Abortion

A woman makes a mistake and becomes pregnant at an age she doesn’t want. Now she wants an abortion. The problem is she doesn’t want to tell her parents, but with the new laws can’t and needs parental permission to get an abortion. Women should not be denied their right to have an abortion with or without parental consent, to deny that right to them would be a social injustice.

An abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before the fetus is developed sufficiently to survive on its own outside the uterus. (Abortion, 1) If the fetus is lost naturally at any point during the carriage it is a still birth, not an abortion. (Abortion, 1)

There are two types of abortion. There is natural and deliberate. The natural is the miscarriage or a still birth. This is the process where the baby dies in the uterus because of its inability to live on its own. The deliberate form of an abortion is the use of medical help to terminate a pregnancy. (Abortion, 1)

There are signs that show that women is going threw a miscarriage. This is called a threatened abortion. This is due to the laxity of the neck of the womb, allowing it to open early. The first sign of the abortion is vaginal bleeding. Then there are rhythmical pains followed by the opening of the cervix and a feeling of bearing down then occurs. The uterus may empty completely with cessation of bleeding and relief of the symptoms, but often the uterus doesn’t empty completely and life threatening bleeding follows. Although this process is happening an abortion isn’t always needed. The women can still keep the child although it is a long shot. Also when this type of abortion occurs it can be easily treated by just lying down and resting the patient. (Abortion, 2-3)

If a woman wants to have a deliberate abortion it can be carried out in the first nine weeks of pregnancy by using the “abortion pill” (mifepristone) which acts against the hormones sustaining the pregnancy, by also using a prostaglandin to stimulate uterus contractions. There are surgical procedures that can be used such as, dilatation and curettage, depending on the length of the pregnancy. (Abortion, 1) There is an estimated 150,000 terminated pregnancy by induced abortion world wide each day. One-third of these abortions are performed illegally and unsafely and cause one in eights women’s deaths during pregnancy.

One of the main issues as to why abortion activists feel it is imminent is the use of a “back-alley” abortion. The “back-alley” abortion is an illegal form of an abortion with out proper medical care. These forms of abortions have killed from a range of 5,000 to 10,000 women each year. (Bachiochi, 1-2)

One of the most famous cases of legalizes abortions was that of Roe vs. Wade. This was a 1973 court case were a single pregnant woman(Roe) brought a class action fighting against the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which ban procuring or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother’s life. A licensed physician (Hallford) who had two state abortion prosecutions pending against him was permitted to intervene. A childless married couple (The Does), the wife not being pregnant, separately attacked the laws, basing the alleged injury on the future possibilities of contraceptive failure, pregnancy, unprepared ness for parenthood and impairment of the wife’s health. (Blackburn, 1) The final outcome was in favor of Roe and it gave women the right to have abortions.

There are however legal restrictions to having an abortion. Although Roe vs. Wade did legalize women to have abortions, in1973, it did not legalize the right for any persons other than the parents to decide what is right for there kid. Also