The
sudden feeling of dizziness, cravings and nausea. Your heart already knows the
symptoms of having a new life begging to grow inside you. About “six million
births happened each year in the United States and about 1,200,000 of them are
being terminated” by abortions (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).
Abortion is the “termination of a pregnancy, usually before the embryo or fetus
is capable of independent life” (The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth
Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.). The
absurdity of taking a life away to a human being is being increased each year
around the world by having “41.6 million abortions in the year 2003 and by year
2008 the number increased by 2.2 million” ( Guttmancher institute) and still
increasing each year. Every human has the right to life even if he/she is only
an embryo or a fetus.
Abortion
has been practiced “over several centuries and in different cultures’ there is
a rich history of women helping each other to abort. Until the 1800s, women
healers in Western Europe and the U.S. provided abortions and trained other
women to do so, without legal prohibition” (History of Abortion). America’s first “statutory abortion
regulations was enacted in Connecticut in 1821, in order to protect women from
abortion inducement through poison administered after the fourth month
pregnancy” (Timeline of Abortion Laws and Events).
“In
1856 the leading pro-life advocate Dr.Horatio Storer established a national
drive by the American Medical Association (AMA) to end legal abortion. At this
point (in most states) first trimester abortion in legal or misdemeanor”
(Timeline of Abortion Laws and Events). The first trimester is the first,
second and third month of pregnancy. At
year “1890 abortion is now regulated by statutes advocated by the AMA, and
abortion is only permitted upon conferral of one or more physicians who believe
the procedure is necessary to preserve the life of the mother” (1). Different methods
of aborting also start to appear like in “1961, the vacuum aspiration-style
abortion spreads throughout Europe and is consider safer than traditional
methods like hot baths and intentionally falling down the stairs” (1).
As seventy-seven years passed, “abortion is now
classified as a felony in 49 states and Washington D.C, and President Kennedy
creates the Presidential Advisory Council on the status of women and calls for
the repeal of abortion laws” (Timeline of Abortion Laws and Events) in years
1963-67. By the 1970s:
Hawaii
becomes the first state to allow abortions performed before twenty weeks of
pregnancy, thereby repealing its criminal abortion law. Soon after, New York
State repeals its criminal abortion law and the Comstock Act prohibiting
information on abortion is repealed as well. In 1971 The Supreme Court, in Roe
vs. Wade, grants women the right to terminate pregnancies through abortion. The
ruling is based on a woman's right to privacy, and in a separate case, Doe vs.
Bolton, the Supreme Court votes 7-2 to invalidate Georgia law that required a
woman to get approval from three physicians before having an abortion. Congress
then passes the Hyde Amendment, banning the use of Medicaid and other federal
funds for abortions. The legislation is upheld by the Supreme Court in 1980. In
the years 1981 through 1992, the case In Bellotti vs. Baird, Supreme Court
rules that pregnant minors can petition court for permission to have an
abortion without parental notification , the Webster vs. Reproductive Health Services,
passed a law in Washington State declaring that life begins at conception; and
barring the use of public facilities for abortions is found unconstitutional.
It marks the first time the Supreme Court does not explicitly reaffirm Roe vs.
Wade ,and in the case Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, the court reaffirms Roe’s
core holding that states may not ban abortions or interfere with a woman’s
decision to have an abortion. The court does uphold mandatory 24-hour waiting
periods and parental-consent laws. (Timeline of abortion laws and events)
As
the years passed from 1992 to 2016, there have been many protest between the
pro-life group of people and the pro-choice people. The pro-life group states
their ground that a life starts as soon as a baby starts to form and that
everyone has the right to live even if the baby is still in the mother’s womb.
The pro-choice group stands their ground that women have the right to do
whatever they want to their bodies.
Examples:
Some
of the main reasons abortions are mainly cause is by the “failure of birth
control, inability to support or care for a child, preventing the birth of a
child with birth effects or severe medical problems, pregnancy resulting from
rape or incest, and physical or mental conditions that can endanger the woman’s
health” (Abortion-Reasons Women Choose Abortion). These problems tend to lead
fights around the world between the pro-life and pro-choice groups. Abortion
doctors also get involved in the fights as well. Just like in the case of:
Dr.
David Gunn which was shot outside a clinic in Pensacola, Florida during a March
demonstration in the year 1993 by protestor Michael Griffin. The doctor David Gunn, 47 was shot three times
in the back after he got out of his car at the Pensacola women’s Medical
clinic, according to Pensacola police. He then died during surgery at a local
hospital. Before Griffin killed Dr.
David Gunn, he screamed at him don’t kill no more babies. Griffin killed the doctor with a 38-caliber
snub-nosed revolver. He was charged with murder and is being held in Escambia
County jail and later sentenced to life in prison. (Booth William)
Dr.
George Tiller was also “shot in the arm in August while leaving his clinic in
Wichita, Kansas, by Rachelle Shelley Shannon. She was convicted and sentenced
to eleven years in prison” (Timeline of Abortion Laws and Events). Dr. George
Tiller was “a long time target of anti-abortion extremist” (National clinic
access project- anti abortion violence watch-feminist majority foundation). He
was later:
Shot
in the head and killed on May 31, 2009 by a single gunshot. Tiller was killed
as he was attending service at his church. The anti-abortion extremist Scott
Roeder was convicted of the murder and sentenced to fifty years to life in
prison. According to the press accounts Roder had also met and been in
communication with the Army of God members David Leach, Michael Bray and Shelley
Shannon which was the same person who shot Dr.Tiller months before he was
killed. (National clinic access project- anti abortion violence watch-feminist
majority foundation)
Body
guards and receptionist of the clinics also have a high risk of danger. In:
July,
1994 Dr. John Bayard Britton, 69 and bodyguard James H. Barrett, 74, where
slain outside the clinic in Pensacola, Florida by former minister Paul J. Hill. The former retired Air Force lieutenant
colonel who had volunteered to be one of the center's escorts in response to
the wave of anti-abortion demonstrations and violent protests that have been made
Pensacola a crucible of the abortion fight and his wife a 68-year-old retired
nurse who was also serving as an escort, were wounded and killed by the gunman.
The shooting occurred at 7:27 am that morning when the Barrett’s had picked up
Dr. Britton at the local airport and taken him to the clinic for his regular
weekly appointments there. All three of them were sitting in the Barrett’s
pickup truck in the parking lot when the gunman approached and began firing
with a 12-gauge shotgun. Dr. Britton and Mr. Barrett were both shot in the
head; Mrs. Barrett was hit in the arm. Paul .J. Hill was seized as he was trying to
flee the parking lot of the clinic, the Pensacola Ladies Center, and was later
convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to death in the year 2003.
(Smothers, Ronald)
Another
terrible tragedy occurred in “December of the same year and on March 19, 1996,
where “John Salvi walked into two Planned Parenthood clinics with a rifle and
opens fire, killing two receptionist and wounding five others” (30 December
1994-John Salvi Murders Two at Planned Parenthood clinics in MA). In the first
shooting in “Brookline, Massachusetts he shot and killed
receptionist Shannon Lowney” (1). He
then went on and fled to “Norfolk, Virginia, where he made another Planned
Parenthood shooting killing receptionists Lee Ann Nichols” (1). He was later
captured after the “last shooting” (1). After an unsuccessful defense strategy
related to Salvi's mental state, he was convicted both killings and was sentenced
to life in prison without parole, but later kills himself in prison in 1996” (1).
This tragedies are sad due to the fact that all of this events could have been
stopped if women just use protection during relationships or just give the
baby’s for adoption. There’s no need of taking no one’s life away.
During
the 18th century and on there has been many ways to deal with an unwanted
pregnancies, but the one way that stands the most is abortion. Abortion has
made a big controversy around the world of becoming illegal or not to solve the
problem of babies being killed every year.
One solution that people can do to
prevent abortions is by making contraceptives more easily available and
affordable. There are” more than three million unintended pregnancies each
year, and about millions of Americans do not have access to contraceptives or
know how to use them, and for many others they are prohibitively expensive” (5
ways to prevent abortion). Making them more available for everyone can be a way
to stop all the killings every year. It can also be cheaper due to the fact
that “every public dollar which goes to family planning saves more than three
dollars, in the next year alone, that would otherwise be spent for health and
welfare services associated with unintended births” (1).
Another solution is to Increase the
involvement of men. Guys are equally the same as women. Men to understand that
it’s his responsibility to be involve in the pregnancy as it is for the women.
It’s not only the women job to carry the pregnancy alone. “Many family planning
agencies now run programs which help men recognize their equal responsibility
in all aspects of sexuality: decision-making, obtaining and using
contraception, and handling any crisis which occurs” (5 ways to prevent
pregnancy).
The final and most important
solution is adoption. Sometimes in pregnancy it’s too late to have an abortion.
Adoption is the best way to solve the unwanted pregnancy. Adoption is the
process of the action of adopting or being adopted. When the child is adopted
the child moves permanently from one family to another family. In the process
all parental rights are legally transferred to the new parents. This process
will help stop abortions because there’s a lot of women out there in the world
who have problems getting pregnant and would wish they can have a kid, and
theirs other women killing their babies because of financial problems or just
because they don’t want to have a kid. They should be informed about adoption
and not abortion.
Adoptions
has many ways it can be done just like the process of “close adoption and open
adoption” (Find law). The open adoption process is when “a form of adoption
that allows birth parents to know and have contact with the adoptive parents
and adopted child” (open adoption). The birth mother has a right to receive
photos and updates on the baby. Basically she will still be part of the baby’s
life. Meanwhile the close adoption “refers to an adoption process where there
is no interaction of any kind between birthmothers and prospective adoptive
families. This means that there’s no identifying information provided either to
the birth families or adoptive families” (close adoption). This option is for
mothers that don’t want to do nothing with the baby and just want to life their
life’s with no kids.
The
best solution of this abortion epidemic is by making contraceptives more easily
available and affordable. Pregnancy is a hundred percent preventable in this
society. If men and women just have more responsibility when having sexual
interactions and by the government making it easier on poor income women to
have contraceptives like “birth control pills, contraceptives implant or just
maybe emergency contraceptives (plan B pill)” their wouldn’t be any abortions
done on any women or teenager (Advocates for youth).
Camus
beliefs would have relate to this topic of abortion being absurd because he
believed there is many absurd things in this world and abortion is one of those
things. It’s just too absurd. In abortions the parents think that abortion is
the best way to solve an unwanted pregnancy because they believe that a kid
will ruin their plans in life or that they just have the right to still live
life to the fullest but it’s just absurd how the baby will not have those
rights they so much want, and desire just because of their own mistakes and by
not being responsible.
We
need to stop abortions around the world. It’s just sad that “about 1,200,000 of
pregnancies are being terminated by just abortions out of six million
pregnancies” (Statistic Brain). This absurdity is just increasing each year
more and more and many human rights have been avoided each year. This kids might
would have been the next president of the United States or just maybe the
person who cures cancer. But we will never know because we humans are killing
them.
Work
Cited
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Women Choose Abortion." WebMD. WebMD, 4 June 2014. Web. 24 Feb. 2016.
"Advocates
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Booth,
William. "Doctor Killed During Abortion Protest." Washington Post.
The Washington Post, 11 Mar. 1993. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
".Choose
an Open, Closed or Mixed Adoption." Web. 09 May 2016.
"Closed
Adoption: Advantages and Benefits." American Pregnancy Association. 24
Aug. 2012. Web. 09 May 2016.
"Could
Open Adoption Be the Best Way for You and Your Child?" Open Adoption. Web.
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Foundation." National Clinic Access Project - Anti-Abortion Violence Watch
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Smothers,
Ronald. "DEATH OF A DOCTOR: THE OVERVIEW -- Abortion Doctor and Bodyguard
Slainin Florida; Protester Is Arrested in Pensacola's 2d Clinic Killing."
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- FindLaw." Findlaw. Web. 09 May 2016.
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