Envision yourself as a 16 year old teenage girl who possibly had been involved in a sexual assault and as result ended up pregnant. You know you cannot raise a child on your own so you make the hardest decision of your life to terminate the pregnancy. Since it is 2015 you can make this decision without the fear of being criminally prosecuted for it however, prior to 1973 this was not the case. Since 1973 the United States have been fighting over a woman's right to choose and abortion laws since the ruling of Roe v Wade. Roe v Wade was a presidential court case that allows a women to have an abortion without the fear of being criminally prosecuted. Research shows that the United States should keep Roe v. Wade because of its huge impact on women's lives medically, economically, and politically. .
The biggest change since Roe v Wades ruling is the improvement in women's health and lives. Since abortion has become legal, clinics are providing safe environments for the procedure to be performed and the risk of complications (i.e. reproductive damage and infertility) and death have decreased drastically. According to Planned Parenthood in 1965, 17 percent of deaths and complications due to pregnancy or childbirth were a result of illegal abortions. (Parenthood, 2014). As of today, the percentage of deaths have fallen to 0.3 percent and serious complications has fallen to 0.05 percent (Parenthood, 2014). The advancement of medicine does benefit patients in the long run. Another major impact from Roe v Wade that has helped women is how to deal with fetuses that have disabilities. Women now have a right to choose whether or not to keep a fetus that has evidence of a severe disability such a Downs Syndrome, Spinal Bifida, and Anencephaly (Parenthood, 2014). These syndromes and disorders could have long lasting and devastating effects on a child. The gestational age of a fetus at which an abortion is performed has changed.
