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John Hagan
Professor Parker
English 102-01
December 7, 2000 (Revision)
Abortion Issues:
Right To Life?
Abortion has been the subject of many heated discussions since it was legalized
across this nation in the early 1970’s. The Roe vs. Wade decision by the Supreme
Court made abortion legal on January 22, 1973. The reasoning behind this legislation
being passed was due to the fact that the expectant mother’s rights to privacy, under
the constitution, were allegedly violated.
While trying to settle this case, the court
system sidestepped the issue of when true life actually begins. If the child growing
inside the mother’s womb could not be deemed a “human life,” then the pregnancy
could be “terminated.” The court then tried to decide on such issues as “viability” and
also what the true definition of “meaningful life” was. Each of these issues left a large
enough loophole so that the pregnant mother was able to deal with a choice rather than
a life (First Step).
A pregnancy is broken down into three phases known as trimesters.
Each
trimester, a mother’s choice differs from one to the next. During the first trimester, the
right to privacy protects the mother under patient-doctor confidentiality. With the second
trimester, however, the abortion may be performed on the basis of the child being a
health risk to the expectant mother. Finally, in the third trimester, the abortion may only
be performed if the child that she is carrying endangers the mother’s life (Daniel 179).
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The question often arises as to how the abortion is performed. The abortion
process varies from one trimester to the next. The term deemed as “medical abortion”
is used if the patient wishes to use drugs to terminate the abortion. This process must
be done within the first six weeks. Another procedure used during this period is by the
use of suction curettage. This process takes only about ten minutes to perform. A
syringe is used in order to suction the fetus from the uterus (About Abortions).
In order for an abortion to be performed during the second trimester, or up to the
25th week, the following procedure must be performed:
a)
Dilation
b)
Evacuation
The first step of the D&E (dilation) consists of the cleansing of the vagina. Then,
insertion of dilators is necessary in order to expand the opening of the cervix. The
second step of the D&E (evacuation) requires an anesthetic to be injected into the
cervix in order to remove the dilator. Then, the baby is removed from the uterus by
using various surgical instruments.
The processes used to abort a child during the third trimester (after 24 weeks)
are the induction method and the three-step D&E. The first process, known as the
induction method, requires the injection of a salt solution. After this solution is injected,
labor pains will soon follow, thereby causing a stillbirth. The three-step D&E is very
similar to the one used during the second trimester. The only difference, however, is
that the cervix is expanded numerous times before surgical instruments can extricate
the unborn child (About Abortions).
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The statistics concerning the time and number of abortions performed are quite
alarming. The total number of abortions performed annually is nearly 1.5 million. Of
that number, 90% occur during the first trimester. Only 9% of all abortions take place
during the second trimester. Finally, only one out of every ten thousand pregnancies is
terminated during the third trimester (About Abortions).
How many abortions are performed in the U. S. each year? There are two
sources for this information: the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Both yield different figures. Here’s a summary
of abortion statistics from 1973 to 1997.
Year
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
AGI
744,600
898,600
1,034,200
1,179,300
1,316,700
1,409,600
1,497,700
1,553,900
1,577,300
1,573,900
1,575,000
1,577,200
1,588,600
1,574,000
1,559,100
1,590,800
1,566,900
1,608,600
1,556,500
1,528,900
*1,500,000
**1,435,000
*1,400,000
*1,400,000
*1,300,000
CDC
615,831
763,476
854,853
988,267
1,079,430
1,157,776
1,251,921
1,297,606
1,300,760
1,303,980
1,268,987
1,333,521
1,328,570
1,328,112
1,353,671
1,371,285
1,388,937
1,429,577
1,288,937
1,359,145
1,330,414
1,267,415
1,210,883
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The data that the Alan Guttmacher Institute gives is derived directly from abortion
providers. AGI, which publishes Family Planning Perspectives, reports an annual
count of roughly 1.6 million abortions. They allow for four to six percent
underreporting, so there could have been as many as 1,620,634 U.S. abortions
in 1992, for instance. *Data for 1993 through 1997 are estimates. ** Data for
1994 was reported in USA Today, 8/14/96, citing AGI.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a government agency which
derives its information from state health departments, which in turn have received
their data from abortion providers. Not every state requires abortion reporting,
thus their data is admittedly incomplete. The CDC reports an annual abortion
count of 1.3 million since 1979. For 1992, the latest year available, data was
gathered from 47 central health agencies (Abortion Statistics).
Of all the abortions taking place, the largest numbers of participants is under the
age of 25 and are single. The reasons for these statistics come from such things as
financial burdens, lack of commitment, and professional/educational constraints (About
Abortions).
The “partial birth” abortion that takes place during the second and third trimester
is a process that is quite frightening when a person considers its graphic details. The
child is placed into a breech position by the use of forceps. After this is accomplished,
the arms, legs, and torso are the only parts of the body that are delivered. At this time,
a puncture to the back of the skull is induced with a trochar or scissors. Then, a suction
tube is placed into the skull of the child, and a suctioning process begins removing the
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skull contents so that the skull will collapse. After these steps are accomplished, the
delivery is then completed (Partial Birth).
Moral and ethical discussions have arisen due to this controversial issue. The
question in the book Taking Sides poses the question, “Is There a Moral Right to
Abortion?” The pro-life sector views the termination of a pregnancy as “the wanton
slaughter of innocent life.” This side also feels that abortion is a public issue that affects
our society as a whole. On the other hand, the opposite side views the abortion issue
as a woman’s right to control her own body. By seeing it from this standpoint, they view
it as a private choice (Levine 22).
Whether or not the abortion issue can be viewed as a moral or an immoral choice
differs from one person to the next. On the moral side, the expectant mother has to
decide if the decision that she is making relates to a form of murder. This would pose
two questions for the mother to come to terms with:
1)
Is the fetus human?
2)
Is the fetus alive?
The two questions should be answered, yes. Why would anyone even question
what type of being is growing inside of her? Once all of the considerations have been
weighed out, the decision of this fetus being human and alive should be clear-cut. The
items that humans often compare one to another usually concern hair color, eyes, blood
type, as well as numerous other features. Each of these traits can clearly be found in
this “product of conception.” According to Mary Gordon, based on the two questions
that the woman must ask herself, why should this fetus be viewed differently than
another human being? She directs her answer in this way:
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But common sense, experience, and linguistic usage point clearly to the fact that
we habitually consider, for example, a seven-week-old fetus to be different from a
seven-month-old one. We can tell this by the way we respond to the involuntary
loss of one as against the other. We have different language for the experience
of the involuntary expulsion of the fetus from the womb depending upon the point
of gestation at which the experience occurs. If it occurs early in the pregnancy,
we call it a miscarriage; if late, we call it a stillbirth. (Daniel 181)
In 1981, the question of morality was considered by the U.S. Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee, specifically concerning when human life begins. The pro-life activists
presented experts that stated human life begins at conception. However, pro-choice
lobbyists could not produce any experts who could contradict this testimony. Instead,
they approached this debate by explaining that life had no beginning but was
“continuum” – thereby saying that no one truly knows when life truly begins (Defining
Biological Life). (Italics mine)
This controversial issue continues to be debated in the U.S. Courts. Over the
last few decades, the question of when human life begins has still not been settled.
Even in the Roe vs. Wade case, the U.S. Supreme Court tried to avoid this topic.
Since the Roe vs. Wade decision was “conceived” in 1973, the government
acknowledged that the woman had the right to an abortion.
In this legal case, a
pregnant single woman named Jane Roe challenged the judicial system in the state of
Texas concerning the abortion issue. At that time, the Texas law would only allow an
abortion in the event of the pregnancy posing a danger to the mother’s life. The plaintiff,
Jane Roe, stated that preventing her the right to an abortion would violate her right to
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privacy. The Supreme Court determined that the right to privacy included a woman’s
decision to end her pregnancy. The state was allowed to prohibit abortion only after the
first trimester.
However, the Supreme Court handed down to the state a ruling
determining that the pregnancy should not be terminated during the third trimester due
to the fact that if the child were to be taken from the womb at this time, it may have
“meaningful life” (Roe v. Wade). However, the question still remains. When does
human life begin?
Another Supreme Court decision that had an impact on the abortion issue was
the Doe vs. Bolton case in 1973. The ruling in this court case deemed that an abortion
for health purposes could be performed at any time during the pregnancy.
This
decision, as well as many others like it, has only solidified the Fourteenth Amendment’s
right of privacy which the Court has determined allows a woman the freedom to have an
abortion (Life and Death).
It is rather surprising to learn that after several years Norma McCorvey and
Sandra Cano, the two women in the cases Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton, have now
reversed their stance on the issue of abortion. In fact, Norma McCorvey never had an
abortion since the ruling on her case came later. Therefore, her child was given up for
adoption. Sandra Cano opted not to have an abortion as well (Norma McCorvey).
In this new century, it appears that the decision that was made a few decades
ago may be reconsidered. Since the Republicans have regained control of Congress as
of 1994, over 120 votes have been taken on different ways to restrict abortion. The prolife movement has won in about 100 of these votes. In fact, during 1999, a ruling by the
House passed through legislation that would allow the unborn fetus legal status. If the
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unborn fetus sustained any type of injury, the assailant could be held liable for his/her
actions from a legal standpoint (Weiss).
In the last couple of years, the only thing that has prevented Congress from
elimination abortion rights has been President Clinton’s veto. However, the President
will leave office soon. The next President that occupies the White House, nonetheless,
could dramatically change the course of history concerning abortion rights. Another
determining factor on the road to changing the laws lies in wait of the next Supreme
Court Justices that may occupy the office upon the possible retirement of the ones
currently holding office. If the succeeding President is anti-choice, he will select the
next appointees who may be in agreement with the Commander in Chief concerning the
abortion issue (Weiss).
Moral issues must be considered not only from a secular standpoint but also a
biblical standpoint. Mary Gordon discusses such religious aspects of morality:
Our ritual and religious practices underscore the fact that we make distinctions
among fetuses. If a woman took the bloody matter—indistinguishable from a
heavy period—of an early miscarriage and insisted upon putting it in a tiny coffin
and marking its grave, we would have serious concerns about her mental health.
By the same token, we would feel squeamish about flushing a seven-month-old
down the toilet—something we would quite normally do with an early
miscarriage. There are no prayers for the matter of a miscarriage, nor do we feel
there should be. Even a Catholic priest would not baptize the issue of an early
miscarriage. (Daniel 182)
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If we hold to the truths upon which this country was founded upon, we need to
consider what our Declaration of Independence says. It reveals, “We hold these truths
to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the
pursuit of Happiness.” As discussed in the writings that were penned over two hundred
years ago, life sets precedence over liberty and happiness. If life is not considered of
the utmost importance, then we must realize that all other rights need to be considered
unimportant as well (Kennedy 7).
Numerous passages of scripture throughout the Bible make reference to the
unborn. Although God’s Holy Word has a lot to say on this issue, too many Christians
have been silent way too long, just as the ones who were silent during the Holocaust in
Germany where numerous human lives were needlessly discarded.
Once again, the debate of when life actually begins can be traced back to man
being created in the image of God. A part of this creation process is the development of
the unborn child throughout the term of the pregnancy. These stages of development
are under the divine care of our loving Creator. As Psalm 139:13-16 clearly states:
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy
works; and that m soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the
earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all
my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet
there was none of them.”
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In continuing his thoughts on this issue, Reeder reinforces this passage of scripture by
saying, “Words and phrases like ‘substance’, ‘made in secret’, ‘being unperfect’,
‘members’ (referring to body parts), and ‘in continuance were fashioned’ clearly shows
the formation, development, and completion of a human being, all under the direct
observance and knowledge of Almighty God!” (6)
Dr. James Kennedy uses the illustration of Luke 1:41 by saying, “…when
Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.” Notice in this
passage of scripture the use of the word “babe” rather than fetus or tissue or product of
conception. In fact, the word babe, translated from the original Greek language defines
this word as: “an infant (prop. unborn) lit. or fig. :- babe, (young) child, infant” (Strong).
Most Christians hold this as truth due to the fact that the Bible is the Holy Spirit inspired,
infallible, innerant word of God.
It is understood that the babe leaped for joy, thereby
experiencing human emotion (Kennedy 19).
Throughout scripture, numerous other references are made in regards to human
life. One must realize that life inside or outside the womb is considered by God to be
“human life.” Three other scripture verses reveal this truth:
Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will
help thee. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth
out of the womb I sanctified the… Sanctified you!
God doesn’t sanctify an
appendix or a tumor – but a person (Isaiah 44:2, Psalm 51:5, Jeremiah 1:5)
(Kennedy 19).
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The reality is quite simple. Through this text, we come to the conclusion that life
begins from the moment of conception and should only be taken by the Creator. When
man dictates what life is and who should live, he places himself in the role of God
Almighty. Until this country returns to the religious foundation upon which it was built,
we will continue in a downhill spiral, distancing ourselves further from our loving
Creator.
Only with His help will these precious lives be spared, and be given the
opportunity to live, love, and grow in the grace and mercy that He alone can provide.
The harsh questions that we should all come to terms with are: inside of a pregnant
woman’s body, is there a life, or merely a choice? (Underlined is the Rogerian Thesis)
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WORKS CITED
“Abortion Statistics.” n. pag. 20 Nov. 2000 <http://www.bfl.org/stats.htm>
“About Abortions.” n. pag. 20 Nov. 2000 <http://www.plannedparenthood.org/abortion/
abortquestions.html>.
Daniel, Eileen L. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Health and
Society. Guilford, CT: Dushkin, 1993.
“Defining Biological Life” n. pag. 20 Nov. 2000 http://www.pottersschool.com/
abortion/
“First Step or Last Step” n. pag. 20 Apr. 2000 http://www.roevwade.org/
Kennedy, Dr. James D. A Nation in Shame. Fort Lauderdale, FL: TCRM, 1987
Levine, Carol. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Bioethical Issues,
Fifth Edition. Guilford, CT: Dushkin, 1993
“Life (and Death) After Roe” n. pag. 20 Apr. 2000 http://www.roevwade.org/
“Norma McCorvey and Sandra Cano” n. pag. 20 Apr. 2000 http://www.roevwade.org/
“Partial-birth D&X-("Dilation and Extraction"), Intact D&E-("Intact Dilation and
Evacuation"), or Intrauterine Cranial Decompression Abortion.” n. pag. 20 Nov.
2000 http://hometown.aol.com/abtrbng/pbal.htm.
Reeder, Rick. Innocent Blood, Guilty Hands. London, KY: Brother Joe Mobley,
Crusades For Christ, 1996.
“Roe v. Wade: First Step or Misstep?” n. pag. 20 Apr. 2000
<http://www.roevwade.org/>.
Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible Peabody, MA:
Hendrickson, 1998
Weiss, Catherine. “Voting for Reproductive Freedom.” n. pag. 20 Apr. 2000
http://4controversies.4anything.com/network-frame/0,1855,2692:1003,00html.