Abortion Murder Of The Baby's Life example essay topic

The History of Abortion Abortions have been mentioned throughout recorded history, simply not a prevalent issue. In the times before Christ, typical abortion methods would be to poison the mother (in hope that she lived while the fetus died), or to abuse the mother's abdomen. Hippocrates and Sopranos, who were considered the greatest of all ancient gynecologists, both opposed abortion, though whether it was for the protection of the mother or fetus is not clear. The Hippocratic Oath, formulated around 400 B.C., prohibits abortion and was taken verbatim by U.S. physicians (Gilbert 1). Once abortions became better developed and they started to be considered safe, the Catholic Church felt compelled to condemn the practice. It was considered murder and a horrid mortal sin.

The Church struggled to find the appropriate time in the pregnancy cycle to consider abortion murder of the baby's life. Different beliefs about when the baby was actually alive caused much disagreement. The Church prohibited abortion during many different times, sometimes at conception, other times when the baby first moved, and still other times when the pregnancy was four months along, also known as quickening. However, Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism always prohibited abortion of an animate fetus, or one considered alive with a soul.

The problem was simply figuring when life began. During colonial times, medical guides gave recipes to abort the baby, with herbs that could be grown in one's garden. By the mid-eighteenth century, these herbs were so widely available that they caused the first abortion laws to actually be considered poison control laws. The sale of commercial abortifacients was banned, however the action of the abortion was not. The laws made little difference (History 2). Even today, as Beverly Wildung Harrison, a feminist, says, "The withdrawal of legal abortion will create one more massively profitable underworld economy in which the Mafia and other sections of the quasi-legal capitalism may and will profitably invest" (390).

Until the last third of the nineteenth century, when it was considered a criminal offense, abortion was legal before quickening. Under common law, post-quickening abortion was considered homicide or manslaughter. Statutes usually differed throughout the states, but generally abortion was punished after quickening as manslaughter and prior to quickening as a misdemeanor (Gilbert 1). In 1857, the American Medical Association appointed a committee on Criminal Abortion. Its purpose was to investigate criminal abortion "with a view to its general suppression".

They concluded that a fetus was a living person at the moment of conception, and this belief was encouraged by an even stronger report from the same committee in 1871. The states in return stiffened the penalties for abortion. Through the efforts primarily of physicians, the American Medical Association, and legislators, most abortions in the United States were finally outlawed by 1900 (Lewis 1). Illegal abortions still persisted, despite law-enforced crackdowns on the availability of the drugs used for "do-it-yourself" abortions.

In the late 1920's, some 15,000 women a year died from abortions. During the Depression, abortion rates saw a big surge, due to women fearing the loss of their jobs because of pregnancy. Only in the 1940's and 1950's did organized medicine and the law combine to force self-abortions - and the networks of communication that helped women to fulfill them- out of business. Also in the 1940's, the introduction of antisepsis (to prevent infection) made abortion truly safe. At the same time, post-war America began to believe more in individual rights than personal responsibility over the value of life.

The relative safety of abortion procedures combined with the shift of moral beliefs caused the American Medical Association to relax its opposition to abortion in 1967 and abandoned it entirely in 1970. The American Medical Association stated that their change of beliefs was due to the change in the general attitude of society and not that the threat to the baby was any lesser (Gilbert 2). This led the States to relax their abortion laws in 1967, and by 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion throughout the land. The conventional wisdom today considers Roe vs. Wade to be an avant-garde decision, "judicial activism" at either its enlightened best or worst. Moderate reforms had already been tried; twelve states permitted abortion in instances of incest, rape, The latest major conflict over abortion laws has been the termination of late pregnancies, termed "partial birth abortions" by those opposed to this type of abortion. Pro-choice advocates maintain that such abortions are done simply to save the life of the mother or to terminate pregnancies where the fetus cannot survive after birth.

Pro-life advocates claim the fetuses can always be saved and many abortions are done on cases that are not hopeless. This debate is a continuous circle of different morals, values, beliefs, and attitudes all disagreeing on a woman's right over her baby's. Attitudes toward early abortions in the 18th and 19th centuries, those both before quickening and those in the first trimester, seem to be more submissive than the ideas of today. Whether it be the actual sperm entering the egg of the trimester series, no one can absolutely say when life actually begins. Reagan suggests "the abortion debate is really an ideological struggle over the position of women" (History 1). The question is how much of a right should a woman have over the child.

Obviously, history is not going to say who is right and wrong, and history cannot create the certainties a person needs to decide if they are Pro-life, Pro-choice, or just somewhere in the middle. History can help a person see both views, but each person must look into their own morals and values and decide for themselves the impact abortion makes in today's world.

Bibliography

Bishops try new tack on abortion Subtle ads devoid of religious content" Times - Picayune; New Orleans, La. ; Aug 28, 2001.
Newhouse News Service. Page 1". Abortion in American History" web November 19, 2001.
Pages 1-4. Gilbert, Jeff. "Abortion Perspectives". web November 23, 2001.
Pages 1-2. Harrison, Beverly Wildung, and Closes, Shirley. "Theology and Morality of Procreative Choice". Moral Issues and Christian Responses New York, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998, Page 390.
Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Abortion History" web November 17, 2001.