Essay/Term paper: Birth control and abortion

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Abortion

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A paper I wrote for my Advanced Composition class in 1995. I am happy to say that I got an A+ on it!!!! The paper contains no religious reasons that abortion is wrong, though I believe with all my heart that God is saddened everyday by the millions of His children that are killed. I used just medical and scientific fact to prove my point. Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Approximately 1.6 million murders are committed legally each year. With the exception of laws in few states, the mutilated bodies of the victims are thrown into dumpsters like pieces of rotten meat. While these victims lay waiting in the infested dumpsters to be hauled off to a landfill, the murderers are in their offices waiting for their next patient--the accomplice to the murder. This is the murder of an innocent child by a procedure known as abortion. Abortion stops the beating of an innocent child's heart. People must no longer ignore the scientific evidence that life begins at the moment of conception. People can no longer ignore the medical and emotional problems an abortion causes women. People must stop denying the facts about the procedure, and start hearing the silent screams of unborn children. The argument by the pro-abortion side is that the unborn child is not truly a child. Many people who are pro-abortion justify their beliefs through the concept that a fetus is only a blob of tissue until it is born, or the statement: life begins at birth. Abortion is not as simple as removing a "blob of tissue" (as the pro-abortion activists put it) from a woman's body. Abortion is the destruction, dismembering and killing of a human life--an unborn baby. "But it is scientific and medical fact based on experimental evidence, that a fetus is a living, growing, thriving human being, directing his or her own development" (Fetal Development). A fetus is not just a blob of tissue, rather a fetus is Latin for "offspring or young one." Human life begins at fertilization, therefore it is wrong to murder the innocent child in the womb. At a US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee meeting, most scientists said that life begins at conception or implantation of the embryo. No scientist at the meeting claimed that life begins at birth (Factbot). Professor Hymie Gordon of the Mayo clinic stated "' . . by all criteria of modern biology, life is present from the moment of conception'" (Fetal Development). In a 1963 Planned Parenthood pamphlet entitled 'Plan Your Children' it states "an abortion kills the life of a baby after it has begun. It is dangerous to your life and health" (Factbot). Even though abortion is dangerous to a woman's life, and it kills her baby, Planned Parenthood still offers it as a safe solution. This statement contradicts what most abortion clinics say. It is not possible for abortion to be offered to women as a safe solution, when it not only puts her life in danger, but it also kills her child. Not only has science proven that a fetus is truly a human, the simple facts also confer abortion kills the life of a human being. Life begins at conception because of the fact that life in the womb does not change at birth. There are no special procedures or changes that occur during birth to magically change the fetus to a baby. It is already a baby--a human life. "'If a fertilized egg is not by itself a full human being it could not become one, because nothing is added to it,'" said Dr. Jerome Lejeune (Factbot). Most of all the development also takes place before one is born. Of the 45 generations of cell divisions before adulthood, 41 have taken place before a person is born (Factbot). Fertilization is just the beginning of a long process of growing and maturing. "Life in a continuum. From the moment the egg is fertilized a new life has begun. All of the genetic information is present to construct a unique individual. Gender, physical features, eye color have already been determined. The baby's heart begins beating regularly at 24 days. Babies in the womb hiccup, cry, play, and learn" (Factbot). Life continues from the day of fertilization until death. Nothing is added to a person during a lifetime. "'Conception confers life and makes that life one of a kind,'" said Dr Landrum Shettles father of in vitro fertilization (Factbot). Abortion is wrong because it ends the life of a human being. The day of conception marks the beginning of a new human life. "'The zygote is the first cell of a new human being,'" said Keith L. Moore. There is no way that the fetus is just a "blob of (Factbot) tissue." Scientific and medical facts prove that the fetus is living. They prove that the fetus is a person, a human, and functions separate from the mother. According to our law murder is wrong, therefore it is unlawful to kill an unborn child. The child in the womb deserves the right to life. The fetus is a real human being and deserves all the rights and freedom given to people under the Constitution. This right is evident in the Fourteenth Amendment that states, "The State shall not deprive any person of life, liberty, property, without due process of the law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law" (Factbot). Abortion denies babies equal protection under the law, and is depriving a person of life. Thomas Jefferson stated human rights best when he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (Factbot). All unborn babies have the right to life guaranteed to humans under the constitution. No other person has the right to take away the unborn child's life, no matter what the situation is. One must not sacrifice a life to make one's own life better. Many argue that most of the babies that are aborted are unwanted babies. They believe that they would be abused and neglected. This is why abortion is okay to them. They believe abortion is saving the child from abuse. Abortion, however, is the most severe case of child abuse. The procedures are painful to the child and intentionally end in death (except in cases where the procedure results in a living child. "About once a day, somewhere in the US, something goes wrong and an abortion results in a live baby" (Factbot)). The fetus is alive and has the capacity to feel the painful abortion procedure. The US Department of Health and Human Services reported that after nine weeks unborn babies can feel pain, yet 48 per cent of all abortions are done after this point ( Fetal Development). The baby can feel all the pain put on it by the painful procedures. The ultra sound shows the baby struggling to survive. Abortionist doctors such as Joseph Randall admit that seeing the abortion ". . . of the baby on the ultra sound bothered me more than anything else. The staff couldn't take it. Women were never allowed to see the ultra sound" (Factbot). Women should be allowed to see this. They should see the struggling of the life they are killing. An early abortion takes about five minutes and is performed six to fourteen weeks after a woman's last period. The procedure is called a suction aspiration. It is like a vacuum cleaner. "'A hollow plastic tube with a sharp edge is placed into the uterus. The suction tears the baby apart, and the sharp edge is used to scrape the placenta from the wall of the uterus. Everything is sucked out into a bottle'" (Whitney 94). The other common method is dilation and curettage. "'A curette, which is a loop-shaped steel knife, is inserted into the uterus, and the baby and the placenta are cut into pieces and scraped out. Both procedures are usually done under general anesthesia, so they're not painful for the mother. Of course we know the child feels pain'" (Whitney 94). Another method that is not performed much anymore is the saline injection; a long slow death process of poisoning the baby. The saline injection was developed in the Nazi Concentration Camps (Factbot) The most controversial form of abortion is the partial-birth abortion. Using an ultra sound the abortionist grabs the baby's legs with forceps and pulls them out into the birth canal. The abortionist then delivers the entire baby except for the head and continues by jamming scissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole. The scissors are removed and a suction is inserted. The baby's brains are sucked out causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed ( Partial). It has been proven that babies can feel pain in these procedures. The fetus can feel pain because it is alive and growing like a human. Something that is not living cannot feel pain. If one crushes a pop can as the abortionist crushes a baby, the pop can feels no pain because it is not living. The baby feels pain because it is a living human being. Abortion is wrong because it deprives the baby of rights and happiness because of the suffering it must go through during the abortion. Women who have these painful abortions suffer emotional stress, and years after having the procedure they discover that they destroyed a human life. The women finally realize after many years of emotional stress the cause of it. "After 5-10 years 54 per cent of mothers choosing abortion had nightmares and 96 per cent felt they had taken a life" a from study by Dr Anne Speckhard of the University of Minnesota. People need to listen to the women who have had abortions in the past to hear what they are really about. >From them people can learn much more than a clinic can teach. After having an abortion, many women can tell a person the true facts--abortion is murder. "'Recent evidence indicates many women harbor strong guilt feelings long after their abortions. Guilt is one important cause of child battering and infanticide. Abortion lowers women's self-esteem and there are studies reporting a major loss of self-esteem in battering parents,'" said Dr. Phillip Ney. There are places that give abortion counseling. However, many of these places do not give accurate information Accurate information is needed so women, and men, know that abortion will take away a human life. Ninety-five percent of women who had abortions said their Planned Parenthood counselors gave ". . . little or no biological information about the fetus which the abortion would destroy." Where 80 percent of women who have had abortions from Planned Parenthood said little or no health information was given to them about potential health risks (Factbot). Women need to be told the true facts of abortion. They need to see the fetal monitors. In many clinics they are not allowed to see the ultra sound. The doctors do not want a woman to see that the baby inside of her is alive. This is wrong because it not only denies the child the rights such as the right to be heard and seen, it denies women the truth. The truth must be told and shown. Shari Richard, an Ultrasonographer, said, "'In fact many women will come to me considering an abortion, and I have been personally told that I am to turn the monitor away from her view so that seeing her baby jump around on the screen does not influence her choice'" (Factbot). Abortion clinic staff members are taught how to sell abortions, told never to give alternatives, and told to tell the women how much trouble a baby is. Women are not told the facts. It is obvious from the ultra sound that the baby they are carrying is alive, and abortion kills the baby. If the clinic can clearly see that the baby is alive, the mother should also see. Abortion is described as a decision between a women and her doctor. Yet over 90 percent don't even see the doctor until he appears to abort their baby. This should not be the case. The clinics are hiding and withholding the true facts. Clinics need to shape-up and tell the truth to women: Abortion is wrong. Abortion is one of the key issues facing the human race today. This issue, like many, forces people to take sides against each other, and is one of the main factors people look at when voting. In a 1973 court ruling, known as Roe v. Wade, abortion became legal. Since this ruling the number of teen pregnancies has increased from 4.94 per cent in 1972 to 9.92 per cent in 1990. The number of teen abortions has doubled from 19.9 per thousand teenagers in 1972 to 43.8 per thousand teenagers in 1990 while the number of teen births has increased from 22.8 to 42.5 per thousand. The number of births to unmarried women has increased 7.3 per cent during the years from1972 to 1990 while the number of abortions increased 11.7 per cent during those years (Factbot). Abortion should no longer be legal. It is rapidly becoming a form of birth control. No longer must women worry about protection, if they should conceive a child, they can choose to take its life. One-third of all babies (Planned Parenthood) are aborted, which entitles the abortion industry to $500 million a year in income in the United States (Factbot). Abortion is the most frequent surgical operation in the US, and the leading cause of death in Minnesota (Factbot). Currently there are two million couples waiting for adoption in America, yet there are 30 abortions for every one adoption (Factbot). These statistics are true. Abortion needs to be stopped. There are arguments against the stopping of abortion. However, there are solutions. Many say abortion should be legal if the woman's life is in danger. Only three percent of all abortions are done for the mother's health, where 40 percent of women who have abortions will have more than one, and 50 per cent use it as their sole means of birth control (Factbot). As for the argument that women will do them illegally in the back alleys endangering their lives, 72 per cent said they would definitely not have sought an abortion if they were illegal, and death happens during a legal abortion too; maternal death rates for first trimester abortions are 61 per 100,000 cases (Factbot). Abortion is clearly the taking of a human life, an action that is wrong under the United States constitution. Women must stop being denied the facts and start being told the truth. The people of the US must start standing up for the rights of all people, born and unborn. "Abortion concerns not only the unborn child , it concerns every one of us." said former President of the United States Ronald Reagan (Factbot). Abortion concerns all of us. People need to start caring for the women who are hurting as a result of an abortion, and women who are struggling over the decision. People must tell them the facts, and work at making the conditions better for women, because 84 per cent would keep their babies under better circumstances (Factbot). America needs to open her ears to the screams of the 1.6 million babies murdered each year. Bibliography Can abortion be justified? San Diego: Grenhaven Press, Inc., 1991. "Factbot." Netscape. Online. "Fetal Development." Netscape. Online. Harrison, Maureen, and Steve Gilbert, eds. Abortion Decisions of the United States Supreme Court: The 1990's. Beverly Hills: Excellent Books, 1993. Is abortion immoral? San Diego: Grenhaven Press, Inc., 1991. "LIFE at the University of Illinois." Netscape. Online Melville, Keith, ed. The Battle Over Abortion. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1990. "Partial-Birth Abortion." Netscape. Online. Should abortion remain a personal choice? San Diego: Grenhaven Press, Inc., 1991. Should abortion remain legal? San Diego: Grenhaven Press, Inc., 1991. When does life begin? San Diego: Grenhaven Press, Inc., 1991. Whitney, Catherine. Whose Life?. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1991.