Prochoice

Caitlin Rotherham

Laura Kappel

English 1158, Section 21

19 March 2007

It's Not Illegal, Let's Keep it That Way!

Audience: People who are against abortion or who do not know the facts about abortion.

Abortion. The word is on the mind of pro-life people who scream that it is murder and on the mind pro-choice people who scream for women's rights. The fact is, abortion has been around since ancient times and even if it is made illegal it will continue to be around.

. In the 18th-19th centuries various doctors, clerics, and social reformers successfully pushed for an all-out ban on abortion. However, during the 20th century abortion has become legal in many Western countries, but it is regularly subjected to legal challenges and restrictions by pro-life groups. Abortion should not be made illegal because it is woman's right to choose what she does to her body, if abortion is made illegal women will find other (perhaps even dangerous) ways of getting an abortion, and no one can really determine when the point of life begins.

One reason abortions should not be made illegal is that women have and always will have a right to choose. There is an old quote that says "your body is your temple," meaning it is exactly that, a woman's body is hers, no one elses. Which should mean that no one should have the authority to tell women what to do with their "temple." Women, like all Americans, have their right to privacy. If women choose to have an abortion, it is exactly that, their choice. No one, not the government, not their husband, not their boyfriend should take away that choice. (ADD MORE)

Another reason women should have the right to decide to have an abortion is because if a woman doesn't want to continue a pregnancy all the way (for whatever reason), she should have the freedom to end it, safely and easily. In 1973, the Supreme Court made it legal for women to have safe and legal abortions in the case Roe v. Wade. If this decision is overturned and abortions are made illegal, women will find other ways of ending an unplanned pregnancy. For example, if abortions are made illegal women may opt to get a "back-alley abortion" this procedure is dangerous and could most likely put the woman's life in danger. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 19 million back-alley abortions take place per year, out of those abortions 68,000 women die. If women do not have a safe, secure place to receive and abortion they will resort to these so-called "back-alley abortions." The reason for this is simple; women who have an unplanned pregnancy will do whatever it takes to make her life normal again. When a woman has unplanned pregnancy, if she does not wish to keep the baby she should not have to result to extreme measures to get an abortion.

Another reason to keep abortion illegal is no one, not even doctors or lawmakers cannot decide when a fetus actually becomes a human being. In all reality, fetuses are masses of cells forming a life. They are forming a life; it is not actually a life. (ADD MORE)

Many pro-life supporters believe that abortion is murder and those are mostly religious people. However, many people, including lawmakers have not been able to determine when exactly a fetus becomes a life. Those people also may argue that abortion taken place in the third trimester is murder because the fetus may be able to live out of the mother's womb. However, in the United States, 90% of abortions take place in the first trimester, in which there is no way a child could live outside of the mother's womb at that time. Today, there are laws banning partial-birth abortions. That means that women in some states such as.....STATES....can not receive abortions if their fetus could live on their own. (LOOK UP MORE)

Many people against abortion want to shut down abortion