Abortion The Murder Of The Innocent Essay

Abortion: The Murder Of The Innocent Essay, Research Paper

The term abortion refers to the premature expulsion of a human fetus, whether naturally spontaneous, as in a miscarriage, or artificially induced, as in a surgical or chemical abortion. The most common usage often refers to artificially induced abortion, which is the subject of my essay. I feel that all human life is sacred from fertilization through adulthood. The life of a baby begins at conception. Abortion ends human life and should be punishable by law. In the following essay I plan to illustrate the reasons for taking such a position

One cannot begin to discuss the issues of abortion without first mentioning the 1973 landmark court case decision which made the act of abortion legal.

In Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court held that women have the constitutional right to decide whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court further held that the state could place restrictions on abortion only if justified by a compelling interest. In creating this last binding, the Supreme Court essentially made a compromise in the rights of women and the rights of the state. The state was given the power to ensure the health of pregnant women and protect potential human life. The court ruled that in the first trimester of pregnancy, the women are granted the freedom of choice without any restrictions as to whether to terminate the pregnancy. In the second trimester, however, only the state s interest in potential life became compelling. The state could not, however, restrict women from having an abortion if continuing pregnancy would put the women s health at risk.

Many other court cases have been held since Roe v. Wade that have substantially increased the state s power in challenging a women s choice of having an abortion. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, the Supreme Court empowered the state to impose restrictions so as long as it does not have the intention of placing a substantial object in the path of women seeking an abortion. [1] Many states today require that women intending to have an abortion first receive parental consent and delay their abortion by a minimum of 24hrs in order to receive state mandated information that would discourage them from taking such an action. The state governments have also been given the power to deny funding for abortion services while providing medical care to maintain pregnancy. In 1976, the Hyde amendment prohibited the use of federal Medicaid finds to low-income women for abortion services except for cases of life-endangerment, rape and incest. Only 17 states provide abortion coverage to Medicaid recipients. One particular statistic that I find disturbing is that nearly 50% of the American population believes that a women should have the right to a legal abortion at any time and under any conditions. Are they trying to tell us that a week before a baby is due, the women should be allowed an abortion, or even right up to the day before. It would be natural for a women to fear the pain and suffering of childbirth more and more so as the day approaches. If she should in a confused state all of a sudden decide that she does not want to deal with childbirth. Should we allow her to kill another human being. Nearly a third to a half the people who took the poll agreed that women should have the unquestionable right to abort at any time.

Much of the confusion about abortion lies in determining at what stage the group of dividing cells (blastula) becomes more akin to a living individual organism. The baby has a heart beat before the mother misses her period. This time may reach up to 31 days. Surgical abortions are rarely performed before the 7th week (49 days). By this time the baby has identifiable arms, legs and brainwave patterns (unconscious thought and reaction processes). It almost brings me to tears knowing that most abortions are performed in the period of seven to ten weeks after conception. In this period of time the baby s face is recognizably human.

Death of a human being is not the only consequence of abortion (as if that were not reason enough to further limit a women s right to an abortion). Clinical research has proven that abortion can cause severe psychological side effects. Women who report negative after-effects from abortion know exactly what there problem is, observed psychologist Wanda Franz, Ph.D., in a congressional hearing on the impact of abortion seven years ago. She went on to describe how they report horrible nightmares of children calling them from trash-cans, of body parts and blood, she told the congressional panel. Chemical Abortions in which the baby is removed un-maimed often damages the minds of women to an even greater extent. They see their unborn children and even able to distinguish tiny arms legs and a face. So traumatic is the experience, that researchers have asked women not to take the drug if they are not prepared to see their dead child. There is such a well-defined pattern of severe psychological problems in the women who have had abortions that it has been given the name Post-Abortion Syndrome (PAS). Women diagnosed with PAS often have accompanying alcohol and drug abuse problems as well as sexual dysfunction and worst of all records of suicide attempts. A women who has already had an abortion is more likely use abortion again as a quick and easy solution than is another p