Early First Trimester Abortion example essay topic

Abortion is an issue that, on all sides, evokes strong feelings and judgments. There are those who consider themselves "pro-choice" and others who consider themselves "pro-life". Those people who call themselves "pro-choice" are in support of abortions and a women's right to have an abortion. They say it is a woman's natural choice to decide whether or not to perform this procedure. "Pro-life" candidates are more in favor of not allowing the abortions.

They say that to kill and unborn child is the same as killing a normal human being; it's murder. While both sides of the argument may have strong points, neither side can ever be fully correct in their views. Abortion is defined as the ending of a pregnancy before birth. This is a point that carries many arguments. Is the child that hasn't yet been born considered alive or not? According to the doctors who perform the abortion procedures, no, the child is not alive.

It's not alive because it has not yet left the womb. But this question can only bring further questions. What, then, constitutes and individual as being alive? Many would say that it is when a person has a heartbeat that he / she is alive. After all, don't ambulance crews try repeatedly to get a heartbeat from any unconscious victim they administer services to? An unborn baby's heart can begin to beat as early as the eighteenth to twenty-fifth day after conception.

So does this constitute life? Many more people would say that a person has to have brain activity to be alive. If one has no brain activity, they " re pretty much a vegetable. So, what's the point? Electrical brain waves have been recorded in unborn babies as early as forty days after conception. So this once again brings up the question, does this constitute life?

Should this mean that the child is alive? Then there are those people who would say, "A baby isn't really alive until it can survive outside the mother's womb". Well, technology is developing so rapidly that a baby can survive out of the womb as early as twenty weeks (five months) into the pregnancy? That is four months early. This time will only improve and get shorter as technology makes further advancements in the field. But, how, knowing all of this information, could someone still abort their child?

Why not at least give him / her a chance at life? Many people look at abortion as a means of escaping. But what can one really escape from in taking another's life? Many would say, "Well, what about rape victims? Should they have to carry a burden for something they never wanted?" Truth is, pregnancy from rape is extremely rare. A study was performed on one thousand victims who were treated for rape and the study reported no pregnancies.

However, we must approach a victim who does become pregnant with great compassion. This woman has already been subjected to an ugly trauma, and she should be loved, supported, and helped. She's already been victimized in a violent act. Should she now be asked to take part in another violent act, abortion?

Does this child deserve such treatment? He / she didn't ask to be born out of these circumstances. Why punish the child? Doesn't this child have the same right to live as everyone else?

Shouldn't it still get a chance? Maybe it wasn't created out love, but why couldn't it be let to live because of love? Now that my argument has been introduced, I will explain a little more about abortion. Early in a pregnancy, a fertilized egg grows and develops. This is an embryo. After about three months, it becomes a fetus.

An abortion would cause this embryo or fetus to die. There are several types of abortion common today: vacuum aspiration, the use of RU-486, dilation and evacuation, adding a salt solution, and prostaglandins. During the first trimester of pregnancy the method of abortion most commonly used is the suction curettage, also known as vacuum aspiration. In this method, the fetus is removed by suction. Then the woman's uterus is scraped with surgical instruments called curettes. Abortion in the first trimester is also induced another way.

A doctor may inject the woman with a drug called mifepristone or RU-486. This drug will go into the woman's bloodstream and block actions of the hormone progesterone in the woman's body. This hormone is usually used by the body to prepare the woman's uterus to receive and nourish the embryo. Injecting the woman with this drug would prevent the body from doing so, resulting in the embryo's death.

In the second trimester, many physicians use a method called dilation and evacuation, or simply D and E. In this method, the fetus is taken apart in the woman's uterus and removed. The doctor takes the fetus apart limb from limb and pulls each section out. Another method used in the second trimester involves adding a salt solution to the amniotic fluid. The amniotic fluid is the fluid that surrounds the fetus.

The fetus will then die of dehydration and will pass from the woman's body. A second-trimester abortion may also be performed in another way. The doctor adds hormone-like drugs called prostaglandins to the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus. These drugs cause the woman to have muscle contractions. These contractions will then cause the woman to expel the fetus. A lot of people think that abortion is something that has only been around for the last thirty or forty years.

Actually, abortion has been widely known, practiced, and debated since ancient times. Even ancient Hebrews had laws against abortion, but they permitted it in cases where the mother's life was in danger. Early Christians opposed abortion as well. However, for hundreds of years, the church debated whether or not abortion was acceptable before animation, the point where the fetus receives a soul (between forty and eighty days after conception).

Abortion was accepted before animation if the mother's life was at risk. Abortions were allowed for other reasons, too. Abortion for any other reason than to save the mother would be wrong by their standards, but not homicide. In the United States, abortion has always been an ongoing argument. Before the mid-1800's, abortion wasn't a crime under United States law if it took place before the baby started moving in the womb. But by 1900, every state but Kentucky considered abortion a serious crime.

By the 1970's, fourteen states had laws permitting abortion only if the woman's health was in danger or if she was a victim of incest or rape. In 1973, the United States Supreme Court made a decision on abortion in the case of Roe-vs. -Wade. The ruling said that a woman could have an abortion in the first trimester of her pregnancy and the states could not forbid it. The court also ruled that during the second trimester, states can regulate abortion only to protect a woman's health. Once the fetus becomes viable in the third trimester, states couldn't regulate abortion unless the mother's life was in danger. This court case set the pace for many more.

In 1989, the case of Webster -vs. -Reproductive Health Services required that doctors test the viability of a fetus before performing an abortion on a woman pregnant for twenty weeks or more. In 1992, the judge for the case of Planned Parenthood of Eastern Pennsylvania-vs. -Casey ruled that states may require women seeking abortions to first receive counseling by doctor about fatal development and abortion risks. The women had to wait at least twenty-four hours after the counseling to have an abortion, if they still chose to do so. In 1994, the judges for the case of the National Organization for Women-vs. -Schneidler ruled that any protestors who block access to abortion clinics can be prosecuted. In 2003, Congress passed a law banning partial-birth abortions, which was quickly challenged in court. No matter what argument is made against or for abortion, no one side will ever win.

Every time one group or side may even come close to winning, the other side has no choice but to fight it. No matter what the outcome, the argument will always be there. Mothers who are contemplating abortion need to seriously think about the choice they are going to make. Whether they know it or not, their choice doesn't just affect them, it affects then unborn child and every person he / she may or may not come into contact with throughout his / her entire life.

That child could one day be someone as normal as a gas station attendant or even someone as influential as the President of the United States. Thing is, the mother will never know unless she gives him / her a chance. Which is better to remember? "I gave my baby life. And because I loved him / her, I let him / her live". Think about it.

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