Abortion

Abortion is fundamentally wrong. It is wrong because it goes against the basic rights guaranteed to every human being under the 5th 9th and 14th amendments in the United States Constitution. Along with it going against the Constitution, there are some medical and moral reasons as to why it is wrong, such as an increased risk of breast cancer, and that the fetus does in fact feel the pain from the abortion.

Simply defined, abortion means any premature expulsion of a fetus, whether it is by natural causes or an artificially induced abortion. Abortion is certainly not a new concept. It has been present in society dating all the way back to Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and into the Middle Ages. It was not until the 19th century that abortion began to get all the attention that it gets today. It was in the 19th century that the strict abortion laws were starting to be passed. The 1973 Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States for pregnancy within the first six months.

Abortion is not only considered immoral by many, it also violates the Constitution. The 14th amendment forbids states to abridge privileges and immunities of United States citizens, to deprive a person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, or to deny any person the equal protection of laws. Under the United States Constitution, we are forbidden from depriving the life of another individual; abortion is just that. It is depriving a human being the right to life. Nowhere under the 14th amendment does it clarify between the living and unborn. So a fetus should still be protected.

Abortion also violates the 9th amendment which declares that just because certain rights are not in the Constitution does not mean that they do not exist. Courts cannot assume that just because a right is not listed that a person cannot be protected by the government. This is important because the Constitution does not mention abortion, but based on this amendment the unborn child is still under protection and is guaranteed the rights which are provided by the Constitution. The "silence" of the Constitution on the issue of abortion does not mean that it doesn't provide a right. When the Constitution was written, abortion was not nearly as much of an issue. Yes it was already going on, but the large numbers of abortions were not taking place as they are today.

An important issue is whether a fetus is a human being. If it is not then it may not be murder, but a fetus is a human being. Two humans conceived it so therefore it has to be a human. To really be able to understand that a fetus is a human you need to know the specifics about human composition. Every living organism has a very specific number and quality of chromosomes that are specific for their species. For human beings that number is forty six pairs of chromosomes. The reproductive cells from each parent which are needed to reproduce have twenty three pairs. They only have twenty three pairs because when they combine at conception they total forty six. When you are dealing with a specimen that has forty six pairs of chromosomes, then you are in fact dealing with a human being.

Studies have proven that a fetus feels the pain of an abortion. The earliest abortions, which are done before four weeks, are most commonly the result of a pill that the mother will take to create a miscarriage and abort the baby. The heart has already begun to beat eighteen to twenty-one days after fertilization. Four to five weeks after the baby is conceived, pain receptors begin to form around the mouth. After the pain receptors are formed, the nerve fibers begin to form which will carry the messages to the brain to tell it that something is wrong. Abortions most commonly occur between the eighth and twelfth week, after the pain receptors have begun to form. If the abortion occurs during this period, the heart has already been beating for six weeks. During the fourteenth through the eighteenth week, the nerve tracts begin to connect the spinal cord and the thalamus. By the eighteenth week pain receptors have formed throughout the entire body. At twenty weeks the thalamus, which is a large oval shaped structure of gray matter of the forebrain, has connected to the cortex and everything is in place to feel the pain of an abortion. Between weeks 20 and 30, an unborn child has more pain receptors per square inch than at any other time, before or after birth, with only a very thin layer of skin for protection. Mechanisms that inhibit or moderate the experience of pain do not begin to develop until weeks 30-32. Any pain the unborn child experiences before these mechanisms form is likely worse than the pain an older child or adult experiences.

Another medical concern is that recent studies have proven that breast cancer is much more likely with premature delivery. It is more likely in women who deliver their