Abortion Essay Research Paper For many people

Abortion Essay, Research Paper For many people, the central issue in the abortion debate focuses on one question: Is abortion the taking of a human life? In this paper I will be discussing the secular and Christian perspective of this issue as well as my own. There are two sides of the abortion issue. One side calls itself pro-choice . They believe it is a woman s hu8man right to decide when and whether to have a child. The other side calls itself pro-life or right to life . They believe that a fetus s right to live comes first, before the rights of the pregnant woman. The defenders of abortion concede that a morally crucial dividing line along the path of fetal development between fertilization and birth does not exist.(1) They believe that abortion is not murder because no

one has been able to prove when life truly begins. The defenders of abortion go on to say that fetuses are not persons and is therefore not morally wrong to destroy them.(1) They say that personhood is not looked at as a biological state but as a social phenomenon, involving the capacities for reason, self-awareness, and social and moral reciprocity (Warren 1991) (1) Defenders of abortion rights stress that in the long run parenthood should be the option and not a state, which too many people are falling into. Here are some pro-choice facts about the safety of the procedure. 1. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures available.(2) 2. Government studies show a pregnancy carried to term causes more complications that any legal abortion.(2) 3. Pro-choice supporters say

having an abortion does not affect future pregnancies.(2) 4. There are no significant psychological after effects of legal Abortion. According to an American Psychiatric Association report published in Science magazine in 1990, say that women may feel sad or guilty at first, but not anymore or less than any other personal crisis.(2) Barbara Hernandez states that, It is up to the women to evaluate her circumstances and determine whether she is to continue her pregnancy or terminate it. Christine Grimbol states, I believe that as Christians, we are called to usher in the kingdom of God Life for a Christian is more than breathing in and out. Until people have a home in which to raise their children, the safety and security of whatever they need to do that well, them abortion needs

to be a choice. Clearly, giving a woman the right to abortion is a compassionate stand, and anytime compassion rules over judgment, we see the Kingdom of God. The bottom line of the defenders of abortion is that they believe that it is the right of the women to do with her body as she sees fit. When does life begin? Well, according to many pro-lifers, life begins when the sperm fertilizes the egg. Pro-lifers say that abortion is equivalent to murdering a human being because a life is removed from its source. Pro-life activists say that abortion destroys a basic right of a child-the right to be born. Pro-lifers say that abortions are not safe for women. They believe that abortions have many negative physical and psychological effects. 1)Pelvic inflammatory disease is an infection

which can follow abortion (2) 2) Abortions may damage the cervix(2) 3) Abortion prevents some women from getting pregnant again(2) 4) New pregnancies following abortions may result in bleeding.(2) Anti abortion advocates contend that many women are traumatized after their abortions when they realize they have killed their babies. The advocates assert that this trauma, known as post abortion syndrome is a common reaction to abortion.(3) Every year in the United States 1.5 million abortions are performed. This statistic has been justly used to portray abortion as a modern day Holocaust, contends William Brennan in the following viewpoint. Each abortion kills an unborn child, he maintains. Just as the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany was legal but morally wrong, Brennan argues,