1 Laura Nydegger Professor Maenhardt English 1010 11/18/2013

Issue Exploration Essay: Abortion Youre pregnant! You might think that those words would be something exciting and happy to hear. Not everyone feels this way though. To some people, this is a terrifying thing to hear. There are a lot of people that hear these words and immediately want to know how to how to undo this mistake. Abortion has become one of the biggest controversies of all time. Everyone has the right to their own opinion, and it seems that with this topic, people have very strong opinions, one way or the other. The controversy over pro-life and pro-choice has been a big debate for years. I chose this topic because I myself have my own opinion on the subject, but feel like I should try to be more open about others opinions instead of coming to my own conclusions before hearing their side of the situation. During my research I have tried to keep an open mind, and to be considerate of other people and their feelings. It is a difficult subject to be flexible about, but in the end it is worth the consideration. The different views on this topic are pro-life (against abortion), and pro-choice (letting women choose to have an abortion or not). There are many things that factor in on these views.

2 The first view is the pro-life view. One of the strongest arguments for this view is that the fetus is a human being, and to abort is to kill another human being. One of the best quotes to support this argument is from abortionfacts.com. It says, No matter how you spin it, women don't have four arms and four legs when they're pregnant. Those extra appendages belong to the tiny human being(s) living inside of them. At no point in pregnancy is the developing embryo or fetus simply a part of the mother's body. It then goes on to support that comment with another good one, and that is The difference between embryo and adults are differences of degree, not of kind. This means that we all alike, but just at different points in life. Another point from the pro-life argument is that abortions can cause psychological damage to the women that get the abortion. According to ProCon.org, these women are 154% more likely to commit suicide than other women. A lot of these women later on in life regret the decision they made and become severely depressed. Having an abortion also creates a bigger risk of having a miscarriage later on in life when they DO want the baby, which can also lead to their depression. The last point that I would like to point out is also one from ProCon.org. It says, Women should use contraceptives, not abortion, to avoid unwanted pregnancies. The thoughts on this is that if abortion were not available, women would think more about using other preventative measures. The second argument on abortion is pro-choice. A lot of people argue that a fetus is not actually a human. These people believe that a fetus is not a human being until it is born. They believe that a fetus is incapable of feeling pain when aborted. This point is supported by the fact that the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973 due to the fact that a fetus is incapable of living without the support of the mother until the third trimester. Therefor the fetus has not constitutional rights, and is not yet considered a person.

3 The next argument of the pro-choice side says that women should have the absolute right to decide whether to abort or keep the baby because it is her body that is at risk. Women with health problems or women that become pregnant due to rape or incest should be able to choose for themselves if the risk of the pregnancy is something they want to do, or if they want to carry the child of their rapist for nine months, and live with that reminder each day. The last argument from this viewpoint that I would like to mention is the fact that a lot of women get an abortion because they dont have the financial means to support a child. These women are trying to be responsible and not bring a child into the world that they cannot care for. This is supported by some statistics given in ProCon.org. It says A Sep. 2005 survey in the peer-reviewed journalPerspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women why they had an abortion found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to have a baby. This also goes along with the argument that no baby should have to come into the world unwanted. 49% of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. Having a child is a lifelong commitment. Now that I have mentioned the two sides of abortion, I would like to bring up a third argument common to abortion views. This is the argument about whether legalizing abortion makes it safer for the woman or not. One side of the argument is that as long as abortion is legal, it is safer for women because they dont have to go to the back alley to get an unclean and unsafe illegal abortion. The opposing side claims that legalizing abortion has not made a big difference because there are still risks involved. The pro-choice argument here says The World Health Organization estimated in 2006 that "back-alley" abortions cause 68,000 maternal deaths each year in countries where abortion is not legal. Making it legal to abort has decreased the numbers, but is not completely helpful due to the fact that it still costs a lot to get an abortion. The price of abortion still makes it so women are turning to the back alley to get their abortions, and in turn is still causing hundreds of deaths per year.

4 Before researching this paper, I had my opinion on this topic. Each side of this issue have really good points and information to support their outlook. Now after the research though, I am still sticking to my original views. I dont believe that abortion is the way to handle an unwanted pregnancy. I think that if you dont want a child, there are other options that are safer things to do than aborting the fetus. I also think that if a woman is pregnant because of rape, she may feel even worse after getting an abortion. I believe that an abortion is a traumatic experience that could cause a rape victim more problems in the future than the rape itself. I agree with the fact that if there is uncertainty about when human life begins, the benefit of the doubt should go to preserving life.