The woman’s right to abortion has been a hot topic for years. Every research paper writing service is coming up with evaluations of the issue: is abortion wrong according to all moral and ethical codes, or is it the right thing to do when the woman is not ready to have a child? Abortion is a medical procedure of removing the fetus or embryo from the woman’s uterus. In some cases, the procedure is necessary due to the death of the fetus. However, when women decide to terminate the pregnancy and cause the death of the fetus through abortion - the issue is subjected to a problematic debate. Although the fertilized egg is a potential person, it is not a human; and the arguments that equate abortion with murder or infanticide are a distortion of the reality for the sake of justifying the cause of the pro-life activists.
According to a research paper on abortion published by Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, an estimated 30% of the women in the United States will have an abortion in their lifetimes. Pew Research Center published the results of a survey, which showed that 55% of the U.S. adults say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. 40% of the participants said abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. The arguments of both sides are strong.
Pro-choice activists argue that access to safe and legal abortion is a woman’s right. The National Abortion Federation published a research paper on the history of abortion, which shows that the woman’s right to abortion has been respected far before 1973 – the year when the Supreme Court made abortion legal. Abortion has been performed for thousands of years in all societies, and it had been legal in the U.S. from the times when the first settlers came.
Although 55% of Americans support the legalization of abortion, 49% of the participants in the survey believe that the procedure is morally wrong. 23% say it is not a moral issue, and only 15% believe abortion is morally acceptable. There is a difference between what people think is moral and what they think should be legal. The woman’s right to choose makes the big difference. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act adds to the complexity of the issue, because it considers unborn babies to be human beings and it protects them from assault and murder.
When we look at the both sides of the coin, we see that the issue is too complex for someone to take a strong stand without considering the arguments of the other side. However, no one can claim that the statement “a person is developed from a fetus” is a fact, simply because some fetuses grow into people, and some do not. A fertilized egg is a potential man in the same sense as any spermatozoon and egg is potential person. During the early months of development, the embryo is also a potential person, with partially differentiated parts of the body and a heart rate. However, it is far from human in the right sense of the word, because it cannot exist outside the womb. When the fetus is able to survive outside the mother, then we can say he is human. Until that point, he is only a potential human life. That’s why a woman should have the right to bring the decisions regarding her own body and her own life.