Whether or Not Abortion

Should Be Legal
or Banned

Keyarra Mason
May 7, 2015
Ap Language

When thinking about aborting a baby, it is very complicated. Women have to make the
decision on whether or not they want to keep a baby. Abortion puts a lot of pressure on people
and them with making that decision.
Read the following six sources carefully. Within a well-developed essay that synthesizes
at least two of the sources for support. Write on whether or not abortion should be legal or
banned, and including consequences if done so.
Make sure your argument is fully throughout. Use the sources to get your point across,
without using every bit of detail from the sources. Also, indicate which source you are receiving
your information from. May right them as one of the following:
Source A 3 Legal Reasons
Source B (Photo)
Source C Valenti, Jessica
Source D Federal and State Bans
Source E 9 Arguments Against Abortion
Source F 10 Arguments For Abortion

Source C
Valenti, Jessica. There Is
Absolutely No Reason to
Restrict Women's Options for
Abortion Access. 6 May 2014.

There were a lot of passionate responses to my piece last week, "My 28 week pregnancy and a
20-week abortion ban: why choice still matters." Comments ranged from the supportive to the
horrified. One question came up several, however: Am I actually arguing that there should be no
legal limitations on abortion? The short answer: yes. I think abortion should be legal without any
restrictions no parental consent laws, no mandated ultrasounds, no waiting periods, no bans on
late term abortions and no bans on federal funding for abortion. I also believe people should be
able to become parents when they want, how they want and without interference from the
government. (If you think restrictions on abortion and restrictions on parenthood are unrelated,
you are wrong.)If that were the law of the land, it would also mean an end to rape and incest
exceptions because we wouldn't need them. Women wouldn't (and shouldn't) have to prove that
their abortion is of the "acceptable" variety. We wouldn't (and shouldn't) have to pretend that
women who are forced into sex are somehow more deserving of medical care than women who
chose to have sex. We could rid ourselves of the hierarchy of "good" and "bad" abortions. The
decision to have an abortion is personal and complicated, and any legislation that seeks to control
such decisions is based on an anti-choice ideology that thinks very little of women. It assumes
that women, if not kept in check by the government, are not to be trusted to make good decisions
about their bodies and families. Particularly when it comes to later term abortions, there is a
myth that women are so evil, misguided or stupid that they go seven months into a pregnancy
before deciding willy-nilly to end it. This is simply not true. (And yes, I wrote about the
complicated moral feelings I have about later abortions but those feelings dont stop me from
knowing that women need access to abortion at different stages in a pregnancy.) While I don't
think we need to make abortion "rare" saying as much only reinforces the stigma against the
procedure I do believe that part of ending restrictions on abortion is making birth control
widely available, cheap, covered by insurance and free for those who dont have insurance. I also
think ending legal limitations on abortion would mean women would get the care they need
sooner, producing less late abortions. The truth is that America only started to care about
abortion for reasons of sexism and racism. Abortion was legal until the late 1800s, when concern
over increased calls for women's suffrage and worry about immigrants' increasing birth rates
sparked a movement to legislate the procedure and to get more white Protestant women
procreating. Just as making abortion illegal hurt women actively and tangibly before Roe as
many as 5,000 women a year died every year from unsafe abortions restricted access to and
public policy limiting abortion do the same. At the end of the day, women's bodily integrity must
trump politics. My belief that there should be no abortion restrictions is about fundamentally
trusting women trusting their choices, trusting them with their own bodies and trusting that
they know what is best for them and their families.

Source D
Federal and State Bans and
Restrictions on Abortion. N.P.,
n.d. Web. 7 May 2015.
<http://www.plannedparentho
odaction.org/issues/abortionaccess/federal-and-state-bansand-restrictions-on-abortion/>.

On April 18, 2007, the

U.S. Supreme Court
upheld the first-ever
federal law banning
abortion procedures
and gave politicians the
green light to interfere
in the private health care
decisions of women and families. The federal abortion ban criminalizes abortions in the
second trimester of pregnancy that doctors say are often the safest and best way to
protect women's health. The ban affects more than just the women who need secondtrimester abortions and the doctors who care for them, because the Supreme Court's
decision abandoned more than 30 years of precedent that put womens health first
when it came to laws that restrict access to abortion. We must stand up to politicians
who want to restrict a woman's ability to make her own health care decisions in
consultation with her doctor. 20-Week Ban: For years, Arizona Representative Trent
Franks has been pushing a bill that would ban abortion in the District of Columbia after
20 weeks. Now he wants to take his unconstitutional ban nationwide. In states that have
passed laws like this, some women and their families have been put into heartbreaking
and tragic situations needing to end a pregnancy for serious medical reasons, but
unable to do so. Politics has no place preventing doctors and other health professionals
from informing patients about all their health care options, and doctors should not be
criminalized for providing constitutionally protected care. While a majority of abortions in
the U.S. occur in the first trimester, it is important that a woman and her doctor have
every medical option available. Laws banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy
would take a deeply personal decision out of the hands of a woman and her doctor.
State Abortion Restrictions: Attempts to restrict and even ban abortion at the state
level are part of an ongoing effort to deny women their right to make their own personal
medical decisions. As state politicians across the country succeed in restricting access
to abortion, women are paying the price. Laws that restrict access to abortion hurt
women's health and endanger their safety. Already state legislatures have passed or
proposed many dangerous requirements: Some of the unprecedented attacks on
womens access to abortion include. Mandatory ultrasounds before women can get an
abortion this burdensome regulation is sometimes imposed even on victims of rape
and incest. Some policies require physicians to force a woman to view the ultrasound,
and deliver politically motivated statements to the woman, even if she declines to view
or listen to them. Mandatory waiting periods of up to 72 hours prior to an abortion, after
a womans initial consultation with her doctor and requirements to attend biased
counseling from an unlicensed, unaccredited, and unregulated crisis pregnancy center.
Banning private insurance coverage of abortion, and in turn taking away the
comprehensive insurance coverage most women currently have. Onerous and

medically unnecessary regulations on abortion providers for example, requiring that

hallways in a health center measure a certain width with the goal of shutting down
abortion providers when they are unable to comply. Planned Parenthood is committed
to helping women avoid unintended pregnancies, but they do occur. And for women
facing unintended pregnancies, prompt access to safe, legal abortion is imperative.
Planned Parenthood knows that the only way to reduce the need for abortion is to
reduce the number of unintended pregnancies. The real solution is to increase not
decrease access to comprehensive sex education and affordable birth control.

Eweka, Prince B. "Abortion: To

Be or Not To Be?" Pro-Life 9
Arguments Against Abortion.
Prince Bright Eweka, 16 Sept.
2011. Web. 13 May 2015.

1. No civilized society permits one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another
human without punishment, and abortion is no different.
2. Adoption is a viable alternative to abortion and accomplishes the same result. And with
1.5 million American families wanting to adopt a child, there is no such thing as an
unwanted child.
3. An abortion can result in medical complications later in life; the risk of ectopic
pregnancies doubles, and the chance of a miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease
also increases.
4. In the instance of rape and incest, proper medical care can ensure that a woman will not
get pregnant. Abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime; instead, it is
the perpetrator who should be punished.
5. Abortion should not be used as another form of contraception.
6. For women who demand complete control of their body, control should include
preventing the risk of unwanted pregnancy through the responsible use of contraception
or, if that is not possible, through abstinence.
7. Many Americans, for example, who pay taxes are opposed to abortion, therefore its
morally wrong to use tax dollars to fund abortion. Even in societies where abortion
regulation is lax, its still morally considered an abnormality to terminate a foetus for any
reason excepts its life-threatening.
8. Those who choose abortions are often minors or young women with insufficient life
experience to understand fully what they are doing. Many have lifelong regrets
afterwards.
9. Abortion frequently causes intense psychological pain and stress.

Eweka, Prince B. "Abortion: To

Be or Not To Be?" Pro-Choice
10 Arguments For Abortion.
Prince Bright Eweka, 16 Sept.
2011. Web. 13 May 2015

1. Nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester, when a fetus cannot exist
independent of the mother. As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health
is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist
outside her womb.
2. The concept of personhood is different from the concept of human life. Human life
occurs at conception, but fertilized eggs used for in vitro fertilization are also human lives
and those not implanted are routinely thrown away. Is this murder, and if not, then how is
abortion murder?
3. Adoption is not an alternative to abortion, because it remains the womans choice
whether or not to give her child up for adoption. Statistics show that very few women
who give birth choose to give up their babies less than 3% of white unmarried women
and less than 2% of black unmarried women.
4. Abortion is a safe medical procedure. The vast majority of women 88% who have an
abortion do so in their first trimester. Medical abortions have less than 0.5% risk of
serious complications and do not affect a womans health or future ability to become
pregnant or give birth.
5. In the case of rape or incest, forcing a woman made pregnant by this violent act would
cause further psychological harm to the victim. Often a woman is too afraid to speak up
or is unaware she is pregnant, thus the morning after pill is ineffective in these situations.
6. Abortion is not used as a form of contraception. Pregnancy can occur even with
responsible contraceptive use. Only 8% of women who have abortions do not use any
form of birth control, and that is due more to individual carelessness than to the
availability of abortion.
7. The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away
her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a
woman to continue a pregnancy, what about forcing a woman to use contraception or
undergo sterilization?
8. Taxpayer dollars are used to enable poor women to access the same medical services as
rich women, and abortion is one of these services. Funding abortion is no different from

funding a war in the Mideast. For those who are opposed, the place to express outrage is
in the voting booth.
9. Teenagers who become mothers have grim prospects for the future. They are much more
likely to leave of school; receive inadequate prenatal care; rely on public assistance to
raise a child; develop health problems; or end up divorced. More worrisome is the stark
reality that most teenage mothers and their often neglected children could eventually
become nuisance to society and an economic burden to governments. A stitch in time,
they say, saves nine!
10. Like any other difficult situation, abortion creates stress. Yet the American Psychological
Association found that stress was greatest prior to an abortion, and that there was no
evidence of post-abortion syndrome.