Ilanit Azarkman

Professor Peters

English 133

November 15, 2017

Pro-Life Versus Pro-Choice

There is a lot of controversy regarding the topic of abortion. People think that abortion

should not even be an option, while others argue that one should have full authority over her own

body. People who are against abortions believe that it is considered murder. However, others

argue that abortion is another form of birth control. Abortions can only be performed within the

first ten weeks of pregnancy; at that point, the fetus is not even a baby yet. At the ten week mark,

the fetus is the size of a kumquat, and as Steven Goldberg says, the abortion question is

unanswerable because the question of whether the fetus is or is not a person is a matter of

the definition of person. Goldberg acknowledges the issue and says, declaring that the fetus

is not a person is no less arbitrary than declaring that it is. In this case, it is a matter of opinion.

People try to bring morality to the table when talking about abortions to try to justify whether or

not it should be allowed. It is hard to persuade anyone who has already chosen a side, since both

are so arbitrary. Pro-life arguments more than often bring God into the equation and assert that it

is against Gods will, and tie religion into the concept. There are many cases in which abortion

should be allowed, since most women looking to abort usually have a legitimate reason.

There are so many reasons to be pro-choice and so many reasons to be pro-life. Note, no

one wants to go out of their way to get an abortion. It is unfair to force an unwilling woman to

bare a child for nine months, as it should be their choice to be a mother or not. Adoption could be
an option, but that would mean their child is out there living somewhere in the world. If the

mother ends up having the baby, it could go to unfit parents, end up at an orphanage, or be raised

by abusive people. There are so many reasons to be pro-life and pro-choice, which makes it hard

to come to a final decision. The main argument usually is that abortion kills people, however,

there are arguments as to what exactly they consider a person. Some consider the fetus a

person once it is actually born. Others argue that personhood starts earlier, while the baby is

still in the womb. When referring to someones age, we consider their age based off their date of

birth. We do not consider those nine months of pregnancy apart of our lives, since our years are

counted once we take our first breath out of the womb. Gray Crum, the former vice-president of

South Carolina Citizen for Life, believes that abortion should be criminalized; sociologist

Thelma McCormack response to Crum was that life truly begins in the...hospital room, not in

the womb. Jeanette Bushnell, a Seattle-based Native health activist, says that the fetus is a

life--but sometimes that life must be ended. Jeanette Bushnells statement goes against both

sides, but it is what a lot of people are thinking.

There are many variables that come along with pregnancy, such as age, education,

income, and region that justify a womans choice to have an abortion. There are instances where

a woman cannot even afford an abortion let alone financially support a child. She would not be

able to afford all the prenatal care that is necessary for pregnancy or the cost of delivering a baby

in a hospital. People with low income live in low income areas, which can sometimes be very

dangerous. Living in a dangerous area with a child is not ideal, therefore these people feel

obligated to either not have the child or put it up for adoption.

 Young girls sometimes accidentally get pregnant and would not able to continue their

educational path if they decide to have the baby. Those young girls could put their babies up for

adoption, but they would have to go to school while pregnant. When young girls get pregnant,

they have to deal with constant judgement from their peers. For the rest of high school, they will

be defined by this one decision. Pregnancy at a young age can have long term effects on their

lives. If one decides to raise the child, then she would not be able to continue school, would have

to find a stable source of income, support a child at a young age, and would not be able to

accomplish their dreams. Young girls are not mentally nor physically mature enough to even bare

a child; pregnancy takes a huge toll on the body and causes major stress. There are also people

whose bodies are weak and are unable to handle a pregnancy. They have a choice between living

or dying since their bodies would not be able to withstand a pregnancy. Hospitals give abortions

to people who cannot be pregnant for health reasons, and if that means that they are killing a

person, then it is no different giving an abortion to a sixteen year old girl. It is hypocritical to

allow someone access to an abortion because of their health and then not allow a young woman

to get an abortion, since both of them result in killing a person.

If both sides wanted to come to terms, there would be more regulatory rules made to

satisfy the pro-life side. Those rules, however, could have negative effects in the long run. If the

cost of abortion increased, maybe women would begin to take the price into consideration while

in their initial decision-making stage, and women would substitute away from the abortion

option and towards birth control methods. Increase in cost may alter womens decisions about

pregnancy avoidance methods that would affect the likelihood of becoming pregnant. But, at the

same time, women do not want to get abortions either way. Women only want to get abortions
when they feel it is necessary. A raise in cost would only make it unsafe because women would

then resort to dangerous means of termination. Although raise in cost would lower the amount of

abortions performed, it would not be because women do not want to get abortions. People would

simply have much less of an opportunity to make a decision for their own bodies, which could

potentially lead to worse circumstances than simply making abortions more accessible.

Everyone has their own interpretation of abortion, which causes a lot of controversy.

Abortion should be legal because women should be able to make decisions with their own bodies

and their own future. It is no ones place to make this life altering decision for someone else.

Although abortion could be seen as murder, there is a reason why it is legal and many reasons

why it should remain legal since it is such a huge decision for women as is. The option to get an

abortion should be accessible for women, as it is already such a rough decision for them.

Everyone is at least slightly against abortion, but if women want it for the sake of their future, for

health reasons, or for an unwanted pregnancy, it should be their choice to make and no one

should stand in their way. There is always a reason behind a womans decision to get an abortion;

no one just gets pregnant to have an abortion.

 Work Cited

Goldberg, Steven. "Defending Choice." Society 34.5 (1997): 22-4. ProQuest. 8 Nov. 2017

Goldberg comments on the pro-choice and pro-life arguments about abortion. The abortion issue

is unsolvable because of the continuity of nature.

Smith, Andrea. Beyond Pro-Choice versus Pro-Life: Women of Color and Reproductive

Justice. NWSA Journal, vol. 17, no. 1, 2005, pp. 119140.

Granberg, Donald. Comparison of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Activists: Their Values, Attitudes,

and Beliefs. Population and Environment, vol. 5, no. 2, 1982, pp. 7594.

Medoff, Marshall H. The Response of Abortion Demand to Changes in Abortion Costs. Social

Indicators Research, vol. 87, no. 2, 2008, pp. 329346.