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Isabella Acua
Donny Leveston
ENGL 1301: 10003
18 November 2016
Abortion is the Right Of Any Pregnant Person

In the United States, the debate as to if abortion should be legal or not has always caused

controversy. Thus, the pro-choice and pro-life movements were born, the former advocating

for abortion to be legal in most if not all cases, and the latter advocating for abortion to be illegal

in most if not all cases. The debate centers on if abortion should be legal or not, and there is a

variety of different arguments for and against it. These arguments include moral reasoning,

religious ground, scientific proof, legal definitions, ethics, personhood, argument from

uncertainty, and gender equality. (Chinn 2015) Both sides of the movement seek to gain political

influence and public support through their campaigning tactics. In each case, the end goal is to

either legalize or criminalize abortion, causing others in their country to follow their sides

beliefs as law. Because of this, the abortion debate is highly politicized.

Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often

performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Abortion in the United States was legalized in

1973 during the Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade. In the United States, there has always been a

heated debate about abortion, with just as many opponents of the right to abortion as proponents.

In a 2016 Gallup poll, 47% of respondents identified as pro-choice (supporting the legalization

of abortion), while 46% identified as pro-life (opposing the legalization of abortion). The pro-life

movement is also known as the right-to-life movement or the anti-abortion movement. They cite

largely religious and moral reasons, and their activism includes demonstrations and protests,

sidewalk counseling, leafletting, the opening of crisis pregnancy centers, and speeches. Their
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persuasive tactics often include appealing to the pregnant persons empathetic side, or. The pro-

choice movement, also known as the abortion-rights movement stands for abortion to be legal

and without unnecessary restrictions. Their activism includes demonstrations and protests, clinic

escorting, and speeches. Both movements are involved in politics, and rally behind chosen

figures to get people from their side into office. Having chosen political figures to represent their

respective sides is a vital part, seeing as a large part of the debate happens in the form of legal

battles, coming across the desks of lawmakers and being debated by members of the Supreme

Court, senate, congress, and legislature. Each side tries their best to organize grassroots

volunteering and local action, which helps to shift the public view and gain the support of the

general public. Even though this is an important goal, the matter of getting either a pro-life or

pro-choice push in government is more pressing and urgent.

Abortion is the right of any pregnant human for any reason they decide, up until the

middle of the second trimester. Exceptions for third trimester should only be made if a doctor

predicts that the life of the fetus or pregnant person is in danger or would have severe defects if

the pregnancy were carried to term. Abortion has to do predominantly with bodily autonomy, in

which the pregnant person reserves the right to decide whether or not to terminate their

pregnancy. Arguments that naturally come up in this debate include when and why a pregnant

person should be allowed to abort, what restrictions should be placed on abortion, the pregnant

minors rights (especially pertaining to medical confidentiality), and the rights of the other

person responsible for conceiving the fetus.

The American pro-life movement pushes to end abortion, mainly through the use of

illegalization or social conditioning. The two major pushes are to get representatives of the pro-

life movement in office and get their bills introduced, and to influence public opinion to agree
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with their side. The thought is that through grassroots organizing and the support of the majority

of the public, getting support in politics will be easier. Their actual views are varying, some

persons and organizations believing that abortion should never be allowed under any

circumstance, some believing it should be illegal, but exceptions to be made in the case of rape,

incest, or with danger to the pregnant person or child. Many believe in some sort of variation of

this, but all believing that abortion should not be happening.

The pro-life movement uses strong pathos tactics, but is severely lacking in logos. Most

of the pro-life argument is rooted in religious or moral reasoning. They make the argument that

abortion is not allowed in the bible, the Catholic Church has spoken against it, and abortion is

not allowed in most if not all major religions such as Christianity and all their dominations,

Catholicism, Islam, and Sikhism. (Halva-Neubauer 2010) This in itself is flawed, seeing as firstly

and quite obviously, not everybody follows the same religion. Moreover, religious-based

arguments operate on ones interpretation of their religious text, whether it be the Bible, the

Quran, or another. The argument can be made that not all interpretations are the same, and

neither religious text might strictly ban abortion. It must also be considered that even if abortion

is not allowed recording to religious texts, they were all written in a completely different era.

Times have changed, we as a population are no longer at danger of extinction and repopulation is

not a necessity. Thus, it is arguable that this specific ban can be overlooked as its sole use, to

encourage repopulation, has long been surpassed.

Moral reasoning is also a flawed justification, seeing as morals are purely subjective.

Morals are often based on religion, which as was just discussed, is a flawed argument in this

particular situation. When not based on religion, morals are based on culture or personal opinion.

Again, these are situational and extremely personal. There is no one unified definition for morals
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that all humans can agree on. As with religion, every person has their own thoughts on morals

and their personal definitions, even if they may be extremely similar to the thoughts and

definitions of those around them. There is no one specific and legal definition for morals, they

cannot be defined as fact or used as a legal argument. The pro-life movement cannot use

something that is fluid and arbitrary if they are making a legal appeal to pass a bill or law. The

argument against abortion using morals is arbitrary, and can easily fluctuate depending on the

opinions on the person or people that happen to be defining legal terms in the moment.

Abortion has to do solely with the bodily autonomy of the pregnant person and their legal

right to decide if they would like to host the development of a fetus for 9 months and endure

childbirth. Every existing human should have the right to their own body and to decide if they

want to birth a child or not. In the United States, someone is legally considered a person at birth.

A fetus does not have human rights and is not yet considered legally a person until they exit the

womb, but a pregnant person does have human rights, which includes the right to their own

bodily autonomy. As spoken by Gupta, the feeling that one is in control of themselves and their

life is a need for emotional well-being. Thus, a pregnant person having their body regulated by

the government with absolutes can prove to be extremely damaging to their mental state.

The entire abortion controversy ties into topics such as when life starts, what makes a

person a person, what human rights are guaranteed, and what morals and ethics can truly be

defined as. Abortion in itself ties into age-old questions of humanity, of which there are no real

answers. Every claim to an absolute answer is completely arbitrary, which is why the debate

rages on split almost evenly, even after abortion in the United States being legalized upwards of

thirty years. In questions of humanity, there is always uncertainty which is why most of the time,

there is no one clear answer. We as a people must always rely on the social context and cultural
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climate of the time period to base our loosely defined answers on, from which we get laws

regulating practices such as abortion. There are individuals that believe that abortion should

always be legal with no more restrictions than any other routine medical procedure, there are

those who believe abortion should never be legal, with no exceptions under any circumstances.

Most individuals, such as myself, tend to come somewhere in-between these absolutes.
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Works Cited

"Abortion." Merriam-Webster.com. 2011. http://www.merriam-webster.com (25 November

2016).

Baum, Sarah E. "Womens Experience Obtaining Abortion Care In Texas After

Implementation Of Restrictive Abortion Laws: A Qualitative Study." Plos ONE 11.10

(2016): 1-14. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 November 2016

Biggs, M. Antonia, John M. Neuhaus, and Diana G. Foster. "Mental Health Diagnoses 3 Years

After Receiving Or Being Denied An Abortion In The United States." American Journal

Of Public Health 105.12 (2015): 2557-2563. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25

November 2016.

CHINN, STUART. "Universal Arguments And Particular Arguments On Abortion Rights."

Maryland Law Review 75.1 (2015): 247-270. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Dec.

2016.

Gallup, Inc. "Abortion." Gallup.com. Gallup, 26 May 2016. Web. 25 Nov. 2016.

Gupta, Anoop. Simplifying Gardner's Labyrinth: The Role of Interpersonal Relationships in

Pablo Picasso's Artistic Development. Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 46, no. 3,

2012, pp. 2235. Web. 17 Nov. 2016

Halva-Neubauer, Glen A., and Sara L. Zeigler. Promoting Fetal Personhood: The Rhetorical and

Legislative Strategies of the Pro-Life Movement after Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Feminist Formations, vol. 22, no. 2, 2010, pp. 101123.