Abortion Must Be Available to All US Women
In 2008, twelve women taking resident in the U. S. died due to legal abortions performed during the second or third trimesters of pregnancy. Abortion should be available to all females living in the United States, but must be a legal citizen to have late abortions, which are during the second or third trimesters of pregnancy. Abortion is a right that women have, and the Fourth Amendment “Search and Seizure” supports it.
Fewer women will exercise abortion if it is kept legal in the U. S. Late abortions are dangerous, so only legal citizens of the U. S. may have second or third trimester abortions. In the 1820’s, various ideas against abortions began forming in the United States. Connecticut passed a statute targeting apothecaries who sold poisons to women for purposes of abortion, and New York made abortions a felony eight years later. The criminalization of abortions accelerated throughout the 1860’s all the way to the 1900’s.
Some states did allow abortions to generally protect a woman’s life or pregnancies due to rape or incest. The famous Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade in 1973 legalized abortions throughout the U. S. The Court argued that the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual’s zone of privacy. On Jan. 24th, 2005, Hillary Clinton made a speech addressing her thoughts about abortion. “Let’s defend the right to an abortion while doing all we can to ensure that fewer and fewer women exercise it. The Fourth Amendment, “Search and Seizure,” applies to a woman’s right to have an abortion: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (Mount 1) Note that the fourth amendment specifies that authorities must have a warrant to scour a person of his/her belongings.
The baby belongs to the mother, and therefore she has a right to decide whether to have an abortion (to have a doctor “search” her) or not. NARAL Pro-Choice America (National Abortion Rights Action League) “believes in keeping abortion legal and safe. ” NARAL also believes in lessening the need for abortion, which means keeping the access to contraception, or birth control, wide open. Even pro-life persons believe in access to birth control. Hillary Clinton stated in her speech in 2005, “The pro-life Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, has a bill called the Prevention First Act that would expand access to birth control. Access to birth control does not act in the same way as an abortion does, however. Many CPCs (Crisis Pregnancy Centers) mislead women into thinking that abortions cause breast cancer, that birth-control pills cause abortions, and that abortion can lead to sterility. CPCs do anything to talk a woman out of having a legal abortion. Late abortions are performed during the second or third trimesters. A method of late abortion is a saline injection. This is when a needle is inserted into the uterus through the abdominal wall.
Amniotic fluid, which is the “egg white” that provides nutrients for the baby, is drained from the uterus and replaced with concentrated salt water to kill the fetus. The amniotic fluid drained is said to be dangerous if it were released into the woman’s body. The woman can die, but has a very low risk of being infected. One idea brought up by pro-life activists is that abortion is murder. According to the 14th Amendment, people born and naturalized as citizens in the U. S. are protected under the law. A fetus is not yet born.
Just because it has a life doesn’t mean the fetus is protected under the law. The mother is, but the “unborn baby” is not protected as an individual. Therefore, abortion is not murder, and abortion is not illegal. Everyone, either pro-choice or pro-life, wants to lower the amount of abortions practiced: According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control, since 1990 the number of reported legal abortions dropped from 1. 4 million a year to 853,000 in 2001. The number of abortions for every 1,000 live births dropped from 344 to 246. Sullivan 1) Abortion should be a right and privilege for every woman, but it also comes with great risk and responsibility.
Works Cited
- “Abortion – When and How Abortions Are Performed” JRank. 2008.
- Abortion – When And How Abortions Are Performed Haeberle, Erwin J. “The Sex Atlas. ” 1983. ; http://www2. hu-berlin. de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/abortion_methods. html ;
- McBride, Alex. “Roe v. Wade (1973). ” No date. ; http://www. pbs. org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_roe. html;
- Sullivan, Andrew. “The Case for Compromise on Abortion. ” Time 27 Feb. 2005
