Bertolozzi 1

Allison Bertolozzi
Mr. Burchett
Honors Government
27 October 2015
Mock Congress Research PaperAnti Abortion
When a child is born, a whole new life is brought into the world. A life with future
aspirations, feelings, thoughts, and opinionsits strange to think that human beings are formed
from a single cell. However, although the birth of a baby is a thrilling and positive occurrence,
others see the idea of pregnancy in a negative light. In the landmark U.S. Supreme Court
decision of Roe v. Wade, abortion was made legal in the United States after many years of it
being forbidden. Nowadays, many people choose to abort their unborn child, for whatever
reason, taking away the fetuss right to life. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution states that
each person is guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and property. As will be proven later in this
report, a fetus, no matter how old, is also a legitimate person. By altering the interpretation of
how a person is defined in the 14th amendment, defining it as any born or unborn being
beginning at conception, fetuss would be granted the right to life and therefore anyone who got
an abortion after the joint resolution passed would be tried in a court for voluntary manslaughter
and the murder of their child. When someone aborts a fetus, not only are you killing a child, you
are also killing their future aspirations and potential greatnesssomething that the child will
never get to experience. This joint resolution should be passed because each fetus has a right to
live, as it is a living human being from conception: this is shown through covenants regarding
capital punishment of pregnant women, the way in which the body of the fetus is disposed after
the abortion, and the biological and chemical makeup of mankind.

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There is sufficient evidence that unborn beings are indeed a part of the species Homo
sapiens and therefore should be granted the same rights in the Constitution as born beings. One
piece of evidence that corroborates the above statement is shown in our. According to the article
titled Women from Cornell Law School online, enforcing capital punishment on a pregnant
woman, no matter what stage of pregnancy, is illegal in almost every country in the world
(Women). Because of this, pregnant women on death row are either delayed execution until the
birth of the baby, or commute their sentences into lifelong imprisonment. The matter is
somewhat a contradictory and controversial one, due to the fact that abortion is legal in all states,
however almost all countries in the world are in agreement that an unborn human being should
not be punished for the wrongdoings of his mother. Furthermore, verbatim from the
International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, enacted in 1966, states that It is illegal to
execute a pregnant woman on death row because the fetus living inside her is a distinct human
being who cannot be executed for the crimes of the mother (International Covenant). A fetus is
a being separate from his mother, and is even considered a distinct human being in the
International Covenant that has been signed by our countrythis is ample enough evidence that
the 14th Amendment of our Constitution should be amended into recognizing fetuses under the
word people, making abortion at any stage of pregnancy illegal.
Abortion procedures are immoral in the manner in which they are performed, and
disrespect the fetus after death in a way that no once human being should be treated. When
someone dies, they are more often than not honored with a sendoff and proper burial or
cremation. On the other side of the spectrum, after the abortion procedure is done, the once
living fetus or embryo is destroyed using various methods. Where does the fetus end up? The
answer is quite disturbing. When the fetus or embryo is expelled, it is either flushed down the

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toilet in a conglomeration of blood and tissue, or left to disintegrate in the womans womb. When
using the surgical method of abortion, the remains of the fetus are taken apart and thrown into
the trash, discounting all respect for the unborn child (Unborn). All human beings deserve to
be honored after death, and given a proper send off, not just thrown into a trash can or flushed
down a toilet. Furthermore, often fetuses are dismembered after the abortion, and their body
parts are sold to scientists for controversial stem cell research (OMeara). Fetuses, who were
undoubtedly breathing, human beings before being aborted, at least deserve a proper send off
they are not just guinea pigs for some sort of science experiment. The way unborn aborted beings
are treated inhumanly just proves the point that the 14th Amendment should be changed to
include fetuses and give them the same rights that all born beings contain, including the right to a
proper burial.
The final reason the 14th Amendment of the Constitution should be changed to include
fetuses and unborn beings is the fact that the chemical and biological makeup of fetuses are the
same of an adult human. According to Live Action News, scientists have now concluded that, It
is a scientific fact that an organism exists after conception that did not exist before conception.
This new organism has its own DNA distinct from the mother and father, meaning that it is
neither part of the mother nor part of father. As the embryo grows, it develops a heartbeat, its
own circulatory system, and its own organs. From conception it is a new organism that is alive
and will continue to grow and develop as long as nutrition is provided and its life is not ended
through violence or illness (Terzo). From this explanation of a fetus at conception and
throughout the pregnancy, it is clear that it is indeed a human being due to the fact that it has its
own unique DNA, heartbeat, organs, and is a developing organism. Another piece of evidence
that fetuses have the same characteristics as born beings and are therefore human comes from Dr.

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Paul Ranalli at the University of Toronto. He states, At 20 weeks, the fetal brain has the full
complement of brain cells present in adulthood, ready and waiting to receive pain signals from
the body, and their electrical activity can be recorded by standard electroencephalography
(Unborn). If an unborn baby is feeling pain while it is killed, it is clearly alive and human. The
fact that fetuses can feel pain at the twentieth week, and therefore can undoubtedly feel pain
during the abortion, proves the point that the Constitution should be amended.
Many people believe that fetuses are not considered human beings because they do not
have human characteristics, which justifies their feelings that abortion is not murder and should
be legal. However, there is a plethora of scientific opinions and information that refute this fact.
According to Cheryl Wetzstein from the Washington Times, extracted fetuses are kept alive after
being aborted in order to harvest their organs (Wetzstein). Since having organs is a characteristic
of human beings, the fact that fetuses have working organs that are given to others after abortion
clearly shows that fetuses are living beings. Another example of the fact that fetuses are living
beings is an account from a nurse at an abortion clinic in Philadelphia. An employee at Kermit
Gosnell, an abortion clinic in Philadelphia, described how she heard a baby scream during a livebirth abortion. Abortion clinic employee Sherry West described an incident which really
freaked her out and related to the jury how she heard a child scream who was born alive
following an abortion (Ertelt). In this live account of a clearly living baby screaming while
being killed after coming out of the womb, it is clear that fetuses indeed have human
characteristics and are human beings, and are more than just a conglomeration of cells as some
may think. Another argument people use to justify abortion is the argument that the matter
produced inside a womans womb is the property of the woman, somewhat like an internal organ,
and therefore she should be able to decide what to do with it. However, by this logic, if the fetus

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is an internal organ then it is never meant to be out of the womans body and live on its ownwe
know this is not the case as the fetus clearly has the ability to become human (Slick). Clearly
every pro-choice argument can be refuted with a multitude of facts, and this just proves even
further that fetuses should be considered under our Constitution.
Fetuses should be protected under the 14th amendment as persons, also referred to as
living beings, so that they are respected as human beings are and have a right to life. This should
be the case due to the fact that pregnant women on death row are spared or temporarily spared
capital punishment in almost every country, fetuses are disrespected and not given a proper
burial after being murdered as human beings should, and the fact that fetuses have the same
chemical and biological makeup as born beings do at different points in the pregnancy. Some
may say that those against abortion are looking at the matter from a purely conservative religious
standpoint; however, its been shown that abortion is indubitably a moral issue (Gay). The real
question is, will our nation continue murder defenseless babies, or will we finally make the
moral decision and out rule abortion? The fact that our country continues to kill living, breathing
humans--people that have a future, people that have aspirations and thoughts and feelingsis
inconceivable. We as a nation cannot continue to sit by and be complacent as hundreds of
thousands of people are murdered each year. I am asking that we amend the 14th Amendment of
the Constitution to consider fetuses as people, therefore giving them the right to life, not only for
the sake of unborn beings across the country but for the goodness of our nation as a whole.

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Works Cited
Ertelt, Steven. "Baby Screamed During Live-Birth Abortion." LifeNews.com. 16 Jan. 2015. Web.
08 Oct. 2015.
Gay, Kathlyn. Church and State: Government and Religion in the United States. Brookfield, CT:
Millbrook, 1992. Print.
"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." United Nations Human Rights. Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.
O'Meara, Kelly. "Harvesting Fetal Body Parts." National Right to Life Committee. New World
Communication, Inc., 1999. Web. 16 Oct. 2015.
Slick, Matt. "Refuting Arguments Supporting Abortion." Christian Apologetics and Research
Ministry. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
Terzo, Sarah. "Life Begins at Conception, Science Teaches." Live Action News. Live Action, Inc.,
13 Jan. 2013. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Unborn Babies Can Feel Pain." Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, 2014. Web. 16 Oct.
2015.
Wetzstein, Cheryl. "Planned Parenthood." Washington Times. The Washington Times, 19 Aug.
2015. Web. 10 Oct. 2015.
"Women." Death Penalty Worldwide. Cornell Law School, 25 Sept. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.