Abortion

Abortion is a constitutional issue that questions whether it is ethically acceptable or a violation of the Constitution. It is a constant debate that revolves around moral, religious, and political values and effects several groups including pro-life supporters, pro-choice supporters, the state government, the federal government, courts, mothers, fathers, and most importantly, the child inside the womb. For one reason or another, these groups have their reasons and this essay will explore those arguments and their ethical value, while citing many of the conflicts that have arose in the United States over this highly controversial, constitutional topic. I believe that abortion should be outlawed in the United States with the exception of rape cases and other severe situations.

The constitution states that all men are created equally and that every citizen has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of justice. Abortion is an operation that takes the lives of unborn children from when they are conceived until they are nine months old. The questions that the United States face are: Is abortion right or wrong? Should it be legal in the United States? What are its benefits and drawbacks? Statistics have offered information that demonstrates the rising controversy in the United States. In the world, there are approximately 126,000 abortions are performed each day, 46 million are performed per year. (abortiontv.com) These statistics include the whole world, but are just a preview into the high rate at which people are turning to abortion.

Many people and associations agree and are doing to things to try to prevent this. They are trying to prevent early teen pregnancy and the murder of babies before they are born. The group that makes an effort towards this is the pro-life group. They fight for the rights of children and are fully against abortion. They believe that once a baby is conceived, it is considered a living human being and therefore it is murder in almost every circumstance. This number of pro-life people has risen to 42% in the last five years. Many people that are involved in this group are religious people, big companies, and people who are just against human lives being taken. The exception to this group's philosophy is that if rape or incest has occurred that it could be considered acceptable, but unfortunate. These groups air commercials and have billboards making people think twice as they drive by. A group called 'Pro-Life Washington' collects donations and holds events to raise money to prevent abortion.

Women perform abortions for many reasons. Many turn to it as a solution for rape. It is not fair to a woman to have to give birth to a child when they did not even choose to have sex. This is one of the justifiable reasons that women have to make this choice. The sad fact is that only one percent of abortions are executed because of rape victims. One more reason that women opt out of having a child is because of birth deformities and hazards to the mother carrying the child. They may choose to abort the baby because a doctor has already confirmed that it will not survive or that the mother will not survive the pregnancy. In this case, abortion can be beneficial, by possibly saving a life via ending another. Once again, the percentage of people in this situation who utilize abortion is only four percent. (Abortiontv.com) I believe that these are the only circumstances in which abortion is justifiable and it is sad that this is old five percent of abortions. This leaves another ninety-five percent that use abortion as a form of birth control. This means they have careless sex, because they know that they always have a legal option out. By keeping abortion legal to all women, it encourages women to have the procedure and in some ways gets rid of morals in the United States. The high rate of teenage pregnancy is evidence of this; every two out of five teens will become pregnant before the age of twenty. Is this because they know that they have a backup? If abortion was not available, I believe that the teen pregnancy would significantly decrease because it would remind people that if their method of birth control fails, they will have to carry out their baby to term.

Catholics formed anti-abortion efforts when the idea first surfaced a long time ago in the United States. It was immediately opposed and considered a sin in every aspect possible. Eventually the Protestant group began to fight against for their cause. Although in the Bible there are no specific guidelines regarding when human life begins, there are many passages that could be interpreted as a reference to this subject. In any case, abortion is the termination of a life. One of the Ten Commandments clearly states that "Though shalt not Murder." As and Christian and an educated person, I do not believe that this statement can be taken loosely or re-interpreted. In this part of the Bible, God makes it clear that murder is a sin. In the United States today, about 76% of Americans consider themselves Christians. Just as the Pledge of Allegiance has seen attempts to be altered, so has the constitution. Though it does not clearly state that abortion is wrong, it says that a human deserves certain rights, which they are not receiving. If abortion can be overturned, so can the politicians who are trying to take "Under God" out of the pledge. Since this nation was founded under God, it would only further separate the people of the United States to continue allowing abortions.

State legislatures have begun to do their part in preventing abortion. Abortion affects them in many ways and if laws were changed, they would have to change them to obey the law. Currently, a baby is federally considered a human being when it is born. In the state of California, a baby in the womb has been declared a human life because of the Laci Peterson tragedy. If it is illegal for a husband to kill his wife with his child inside, it must be wrong to willingly and legally terminate the life of another child and receive money for the procedure. Already, there are increasingly less and less clinics that perform this in each state and there are very clear restrictions on it. In many states one must be at least 18 or else they need permission from their parents. Many teens would not carry it out if they had to tell their parents. So, because these kinds of rules are formed, it is an effort to try to reduce the number of women who do this. However, unless laws are changed to make it illegal in most circumstances, there will still be millions of babies being killed each year in every state.

Also, companies like Wal-Mart are doing their part to help reduce abortions. Wal-Mart is one of the biggest drug and pharmacy stores in the United States and they have refused to sell the emergency contraception pill, known as the "morning after pill,"