Constitutional Principles For The Legality Of Abortion example essay topic

Abortion Trung Dinh Mr. GMT Human Behavior December 19, 2001 Abortion: What's the case? There are many controversies that revolve around whether abortions should be legal or not. Some people believe that abortions are constitutional. Many believe that abortions are morally and legally wrong.

To understand this controversial issue, it is important to know that facts about the legal background of abortions, statistics on why women aborted, and the effects on why women aborted. The following will tell why abortions should no longer be made legal. Abortion is defined by the most reliable source, the dictionary, as "a fatally premature expulsion of a fetus from the womb". Abortions are performed in a variety of ways. The procedure depends on how long the woman has been pregnant and where she decides to have the abortion.

The most common methods of abortion in the United States are: menstrual extraction, suction curettage, D&E, saline, prostaglandin, and hysterectomy. (MUCH 2) Abortion, which has been legal for over 23 years, is against the Constitution and the Supreme Court case that legalized it should be overturned. In 1971, a pregnant single woman (Roe) brought a class action suit challenging the constitutionality of the Texas criminal abortion laws, which prohibited having or attempting an abortion except on medical advice for the purpose of saving the mother's life. This lawsuit was labeled Roe vs. Wade. The Roe vs. Wade was Henry Wade, one of the attorneys who argued the case for Texas. Roe vs. Wade was first argued in the Supreme Court on December 13, 1971.

Roe vs. Wade was re argued October 11, 1972 and on January 22, 1973 Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court: The Supreme Court declares, "The statutes void as vague and over broadly infringing plaintiff's ninth and fourteenth amendment rights". (Law 1) From then on an average of 4,100 abortions have been legally performed in this country daily. This case lead to the most important question everyone wants to know the definite answer to, the question being", Should abortions be legal?" There are a variety of reasons why women abort. Someone who supports abortion would have you believe that many if not most abortions are because the woman was a victim of rape or incest. In 1987, over a five-month period, a survey was conducted of 1,900 women throughout the United States for Planned Parenthood on why they had abortions.

"The vast majority was for personal convenience... 92 percent of the abortions were performed for social, economic, or personal reasons". (Guttmacher 2) There are hypocracies in the laws of the United States. In this country, a woman can walk into a licensed clinic or hospital and have her unborn baby removed with no legal repercussions for her or the doctor. Although, if this woman would have, through no fault of her own, been in an automobile accident on the way to this licensed facility and lost her baby due to this accident, the other driver would by law have been charged with fetal homicide and gone to jail. Furthermore, the woman could have sued for wrongful death and become a millionaire.

The same would be true if there was no wreck and she stopped on the way at a McDonald's that was being robbed and got shot, and as a result, lost the child. As stated before, murder is illegal and abortion is murder. Therefore, Roe vs. Wade should be overturned and abortion should be made illegal. It is not that simple, however. The decision in Roe vs. Wade cited constitutional principles for the legality of abortion. Previous example was given to demonstrate one of many constitutional reasons for overturning Roe vs. Wade.

For the children, an overturning of the decision would simply save lives, but physical and psychological harm often comes to women who have abortions. After an abortion, many women experience one more of the following complications, some of which may take several years to surface. Such physical things are: excessive bleeding which may require blood transfusions, perforated uterus or damage to other organs, probability of miscarriages, premature births, and stillbirths increases, sterility, even death. "Emotional instability includes: guilt and anxiety, sadness, grief, mental breakdown, alcohol or drug abuse to forget, fear of punishment from God, and even suicidal attempts". (Tyree 2) There are no numbers and cases to determine what is morally wrong and right on this topic. However, there are cases and statistics that can prove why it should not be legal.

Abortions are wrong and it should never have been made as legal. "On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court made abortion legal for the entire country". (Law 1) It has been legal for more than 23 years. Abortion is against the Constitution, harms women, and involves the purposeful termination of human life. On these grounds Roe vs. Wade should be overturned and abortion be once again be made illegal.