Abortions In The First Trimester Of Pregnancy example essay topic

Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before birth, resulting in, or accompanied by, the death of the fetus. Some abortions occur naturally because a fetus does not develop normally. Or because the mother has an injury or disorder that prevents her from carrying the pregnancy to a full term. This type of abortion is commonly known as a miscarriage. Other abortions are induced. Induced abortions are intentionally brought on, either because a pregnancy is unwanted or presents a risk to a woman's health.

Induced abortion has become one of the most ethical and philosophical issues of the late 20th century. Modern medical techniques have made induced abortions simpler and less dangerous. But in the United States, the debate over abortion has led to legal battles in the courts, in the Congress of the United States, and state legislatures. It has proven to be spilled over into confrontations, which are sometimes violent, at clinics where abortions are performed. There are many different methods in having an abortion.

Induced abortions are performed using one of several methods. The safest and most useful and appropriate method is determined by the age of the fetus, or the length of pregnancy, which is calculated from the beginning of the pregnant woman's last menstrual period. Most pregnancies last an average of 39 to 40 weeks, about 9 months. This period of time is broken up into three parts known as trimesters. The first trimester is the first 13 weeks, the second trimester is from the 14 to 24 week and the third trimester lasts from the 25th week to birth. Abortions in the first trimester of pregnancy are easier and safer to perform, that is because the fetus is smaller.

Abortions in the second and third trimesters are more complicated procedures, which present greater risks to a woman's health. In the United States, a pregnant woman's risk of death from a first-term abortion is less than 1 in 100,000. The risk increases by about 30 percent with each week of pregnancy after 12 weeks. Although it is so dangerous many women continue to have abortions.

There are even some drug medications used to terminate a woman's pregnancy. In a method commonly referred to as the morning-after pill, a woman is given large doses of estrogen which is a female hormone within 72 hours of unprotected sexual intercourse and again 12 hours later. This high dose stops the fetus from any further development at the earliest stages after conception. Or the point when a man's sperm fertilizes a woman's egg. Typical side effects of the morning-after pill may include nausea, headache, dizziness, breast tenderness, and sometimes fluid retention.

During the first seven weeks of pregnancy a combination of two drugs can be given in pill form to make a fetus. A pregnant woman first takes a drug which blocks progesterone, which is a hormone needed to maintain pregnancy. About 48 hours later she takes another drug which is a hormone like chemical produced by the body that causes contractions of the uterus, the organ in which the fetus develops. These contractions expel the fetus. Misoprostol, which is another kind of drug can also induce abortion when it is mixed with a different drug that interferes with cell division.

A doctor first injects a pregnant woman with one kind of drug and about a week later the woman takes another drug to induce contractions and to expel to fetus. When you combine these two kinds of drugs it usually ends pregnancy effectively according to the 95 percent of the woman who have taken them. Although, some woman experience cramps, bleeding and nausea. Some of the cases are more serious, such as pneumonia, edema, arrhythmia and they effect the heart and lungs which may cause death. After the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, abortion becomes more difficult.

One method that can be used during this period is called dilation and evacuation. Which requires greater dilation of the cervix than other methods. It also requires the use of suction of a large curette and a grasping tool called a forceps to remove the fetus. Dilation and evacuation are complicated procedures because of the size of the fetus and the thinner wall, which usually stretch to accommodate a growing fetus. Bleeding in the uterus often occurs. Dilation and evacuation must be performed under general anesthesia in a clinic or hospital.

It is typically used in the first weeks of the second trimester but can be performed up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Intact dilation and extraction, also referred to as a partial birth abortion, consists of partially removing the fetus from the uterus through the vaginal canal, feet first, and using suction to remove the brain and spinal fluid from the skull. The skull is then collapsed to allow complete removal of the fetus from the uterus. Abortion has become one of the most widely debated ethical issues. On one side there are individuals who are for woman's reproductive rights, including the right to chose to have an abortion.

Onthe other side there are the pro- life advocates, who oppose abortion except in extreme cases, as when the mother's life would be threatened by carrying a pregnancy to term. At one end of this ethical spectrum a repro- choice defenders who believe the fetus is only a potential human being until it is viable. Until this time the fetus has no legal rights. The rights belong to the woman carrying the fetus, who can decide whether or not to bring the pregnancy to a full term. At the other end of the spectrum are pro-life supporters who believe the fetus is a human being from the time of conception. The fetus has the legal right to life from the moment the egg and sperm unite.

Between these positions lies a continuum of ethical and political positions. A variety of ethical arguments have been made on both sides of the abortion issue, but no consensus or compromise has ever been reached because, in the public policy debate, the most vocal pro-choice and pro-life champions have radically different views about the status of fetus. Embryology, which is the study of fetal development, offers little insight about the fetus's status at the moment of conception, further confounding the issue for both sides. In addition, the point when a fetus becomes viable is constantly changing with every passing year medical advances make it possible to keep a premature baby alive at an earlier stage. The current definition of viability is generally accepted at about 24 weeks gestation; a small percentage of babies born at about 22 weeks gestation have been kept alive with intensive medical care. In the abortion debate, the combination of medical uncertainties and emotional political confrontations has led to considerable hostility.

However, for many people, the lines between pro-choice and pro-life are blurred. The issue is also far less polarized. Many women, who consider themselves pro-life supporters, are concerned about the danger of allowing the government to decide what medical options are available to them and the possible threats to reproductive rights. Similarly, many women, who contemplate their view as the pro-choice view, are deeply saddened by the act of abortion and seek to minimize its use through more education about abortions, prevention's of pregnancy and the use of birth control. Many people on all sides of the controversy feel the political debate has led to a stalemate because it ignores the nuances of the issue. In response, participants in the abortion debate find common ground in the admission that the issue is surrounded by complicated, difficult questions that require more than simplified pro-life or pro-choice supporters.

Abortion has been practiced around the world since ancient times as a crude method of birth control. Although many religions forbade or restricted the practice, abortion was not considered illegal in most countries until the 19th century. There were laws during this time, however, that banned abortion after quickening which is the time that fetal movement can first be felt. In 1803 England banned all abortions, and this policy soon spread to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Throughout the middle and late 1800's, many states in the United States enacted similar laws banning abortion. In the 20th century, however, many nations began to be lenient about their laws against abortion.

The former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) legalized abortion in 1920, followed by Japan in 1948, and several Eastern European countries in the 1950's. In the 1960's and 1970's, much of Europe and Asia, along with Canada and the United States, legalized abortion. An estimate of about 50 million people have abortions a year. Of this number a lot of the abortions that are performed are done illegally which lead to immediate deaths. Illegal abortions are more likely to be performed by untrained people, in unsanitary conditions, or with unsafe surgical procedures or drugs. In many European countries it is more likely for woman to have illegal abortions.

In countries where abortion is legal less than one percent of pregnancy related deaths are caused by abortion. In the United States. the legalization of abortion became an issue in 1966, when Mississippi passed a law permitting abortion in cases of rape. In the following four years, other states started to legalize abortion to include cases in which a pregnancy threatens a woman's health, the fetus has serious abnormalities, or the pregnancy is the result of sexual relations between close relatives. The Supreme court decided in the early 1973 two cases known as Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, that abortion was legal for any apparent reason before the 24th week of pregnancy. The reason for this is because the fetus has not yet become viable. The ruling of the Supreme Court allowed individual states to change the law by restricting abortion after viability.

Except in certain cases when the pregnancy presents a threat to the woman's health, abortion is allowed no matter how many weeks. In 1976 the Supreme Court recognized the right of pregnant girls under the age of 18, know as a minor, to terminate her pregnancy. The court ruled three years later that states may require consent of one of the parents of the minor, who wants a abortion. However, consent is not needed if a confidential alternative form of review, such as a judicial hearing. A judicial hearing is made for young women, who had chosen not to involve their parents in their decision of abortion. The Supreme Court of The United States also ruled that a judicial court may approve a minor's decision of abortion, in place of her parents, only if the judge finds that the young girl is capable to make the decision on her own.

If the judge finds the minor not mature enough to make the decision of abortion on her own, the court can rule whether the termination of pregnancy is in the minor's best interest. Since these decisions many states have enforced parental consent, or notification laws. Although some laws have been argued in courts for years. For Example in 1990, Hodgson vs. Minnesota, the Supreme Court upheld a law requiring that prior notice of the minor's parents must be provided before and abortion is performed. In a similar case that happened in Ohio, the Supreme Court upheld a requirement for notice or consent of only one parent. In 1980 the Supreme Court upheld another ruling restricting the availability of federal Medicaid funding for abortions that were medically necessary.

After that ruling, abortion payments for the poor women were limited to cases in which the pregnancy threatened the woman's life. Also in 1977, the Supreme Court allowed the city of St. Louis, Missouri to exclude elective abortions from procedures performed in a public hospital. In 1983, the court found it unconstitutional to require that a woman considering an abortion should be given information developed by the state, talking about risks and consequences and that they should wait 24 hours after receiving the information about abortion. Also in 1986, the court struck down a law in Pennsylvania requiring that state-developed materials about abortion being offered to woman that are undergoing the procedure of abortion. In 1989 there was a Supreme Court decision in Webster vs. Reproductive Health services, and since then the court has permitted several state imposed restrictions to stand. The Webster case upheld a Missouri law that prohibits the use of public facilities or public employees for abortion and requires a physician to determine the viability of a fetus older than 20 weeks before performing an abortion.

In 1991, in the case of Rust vs. Sullivan, the court upheld a federal policy that prevented health care providers who received federal funding from engaging in any activities that encouraged or promoted abortion as a method of family planning. This policy was later annulled by President Bill Clinton in 1993. One year earlier in 1992 the court decided Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey, which was a case in which the court reaffirmed the central ruling of Roe vs. Wade, that no undue burden on access to abortion should exist for a woman over 18 years of age prior to fetal viability. That case also permitted states more freedom in regulating abortion. The court overturned rulings which made it possible for states to once again require that a woman be given information about abortion risks and consequences and wait 24 hours before actually performing the procedure. The last bill enacted by the Congress was passed in 1996, banning the practice of partial birth abortions.

President Clinton rejected the law because it failed to permit use of the procedure when a fetus displays abnormalities, or when carrying a pregnancy to term presents a serious threat to the woman's life or health. Since then many states have passed the law banning use of the procedure. Since the Supreme Court ruling in 1973, pro-life supporters have worked continuously to reverse the decision. They had state and federal officials to place restrictions on women seeking abortions or on individuals providing abortions. In 1994, the Freedom Of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was enacted, which made it a federal crime to use force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with reproductive health care providers and their patients. During that same year, in a case known as Madsen vs. Women's health Center, the Supreme Court upheld the basic right to protest in peaceful, organized demonstrations outside abortion clinics.

More than two decades since the Supreme Court first upheld a woman's right to abortion, the debate over the morality and the legality of induced abortion continues in the U.S. Although pro-life and pro-choice supporters still continue to argue the issue. A growing number of individuals and organizations are kind of leaving the debate in search of common ground. Many people hope that broadening the arguments to include a wider spectrum of perspectives will improve the chances of an end to the issue. The argument for abortion is that women who accidentally get pregnant have the option to get an abortion.

Instead of just having the baby and leaving it stranded abortion will not leave you in that situation. In some cases the pregnancy is unwanted and therefore that is why I think abortion should be legal. I feel that the woman should be able to decide what happens to their body. Some woman must have the abortion other wise it is a threat and risk to their lives and to their health.

Some parents might not be understanding and when they find out that their child is about to perform and abortion, the parents won't let the child do it. Therefore the child is forced to have an illegal abortion which is extremely dangerous. On the other hand, the argument against having abortion is that it can be very risky. Some abortions are so severe that they can kill you. Most of the abortions don't necessarily have to protect the mothers health since she wants to kill the baby.

If the mother doesn't want to baby so badly than she should put it up for adoption. Majority of the abortions performed in the United States are done in an unskilled way, which leads to either woman dying or having horrendous side effects such as the inability to have children. The woman who is having the abortion should be responsible to prevent a pregnancy from the beginning of the sexual relationship. In conclusion I feel that abortion should be legalized through out the world. I think an amendment should be passed for all those unwanted mothers who either can't afford to have a baby or who just don't want it. Obviously my position on this case is to allow the choice of an abortion in any case.

I hope I've proved my arguments for having an abortion. In the future, I aspire that abortion will be legal in all states and not just selected states through out the country.