Essay/Term paper: Abortion

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Psychology

Birth Control or Legal Murder?Approximately 1.6 million murders are committed legally each year. Withthe exception of laws in few states, the mutilated bodies of the victims arethrown into dumpsters like pieces of rotten meat. While these victims laywaiting in the infested dumpsters to be hauled off to a landfill, themurderers are in their offices waiting for their next patient--theaccomplice to the murder. This is the murder of an innocent child by aprocedure known as abortion. Abortion stops the beating of an innocentchild's heart. People must no longer ignore the scientific evidence thatlife begins at the moment of conception. People can no longer ignore themedical and emotional problems an abortion causes women. People must stopdenying the facts about the procedure, and start hearing the silent screamsof unborn children.The argument by the pro-abortion side is that the unborn child is nottruly a child. Many people who are pro-abortion justify their beliefsthrough 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 asremoving a "blob of tissue" (as the pro-abortion activists put it) from awoman's body. Abortion is the destruction, dismembering and killing of ahuman life--an unborn baby. "But it is scientific and medical fact based onexperimental evidence, that a fetus is a living, growing, thriving humanbeing, directing his or her own development" (Fetal Development). A fetus isnot just a blob of tissue, rather a fetus is Latin for "offspring or youngone." Human life begins at fertilization, therefore it is wrong to murderthe innocent child in the womb. At a US Senate Judiciary Subcommitteemeeting, most scientists said that life begins at conception or implantationof the embryo. No scientist at the meeting claimed that life begins at birth(Factbot). Professor Hymie Gordon of the Mayo clinic stated "' . . by allcriteria of modern biology, life is present from the moment of conception'"(Fetal Development). In a 1963 Planned Parenthood pamphlet entitled 'PlanYour Children' it states "an abortion kills the life of a baby after it hasbegun. It is dangerous to your life and health" (Factbot). Even thoughabortion is dangerous to a woman's life, and it kills her baby, PlannedParenthood still offers it as a safe solution. This statement contradictswhat most abortion clinics say. It is not possible for abortion to beoffered to women as a safe solution, when it not only puts her life indanger, but it also kills her child.Not only has science proven that a fetus is truly a human, the simplefacts also confer abortion kills the life of a human being. Life begins atconception because of the fact that life in the womb does not change atbirth. There are no special procedures or changes that occur during birth tomagically 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 notbecome 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 takenplace before a person is born (Factbot). Fertilization is just the beginningof a long process of growing and maturing. "Life in a continuum. From themoment the egg is fertilized a new life has begun. All of the geneticinformation is present to construct a unique individual. Gender, physicalfeatures, eye color have already been determined. The baby's heart beginsbeating regularly at 24 days. Babies in the womb hiccup, cry, play, andlearn" (Factbot). Life continues from the day of fertilization until death.Nothing is added to a person during a lifetime. "'Conception confers lifeand makes that life one of a kind,'" said Dr Landrum Shettles father of invitro fertilization (Factbot). Abortion is wrong because it ends the life ofa human being. The day of conception marks the beginning of a new humanlife. "'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 thatthe 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 anunborn child. The child in the womb deserves the right to life.The fetus is a real human being and deserves all the rights and freedomgiven to people under the Constitution. This right is evident in theFourteenth Amendment that states, "The State shall not deprive any person oflife, liberty, property, without due process of the law; nor deny any personwithin its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law" (Factbot). Abortiondenies babies equal protection under the law, and is depriving a person oflife. Thomas Jefferson stated human rights best when he wrote, "We holdthese truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that theyare endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that amongthese are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (Factbot). All unbornbabies 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, nomatter what the situation is. One must not sacrifice a life to make one'sown life better.Many argue that most of the babies that are aborted are unwantedbabies. They believe that they would be abused and neglected. This is whyabortion is okay to them. They believe abortion is saving the child fromabuse. Abortion, however, is the most severe case of child abuse. Theprocedures are painful to the child and intentionally end in death (exceptin 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 livebaby" (Factbot)). The fetus is alive and has the capacity to feel thepainful abortion procedure. The US Department of Health and Human Servicesreported that after nine weeks unborn babies can feel pain, yet 48 per centof all abortions are done after this point ( Fetal Development). The babycan feel all the pain put on it by the painful procedures. The ultra soundshows the baby struggling to survive. Abortionist doctors such as JosephRandall admit that seeing the abortion ". . . of the baby on the ultra soundbothered me more than anything else. The staff couldn't take it. Women werenever allowed to see the ultra sound" (Factbot). Women should be allowed tosee this. They should see the struggling of the life they are killing. Anearly abortion takes about five minutes and is performed six to fourteenweeks after a woman's last period. The procedure is called a suctionaspiration. It is like a vacuum cleaner. "'A hollow plastic tube with asharp edge is placed into the uterus. The suction tears the baby apart, andthe 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 commonmethod is dilation and curettage. "'A curette, which is a loop-shaped steelknife, is inserted into the uterus, and the baby and the placenta are cutinto pieces and scraped out. Both procedures are usually done under generalanesthesia, so they're not painful for the mother. Of course we know thechild feels pain'" (Whitney 94). Another method that is not performed muchanymore is the saline injection; a long slow death process of poisoning thebaby. The saline injection was developed in the Nazi Concentration Camps(Factbot) The most controversial form of abortion is the partial-birthabortion. Using an ultra sound the abortionist grabs the baby's legs withforceps and pulls them out into the birth canal. The abortionist thendelivers the entire baby except for the head and continues by jammingscissors into the baby's skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge thehole. The scissors are removed and a suction is inserted. The baby's brainsare sucked out causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed( Partial). It has been proven that babies can feel pain in theseprocedures. The fetus can feel pain because it is alive and growing like ahuman. Something that is not living cannot feel pain. If one crushes a popcan as the abortionist crushes a baby, the pop can feels no pain because itis not living. The baby feels pain because it is a living human being.Abortion is wrong because it deprives the baby of rights and happinessbecause of the suffering it must go through during the abortion.Women who have these painful abortions suffer emotional stress, andyears after having the procedure they discover that they destroyed a humanlife. The women finally realize after many years of emotional stress thecause of it. "After 5-10 years 54 per cent of mothers choosing abortion hadnightmares and 96 per cent felt they had taken a life" a from study by DrAnne Speckhard of the University of Minnesota. People need to listen to thewomen 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 havingan abortion, many women can tell a person the true facts--abortion ismurder. "'Recent evidence indicates many women harbor strong guilt feelingslong after their abortions. Guilt is one important cause of child batteringand infanticide. Abortion lowers women's self-esteem and there are studiesreporting a major loss of self-esteem in battering parents,'" said Dr.Phillip Ney. There are places that give abortion counseling. However, manyof these places do not give accurate information Accurate information isneeded so women, and men, know that abortion will take away a human life.Ninety-five percent of women who had abortions said their Planned Parenthoodcounselors gave ". . . little or no biological information about the fetuswhich the abortion would destroy." Where 80 percent of women who have hadabortions from Planned Parenthood said little or no health information wasgiven to them about potential health risks (Factbot). Women need to be toldthe true facts of abortion. They need to see the fetal monitors. In manyclinics they are not allowed to see the ultra sound. The doctors do not wanta woman to see that the baby inside of her is alive. This is wrong becauseit not only denies the child the rights such as the right to be heard andseen, it denies women the truth. The truth must be told and shown. ShariRichard, an Ultrasonographer, said, "'In fact many women will come to meconsidering an abortion, and I have been personally told that I am to turnthe monitor away from her view so that seeing her baby jump around on thescreen does not influence her choice'" (Factbot). Abortion clinic staffmembers 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 toldthe facts. It is obvious from the ultra sound that the baby they arecarrying is alive, and abortion kills the baby. If the clinic can clearlysee that the baby is alive, the mother should also see. Abortion isdescribed as a decision between a women and her doctor. Yet over 90 percentdon't even see the doctor until he appears to abort their baby. This shouldnot 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. Thisissue, like many, forces people to take sides against each other, and is oneof 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 ofteen pregnancies has increased from 4.94 per cent in 1972 to 9.92 per centin 1990. The number of teen abortions has doubled from 19.9 per thousandteenagers in 1972 to 43.8 per thousand teenagers in 1990 while the number ofteen births has increased from 22.8 to 42.5 per thousand. The number ofbirths to unmarried women has increased 7.3 per cent during the yearsfrom1972 to 1990 while the number of abortions increased 11.7 per centduring those years (Factbot). Abortion should no longer be legal. It israpidly becoming a form of birth control. No longer must women worry aboutprotection, if they should conceive a child, they can choose to take itslife. One-third of all babies (Planned Parenthood) are aborted, whichentitles the abortion industry to $500 million a year in income in theUnited States (Factbot). Abortion is the most frequent surgical operation inthe US, and the leading cause of death in Minnesota (Factbot). Currentlythere are two million couples waiting for adoption in America, yet there are30 abortions for every one adoption (Factbot). These statistics are true.Abortion needs to be stopped.There are arguments against the stopping of abortion. However, thereare solutions. Many say abortion should be legal if the woman's life is indanger. Only three percent of all abortions are done for the mother'shealth, where 40 percent of women who have abortions will have more thanone, 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 alleysendangering their lives, 72 per cent said they would definitely not havesought an abortion if they were illegal, and death happens during a legalabortion too; maternal death rates for first trimester abortions are 61 per100,000 cases (Factbot).Abortion is clearly the taking of a human life, an action that is wrongunder the United States constitution. Women must stop being denied the factsand start being told the truth. The people of the US must start standing upfor the rights of all people, born and unborn. "Abortion concerns not onlythe unborn child , it concerns every one of us." said former President ofthe 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 anabortion, and women who are struggling over the decision. People must tellthem the facts, and work at making the conditions better for women, because84 per cent would keep their babies under better circumstances (Factbot).America needs to open her ears to the screams of the 1.6 million babiesmurdered each year.BibliographyCan 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 UnitedStates 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. OnlineMelville, Keith, ed. The Battle Over Abortion. Dubuque: Kendall/HuntPublishing 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.--------------------------------------------------------------