“Should Abortion Be Legal,” 2015).