Abortion

"Each year, one million American teenagers become pregnant. Seventy-eight percent of these pregnancies are unintended. Out of the teenagers who become pregnant thirty-five percent choose to have an abortion rather than bear the child" (Dudley 1). Teen pregnancies have been a growing epidemic in the United States. This problem has made our increasing abortion rate skyrocket to the millions. The decision of making abortion illegal is effecting everyone across the nation especially teenagers, women with serious health conditions and victims of rape.

South Dakota voters said, "abortion should only be legal to women who are risking their lives to give birth to their child" (Hurst 1), but this was not the case the entire time. The first time that this law was passed fifty-six percent of the voters rejected the ban. It took seven thousand -five hundred lawn signs persuading voters to change their mind to a strict abortion law. Abortion has eroded in the recent years, simply because no doctor is willing to perform the procedure.

In 1992, Maryland had a similar problem. They had to answer the question, "Whether to lock in for the Maryland Supreme Court to uphold every women's right to decide for herself whether to end a problem in a pregnancy" (Stevens 1). It was not this argument, itself, that effected the people but the thought of a physician or the government playing the role of Ð''big brother'. This is where the Genocide Awareness Project or GAP, said "Women are easily victimized by circumstances and easily believe that women are not ultimately responsible for their actions because, like children they need directionÐ'..."(Arthur 3) After this statement Maryland and many other states decide to educate their young adults.

Four out of five American teenagers admit to having intercourse before the age of twenty. By the time that a women has turned twenty, forty percent have already been pregnant at least once. For the most part these women have little understanding about their bodies and how to prevent becoming pregnant. The pro-choice campaign did a study on the pregnancy and abortion rates, in other countries. In the Netherlands, the teenage sexual activity rate is the same as in the U.S, but their abortion and pregnancy rate is one-ninth of the United States. Primarily because in other countries they receive more education about sexuality and have more access to contraception as well as family planning services.

There are many foundations that are trying to save lives and educate teens on teen pregnancies, and other alternatives to abortion. GAP was founded by Gregg Cunningham in 1988, and since than they have been trying to persuade young adults, "to think differently about abortion" (Arthur 1). GAP visits nearly two dozen university in the United States and Canada. At these conventions there are graphic pictures describing abortion, and its link to genocide, along with their opinion on what should be done. GAP backs there opinion, that abortion is a type of genocide, but the victims of the Holocaust finds this highly insulting. Due to the fact that they lived through a horrible time where they saw first hand, relatives and friends dieing in front of them. They argue with the Plan Parenthood of America, "that the personhood of a fetus is a matter of ones opinion that can be conclusively" (Arthur 2). Saying that the term genocide can not refer to a unborn fetuses, that are not yet legal members of the United States, therefore the unborn fetus does not have natural rights.

Many Anti-abortionist have been fighting for years to give these unborn fetuses life, so they would be able to accuse the women and their physician of murder. GAP says, " if we were to stop abortion there is still a threat of a double genocide" (Arthur 3). Meaning that since this procedure would not be legal, that women may be going to doctor who are not professionally certified in abortion and they could be killing the child and the mother, due to the lack of proper equipment and knowledge.

A pro-choice organization says, "laws restricting teen access to abortion are coercive" (Dudley 2). There are forty six states including the District of Columbia that allow mothers who are under the age of eighteen to place their child up for adoption without parental consent, but many of those states require parental consent before they can get an abortion. This sets up a standard that favors one resolution over another. It forces some women to bear the child who really do not want to, because they are to scared to get parental consent for abortion.

In the United States there is a parental notification law that requires, "a medical personnel to notify a minor's parents of her intention to obtain abortion including a note from the parent accepting or denying the abortion."(Dudley1). Anti-abortionist are in favor of the notification law but they rather have stricter laws restricting abortion for teens. The pro-choice campaign says "restrictive laws endanger teens' health by inhibiting them from seeking safe medical care early on in a pregnancy." (Dudley 2). When a woman becomes pregnant she is to seek medical attention within a week. If she chooses a abortion it is safer if she seeks the correct medical attention in the early weeks. By having restrictive laws, it may create further delays among women who already have trouble seeking a physicians help or the fact that when a teen goes to a physician their parents are going to find out about their pregnancy they become scared and put it off.

Restriction on abortion laws may also deteriorate a families communication rather than promote it. Abortion clinics encourage teenagers to tell their parents or another important family member so they will have some type of emotional support. Even though they are encouraged, sometimes they end up not telling their parents. Sixty-one percent of teenage girls tell their parents about their pregnancy, but the older the woman is, the less likely she to tell her parents.

The Pro-choice campaign says "if a teen gives birth to and child and keeps it, she is most likely to drop out of school, receive insufficient parental care, rely on public assistance to raise her child, develop health problems or have her marriage end in a divorce" (Dudley 5). A child born to a teenage mother is most likely to suffer from medical, psychological, economic, and educational disadvantages.

After a women has an abortion, they usually feel ashamed in what they have done. Most suffer from depression. Many feel ashamed of themselves for killing their child. Others feel as if the abortion saved there lives. The most known way that women deal with their abortion is to seek therapy, only because after a abortion woman are