Kaelin Renee Mercado

Priscilla Duran

RWS 1302

3/12/17
 Pro-Choice is Your Choice

As todays society is increasingly shaped and sculpted to assist in the difference between

right and wrong, moral and ethical aspects vary from each and every personal. In the essence of

morals, a highly-debated topic of dispute comes from that of abortion rights. As the long-argued

topic of abortion rights is more conspicuous in modern day and age, the overall conception of

abortion rights becomes critical to maintaining a womens well-being.

In boundless measurement, the issue of abortion can be recognized through two different

factions; pro-life and pro-choice. When these two parties come to mind one may automatically

assume right and wrong. What most people flounder to discern is the actual depth and

complexity of an abortion. So much information and opinions are put forth in efforts to convey a

powerful message; it is hard to distinguish between the accurate and correct ones rather than just

the persuasive ones alone. Through social media and publication, the universal directive of

Womens Abortion Rights will continue to contest without one association being left unhappy.

The inquiries impending are the following;

At what stage, during pregnancy, is the fetus considered an actual viable life?
Do cultural and religious aspects have an effect on the decisions made in court about

abortion rights?
What facets make abortions exiled in some religions yet permissible in others?
Are abortion rights a manner of Womens Rights or Human Rights?

To get a more acquainted understanding, studies from the Alan Guttmacher Institute

(2003) show that in 2005 in the country alone, there were 1.29 million abortions performed.

Studies from the group also show that in 1994, half of the pregnancies in the U.S. were

inadvertent and half of those indeed resulted in abortions with the U.S. only reckoning for 1/3 of
the entire worlds abortions. These studies display only very little of the considerable precedents

the abortion controversy has had. With much political clout, it becomes almost impractical and

almost absurd to come up with one initial agreement to save both sides over abortion rights.

In consideration of abortion, there are multiple facets come with it. The legality, birth

control issues, human rights and the ethical values. The controversy surrounding abortion in

recent years has recently come from the moral views and the practicality of it. Dealing with

rudiments from womens health includes giving the verdict to choose as the mothers right and

their right to confidentiality in commendations to the proceedings she takes with her own body.

Privacy roles are intended for the female in which the woman has more say-so over the decision.

When it comes to the rights of the father, they are over-looked, as the rights of a woman should

be the final say as it is ultimately and in the end, the womans body.

Further analysis through social experiments has portrayed more insight of abortion on

todays society. The El Paso abortion clinic, Hill Top & Womens Reproductive Clinic, has been

one of the very few clinics left open in the state of Texas due to strict regulations. The women

seeking medical attention for their needs had turned to the clinic to lean towards the decision

provided to them as a right. Many scenarios had been presented through their personal reasons.

A young womans story presented under which she asked to remain anonymous had

presented a case in which she had been seeing a young man who her parents did not approve of

and been through a legal precedent to put a restraining order on this individual. The two had

continued to see each other for over a year and were now presented with an unforeseen

pregnancy. The young woman explained she could not tell her parents because the outcome she

would face would be far much worse the other way around given her circumstances. As a young

woman, she was given the alternative to choose a different route in which she would ultimately
determine her own route and future. This young woman was only one of the many to sit in the

clinic that day. (Anon., personal communication, March 4, 2017)

Through observation the patients of the clinic were not accompanied by male partners but

mainly single female-bodies or two females. Given that this was solely the womans choice,

woman had the right to choose their eventual outcome by none other than themselves. By

reasoning with the law to prevent abortion and make it illegal these woman would be forced to

go through with their pregnancy and in many cases, this could be detrimental to their psychical

and psychological health.

A consultant at the Hill Top & Womens Reproductive Clinic who also wished to

remain anonymous, exclaimed that the clinic itself was being threatened to be shut down with

such strict laws being passed through legislation. The week of the interview she explained there

would be a walk-through in which someone would come and make sure that every new law was

being met up to higher standard, to see one mishap would mean the entire clinic being lost. Not

only does this affect the people working there, but the entire Southwest Texas region, being that

this was closest clinic within a four hour drive for a lot of their patients. (Anon., personal

communication, March 4, 2017)

Such things as lack of proper insurance/Medicaid, parental sanction requirements for minors,

waiting periods, and unnecessary building requirements for facilities all create almost

insuperable barriers to admittance, especially for lower-middle class women. There are mounting

limitations passed at the state and federal levels. (Yanow, S. 2013).

The subject of birth control begins as a fall-off from abortion. Many contraceptives are

analyzed in preventing pregnancy. As contraceptives fluctuate from condoms, chemical methods,

and abstinence, the method of abortion is motioned as a form of contraceptive. People have

dissimilar sentiments on what they consider is a proper or improper form of contraceptive.

Religious beliefs play a crucial role for some who would only acknowledge abstinence as a form

of contraceptive.

When it comes to passing abortion boundaries, religion is used as an argument to say that

it goes against what they believe in. Arguments have been inflamed over the highly debated

issue. In the U.S. it becomes even more complex to come to stipulations on such an issue

because of the natural history of our countrys religion. So many diverse cultures have spread

throughout America and because of freedom of religion; there are a figure of faiths.

While religions participate in a huge part of going in opposition to abortions, there are

some faiths that have been able to validate abortions as permissible. Some faiths such as the

Jewish allow and accept abortions as long as it falls in between the lines of the mother protecting

her and her well being, meaning both the physical or emotional side of health. Some religious

groups have used the term of a soul to substantiate an abortion. If the soul is well thought-out a

person that means a person is a human being at the point of birth. From the understanding

meaning that the fetus would not have been considered a human being before the stage of birth.

In many cases, abortion procedures are not limited to one nature of conditions. When the

alternative of an abortion procedure is opted towards, there could be a number of arguments

behind the choice. A woman may want the decision not to bring a fetus with philosophical

abnormalities to full term, protection from financial drawback, a baby unwanted baby should not

come into the world, health issues concerning the mother, and the solemn choice of being

coherently capable of bringing another human being into this world. The circumstances faced in
such situations should be ultimately left up to the mother with the legality of the issue in mind

and with that in mind the very option for the procedure should be unmoving and still standing.

As a culture, many people tend to just look over the first coating of a topic. Abortions

have been performed mainly to woman under the age of 22 (Reingold, R. B., & Gostin, L. O.

2016). Many juvenile females fall short from having the appropriate protection their first time.

As a need of proper guidance, impulsive, ignorant, and irresponsible behavior often leads to

unwanted pregnancies. As a result, women are faced to raise an unwanted child, which is

painstaking the ultimate form of child abuse (Reingold, R. B., & Gostin, L. O. 2016). Often

times the child does not receive the nature, love and care they deserve. As a result, the choice

should be there in any case if the mother should choose and by doing so.

The essentials of life are never a set book of rules. As many girls mature they are faced

with many disincentives. The knowledge given to teenage girls is limited and to those who fall

short lack awareness of sexual relationships, leading this to be one of the main reasons why most

pregnancies are in set in early age girls (Alters S. M. 2012). When examining early set

pregnancies the implication of maternal problems increases. There are objections in this case

being that the young mother will now have to raise the child while in school, feel

psychologically and monetarily burdened, and may never fully fulfill their school life and

opportunities ahead. Forcing a woman to have an unwanted pregnancy would be detrimental for

the child and her life.

As the pro-choice and pro-life are the furthermost two opinions, there are many

misunderstood and inaccurate arguments presented. The most widespread dispute presented is

the idea that abortion is murder. To pinpoint the beginning of a humans life is very intricate. The

developmental stage is a great deal of phases where there are multiple stages of the
commencement of life according to diverse people. These statements are made but all of which

or backed up by moral and experimental scientific data. To murder is to kill something living.

One of the key ethical dimensions of abortion comes from the debate of whether or not the fetus

is considered an actual living person. According to Jessie Hill (2009) in Reproductive Rights as

Health Care Rights, the fetus is measured human by physical sign, which would be the heartbeat.

Another argued human superiority is from the time the baby takes its first breathe of air. The

earlier point before birth marks the beginning of moral status, deliberately killing the baby after

birth is murder.

Conflict created over positions and decision making have made the issue of abortion that

much more powerful. In the past three years, there have been more laws constituted for abortion

than in the last decade. With many of our states being left with just one abortion clinic, it is

important to see the aftermath legislation has had on the mass majority of the outcome. The pro-

choice movement has presented anecdotal beliefs and allowed many diverse stances to emerge.

The issues of religion and beliefs have also played an important role in the abortion rights

movement, which makes it very difficult to defend in a straitlaced stance (Staggenborg, S. 1989).
Its hard to pick a stance that doesnt go against and does not contradict the other. A more

conformist stance would mean going contiguous to all set precedents set by the Supreme Court

but if one were to take a liberal stance that would upset a lot of people in a sense of moralistic

and religious discrimination.

One obtainable way of presenting a solution of amends for both sides but not quite, is the

ruling for abortions to be considered illegal after a certain set period,. Although there are little

solutions the stance on abortion rights is set to no restrictions because of the broad assortment of

aspects that need to be well thought-out over such a topic. There are little resolutions and much

debate, especially from groups, which generate even more superior difficulty as groups have

conflicts with the point of another group.

As the topic of abortion remains contentious, the laws make the rules which set the

precincts for such an argued topic. The abortion rights can be a very delicate dispute but the main

thing we as a humanity need to keep in psyche is the well being of a the mother and in

quintessence of the unborn future. It becomes easy to single out a side in which we do not find

ourselves in instantaneously. Abortion is the matter of women; therefore, it remains up to the

women and their civil liberties to choose. The ultimate note being of that; women should feel

enlightened to consider other perspectives and opinions but the concluding verdict should be

made ultimately by the women guaranteed by the law.

The abortion debate rages on. Incited by what can be resulted in some factors societal and

financially viable. Abortion Rights are rooted into the legal laws of almost every country in the

world somehow one way or another. The debate finds aspects in the lives of individuals directly

or indirectly. Ethical and moral values are brought out of such actions as abortion that regulates
the direction that one chooses. Other structures that control abortion include the lawful and holy

conditions of society. Providing the needed support in the form of financial aid and mental

abutment to mothers foreseeing abortion could serve as the best way to restrict such deaths

ensuing from abortion.

The entire ordeal has presented anecdotal beliefs and allowed many diverse stances to

emerge. Through the foundation from the following questions, Abortion Rights one may have

seen the impact themselves as to something they wouldve oblivious to before;

At what stage, during pregnancy, is the fetus considered an actual viable life?
Do cultural and religious aspects have an effect on the decisions made in court about

abortion rights?
What facets make abortions exiled in some religions yet permissible in others?
Are abortion rights a manner of Womens Rights or Human Rights?

With much political smack, it becomes almost unrealistic and almost illogical to come up

with one initial agreement to spare both sides over abortion rights. Handling with rudiments from

womens health consist of giving the ruling to choose as the mothers right and their right to

discretion in commendations to the affairs she takes with her own body. People have unrelated

sentiments on what they acknowledge are a proper or improper form of contraceptive including

religious beliefs that play a crucial role. When the substitute of an abortion procedure is opted

towards, there could be a number of arguments behind the choice. Despite society's evolving

moral standards, the controversy surrounding abortion and womens rights still divides our

nation.
 Citations:

Hill, B. J. (2008). Reproductive Rights as Health Care Rights. Columbia Journal of

Gender and Law, 18(2), 09-30.

Staggenborg, S. (1989). Organizational and Environmental Influences on The

Development of the Pro-Choice Movement. Social Forces, 68(1), 204-240.

Alters, S. M. (2012). Abortion. [electronic resource]: An Eternal Social and Moral Issue.

Detroit: Gale, 2012.

Cozic, C. P., & Tipp, S. L. (1991). Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, CA:

Greenhaven Press, c1991.

Reingold, R. B., & Gostin, L. O. (2016). Women's Health and Abortion Rights: Whole

Woman's Health v Hellerstedt. Jama, 316(9), 925-926. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.11074

Welch, M. (2015, December 1). The Strange Convergence of Pro-Lifers and Gun

Controllers: Inside the Emotion-Fueled Politics of Planned Parenthood and School

Shootings. Reason.
"Abortion Data from Reports of the Alan Guttmacher Institute." Abortion Data from

Reports of the Alan Guttmacher Institute. N.p., n.d.

Cheung, K. (2016, October 19). TRAP Laws. Retrieved March 31, 2017, from

http://www.thefrisky.com/tag/trap-laws/
Yanow, S. (2013, January). It Is Time to Integrate Abortion Into Primary Care. Retrieved

March 31, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518342/