Abortion Ethics Presentation Paper

Annaliese Spradlin

Ethics Presentation Paper

Dr. Murphy

March 14, 2016

Abortion

        Abortion has become a very controversial issue in the recent years. There are many different views and opinions to this topic. Abortion is not morally right and permissible. An issue that I think many people have is that when you abort a pregnancy, they think that you are not killing a human being, instead just a human embryo. Either way you look at it, a human being is a human being. People are starting to use abortion more and more as a form of birth control, so they do not have to worry about using other forms of birth control. People do not look at abortion and think that they are not killing a human life, when in reality, they are. There are also many health consequences that come with abortion as well. Abortion is riskier than actually going through the whole pregnancy term. Even though abortion is now legal, it does not give people the right to practice it, and we certainly should not encourage women to take part in it.

        A misunderstanding that people have is that abortion is killing a human being. Just because the baby is not fully developed yet or has not been born yet, it is still not right to abort a pregnancy. A baby has a heartbeat from as early as eight weeks in the pregnancy (CDAE 38, Lee & George). A human embryo is just as much a human as a fully developed baby that has been born. The embryo has a genetic makeup, a heartbeat, and is a complete and whole organism (CDAE 38, Lee & George). Even though the embryo is very immature at this stage, it is still considered to be a human being.

        Another big issue is that people use abortion as a form of birth control. Women do not use other forms of birth control while they are being sexually active and if and when they get pregnant, they will just go get an abortion. They do not consider all the health consequences they will or could have and do not think what they are doing is hurting them or consider the fact that they are killing a human being. Almost half of the women that live in the United States will experience an unintended pregnancy by the time they reach 45 years old. “In 2011, 1.06 million abortions were performed (Guttmacher Institute).” Studies have shown that 46% of women did not use other forms of birth control during the month they conceived the baby, 8% of women had never used any form of birth control, and 47% of women had already previously had at least one abortion (Guttmacher Institute). Abortion should not be used as a form of birth control under any circumstances. It puts physical and emotional stress on the woman’s body. Women having abortions are put at a much higher risk for infections such as HIV, AIDS, PID, or infections in the reproductive tract (Guttmacher Institute).