Essay, Research Paper: Abortion

Abortion has been a long standing ethical issue debated around the world. It is an issue that evokes, on all sides, very strong feelings and judgements and very heated arguments. The most radical argumentsof the anti- abortion or pro-life side of the debate views abortion as the murder of unborn children, and is the equivalent of infanticide making the legal issue of abortion (since the case of Morganthaler) at a rate of 1.5 million a year in Canada into a justified murder of the innocent. There is no right or wrong side to be on, but the side that would have to be against abortion. It has been decided in 1973 by the United States Supreme Court that as long as the baby lives in the womb, he or she would be the property of the mother. Because of this decision almost every third baby in Canada is killed by abortion()()()(). Many countries have followed that decision and those countries are Canada, England and France. Abortion not only kills a fetus, but it kills the parents for knowing that they have taken a human life, and they will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Although many believe that abortion is a woman s choice abortion should be banned because it is immoral and life begins at conception.
One of the most often repeated arguments is that abortion should be legal because it would continue being practiced even if it were illegal. The trouble with such reasoning is that it could just as easily give an argument for legalizing theft, murder or rape. These things have been illegal for a long time, but they just continue happening anyway, so we may as well legalize them. Of course, no one is going to accept such reasoning in those matters. The fact that something is happening or will continue to happen cannot be an argument for whether it is acceptable or just. A similarly bad argument says that abortion should be legal because women get maimed or killed getting legal abortions (Harver 73). That could just as easily be an argument for legalizing armed robbery or any other crime, since armed robbers and other criminals can get shot or killed in doing what they do. If something is wrong, then the fact that someone engaging in that wrong action might be hurt or killed is irrelevant.
if the argument is that abortion is too trivial a thing for women to die because of, that brings up the question, since it is precisely the issue whether abortion is murder or not; and if it is, then it is not any kind of trivial matter. (Grolier)
The right to choose to have an abortion is so personal and essential to women s lives that without this right women cannot exercise other fundamental rights and liberties. But abortion is still not justified.
Not happy with the Abortion Act of 1969 which allows 40,000 unborn children to be killed legally in our country in 1973 (Toronto Star), many people are campaigning for abortion on request. They are helped out by media which continues to print what they consider the facts when it is really the fiction of their imaginative minds. We have been told by the media that the majority of Canadians wish to have abortion legalized
but the latest census taken by the Toronto Star in March of 1989 reports that 35% of those polled thought that abortion was already easy to obtain, 26% thought it too hard, 19% about right and 21% had no opinion. Men more then women thought it too hard.(Encarta)
Even if the majority of the people wanted abortion to be legalized, this does not make it right. A long time ago, most Americans thought slavery was right and it was eventually abolished. The government of this country should have the wisdom and strength to do what is right, not what might be politically good.
Once a woman becomes pregnant, she already is a parent, whether she wants to be or not. (Harver 20) The only way she terminates it is by a natural death or an act of killing. Killing in any form is not the solution to get rid of an unwanted fetus. Hitler thought this was right, the majority of Canadians don t. (Toronto Star)
It is a frightened society that does not develop the ability to control population, civil disorder, crime, poverty, even its own sexuality but would build up an uncontrolled, destructive attack on a defenceless fetus, the very beginning of life. The Children's Aid Societies in Toronto and in fact in every major city across our country have many more potential parents anxious and willing to adopt babies and young children than they have such children available for adoption.
Abortion can be justified as a woman s right to choose, but it should be banned because it is immoral and life begins at conception. Women have been having abortions and probably will be having abortions for many years ahead. Abortion is murder because before a child is born it is given all the necessities needed to survive. Before birth the child s heart beats, the gastric juices flow in the stomach and all its necessary organs are made present. This is a child that thinks, dreams and feels pain. Yes, some women may look at abortion to solve their personal problems, but in all, women are abandoning the abortion because it weakens their great strengths: creation, compassion, and the ability to look beneath the surface of appearance of things. Maybe soon the abortion issue will reverse, and people will see the rights of the unborn
as greater importance than that of a personal right.