Kelsey Blough

Mr. Rogers
Government Period 1
12 October 2016
Abortion
Picture this; youre a 17 year old girl who has just taken a pregnancy test that comes out positive.
You were raised by very strict catholic parents, and you know that if you tell them that youre pregnant
they will most likely kick you out of the house and tell you that youve brought shame to their family
name. You wont be able to care for this child, and you most definitely do not want the child to grow up
without a full, loving family. Yes, adoption is a choice, but your family would still find out that you are
pregnant and you would still need to go through the dangerous labor process. At this point, abortion is
your best option, but because of where you live, it is very hard to obtain an abortion without needing
parental consent. So, instead of facing your parents (which would also mean facing shame), you decide to
find someone who will perform an illegal abortion on you. You have this abortion, your parents never find
out, but sadly you are faced with many serious health issues in the future due to this unsafe, illegal
abortion. Sadly, this is a very common scenario among young teens and young adults who have had an
unwanted pregnancy. Abortion laws across the United States make it extremely difficult for a woman to
have an abortion. In order for women to have an easier time with this, we should standardize abortion
laws nationally, understand that every woman has a right to life and to her own body, and understand that
health issues with the fetus or mother can pop up well after 20 weeks of gestation.
Although certain forms of abortion are legal in America, it is still very difficult for a woman to
obtain an abortion. This is due to individual states having the right to decide what they want to do about
abortion laws. Many states have made it so difficult that women actually attempt to go to different states
to have an abortion performed on them. This is especially true with minors. More than 1,800 minors
residing in Massachusetts traveled to five surrounding states during these 20 months to avoid the statute's

mandates. (Cartoof and Klerman) This was due to their strict law about how any girl under the age of 18
must receive parental consent before she is able to obtain an abortion. Can you imagine being a minor
and struggling so hard with this that you actually need to travel to an entirely separate state just to make it
easier? You may believe that this law is only held in Massachusetts, but you're wrong. Utah requires that
one of your parents give permission for your abortion, and separately that one parent be told of your
decision 24 hours before the abortion takes place. A judge can excuse you from the first requirement
(permission), but not the second (that a parent told). You can, however, be excused from the second
requirement if you have only one parent and that parent has abused you, and your doctor reports that
abuse to the appropriate authorities. You can also be excused from this requirement if your parent has
failed to take responsibility for your care.(Silverstein). The specificity of this law is so specific that it
basically makes it impossible for a girl to have an abortion. Most states in the U.S. have similar laws
towards abortion. Girls should not need parental consent to have an abortion. If the girl does not feel
comfortable talking to her parents about being pregnant and wanting an abortion, then she should not
need to. Although rape is oftentimes not involved, when it is, many are embarrassed and ashamed to talk
about it. Can you imagine being the victim of a rape, becoming pregnant, and as if that isnt enough,
being forced to talk to your family about it in order for it to be legal for you to obtain an abortion? It is
absolutely ridiculous that any underage girl would be put through this. The mental damage that it would
cause is just horrifying to even think about. And what if the parents say no to the abortion? At that point,
the state is taking away any right the underage girl has over her own body. It is absolutely ridiculous.
Human beings in general have the right to their own bodies, and yes, it is true that all humans have the
right to life. But the right to life does not give the right to use somebody elses body. Women have the
right to their own bodies, which means they have the right to decide exactly what they want to do with it.
The womans body is directly keeping the fetus alive, meaning that her own body is doing all of the
work.The fetus does not have the right to take over her entire body and life. The right to life means that
you have a right to not have somebody elses will imposed upon your own body. So by saying that it is

unfair for the fetus to be aborted, you are saying that the woman does not have the right to life. And by
saying that, well, you are being a hypocrite. But suppose that what in fact is the bare minimum a man
needs for continued life is something he has no right at all to be given? If I am sick unto death, and the
only thing that will save my life is the touch of Henry Fonda's cool hand on my fevered brow, then all the
same, I have no right to be given the touch of Henry Fonda's cool hand on my fevered brow. It would be
frightfully nice of him to fly in from the West Coast to provide it. (Thomson) Although this is an odd
metaphor, it does make a good point. If you do not understand it, the sick man is supposed to be the fetus
and the hand (or Henry Fonda) is supposed to be the mother. Henry Fonda does not have to fly over from
the west coast to touch the sick mans head to save his life, and the sick man, although he does have the
right to life, does not have the right to make Henry Fonda fly from the west coast to touch his forehead.
Likewise, yes, the fetus has a right to life. But, it does not have the right to take over the mothers body in
order to obtain that life. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in
whose body it resides. Shes the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health
should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always. (Williams pg.
28) The fetus, although it has human rights, has less because it literally cannot survive without the mother.
Therefore it is up to the mother on what to do for the fetus, because she is literally keeping it alive. Some
may argue that there are selfish people out there who abort their fetus simply because they do not want to
ruin their body shape, but that percentage is so low that it should not even be a valid argument. Women
get abortions because they cannot properly love and take care of the fetus, because of health
complications, or because they know by bringing the fetus into the world, the fetus will not have a good
life. Another common argument is that the responsible thing to do would be to give birth to the fetus and
raise it. How would this be more responsible if you literally cannot take care of the child? Or properly
love the child? Or support the child? This is not responsible, it is just the woman bringing the fetus into a
horrible situation. Approximately 95% of women completing each follow-up interview reported that
having the abortion was the right decision for them. (Rocca) Although the decision may be hard, women
know when this is the right decision for them. They knew that they were not only thinking of the well

being of themselves, but they are also thinking of the well being of the fetus. They knew that they would
not be able to give that child a good life. That is not selfish, it is selfless.
If you were to find out that your child was going to have serious health complications when it
was born and probably would not live for more than a year, and if it did, it would most likely live in the
hospital, would you be willing to risk that? Or maybe its between you and the fetus, you might die during
labour or the baby might die during labour, or possibly both. Is that a risk youre willing to take? These
are just a few of the issues women can be faced with during her pregnancy. In these cases, many decide to
get an abortion and are shamed for it. Many people think that no matter what, you should have your child.
But why? Why would it be better to risk the death of both you and your baby? Not only this, but a lot of
times doctors simply do not catch life threatening health issues early on. My sons condition could not
have been detected earlier in the pregnancy. Far from lazy, I was conscientious about prenatal care. I
received excellent medical attention from my obstetrician, one of the Districts best. Only at our 20-week
sonogram were there warning signs, and only with a high-powered MRI did we discover the devastating
truth of our sons condition. He was missing the corpus callosum, the central connecting structure of the
brain, and essentially one side of his brain. If he survived the pregnancy and birth, the doctors told us, he
would have been born into a life of continuous seizures and near-constant pain. He might never have left
the hospital. To help control the seizures, he would have needed surgery to remove more of what little
brain matter he had. That was the reality for me and my family. (Zink, pg. 109-110) This courageous
woman decided to abort her baby at 22 weeks, which many argue is inhumane. But what was she
supposed to do? The doctors simply did not catch this life threatening condition earlier, and she did not
want to bring her son into this world and give him a life full of constantly needing help with simple day to
day tasks, constant pain, and a life that was full of continuously being in the hospital. She did not think it
was fair to him, and it truly wasn't. These are the types of situations that pro-lifers need to look at when
they talk about the cut-off period for abortions. Because not all doctors can catch everything within that
deadline. Because unfair issues can come up. Because we should not force a child into this world that will
be in constant pain. If the mother can prevent this from happening, then why wouldnt she by choosing

abortion? Medical research from the Guttmacher Institute shows that post-21 week terminations make up
less than 2 percent of all abortions in this country. (Zink, pg 110) Although they do not happen that
often, we still need to give that 2% a fighting chance. Sure, there can be a cut off date for mothers whose
children do not have health issues, but if a woman finds out about a health issue after the cutoff date, she
needs to be given a chance to have the choice to obtain an abortion. It is the only fair thing to do. We are
not reckless, ruthless creatures. Our hearts hurt each day for our losses. We mourn. We speak the names
and nicknames of each other's babies to one another; we hold each other up on the anniversaries of our
losses..(Zink, pg. 110) These women are not monsters, and it will forever be unfair to look at them as if
they are. They hurt for their unborn children that could have been. But at the end of the day, they always
know that they made the right decision.
Although many good arguments have been stated against abortions, none of them could actually
survive in an argument. For example, many pro-lifers argue that the unborn fetus can in fact feel pain
during an abortion. In these states, legislatures have adopted factual findings regarding the medical
evidence that unborn children experience pain at least by 20 weeks after fertilization (which is about the
state of the sixth month, in laypersons terminology), and they therefore prohibit abortion after that point,
with narrowly drawn expectations. (Johnson, pg. 104) Would you rather have the fetus live a lifetime of
pain rather than endure a couple of seconds of pain? All this argument is doing is trading a shorter amount
of pain for a lifetime of emotional, and possibly physical pain. Pro-lifers also like to argue that the state
laws are protecting the fetus from unneeded abortions. The contention that by discriminating against
abortions in the context of a program paying for other services, the government had indeed placed
obstacles in the way of obtaining an abortion. (Currie) All these regulation laws are doing is making it
more likely for women to get unsafe, illegal abortions. These laws are not protecting the woman or the
fetus, they are just putting them in more danger. By standardizing abortion laws and making it easier to
obtain an abortion, we would be making everything a lot safer for the woman. The third most common
argument is the physical or psychological effect from an abortion on a woman. Many woman become
severely depressed or have regretful feelings after their abortion. (Springer) It is expected that the

woman will feel sad after her abortion. Making the choice to have an abortion is one of the hardest
decisions ever. People who have never had to go through this process have no right to push a negative
opinion on those who choose to have an abortion. It is so courageous for a woman to obtain one. Instead
of jumping to the conclusion that a woman's sadness means she is regretful, we should allow her to feel
these natural emotions and let her know how strong she is.
Abortion should be legal. There should be no shaming of abortions, or restrictions on it. Young
girls should not need parental consent to obtain an abortion. Woman should be able to decide what they
do with their bodies. We must legalize abortion and give women the right to decide what they want to do
with their own pregnancy. Abortion should not even be an argument. It should be so obvious to everyone
that a woman should have her own right to decide what to do withe her own body. Abortion laws should
be regulated nationally in order for woman to have an easier time obtaining an abortion. Abortion laws
across the United States make it extremely difficult for a woman to get an abortion, a woman has a right
to life and has the right to do what she wants with her own body, and health issues often pop up after 20
weeks. There are so many valid reasons that abortion should be legal, but these are the three that are the
most important to highlight.