The debate over abortion is one of the most controversial topics in the US today.
What are the issues?
In this debate, the rights of the mother are pitted against the rights of the fetus. The issue has broadly combined two conflicting stances, the “pro-choice” and the “pro-life” positions. These vastly differing viewpoints revolve round legal as well as moral considerations. There is another more pragmatist view, more blended, that says abortions should be prohibited, with exceptions made for specific cases.
The advocates of the “Pro-choice” stand emphasize the woman’s right to decide whether she will terminate her pregnancy or not and when it should be done. According to this view, a woman should be allowed to have total control over her body and by extension of this, over the continuation or not of the fetus within her body.
According to the “Pro-life” advocates, life begins at the time of conception, and termination of the pregnancy after the embryo has been formed is considered murder.
Supreme Court ruling
An underlying, significant legal debate is raging in the US. There was a landmark Supreme Court ruling over Roe v. Wade in 1973, which continues to be relevant to this day. The Court had voted 7-2 and overturned the state laws that banned abortion. The Justices had concluded that those laws violated woman’s constitutional right over privacy. After this judgment, the moral debate took on political implications.
Other viewpoints
There are other viewpoints on the issue besides the “pro life” and “pro choice” positions. For instance, there are some pro choice supporters who believe that abortions later than the second trimester are not morally permissible. In the same way, some pro-life supporters think abortions should be allowed in extreme cases such as incest or rape. Approximately, 2% of pregnancies are result of those atrocities.
But the debate over abortion brings to the forefront a much bigger question: When should the government intervene in the personal lives of citizens, and when should it avoid such intervention?
Issues within the Bigger Debate
Within the larger debate, the two other pressing questions are should ‘partial birth’ abortions become legal, and should first trimester abortions be allowed to remain legal? ‘Partial birth’ refers to the procedure in which the intact fetus is surgically removed from the uterus through the cervix, with the help of the ‘intact dilation & extraction’ process.
In the mid 1990’s, the Republicans had introduced legislations which banned ‘partial birth’ abortions. In 2003, President George Bush signed the ‘Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act’ which had been passed by the Congress.
The ‘partial birth’ abortion law had been held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court because it withheld a doctor from conducting the procedure even when it was the only method available to preserve the health (or life) of the mother.
In 2004, the US District Court Judge ruled against the federal statute, on one of the grounds that the law did not have provisions required for preserving a woman’s health. It is now expected that the case will be appealed to in the Supreme Court.
In 2007 Carhart vs. Gonzales was decided by the Supreme Court which states that performing a partial birth abortion is illegal. Due to the inhumane way that the procedure takes place was the reason for the outlawing of the procedure, in which it was declared that the Dilatation and Evacuation (D&E) procedure though it consists of removing tissue and limbs of the fetus from inside the uterus more acceptable though there was data presented that showed that the D&X was safer than the D&E procedure to the mother. Clearly the Supreme Court was concerned more of protection of the fetus than maternal safety.
abortion pill tampa. Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the
Abortion clinic orlando in March 1996 to provide a full range of health care for women, including
Legal Abortion Clinic, physical examinations, family planning, counseling, laboratory services and sexually transmitted disease screening and counseling.
