Amidst the Moral Attack on Abortion - Essay Example

Dae Chung Reading and Writing 601 Essay assignment Rough Draft 6 11 Amidst the Moral Attack on Abortion Abortion may be defined as “the loss ofpregnancy before the fetus or fetuses are potentially capable of life independent of the mother” (Diggory, 1977). In the US, prohibiting abortion has been decided as “unconstitutional and that its legalization should take effect on every State” in accordance to the 1973 Supreme Court Decision in Roe v. Wade (Payment, 1993). However, even until today, abortion has been consistently challenged by many Christians and anti-abortionists because they find the act immoral and cruel.

According to an article by Haven Bradford Gow (2002), abortion is a violation of human rights and that “making abortion illegal is necessary to guarantee preborn persons equal rights.” In this essay, I aim to challenge the views of those who oppose abortion by addressing three issues: the concept of killing a fetus, socio-economic outburst, and women’s civil rights. As women make up 50% of human population (UN Statistics Division, 2002), they deserve all the rights accorded to every individual.

In the case of abortion, women have the rights that a fetus does not have until its personhood can be established. Going back to the case of Roe v. Wade, the personhood of a fetus is generally understood to “begin between 22 and 24 weeks” (Payment, 1993). In the same case, the concept of personhood is viewed as different from the concept of human life. Human life occurs at conception, but fertilized eggs used for artificial fertilization are also human lives and those not implanted are routinely thrown away.

If abortion is murder, then it is fair to say artificial fertilization should be also treated as human killings. Because of this, every time I see the slogan “Adoption. Not abortion” on someone’s bumper sticker, I feel that people have completely misunderstood the term responsibility. Parenting is a major responsibility, more so for a single parent. Like any women, single parents have to overcome tensions and pressures in order to raise the child in right track. In fact, many single parents, mostly women, are experiencing financial difficulties to raise their children.

Our social welfare system not only helps those single parents with financial difficulties but also supports a foster care system. According to Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2000), “there were an estimated 423,773 children in foster care in the United States, and 114,556 of these children were legally and permanently separated from their birth family and waiting to be adopted.” If abortion is outlawed, the number of children in foster care will increase significantly.

In short, every citizen will have to pay more taxes on social welfare systems and this might cause financial problems such as insufficient fund for building orphanages and hiring more people to care for those increasing number of children in foster homes. When it comes to women’s rights, every woman should have absolute right to choose what happens to her body. If our government can force a woman to continue pregnancy, the government should also be able to force that woman to use contraception.

The issue of abortion is an issue of the freedom of choice inherent in every woman, in every mother. In his article “Why is Abortion Legal in the United States?”, Tom Head mentioned that the Fourth Amendment contains “an explicit right of the people to be secure in their persons that is also strongly indicative of a constitutional right to privacy”. It is because of this mandate that I firmly believe that it is the right of every woman to be granted of privacy in her own capability as a mother, as a woman.

To conclude, abortion should not be attacked with moral issues. This is firstly because the personhood of a fetus generally begins from between 22 and 24 weeks and that the concept of personhood is different from the concept of human life. Second, we have already more than 400,000 children in foster care to take care of. If we prohibit abortion, number of children in foster home will increase significantly. Our society is not prepared for the explosion on the number of orphans. Lastly, outlawing abortion is absolutely against our civil rights.

Combining these three issues, the argument of outlawing abortion should be challenged after serious consideration on its ramification of prohibiting it. References Diggory, Peter, John Peel, & Malcolm Potts. Abortion. London, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Print. Gow, Bradford Haven. Abortion: A Violation of Human Rights. February 2002. Web. June 8, 2011. Head, Tom. “Why is Abortion Legal in the United States?”, About.com. Web. June 8, 2011. Payment, Simone. Roe V. Wade: The Right to Choose.

New York, USA:  Rosen Publishing Group, 1993. Print. UN Statistics Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision”, 2008. Web. June 8, 2011. Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Foster Care 1999” January 2000. Web. June 8, 2011.