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Alyssa Marketich

Professor Thomas

ENG 1201

7 April 2019

Abortion Research Paper

Why is abortion important to so many people? Abortion is a very heated topic nowadays

because politics play such a huge role in so many things. People are also more likely to share

information about their lives because of social media but that also leads to judgement from other

people. That’s why abortion has been such a big topic in the news and social media. Since

abortion is more widely talked about it has sparked a debate worldwide because there is two

different sides. Pro-life is considered to be the more conservative choice because they are against

abortion. Pro-choice is considered to be the more liberal choice because it stands for women’s

rights and their bodies.

Personally, abortion is an important topic to me because I have numerous family

members who are unable to carry a child or have had miscarriages. I also have a distant relative

who has had nearly 30 abortions in her 31 years of life. I just feel that it is unfair for the people

who are unable to have children, especially when women are having abortions just because they

do not want children. There are so many precautions that people are able to take in order to avoid

unwanted pregnancy which would make abortions completely avoidable. There is everything

from condoms to oral contraceptives to IUDs or the depo shot or even the “morning after pill”. I

wanted to do more research about abortion and why the government funds Planned Parenthood

and how much funding is put into it annually, at what point is human life worth of legal
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protections, and the difference between pro-life and pro-choice. The United States should have

specific and strict abortion laws that allow abortion to only be performed in extreme cases. The

laws should also be federal so there is no grey area or a chance for states to adapt the law in their

own way.

Does the government fund planned parenthood? Technically the answer is no, but

inadvertently Medicaid is where planned parenthood contracts their funding. According to

plannedparenthood.org, “Most of Planned Parenthood’s federal funding is from Medicaid

reimbursements for preventive care, and some is from Title X. There’s no keep-Planned-

Parenthood-running part of the federal budget.” There are more than four million people

annually who rely on Title X which provides affordable birth control and reproductive health

care to people with low incomes. Although the government does not directly fund planned

parenthood, they do fund Medicaid. Planned parenthood states that, “The public funds that

Planned Parenthood’s health centers receive are mostly reimbursements for preventive

services…” Though they don’t directly receive funds from the government, they are still funded

primarily by the government indirectly because most of their patients are lower income families

who depend on government money.

Planned parenthood is not just a facility for abortions but it also a place to receive

reproductive health care, reproductive organ cancer screenings, and pregnancy prevention. Many

people think of planned parenthood as just a place to get an abortion, but it is clearly not.

Pregnancy prevention is very important because than there will not be a need for abortions. Since

planned parenthood is the most affordable facility to get an abortion, they receive the most

patients who desire to have one. If the United States were to put much more strict abortion laws

that are federally dictated so the states cannot adapt the laws than planned parenthood would not
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be able to perform as many abortions. Instead they would be able to focus on preventative care

for the lower income families who need it the most. Lower income families depend on places

like planned parenthood and they should always be available, but they should not be able to

perform as many abortions as they do in a year. According to the annual report on

plannedparenthood.org, “there were 332,757 abortions performed in 2018.”

The graph above shoes a visual of just what Planned Parenthood treats in their

facilities. As you can see, Planned Parenthood does much more than just abortions. Mostly they

provide a diagnosis and treatments for STI patients and some form of birth control. Both of those

are very important because we do not want STIs being spread and if people are using a form of

birth control than that will lead to less unwanted pregnancies and less abortions. As previously

stated, Planned Parenthood treats a lot of lower income families because they accept the

government funded insurances such as Medicare and Title X; The United States really needs a

facility like this because they are able to treat them. As the graph below from guttmacher.org
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points out, lower income families are more likely to have an abortion. “As income levels

increased, the abortion rate decreased; women in the highest income group had an abortion rate

less than half the national rate: 6.0 per 1000.” (Jerman and Jones 1). Planned Parenthood is a

good facility to treat lower income families to provide preventive care for pregnancies and STIs.

But, they should not be able to perform abortions for every one who comes in to get one, there

should be the strict and clear federal laws that I have previously mentioned to determined who is

eligible and who is not eligible to have an abortion.

https://www.scribd.com/document/405963499/Research-Paper-Final-Copy

Doctor Gregg Henriques states, “ The facts are clear and with the appropriate definition

of terms we can unequivocally conclude that human life begins at conception.” So, since human

life does in fact begin at conception, wouldn’t that mean that they should have the same legal

rights just as every other person? Most people who stand on the side of pro-life understand that

the women who do not want their children still must carry the child for 9 months. But, after they

give birth they can put the child up for adoption because there are plenty of people looking to
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adopt a baby. There would obviously have to be rules as to who would be able to have abortions

because some people are just unfit to be parents or to even carry a child. Would it be an easy fix?

Absolutely not. But, would it be worth it in the end? Absolutely, many babies lives would be

saved and those babies have endless potential that is just being taken away from them. An

embryo and fetus aren’t able to communicate with us to share their desires, needs, and wants,

which is why someone needs to be their voice.

If the United States composed a federal law with clear and direct language than it would

help to create that vague line of when abortion is morally/ethically right much clearer. The law

makers could decide who is fit to carry a child to term and ways to help them through it, all well

keeping the unborn child’s interest at the top of the list and ensuring their safety. From personal

experience in life, I have watched numerous people in my life go through pregnancy. At first,

they are scared and unsure of how they are going to care for the child or if they are ready to have

a child. But, overtime they begin to feel more excited and cannot wait to meet their baby. It is

just something that almost everyone goes through when they find out that they are expecting. My

cousin was 17 when she found out that she was expecting her son and she was going to have an

abortion, she went to her appointment to discuss her options and had her mandatory waiting

period. When the waiting time was up, she had realized that she could not do that to her child,

even though it would be a struggle. She now has another little boy and her sons are her entire

life. There are so many stories out there similar to that, just because they gave it some time to

warm up to the idea of being pregnant. If the woman was fit to carry the child, than overtime

they could form that bond throughout the pregnancy and in the end she could want to keep it.

But, in the end the fetus is still going to have a chance at life and will be able to have their own

voice.
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I was advised to add a personal story or conversation to my paper, so I decided to take

their advice and talk to my cousin who cannot have kids. This is a good place to put it after just

discussing when a fetus/embryo begins to develop human features. I decided not to use my

cousins name to keep it private, so she will be referred to as cousin T or “she”. Cousin T is 32

years old and has been unable to have children since she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at

19 years old. When she was just 19, she had to have her left ovary removed because of the

cancer, while they were in doing the surgery they also found cysts on her right ovary and

diagnosed her with polycystic ovarian syndrome. From there on out she knew that her chances of

every having kids were slim to none but she ended up having to have a complete hysterectomy at

the age of 26 because the cancer came back and had spread to other organs in her reproductive

system. So, at that point she would never be able to carry her own child. Yes, she had other

options such as adoption or a surrogate but both of those are extremely expensive and not

everyone is able to afford it. Cousin T told me that, “I wish the people that have abortions were

able to feel the pain that I have experienced because I will never be able to have a child of my

own. They are able to carry a child that will grow inside of them and watch grow up, something

that I will never have and something that they are willing to give up.”

Unfortunately there are so many people out there that cannot have children because of

similar situations. Yet there are so many people out there who choose to give that up and the

people who are unable to have children find this offensive and upsetting. Cousin T also said

something similar, “It hurts when I see someone on social media say that they had an abortion

because that baby didn’t have a chance at life. The person carrying the child had the chance to do

the only thing I have ever dreamed of, carrying their own child.” I’m quite sure that there are

more people put there that feel this way. It is really sad to see someone go through that and it is a
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pain that is unimaginable unless you have personally been through it. Which is exactly why there

should be federal laws dictating when abortion should be approved or denied.

If the United States composed a federal law with clear and direct language than it would

help to create that vague line of when abortion is morally/ethically right much clearer. The law

makers could decide who is fit to carry a child to term and ways to help them through it, all well

keeping the unborn child’s interest at the top of the list and ensuring their safety. From personal

experience in life, I have watched numerous people in my life go through pregnancy. At first,

they are scared and unsure of how they are going to care for the child or if they are ready to have

a child. But, overtime they begin to feel more excited and cannot wait to meet their baby. It is

just something that almost everyone goes through when they find out that they are expecting. My

cousin was 17 when she found out that she was expecting her son and she was going to have an

abortion, she went to her appointment to discuss her options and had her mandatory waiting

period. When the waiting time was up, she had realized that she could not do that to her child,

even though it would be a struggle. She now has another little boy and her sons are her entire

life. There are so many stories out there similar to that, just because they gave it some time to

warm up to the idea of being pregnant. If the woman was fit to carry the child, than overtime

they could form that bond throughout the pregnancy and in the end she could want to keep it.

But, in the end the fetus is still going to have a chance at life and will be able to have their own

voice.

So, there are so many differences between pro-choice and pro-life but this will point out

the major ones and probably some of the more obvious ones. The biggest thing that needs to be

pointed out in this topic is that this answer can be extremely biased based on what side the author

is on. But, pro-choice believers believe that since it is the women’s body, then it should be their
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choice as to whether or not they can keep or abort the embryo/fetus. On the opposing side are the

pro-life believers, who believe that the unborn child should in fact have a voice of their own and

that women should not be able to have an abortion because it is murder in their eyes. Some pro-

life believers also believe that birth control is wrong or that even in extreme cases abortion

should still not be considered. But, you also have the people who are in between. In between

means that they believe abortion is right in some extreme cases such as rape, medical issues, or if

the pregnancy could potentially harm or kill the mother.

There is also something else to be pointed out, the affect that politicians, celebrities, and

other powerful people have on their followers. Some people truly believe that they need to have

the same beliefs or mind sets that the person they look up to has. It can cause some people not to

express their true beliefs because they feel as if it is wrong, a prime example of this is happening

in Japan. According to Jason Morgan, “…the discussion of abortion in Japan today centers

mainly on the pro-life stance of celebrities who have come forward to share their stories of

giving birth to and raising children with congenital diseases.” (1) Not only is it a problem in the

United States, but it is also a problem in other counties around the world.

There will be plenty of people who disagree with the above statements but, there will also

be people who would agree with it. It is honestly just a tough subject and it is a hard thing to

solve but there is a way to do it, if people take the time to think about the embryo/fetus. But, the

United States should definitely work on some sort of federal law for abortion because each state

has adapted the abortion laws making that line a little unclear. If they were to make some more

coherent federal laws, there would be so many more happy and healthy babies who are able to

have a life because a law was able to save their life.

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Works Cited

Magazine, Harvard. "Debating the Moral Status of the Embryo." Harvard Magazine (2004).

Parenthood, Planned. “How Federal Funding Works at Planned Parenthood.” Planned

Parenthood Action Fund, www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/blog/how-federal-funding-works-

at-planned-parenthood.

Parenthood, Planned. “Planned Parenthood Annual Report.” Planned Parenthood,

www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/facts-figures/annual-report.

“When Does ‘It’ Become a Person?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201508/when-does-it-become-person.

“Abortion Rates by Income.” Guttmacher Institute, 23 Oct. 2017,

www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2017/abortion-rates-income.

Jones, Rachel K, and Jenna Jerman. “The American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the

American Public Health Association (APHA) Publications.” American Public Health

Association (APHA) Publications, 8 Nov. 2017,

ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304042.

Morgan, Jason. “The Pro-Life Movement in Japan.” Society, vol. 54, no. 3, June 2017, pp. 238–

245. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12115-017-0130-0.