StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Is Abortion Good for Womens Health - Assignment Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Is Abortion Good for Womens Health" highlights that generally speaking, the arguments from both sides use their opinions and their own moral frameworks to back up what they consider to be right in the fight for abortion’s continued legality.  …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER91.4% of users find it useful
Is Abortion Good for Womens Health
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Is Abortion Good for Womens Health"

On the one hand, pro-life activists argue that abortion puts the rights of those who have a choice in the matter over those who do not. But on the other hand, pro-choice activists argue that this is essentially a red herring, as it assumes that life is automatically good and that if the baby is brought to term everybody will be happy. Ultimately, although it is a very sticky issue morally, allowing individual women the right to practice abortion legally seems more moral than issuing a blanket denial of abortion for any woman at all.

The decision to make abortion legal in the early 1960s is one that was and continues to be, very controversial. However, it is an unquestionable fact that “legal abortion has unquestionably benefited women and their families” (Joffe, 54), in the main because these women no longer have to seek out dangerously unsanitary, black market options if they do not wish to bring a child to term.

From this viewpoint, it is clear that one of the strongest arguments for legalizing abortion does not necessarily assume whether or not abortion itself is moral. It simply states that since women will get abortions anyway, it is more moral to ensure that they can get abortions legally, as these abortions are safer. Joffe also notes that this is one of the biggest moral problems with anti-abortion movements, as they make for a situation where “the United States may well return to the situation of the pre-Roe era when women of means managed to get safe abortion care and poor women often did not” (59) due to lack of easy access to abortion clinics.

However, many people argue that the woman is not the person who has the strongest moral right in cases of abortion. Instead, they say, it is the unborn child or fetus who deserves to be protected the most. This is because they argue from a mostly Christian or at least religious standpoint, which holds that “life [is] a precious gift from God and that man [does] not have the right to kill the innocent child in the womb” (Karrer 528). From this standpoint, allowing abortion to be legal is essentially the same as legalizing murder, as it kills a potential child who may otherwise have lived.

This fact is central to understanding the pro-life view of abortion as an immoral evil and explains why, despite the Roe V Wade case which legalized the practice nationwide, there continue to be several groups who describe themselves as trying “to promote respect for the worth and dignity of all human life, including the life of the unborn child from the moment of conception” (Karrer 554). Nonetheless, this argument is a bit of a red herring. If all human life is worth upholding equally, then the woman’s life must also be upheld with dignity and worth. This is at the heart of why abortion is such a sticky issue, as the pro-life arguments must necessarily—or at least should—also focus on how to preserve and treat the life of the woman who wants the abortion.

Apart from women’s health, keeping abortion legal can also have a big impact on women’s social liberation. M. Castle notes that such religious arguments about abortion can sometimes turn from rhetoric to reality by making politics “profoundly anti-female and sustaining gender inequality” (1). In this argument, the morality of keeping abortion legal moves from a simple matter of health and to one of the human rights. It is not just that legal abortion means women can be healthy. Legal abortion also denies neo-conservative organizations’ attempts at “instituting legal measures to suspend women’s civil liberties” (Castle, 2). By keeping abortion legal, then, the civil liberties of women are expanded, and they can be assured of access to a procedure that gives them control over their own lives, instead of having those lives dictated to them by people who do not have their best interests in mind.

As shown above, abortion should be legal in the United States. The reasons for this are three-fold. First, legal abortion gives women access to safe abortion, which has a positive impact not only on their health but also on the happiness and health of their communities and families. Second, abortion should be legal because, even if we assume the pro-life tenet that all life needs to be upheld with dignity and worth, women’s lives are equally important to those of the unborn children they wish to abort.

Finally, giving women access to abortion not only increases their health and the health of their communities, but it makes those communities more committed to equality and increases the democracy for which the United States stands. Although the morality and legality of abortion is indeed an issue that will keep cropping up due to its lack of clear answers, for the time being, abortion should continue to be legal, as it provides clear benefits for large groups of people, whereas making it illegal again would be of questionable benefit in most cases.
Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“An issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words”, n.d.)
An issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/english/1477641-an-issue
(An Issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words)
An Issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words. https://studentshare.org/english/1477641-an-issue.
“An Issue Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/english/1477641-an-issue.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Is Abortion Good for Womens Health

Abortion Challenge in the United States

Prior to this different states allowed abortions under different circumstances, for example, in 1967, the state of Colorado legalized abortion in the cases of incest, rape, or if the pregnancy would put the physical health of the mother in danger.... The paper "abortion Challenge in the United States" discusses that to solve the problem we need to look at the root causes.... Access to abortion facilities depended on race, economic status, and someone's place of residence....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Should Abortions be Legal

According to research done by Guttmacher Institute and World health Organization, abortion rates among rich and poor countries are same irrespective of the legality or illegality during 1995 and 2003.... Legalization is essential for preventing teen pregnancies when another child (mother) is at emotional, psychological, and health risks throughout her life.... Outlawing abortions take heavy tool on women's health and life as a whole.... The paper argues in favor of the legalization of abortion in all the democratic and free societies who claim to protect individual rights and liberty of their citizen....
11 Pages (2750 words) Research Paper

Abortion in America States

Abortion is also considered immoral because it affects the health of the woman leading to serious mental problems.... All these problems interfere with the health and welfare of the woman (Lee, 20-21).... This increases the risk of both the woman's life as well as that of the fetuses as it can lead to premature birth or expose the mother to many other health-associated problems.... When such a condition occurs, both the woman and the physicians are presented into a dilemma because they want to preserve the life of the woman and at the same time, want to take good care of the...
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Changes in the Views on Abortion

Here they just aren't spoiling their health but also their careers.... At this age, children will be more enthusiastic to do something new, and they want to know everything in this world, this is the age where child psychology will not be stable and whatever they feel good they do that only.... The essay "Changes in the Views on abortion" focuses on the critical analysis of the major issues on the change in present-day women's views on the debate over abortion....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Reforming the Sphere of Abortion

More than any other issues the debate over abortion has divided the American society into two, people taking sides with reasonably strong arguments on both.... Some argue the legalization of abortion should be considered as a society-endorsed murder, it must stop.... The abortion was treated as an unlawful thing.... n the society, no compromise is possible in the case of abortion and further action should be taken only after reviewing legal and ethical issues....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

The Reasons that American Women Choose Abortion rather than Adoption

This paper, American Women Choose abortion rather than Adoption, stresses that analysts argue that abortion is one of the major issues that America is facing.... The research will also focus on research conducted by CDC and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, on abortion in the U.... Policymakers, on the other hand, advocate for the abolition of abortion, if the country has to plan its future appropriately.... Whether legal or not, what is evident is that abortion is taking place each and every day in the society....
30 Pages (7500 words) Research Paper

Unplanned Pregnancy and Abortion Laws

Many are influenced by their religious beliefs, public health issues and ethics.... This was especially for young mothers who could not space out their children and thus had many maternal health problems.... In the paper 'Unplanned Pregnancy and abortion Laws' the author discusses the main reason why the United States did not want abortion to be practiced.... When the field of medicine developed, abortion was legalized again as it people saw that it was safer....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Abortion Law in Canada

The paper "abortion Law in Canada" highlights that the abortion attitude rescinds the family by making it harder for new Canadians who endure outside the womb to find the family joined composed by the permanent union of marriage exclusively between a male and a female.... The anti-abortion fight has often been religious wars and primarily has been the Catholics and Muslims across the nation.... This is due to the Church's and Islamic teaching against abortion, which are clear and indisputable: the teachings view abortion as murder and there are no exemptions permissible, no negotiations conceivable when it comes to abortions....
6 Pages (1500 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us