Should Abortion Be Illegal?

As time passes and the idea of having sex gets more tempting, it doesn’t always end up how you want it to. We all know that not everything turns out how we want it to, and sometimes the aftermath of having sex is not always nice.

Abortion has been around since ancient times in which it was conducted by the use of herbs, sharp objects, applying abdominal pressure, and other methods. All of a sudden, more underage women are popping out babies like magic. The major problem comes in when these girls become pregnant, they do not want to have the baby. They feel that the best way to solve the problem is by having an abortion.

Some causes of women having abortions is because the do not want to have a child or have one right at that moment, concerns about how it would effect their work, education, or social life, financial ability to stabilize a child.

Other reasons may include feelings that they are not mature enough to raise the child properly, an increase in weight and how it will affect their overall body shape, or they do not want the baby to be the gender it is. Religion, individual morals, and cultural beliefs also have an influence on people decisions.

In the year 2003, there were 854,122 legal abortions conducted (imagine how many more illegal ones) in the U.S.. A study conducted in the U.S. on January 2006 proved that 33% of Americans believe that abortions should only be allowed when the cause of it is rape, incest, or to save a woman’s life, 27% say that it should be allowed in all cases, 17% said only to save a woman’s life, and 5% with the opinion that it should never be permitted.

In 1973, the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade reversed state laws that banned abortion with the fact of the ‘right to privacy’ that the United States Constitution implies. Currently, the U.S. grants abortion in all cases. In some states, parental notification and/or consent is needed (and may also be a law), but in other states, no parental notification is needed.

However there is a kind of abortion that is illegal in the U.S. The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act prohibits having a late abortion which is in the later stage of pregnancy. Anyone who is charged of it is either fined, sent to jail (no longer than 2 months), or both.

Some people think that it is murder to have an abortion because it violates the human rights of the fetus that is technically alive. Other people believe that it is the woman who is bearing the child’s right to have an abortion or not because other wise, it would violate their rights as American citizens.

In a 1869 edition of The Revolution (a weekly woman’s paper), this was printed:

"No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh, thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime."

Either way, each side seems to infringe human rights that are directly and indirectly stated in the U.S. Constitution. What is your view on abortion? Should it be allowed in all cases, with limitations, or under no circumstances whatsoever?