Public opinion. Polls and such.

Out of the six votes applied to the poll on the right, not a single person voted that abortion is unethical under all circumstances. Thirty three percent of the votes claimed that it is unethical to deny women the right to an abortion, and thirty three percent voted that abortion is unethical under most circumstances. Sixteen percent marked "I'm not sure," and the rest voted abortion as being justified only in specific circumstances. Granted, this poll does not reflect the opinions of a large pool of people. How well do these results match up with a more general public opinion?
According to a CBS news poll, thirty nine percent of Americans believe abortion ought to be made "generally available" to women. Thirty eight percent support the availability of abortion but with "stricter limits" than are imposed now. Twenty two percent of voters favored no abortions being allowed to take place at all. Over all, this split, in general favor of a semblance of pro-choice, is reflected well by our miniature poll on the right.

I'm only 15. Can I have an abortion?

I've heard it argued within the debates of several heated issues in the United States that it is unethical not to have a consistent law throughout the land. For instance, it's been said that capital punishment ought not to be legal in some states but illegal in others, for this inconsistency equates to a varying value on human life between different regions in the same country. Can not the same consistency be expected with the issue of abortion? Granted, the institution has been legalized within all fifty states. The availability of the practice, however, varies from state to state. Women under the age of eighteen have greater or less legal rights to have an abortion depending on the state in which they live. I'm not yet sure of my personal opinion on the ethics of such inconsistency. So follow along with me as I examine the facts.
State permission requirements for girls under the age of eighteen range from needing two parent's consent before an abortion is legal to needing none at all. Some have a length of time requirement between getting consent and having the procedure take place. Some regions require only one parent while others require a counselors consent in the instance that parental consent is not available. All state's that require consent have loopholes, known as judicial bypasses, in which girls may get permission from the courts after proving they have substantial reason for making the decision without consent. Still some states hold relaxed parental involvement laws in which parents do not need to give permission but simply must be informed of their child's decision.
As you might have guessed, the states are rather divided on this issue. There is a pretty consistent tendency for the most liberal states in the nation to have no consent requirements and for the most conservative to have the strictest.
So what does this mean for the debate as a whole? It can mean as little or as much as you want it to. It can be seen as an unethical inconsistency in standards or as proof of small steps in the right direction. Whatever your opinion, it is surely proof of the division between the nation on the issue of teenage abortion, and even more importantly, abortion overall. It is surely proof of this issue affecting personally, the lives of women across the age gap differently.

The Nitty Gritty of Abortion

Part of the definition of abortion should evolve from the techniques used within the process.
Perhaps the most common technique is called Suction Aspiration Abortion. This procedure is implemented usually within the first trimester, when ninety percent of all abortions occur. The process involves pulling the fetus or embryo apart and sucking it out of the mother. Sometimes a similar technique called Dilation and Cutterage is used but suction tools are replaced with sharp curettage. Other times doctors will resort to procedures such as Dilation and evacuation, Saline injection, or dilation and distraction. A clearer look at these techniques can help to better explain what abortion is. No one can make a proper decision on their perspective of the issue if they don't even understand what is done during the procedure.

Sayin what? That seems like a double standard if I've ever seen one.

We have broken down the issue of abortion to one single question, "When does life begin?" An answer to this question would solve both the question of ethics as well as legality in the issue of abortion, and it is with your personal answer to this question that you may decide your individual perspective of abortion. Did you know, however, that it seems the government holds two opposing answers to this question within it's laws. The United States enforces fetal homicide laws, which say that terminating an embryo or fetus against the mother's will is considered the murder of a human being. Lacy and Connor's law, or the unborn victim's of violence act of 2004, refers to the victim as a "child" and calls it's termination "murder." These laws protect the right of human beings to not have their lives taken against their will and state that fetus do, in fact, fall under such protection. I find it ironic that these fetal homicide laws give the unborn the stature of humanity, yet this identification is withheld when it comes to abortion laws. Our government seems to say that basically a fetus is only a human being if the mother wants it.

Statistics aide perception

So how common is abortion? Approximately 1.37 million abortions occur each year within the United States; that is approximately 3,700 a day. Once every twenty-two seconds a woman undergoes an abortion. This reemphasizes the fact that abortion is a very real issue in our culture today, not just a minor debate that can be swept under the rug. It is an issue multiple women face and are personally affected by each day. So who are these women; who are the women having abortions? Fifty- two percent of all women having an abortion are under the age of twenty-five and thirty-two percent are in their early twenties. Sixty-four percent are unmarried and sixty percent are white. So why are these women having abortions? Specifics vary, but ninety-three percent of all abortions actually occur for social reasons, not because of a rape crisis or health endangerment as some pro-choicers like to pretend. Abortion has become so much larger than just a last resort for those that are suffering; some would argue that it has become a "Get out of jail free" card for women to not have to deal with the consequences of their actions. Are these women getting out of jail "free" though? When is it that most decide to utilize their pass? Fifty-two percent of abortions occur prior to a woman's ninth week of being pregnant. In one year, approximately 16,450 abortions occur after the twentieth week of pregnancy.

One Key Issue

In order to better understand the issue at hand it is important to look not only at the basic arguments of the abortion debate but the history that surrounds the topic. Answer.com defines abortion clearly as the "Termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival." Abortion, in one form or another, has been an option for women for centuries and has sparked debate within every decade since it's introduction into society. The earliest known evidence of abortion practices dates back to 2600 BC. Since then it has been a topic of religious and political debate within various cultures. In the 4th century A.D. St. Augustine addressed the issue, stating that, within the catholic faith, abortions were only acceptable if performed within a specific time frame after conception. Fast forward a few centuries and we see a more political side of the debate as Great Britain took legal action to outlaw abortion in 1803. It wasn't until almost two decades later, however,that any legal action was taken in the United States regarding the debate.
The united States has it's own complicated history of actions and opinions surrounding the abortion issue. In 1821 Connecticut outlawed abortions after the "quickening" of any pregnancy. By 1860 twenty different states had passed laws restricting the practice. Shortly after these acts of legislature, however, America embarked on a steady journey towards a shift in it's views of abortion. Where abortion had always been practiced in some realms of society, it had not always been accepted in main stream culture. Previous to this shift, abortion had been a shameful secret, but after the shift it became, to many, an understandable alternative. Pro-choice sentiments grew in the United States and eventually legislature began to reflect these ideas. abortion was completely legalized on January 22, 1973 in the Supreme court ruling of Roe vs Wade. (For a clearer and more specific explanation of the history of abortion in America. Please check out Abort73.)
Previous to the infamous Roe vs Wade ruling, abortion laws had been a matter of state legislation. The ruling made it so that no state could outlaw a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. Abortion became completely legal everywhere in the United States. If the topic wasn't controversial already, the Roe vs. Wade decision really polarized public opinion. The issue became even more divisive than whether Abortion was ethical or not. It became a matter of whether or not the federal government should be involved in the issue at all. Would it have been o.k. for the court to have decided the opposite, and outlawed abortion everywhere? Pro-abortionists argue no, not at all. Some anti-abortionists argue that it would be because abortion is morally wrong and therefore should be outlawed just as murder is. Others, however, argue that although they disagree with abortion, they also disagree with using the government to deny people the right to choose in such a personal decision. Ultimately I believe it comes down to one key issue: determining at what point life begins. If life begins at conception, then abortion is, in fact, murder. If abortion is murder, then the federal government has every right to uphold federal restraints against the act. It's been argued that abortion shouldn't be made illegal because women will resort to unsafe illegal abortion methods which are potentially traumatic to their own health. If abortion is murder, however, the government still has a moral obligation to hold certain ethical standards, such as the preservation of life, regardless of whether the citizens follow them. Even if it can not be confirmed that life begins at conception, aborting a fetus is, at the very least, taking away the potential for a human life. We must consider at what value we hold the possibility of being. There are those that would say this "possibility's" rights to be, should not overshadow the right of a woman to "choose." What if the woman's life was at stake for the sake of preventing the abortion of a "possibility?" In that instance, where the definition of the fetus is unclear, perhaps the government should not make abortion illegal. Perhaps abortion should merely be tolerated by the government and the decision be left to the discretion of the mother and situation. It all depends how the fetus is classified: alive...or not alive yet?

Listening in on the debate

There are alot of arguments out there concerning the topic of abortion; I thought it might be helpful to identify just a few of the beliefs commonly upheld between the two sides. Pro-choice activists do not generally believe that the child aborted is alive in the mother's womb, but rather is a small collection of tissue. Those of the pro-life position may believe that life begins as early as conception and generally view abortion as murder. Abortion supporters also argue that a women should have the right to control her own body. Taking away her ability to choose what happens to her body is, in theory, taking away her life. Anti-abortionists, however, argue that a women can have the right to choose anything as long as their decision does not infringe on the rights of another, which abortion does. Also, a women made her choice when she decided to put herself in a situation where she might become pregnant. Her life is not completely taken away if denied the ability to have an abortion for the condition of pregnancy is temporary; the life taken away from a child, however, at abortion, is a permanent consequence. Many pro-abortionists bring up the issue of rape victims having abortions. They will also discuss examples of women who have abortions because they know that the child will have a low quality of life if birthed. Perhaps the family is dysfunctional or poor, or perhaps the child has a traumatic disability; these rare cases seem to make having an abortion completely ethical in abortion-activists eyes. Anti-abortionists would argue that, since we believe the child is a human being even in the mother's womb, aborting it would be wrong under all circumstances. You would never kill a newborn just because his mother was raped, or because he would be going home to poverty. Why? Because its murder and you have no right to determine whether the child should be allowed to live or not. Abortion supporters like to point out that without abortion, the global population would explode beyond it's current state of overpopulation. Abortion critiques, however, argue that this should be the least of our concerns when we are dealing with this issue as a moral wrong. You would never kill a newborn just because their are too many people in this world.

Throwing thoughts out there...

The more research I do..the more i feel that this is going to be simply a matter of personal conviction to me. I can't help but feel that abortion is wrong, but i realize it might be something for which we never find a clear black and white answer. For that lack of clarity, I have a hard time faulting someone for being pro-abortion. Ultimately i think it comes down to deciding at what point you believe the human being comes into existence. I hope that anyone who believes that a fetus is, in fact, a human life at the time of abortion would never support the action. In good faith of humanity, I'll assume those who do consider themselves pro-choice are not also pro-death, but rather, do not believe that the choice being made affects a living creature. Is this too narrow minded of an assumption to make?

Picking a Point.

When first assigned this project, I panicked. I sat at my lap top for an hour, begging my roommate to help me brainstorm about what public issue to choose. When I threw out the idea of abortion, she laughed. "Not very original," she said. She was right ...It's not very original. I sank back into my chair and began to scribble out a long list of obscure and petty topics, none of which truly caught my attention. I kept coming back to that "a" word third on my list. "Oh well," I thought. I put a star next to abortion and began to type. The issue interests me. It is a fundamental matter of debate in today's culture. It's one of those subjects that really pushes people's buttons. Why? Abortion is serious. It can be personal. It may not be a unique topic to study, but it is certainly relevant. It's a topic which, regardless of having an assignment, I think it is important to learn more about. I want to know exactly what I believe and why I believe it.


To understand the debate, It is necessary ask questions. Is abortion ethical? practical? Is it permissible under specific circumstances but not others? Should it be made illegal? We must consider to what extent are such questions relevant to the debate as a whole. How vague can answers be without losing their credibility? How specific, without losing their objectivity? The topic of discussion which surrounds abortion is much greater than a single polarized issue; it is a multi-faceted debate, which carries a wide range of perspectives, and within those perspectives, degrees of compliance. To better understand the abortion debate, It is important to not only look at what others have to say about the issue but under what variables, and to what extent, they are willing to support their assertions. It is important to remain open minded and it is essential to hold personal convictions.