Woman Have a Right to Choose Everything Else, Why Not an Abortion.

Abortion is and has always been a highly controversial issue. With its relations to religion, safety, and emotional risk the arguments are heavy and strong for both sides. Both sides are pro; pro-life and pro-choice. Neither side is for abortion, no one likes the idea of an abortion but one side is more willing to give woman the choices they’re granted. Pro-choice is the side that believes that abortion should be legal allowing woman to make the decision for them whether or not they want or need one. Pro-life on the other hand is against abortion 100 percent, majority of it relating to religious beliefs. They don’t think abortion is right because the fetus is another human being that has the right that everyone else has and personhood is present within the fetus. The arguments that go between the two sides usually relate to the constitution in when a fetus is considered human, which both sides disagree on, and when it is deemed a citizen of the United States.  Because it’s a constitutional issue it has had a lot of history in Supreme Court cases and protests for or against it. The most notorious Supreme Court case relating to abortion was Roe v. Wade. The 1973 case made abortion legal under the Privacy Zone that is given to citizen within amendments 1, 3, 4, 5, and 9. Many times the case has been tried to be overthrown but never has anyone succeeded.  With all the given information and what I have researched I am pro-choice. I do not believe that the fetus feels pain during the abortion and I do not have a religious opinion on the subject, I am against abortion as much as the next person but I do feel that a woman should be allowed the choice to have an abortion if need be.

            During the Panel Maria McGrath, who was pro-choice, had a lot to say about abortion linking with woman in poverty. Even though woman who are in poverty and need abortions are out there they aren’t the only ones getting abortions. Most women get an abortion because it is an unwanted pregnancy. There are defiantly many that get abortions because they know they wouldn’t be able to support a child. 42% of women have incomes that are 100% below the poverty line. Those who are under that poverty line and chose to have an abortion, I think, are smart because they know that they couldn’t provide the things necessary for the child to survive and may think that putting the child into a foster system isn’t much better, and in some cases it might not be. Some women have to send their children into foster homes because they do not have a way to get to a clinic. Around half the counties in the United States do not have clinics such a Planned Parenthood to help those who are or may be pregnant or even local doctors who do not wish to perform the procedure. Without the clinics woman who cannot support their child must put them into a foster home which I feel doesn’t help anyone. Putting more children into an already overpopulated home only creates for the people holding control over the home and the unhappy children who live there. I don’t like how some physicians must go over the options prior to the abortion because in some cases, once the child gets into foster care, they may never enjoy their childhood to the extent they could have if the mother was able to support them.

            Motherhood should be something a woman should see coming and should be relatively prepared for. She should chose when she thinks it’s best for her to have a child and if she becomes pregnant she shouldn’t be required to care for the child if she cannot care for it the way she wishes to. Pregnancy should not be used as a form of punishment towards those who cannot bring happiness to a child. Not allowing the woman to legally obtain an abortion could do more harm than good to those who are linked with both the mother and the fetus. Yes the mother has the option of putting up the child for adoption but, again, foster care systems may not always be an ideal. The mother who wished to obtain an abortion in the first place and cannot get one is now with a child whom she may not be able to support. She may not have an option of adoption based on her living arrangements or locations so she’s required to take care of it. The problem is she can’t take care of the child because she is one of the many women living under the poverty line. This is something that can result from woman not being able to have a choice in whether or not they wish to have a child. As bad as it may sound, abortion is way of population control. Instead of having an enormous amount of unwanted children in foster cares who may never find a family there will be a more manageable amount of children in the system and can have a higher chance of finding a family before they become of legal age. Having all these children who need families and help is upsetting, making abortion illegal can increase the number of amount of children who also need families and help is only more upsetting. These children need helping and putting others in their position doesn’t help things at all, it only makes them worse.

            From the medical point of an abortion, it’s much less riskier than it was eighty years ago both physically and mentally. Back alley abortions that took place in the 1920’s and 1930’s could result in a woman’s death because they were not performed properly or even by real physicians. Today that likely hood of that a woman is to die during an abortion is so little. Both sides argue whether or not the fetus can feel pain. What I believe is that once the fetus is viable and has been for a few weeks it does begin to feel pain. The thing is most abortions take place in the first and second trimester so the fetus is less likely to feel the pain then. When a fetus is that viable in the third trimester and a woman does get an abortion, usually the partial-birth abortion (Illegal in most states), the fetus can most likely feel the pain. The woman may feel it emotionally as well. The emotional effect an abortion can have on someone may vary. Depending on the circumstances the woman may be more willing to give up the child and there for she may not be feeling as much emotional pain as someone who is not as wanting to give up the child. Thing like PTSD and depression can show up in someone who has had an abortion before but it is usually how the woman who got the abortion took it. I don’t think that there is as much as an emotional stressor that people may say that comes with having an abortion; it just depends on the woman’s ability to handle what she is going through.

            These aren’t the only reason I am pro-choice but they are defiantly some of the controversial ideas that can be found when exploring the Right to choose topic inside of today’s society.  I feel what the government has set for woman who wish to obtain an abortion are respectable laws and restrictions. It was a challenge enough to get the government just to legalize abortion so going for diminishing the restrictions on a national level is unreasonable and the state to state setting for restrictions is a good compromise. The state restrictions or requirements for obtaining an abortion are reasonable, under some circumstances though there should be an exception for woman for example if a woman is abused by her spouse she should not have to inform them of the abortion. At the moment I believe the abortion laws are fully reasonable and should not be changed.

Stakeholders

The two sides to the Right to Choose topic are Pro-life and Pro-choice. People who are Pro-life are those who want abortion to be illegal and people who are Pro-choice are those who think that woman should be allowed to have an abortion if necessary.


A lot of the Pro-life argument relates to the unborn babies rights. Many believe, based on their religion, that the child or unborn baby enters into personhood once they are conceived. This meaning that the unborn baby has feelings and can feel pain, which is mostly true. An unborn child can feel pain if they are twenty weeks into gestation or when the fetus is viable according to a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. It is also hard to find a doctor who is willing to preform an abortion because of an oath a doctor must commit to before they begin to practice medicine. Something that is used on both side is the constitution and amendments that grantee a person or citizen to their natural rights which brings those who are Pro-life back to personhood. The unborn does have their natural rights because they are a living human being. Most of the other reasons that Pro-life believes abortion should be illegal is the emotional and physical issues it can cause the mother. For example studies show that some woman who have had abortions are more likely to have miscarriages in the future.

Pro-choice's opinions are more based upon whether or not the mother can care for the child or if the child will be able to sustain and good, prosperous life once they are born. Its a woman's fundamental right to choose whether or not the child should be born. The risk of having an abortion is low but if abortion were to be made illegal again then there's a higher chance the mother dies in a back ally abortion. Abortion is a way of population control. There are a lot of kids in foster homes and putting more unwanted children in those home isn't always the best option. Those pro-life agree that motherhood should not be a crime because the contraceptives used may not have worked.

Panel Day Reflection

I thought that Panel Day went well. I got good to see the opinions that both sides had on some of the same questions. There were some times where the questions went into a different direction and never ended up being answered but I didn't mind it.

I thought that when one of the panelists, usually it was Kerin,  went off track she became more opinionated and went into detail about that. The other panelist, Maria,  was not like that, she mostly just gave her opinion and that was it. If she did go off track it was mostly about woman in poverty and in bad situations. When Kerin did go off topic or being to talk about something not so related to the question it gave some good insight to what some people who are pro-life believe. It wasn't always about religion as well even if most of it was. It would have been a little more informational and opinionated if someone who's beliefs were not based on religion came in to talk but this worked just as well.

Throughout the panel Maria did not speak as much as Kerin did on the topic. When asked a question she usually gave a yes or no answer but there were defiantly some times when she thought out the answer depending on some scenarios where woman could have trouble caring for the baby. Maria was not as informational as Kerin was, she did point out some good problems that revolve around the topic which i thought was quite helpful.

Court Cases

The biggest case that represents Right to Choose is the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. Roe was pregnant and wanted an abortion but living in Texas at the time she was not allowed to unless her life depended on it. She and two lawyers went against a Dallas County Attorney, Wade. After she lost the Texas trial it was brought to the Supreme Court where she won with a 7-2 ruling. Her lawyer Sarah Weddington was the youngest lawyer ever to win a Supreme Court case. Abortion was then considered to be in the privacy zone for woman and protected by the constitution. Abortion was legal but it did come with restrictions but those restrictions were not determined by the Supreme Court. For years those who were Anti-abortion protested but to no avail. The controversy in this topic is still heavily debated and even the court case of Roe v. Wade is questioned at times.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=410&invol=113
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/p/roe_v_wade.htm

The case of Planned Parenthood v. Robert P. Casey took place in 1992. Five abortion clinics and a physician went up against Casey saying that the 5 provisions that a woman must go through to have an abortion were not Constitutional and go against the rights inside of the privacy zone for abortion. Before the case went to the Supreme Court, the district court said that the provisions became a permanent injunction to the state. This case was then brought to the Supreme Court and was seen as another way to overrule Roe v. Wade to many people but that did not happen. Once at the Supreme Court it was a vote of 5-4 that the provisions were unconstitutional. In the end it was decided that the state was to only keep 3 of the 5 provisions.
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/casey.html

Current Interpratation

At the moment there is no nationally set law about abortion except that it is legal if the abortion takes place during the first trimester. Depending on the state an abortion can happen in the second and third trimester and even then some restrictions are put on the abortions. Also, depending on the circumstances of the pregnancy some exceptions may be given among states. Those exceptions are usually based on the type of abortion that is being taken place for example if a woman was raped and her fetus was viable than she may be given an opportunity to have an abortion. Most of he restrictions are the same law but vary by enforcement from state-to-state.

There are some restrictions that are more common than others such as more sates require abortions to be preformed by a licensed doctor than not. Other restrictions are "Partial Birth" abortions, state-mandated counseling, parental involvement in minors, and allowing doctors to refuse to preforming abortions. One issue that goes by state to state is insurance and public funding. Some states are willing to pay for the abortion while others will not unless the woman life is in danger. With private insurance only four states restrict the coverage of abortion.

http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_OAL.pdf

Constitutional Connection

 The abortion topic is divided into three different categories: Privacy Zone which includes Amendments 1,3,4,5,9; Due Process which includes Amendments 5 and 15; And "Person" which is most of the 14 Amendment. The abortion topic does not come up specificity within the Amendments but there are parts that abortion can fall under which is Privacy Zone and Due Process.

Privacy Zone is the aspects of life that are protected by specific constitution guarantee or it is what is expected to have private in ones life.  What it is is that the government cannot intrude into your private life on a whim (search and seize) without a legitimate reason. Also what you expect to be private cannot be breached by the government under the constitution, in this case, abortion can be considered something private. All because of the Roe v Wade case. With this government can't do much about someone who has gotten an abortion because it is private and they most likely do not with to share that information with the government. That right is protected by the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9 Amendment.

Due Process is the principle that the government must respect legal rights given to a person by the law. All it is is that the government is not allowed to go against a law the protects a persons right, even if it protects that person in a wrong way. In the Right to Choose topic this means that if someone got an abortion they cannot get in trouble with the law because woman are allowed to get abortions. The law is that abortion is legal but there are restrictions that very from state to state. The protection of the Right to Choose in Due Process are in Amendments 5 and 14 giving the woman the right to have an abortion without having to explain herself to the government.

The last one is "Person" in the 14th Amendment. Person is a human being, not a fetus, thus this person must have been born to have the rights to the 14th Amendment. The dispute it that those Pro-life feel that even as a fetus it has this right to this in personhood as a "physical being created in the eyes of god", male and female, from the earliest biological beginning (Genome, Embryo)" Pro-life has has trouble with the first section because it say the person must have been born but the fetus is not yet born so this right cannot protect it. Leaving the 14th amendment unable to defend the fetus but only the mother.

Issue Explanation

Abortion is represented in the Democratic Ideals by Life, The Pursuit of Happiness, and Equality. Pro-Life speaks about how everyone has the right to life. This is one that is highly disputed between the two sides of the abortion topic throughout the three Democratic Ideals.

Those who are Pro-life say that even though the child has yet to be born it is still viewed as a human being in the eyes of God. Personhood is something they feel strongly about. This is a person or a spirit that is being created in the image of God from the earliest biological beginning until natural death. This goes with Life of the Democratic Ideals saying that the unborn child has the exact same right as someone who is of  any other age. The other side of the argument with Pro-choice is that the fetus is not yet an individual, it is just a fetus who is not yet considered a human being. The Pro-choice's side for this is not very strong, it's not that those who are Pro-choice encourage abortions, they don't like it as much as the Pro-life people do. All it is is that the Pro-choice people feel that woman should have the right to choice if they want or need a abortion.

The Pursuit of Happiness give everyone the right to attain happiness in their own way. Pro-life has a similar argument here as they did for they did for the Life Democratic Ideal. The same with Pro-choice. Both of these topics are very controversial, they bring up the ideas of when an unborn child or a fetus can be considered a citizen or a human being, when life begins. This Democratic Ideal is focused on a citizens right, Pro-life says the unborn child is a citizen of the United States so it has every reason to attain happiness. Pro-choice counters that with a United States citizen is someone who is born in the United States or has applied and been accepted as a citizen. The fetus is unborn so that creates a conflict and Personhood is brought into play again. This Ideal is one that bring in a lot of controversy amongst the topic.

Equality is one Democratic Ideal that disembarks the way the two sides disagree about the unborn child or fetus and when it's decided when it starts its life. This is more about how the child is as equally as important as the mother. In the ideal of Equality say that no matter what, every citizen is granted equality amongst others. Pro-choice does approach the topic, again, with when the fetus can be considered a citizen. This works because a citizen is someone who was born or native to some place, because the fetus is not yet born it isn't considered a citizen. Pro-life doesn't come about it that way with this one, they say that even if the unborn child is in the womb it still should be considered equal human beings and have a chance.

None of these topics that are linked with abortion are black and white, they're Grey. It can be such a vague topic amongst people in discussions.Depending on your views of god or life you can be Pro-life for the most part but have the opinion of someone who is Pro-choice when another ideal comes up. This is why this issue of abortion is mostly state based with restrictions from state-to-state.