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Kaetlin Rich

Ms. Moore

Expository Reading and Writing Course

16 December 2016

Abortion: Women vs. Government

Unintended and unwanted pregnancies have been a controversial problem for many

years. According to The Impact of Illegal Abortion, during the 1950s and 1960s [the number of

abortions] range[d] from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. Prior to Roe v. Wade, as many as 5,000

American women died annually as a direct result of unsafe abortions. These statistics show the

vast number of abortions performed in just one decade and the unnecessary deaths of 5,000

American women each year. On January 22, 1973 the Supreme Courts decision on Roe v. Wade

gave women the right to make their own medical decisions, including the right to have an

abortion without political interference. Although the government has the right to monitor what an

individual does to a legal extent, it is the reserved right of women to decide if they want an

abortion or not.

Sometimes an abortion is the best choice for the child's potential life. Many women

addicted to drugs or alcohol come to find that their addiction is too strong and will often times

continue to abuse drugs or alcohol while pregnant. Addiction is a disease and considered a

mental illness that keeps your mind and body physically and emotionally dependant on your drug

of choice. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a very common form of birth defect, caused from alcohol

abuse during pregnancy, that can ultimately affect the child physically, mentally, and even impair

their ability to learn. There are also various numbers of children whose mothers are addicted to

narcotics. According to the organisation, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,

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statistics show that 1 in 5 pregnant women, or approximately 740,000 women, use one or more

illegal substances during pregnancy.. This statistic shows the extremely common and frankly

scary truth about untreated addictions during pregnancy. So if women had the right of abortion

taken away from them, there would potentially be an increase of stillborn babies as well as

children born with birth defects.

The mother's health and safety is also a very important part of the decision to terminate a

pregnancy. A woman must endure some of the most intense body changes and complications that

come along with childbirth. There are many short term and long term effects that the woman has

to live with in order to deliver a baby. According to the article, The Effects of Pregnancy found

on the website Thelizlibrary.org, the short term effects include Hair loss, yeast infections,

tendency to anemia, swelling of joints, continued post-partum exhaustion, and a recovery period

lasting up to a year. while long term effects include loss of dental and bone calcium and higher

lifetime risk of developing Alzheimer's Keeping in mind that some of these pregnancies are

unwanted, it is not worth it for the woman to give up her life and health for an unwanted

pregnancy.

In addition unwanted pregnancies can lead to an abusive and neglectful home. Forced

conception or rape can play a huge part of how the mother will interact with their child. Women

subjected to rape are not dealing with a normal pregnancy and binding them to a law that states

that they must have their rapist's child will ultimately lead to extreme mental and emotional pain.

Women who are forced to have their attackers child tend to develop resentful and even violent

feelings toward the the child she has to bare. These children who grow up in abusive households,

whether it be physical or emotional harm, have a higher risk of developing mental illnesses or

disorders. Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Anorexia/Bulimia Nervosa
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are all very common and lasting outcomes of childhood abuse. Depression can come from years

of neglect which can affect the the potential adults overall emotional and social interaction with

others. Depression can and often times does lead to attempted and successful suicide. PTSD is a

disease where the individual is unable to cope or recover from a traumatic event and can often be

triggered by an abusive home. Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa are both eating disorders that are

also triggered by an abusive home and often times the underlying reason is that the individual

has control over their body. In these cases is it fair to the child and the mother?

On the other hand some believe that abortion is considered murder. According to

Abortionno.org, From the moment of fertilization--better known as conception--a new human

life is in existence. This quote shows that abortion is taking the life of a potential child even if

the child has yet to be born. Also, religions such as Christianity have certain beliefs that abortion

is immoral and wrong. Christians believe that since the bible says that killing innocent people is

wrong, abortion falls under that category. The child is considered one of the most pure and

innocent things and this world and taking their life goes against god. Another good point raised is

that abortion is done without the consent of the father. Although abortion has a lot to do with the

mother, it also can affect the father greatly as well. The father has to cope and come to terms with

the lose of their child as well and that can take quite a toll on their emotions.

However abortion consists of the abortion of a underdeveloped fetus and a fetus is not a

human being. When a woman decides to have an abortion she typically will make that decision

in the first trimester of pregnancy. The longer a woman waits to terminate a pregnancy, the

harder and more complicated the procedure become. Not all women terminate their pregnancy

because they don't want to have the child but often times their bodies has complications that can

be life threatening to the mother. There is no reason to force a woman to have a child and put her
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life at risk because in the end you're risking the life of that child anyway. In addition Roe v wade

was passed to protect the lives of women even if that means giving them extended rights. In the

end it is the woman's body and therefore she should decide what happens to it.

Works Cited

-"10 Reasons: why Abortion is wrong? (Infographic)." AbortionNO. N.p., May & june 2015.

Web. 17 Dec. 2016.

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-"The Facts of the Matter: Fetuses Are NOT Babies, Abortion Is NOT Murder, and There Is No

Such Thing as "Partial-Birth Abortion"." Abortion science. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2016.

- I HAD MORE SOURCES BUT I COULDNT UPLOAD THEM