Abortion: A Boon or A Bane?

Abortion: A boon or a bane?

Bulleeraz Varsha

BULVD1503

ALC099

Fraser International College

December 6, 2015

Abstract

This paper gives an overview on how legalizing abortion will have a positive effect on the society. First, it claims that this issue should be banned because the pro-life activists think that it causes more harm than good. Then, the pro-choice activists argues that the fetus is not human yet, so killing it is not called murder. In addition, this essay talks about the women rights and how negatively an unwanted baby is affected. Finally, it is claimed that abortion is the safest way to terminate pregnancy.

Abortion: A boon or a bane?

Abortion has been considered as a controversial issues for a long time. Abortion is the act of stopping the development of a child inside a woman medically and before a certain period of time, usually before the 21st week of pregnancy.  The pro-life school of thought argues that this practice should be illegal (Arguments for and against abortion, n.d.) and the pro-choice school of thought insist that abortion should not be banned (A Political, Public & Moral Look at Abortion, 2006). Pro-life activists are those people who fight for the life of the unborn babies whereas pro-choice activists are those people who believe that the mother should have the choice between keeping the baby or abort it. Despite some good reasons against practicing abortion, there are more important reasons to legalize.

Abortion has a long history and research works on this topic is still going on. This practice was acceptable in ancient Greek and Roman times and the only time that people would be against this was when the father of the unborn baby would feel like the future child would inherit all his wealth (A Political, Public & Moral Look at Abortion, 2006). In the United States, for example, during the 19th century, the government started to pass laws concerning abortion. For more than 50 years, a law saying that there should be more restrictions on abortion was enforced. Then around 1962, the Model Penal Code suggested abortion could be practiced for other reasons other than concerning the health of the pregnant lady. In 1970, New York was the first to legalize abortion before the first 15 days of pregnancy. After 3 years, in 1973, Roe Vs Wade came up with a law which allows woman to terminate their pregnancy in the first trimester of their stages and they were only allowed to abort their child in the first 2 trimester if they had health issues. In 1977, more laws were implemented against abortion and the use of medical funds for abortion were strictly prohibited. However, in 1992, the Supreme Court reintroduced the law of Roe Vs Wade. From 1995 to 2000 they tried to ban partial birth abortions in the United States of America.