Kelly Terry

Text-Based Research Paper

Matt Hill, Writ 1133

The Freedom to Choose

“Any law forbidding any incest or rape victim from having an abortion would be

denying that any crime was ever committed.” This statement was taken from Emilie

Ailts, a Denver native rape victim who went public with her rape story after fifteen years

of silence (Davis). Although her statement might not be as credible as those of a

politician or psychiatrist, the emotions behind her words hold have more impact on the

female gender. Abortion has been a controversial issue in the United States for decades.

Debaters are intensely divided into two labeled groups: pro-choice and pro-life. Subtopics

such as the determination of when an unborn fetus can be considered a human and the

natural rights of human beings make the issue confusing and complicated. Because such

an issue deals with such deep moral topics, people are typically intensely polarized to one

side of the issue or the other. To have an abortion is an incredibly emotional and serious

decision that a woman should have the option to make to acknowledge her constitutional

right to life, liberty, and happiness.

The act of ending a pregnancy has been such a controversial topic ever since the

late 1800s, and the road to the legalization of abortion has been intense and controversial.

Abortion was prohibited in all fifty states by 1965 with some exceptions due to rape or

incest (Lewis). States began to deal with the issue of abortion individually and several

states allowed abortion due to extreme circumstances. In 1967, Colorado’s Denver

General Hospital created an official Board, which had the ability to approve or deny
applications requesting abortions. This new Board approved more applications than it

rejected and eight times as many abortions were performed compared to previous

records. This encouraged surrounding hospitals to become more lenient concerning

abortions and become more active in their abortion practices (Heller).

The possibly most important Supreme Court decision regarding abortion, Roe v.

Wade, declared most laws forbidding abortion unconstitutional and officially legalized

abortion (Lewis). The court determined that the right to an abortion fell under a citizen’s

right to privacy (History of U.S. Abortion). Privacy rights contend that the government

cannot enforce a certain moral view and an individual cannot be forced to surrender the

freedom to make a decision such as abortion on their own (Sandel 522). The Roe v. Wade

decision also required that late term abortions had to have the statement of a professional

physical that an abortion was needed because of issues with the mother’s health (History

of U.S. Abortion). The decision to officially declare abortion as a citizen’s personal right

resulted in such controversial responses that three abortion clinics were bombed on

Christmas Day of 1984 (Lewis). However, even after such violent acts against abortion,

the Roe v. Wade decision still is in place today.

Following the Roe v. Wade decision, more attempted and successful changes

were made to the legal view of abortion. In 1981, the National Right to Life Committee

(a prominent pro-life organization) tried and failed to pass a law that determined

fertilization as the beginning of a human being’s right to life. In 1992 the Supreme Court

laid out a set of rules for abortion providers to follow (parental consent, etc). The court

also changed their previous decision including abortion under privacy rights and

concluded that abortion should fall under the right to liberty. In 1997, President Clinton
officially banned the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, which had previously imposed a jail

sentence of at least two years for women undergoing abortions in their third trimester

(History of U.S. Abortion). Although abortion is currently legal, it is still an extremely

controversial and much debated issue.

The pro-choice standpoint on abortion is to give to all pregnant women the

opportunity to choose whether to terminate or continue their pregnancy. If a woman does

decide to terminate her pregnancy, which is her own private decision, there are two types

of abortion available to her: the abortion pill and an in-clinic abortion. The abortion pill,

which is medically termed “mifepristone,” can be taken up to nine weeks after

conception. The cost varies from three hundred and fifty dollars to six hundred and fifty

dollars. The in-clinic abortion is a medical procedure that ends the pregnancy in the first

trimester. There are two types of in-clinic abortions: aspiration (which is done up to 16

weeks into the pregnancy and is a minimally invasive procedure) and dilatation and

evaluation (which is done after 16 weeks into the pregnancy and is more intrusive and

invasive). The in-clinic abortions range in cost from three hundred and fifty dollars to

nine hundred and fifty dollars (Methods of Abortion). Both the pill and the in-clinic

abortion are effective and commonly undergone by women receiving an abortion.

Pro-life advocates strongly believe that the abortion of a fetus is the murder of an

innocent human being. Their theory is as follows: it is innately wrong to kill human

beings, and because fetuses are human beings it is innately wrong to destroy fetuses

(Warren 5). Many pro-life supporters consider the unborn fetus as completely human as

the mother that is carrying the child (Wertheimer 72). The area of this statement that pro-

choice supporters disagree with is the assertion that fetuses are human beings. Many pro-
choice advocates define a human being as having one or more of the four qualities:

consciousness, ability to reason, self-motivated activity, or communication (Warren 8).

An unborn fetus in the first and second trimester does not possess any of these qualities.

Other pro-choice supporters contest that when the fetus becomes physically able to live

outside the mother’s womb it is officially a human being because the mother is no longer

responsible for the life of the child (Wertheimer 82). It is incredibly difficult to state a

specific date or stage in the pregnancy determining whether the fetus can be considered a

human being or not because of the varying circumstances of each pregnancy.

Many Catholic pro-life advocates state that the fetus, even the embryo, is so

equivalent to a human being that the unborn and the mother are on the same moral level

and the unborn has just as much right as the mother (Wertheimer 72). Pro-choice

advocates respond by stating that the rights of the mother, an actual person, outweigh

those of the potential human being. The mother has constitutional and moral rights to

protect her health, happiness, freedom, and her life if circumstances get to that intensity

(Warren 3). If a woman is forced to continue a pregnancy that she emotionally does not

want, it can cause extreme emotional and psychological issues during and after the

pregnancy is completed.

The psychological health of the mother is a topic of great importance to pro-

choice supporters. A study was done that discovered that the women who continued with

their unwanted pregnancies sought psychological help after their pregnancy was

completed. The number of women utilizing therapy doubled after continuing their

pregnancy. There was no difference in women who had an abortion and the study

reported no psychological impacts from abortion (Emery). If a woman’s psychiatric

health can be negatively impacted by continuing with an unwanted pregnancy, she should

have the right to protect her emotional health by making the conscious decision to

terminate her pregnancy.

Colorado is a focused location for the controversy of abortion due to the high teen

pregnancy rates and the previous very pro-life standpoint of Colorado. With the

introduction of birth control in earlier decades, birth rates decreased significantly.

However, Colorado’s birth rate was one of the states that did not decrease as significantly

as other states. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the teen

birthrate increased in more than half of the states (including Colorado) in 2006 (Brown).

Colorado is subjected to controversy due to its known pro-life dominated advocacy while

at the same time acting as home to six well-known abortion clinics. There are abortion

clinics in Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver (Colorado Abortion Clinics). These

clinics, like clinics nationwide, have been subjected to pro-life protests and ridicule.

The pro-choice standpoint does not require the entire population to understand a

woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy… only to allow her the opportunity and to

give her enough free will to make the decision on her own. Incest victim Ginger Smith of

Denver, Colorado, stated that “Any law forbidding incest or rape victims from an

abortion would be denying that any crime was every committed” (Davis). Not all people

need to understand a woman’s decision to have an abortion, but it should be recognized

that her decision is a private and personal one, which was why abortion was considered to

fall under privacy rights. The Supreme Court has stated that, “Few decisions are more

private than a woman’s decision to end her pregnancy. Her right to choice is

fundamental” (Sandal 522).

 Works Cited

Brown, Jennifer. "Teen Pregnancy Back on the Rise, CDC Says - The Denver Post."

Denver & the West. The Denver Post, 8 Jan. 2009. Web. 05 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11401633>.

"Colorado Abortion Clinics." Abortion. 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.abortion.com/abortion_clinics_state.php?country=United%20Stat

es&state=Colorado>.

Davis, Gene. "Rape, Incest Victims Rally against Buck." Denver Daily News, 22 Sept.

2010. Web. 03 Apr. 2011. <http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID

=10034>

Emery, Gene. "Early Abortions Don't Trigger Psychiatric Problems: MedlinePlus."

Medline Plus. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2011. Web. 03 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_108161.html.

Heller, A. "Therapeutic Abortion Trends in the United States." PubMed. Web. 02 Apr.

2011. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5032902>.

"History of U.S. Abortion Laws." National. Fox News, 21 Jan. 2003. Web. 01 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,881,00.html>.

Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Abortion History." Women's History. Web. 02 Apr. 2011.

<http://womenshistory.about.com/od/abortionuslegal/a/abortion.htm>.

"Methods of Abortion." Planned Parenthood. Web. 06 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/abortion-4260.asp>.

Sandel, Michael J. “Moral Argument and Liberal Toleration: Abortion and

Homosexuality.” Symposium: Law, Community, and Moral Reasoning. Harvard

 University Press, 1989. Pdf.

Warren, Mary Anne. “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion.” The Monist.

Belmont: Wadsworth, 1984. Pdf.

Wertheimer, Roger. “Understanding the Abortion Argument.” Philosophy & Public

Affairs, Vol. 1. Princeton: Blackwell Publishing, 1971. Pdf.

Mike Ness’ paper focuses on natural disasters and the effect that it has on the
entire population. He introduces his topic by a general statement that responses to
natural disasters are vital and necessary because of the extreme detrimental effects
that disasters can have on our communities, “Though natural disasters are rare in a
relative sense, they can arrive with such fury and swiftness that they have the ability
to leave in their wake a completely different place in many aspects.” He could maybe
grab the reader’s attention more by referring to a catastrophic natural disaster that
occurred in Colorado, so as to start the paper with something that Colorado native
readers can identify with. He argues in his paper that Colorado’s usual tactics that
deal with natural disasters are beneficial to the community and are a successful way
of dealing with natural disasters, “Because of Colorado’s delicate climate, Colorado
is virtually forced to have one of the best disaster response efforts in the world.”
Mike has begun to explain a counterargument by referring to the myths of
Colorado’s post-disaster efforts but he could definitely expand on this by maybe
discussing some of the issues (or public thought issues) with Colorado’s response
program. He currently has five sources, two of which are scholarly sources (article
by Emily Hirsch and book by Thomas Drabek). He quotes Drabek effectively in his
paragraph dealing with people’s reactions to natural disaster, “…People do not
abandon their traditional values or habit patterns; rather there is continuity.” He
also successfully refers to Hirsch’s article and uses it as an example of statistical
information made public to state the number of people living in flood areas.
Even though there is not an excess of information on this topic, Mike does a
good job using the information he found and incorporating it into his paper. He also
has an impressive vocabulary (examples: plethora, harbinger, imbroglio). He could
improve by using more specific examples of Colorado disasters and by going into
more detail as to the Colorado response program and efforts.

Reverse Outline:

I. Conclusion
a. Possible ways to improve Colorado’s response program
b. Natural disasters will continue to be a pressing issue worldwide
II. Body
a. Examples of natural disasters (flood, wildfire)
b. How people are affected by natural disasters
 c. Colorado’s specific typical recovery efforts responding to a natural
disaster
d. Different groups and agencies that focus on natural disaster relief
III. Intro
a. Specific example of extreme natural disaster in Colorado
b. States the importance of natural disaster response and the impact that
natural disasters have on our communities