Abortion is one of the most controversial and talked about topics of our time. It is discussed in classrooms, work places and in our homes. Young adults, politicians, women's groups, religious leaders, doctors and many others are all debating, and often fighting over, abortion. “Approximately 1.5 million legal abortions are performed in the United States each year, with women under the age of twenty accounting for 300,000 of them”(Day 7). Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of an embryo or fetus”(Day 10). This definition includes accidental abortion such as, miscarriage and stillbirths, those incidents are not what is being debated. The American public wants to know if abortion is ethical; if the fetus can feel pain, and at what point, the fetus sh

Abortion may seem like a recent issue but abortions have been performed for thousands of years(Day 15). About 5 million women in the U.S. become pregnant every year, half of those pregnancy's are unintended. About 1.2 million end in abortion. Abortion was legal in the United States until the mid-1800s, even though it was common it was rarely discussed(Paul). The reasons people gave for getting an abortion were health, financial pressures, and covering up the scandal of having sex before getting married. In 1959, a group of people called the American Law Institute (ALI) suggested that there should be a standard abortion code. The ALI’s code said that women should be allowed to have an abortion when pregnancy “would gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother,” or when the child was likely to be born with “grave physical or mental defects,” and also if rape of incest was involved(Day) . Then The National Organization for Women (NOW) included the right of women to control their reproductive lives in the Bill of Rights. Roe vs. Wade made it clear that “person” as used in the 14th amendment does not include the unborn (Ryan). But by 1973, 31 states permitted abortion to save a woman's life and 13 states had reform laws modeled on the ALI code(Day 24). Alaska, Washington, New York, and Hawaii permitted abortion for any reason prior to the point of fetal viability, while Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania prohibited all abortions(cite). The Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that states could not interfere with the physician-patient decision about abortion during the first trimester(Ryan). That they could intervene only during the second trimester, to ensure safe medical practices. These were to be reasonably related to the mother’s health(Day 89). Sarah Weddington says, “The battle was never “for abortion-abortion was not what we wanted to encourage. The battle was for the basic right of women to make their own decisions.”(Day 89) I believe with her very much because in the constitution it says we have the right to choose and we do.

Jane English states that “If we care so little about the birth of a child that we let it happen by accident, and at a time when we are not prepared, or mature enough for the daily and almost lifelong demands of parenthood,” “then we need to deeply consider the process of delaying a soul’s incarnation into our lives.”(Day pg 99). Some people feel that bringing an unloved and unwanted child into the works is much more barbaric then aborting it. Abortion rights advocates offer a “what if” scenarios of what might happen if abortion were once again criminalized (Day pg 99). They believe there is a pattern that shows women will continue to get abortions. Also, wealthy women may be able to travel to countries that allow abortions. If issues like this were to happen, people would most likely perform their own abortions. Pro-choice proponents argue that if every women who faced an unwanted pregnancy continued it to delivery, there would be more than a million additional people in the United States each year (Day pg 99). Many of these children are born to women who are poor and extremely young. These children would live through life of poverty and disadvantage. The women who are in financially secure situations would face the bitterness of their mother’s forced parenthood, growing

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