Research Paper- Abortions Abortion: Moral or Murder?

Commented [PA1]: Is this most creative title you could

come up with?
Abortion has been a controversial amongst our society for ages, yet little ground has been

made on the debate for any side or party involved. Abortion can be defined as “the termination

of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the

fetus”.(Merriam-Webster) This issue has been divisive among politicians, religious groups, Commented [PA2]: Who are you quoting here?

activist groups, feminists, and even people within the same groups all have varying opinions

on the proper way to handle this issue. The main claim of the debate is whether or not

abortions are moral and what justifies the proper need for an abortion, nobody can come to a

clear consensus due to the extreme nature of seriousness of this potentially life and death

topic. Through this paper, I was want to show that it is not possible but difficult to find a Commented [PA3]: Past tense? Or do you mean you “want”
to show?
balance between the rights of an unborn child and those of their mother by discussing many Commented [PA4]: Okay, so your thesis is that point of
even trying to have the debate is pointless?

aspects of both political sides, morality, as well as scientific research and their collected data.

Within the realm of politics, typically, not saying that this is true for everyone in their

respective political parties, but at least in the conventional sense “Pro-Life” is a term

associated with Conservatives or Republicans, and “Pro-Choice” is that of Liberals or

Democrats. This does not mean that every person associated with each party thinks the same

way as everyone else in it does. They all have varying opinions this is just the overall idea.

For the Pro-life side, their argument is that once a baby is conceived, yet unborn it still has the

potential for life outside of the mother therefore it is human, and the termination of its life is

considered murder. For Pro-Choice, they believe that women have rights to their bodies, and

they should be able to decide for themselves what to do with their unborn child no matter

what the circumstance is. But going back to not everyone agreeing, it is very evident that this

debate is bigger than just politics. It is one that has placed a division within political parties.
Based on a source from Fox News, they do discuss how “[m]any politicians run as democrats in

the state to win, they don’t always vote like democrats, particularly on abortion rights”

(McDermott/ Lieb), even though this article obviously has a strong pro-life bias, the point of the

article is just to show that even a group of people who are all thought to have the same ideals

cannot come to terms on the proper way to treat abortions. I myself am a registered Republican,
have always grown up in a conservative family, but I find myself stuck in between both sides of
the spectrum, and I know I am not the only one. This Fox News article gave a statement that
defines this issue the best way, it states, “this is a life issue; this is a moral issue” (McDermott/
Lieb), showing that this is bigger than politics and cannot be solved simply with conventional
Commented [PA5]: I think the point of the article is that the
issue of abortion is so politically significant, that for a lot of
voters, it’s the primary issue as it pertains to how they vote.
So in some districts, democrats *cannot* win unless that
make a concession on the abortion issue and break from the
party. I can completely imagine a politician who is
personally pro-choice, but votes pro-life just so they can
keep their congressional seat.
Commented [PA6]: Who is this article? You need to set this
up for your reader. Be specific and precise.

debates and/ or laws.

One of the biggest parts of the abortion debate is whether or not they should be legal.

Roe v. Wade was a supreme court case from 1973 which ruled that the state regulation of

abortion is unconstitutional, and that making the access to abortions illegal violated basic

women’s rights. In regard to the fetus, is placed a limitation on when abortions can be

received at no later than the end of the first trimester as this signified the “capability of

meaningful life outside the mother’s womb” (Bui). This has been a part of the federal law ever

since but was not and has not since been fully accepted gracefully amongst all Americans. Commented [PA7]: What do you mean by “gracefully”?

Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992 was a case that played off of the Roe v. Wade and still

was in favor of abortions, but instead of going on a trimester basis, turned to a viability rule.

An abortion is allowed as long as it is decided and done before the infant is able to survive.

This law was a very good compromise between the two side, but still neither side is happy

until they fully get their way. The article states, “For pro-choice advocates, the rub here is that

states that want to limit abortion rights have already attained most of the regulation that their
populations are willing to support. Pro-choice interests, moreover, have reason to sound the

alarm against pro-life efforts to pursue ‘helpful and legal changes’ short of bans that ‘keep the

abortion issue alive and change hearts and minds translating into more disfavor for all

abortions’” (Devins). In 2019, lawmakers in Alabama passed on of the strictest anti-abortion Commented [PA8]: Don’t leave out “Planned Parenthood v.
Casey” in 1990s. that’s pretty critical in terms of how
abortion laws are made today.
laws in United States history, allowing a near total ban in the entire state. It outlawed all

abortions, including cases of rape and incest, and criminalizes it as a felony. Senator

Chambliss of Alabama stated that, “Roe v. Wade has ended the lives of millions of children”

(Reilly) and sees this abortion ban as being a positive and new beginning for the lives of many

unborn children. This ban got the attention of everyone, began a huge uproar in the lives of

many, and gave both political parties quite the shock. Although there are some places where

abortion is not legal, that does not necessarily stop women who want an abortion to seek out one.

Based on the peer reviewed article, “Abortion Bans, Doctors, and the Criminalization of

Patients” by Michelle Oberman, it was found through researching abortion rates in South Commented [PA9]: Your font is changing randomly.

American countries, that abortion rates actually increase when a ban is in place.

According to NBC News released an article titled, “States Pushing Abortion Bans Have Commented [PA10]: Just get into the substance of the
article. No need to tell use that NBC “released an article”.
You can just say: “According to NBC News, …”
Higher Infant Mortality Rates”, it compares the states of Missouri, Louisiana, Georgia, Ohio,

Alabama, and Mississippi to all others, and says that these states already have obstacles against

accessible reproductive health care so there are already issues with infant mortality before even

throwing in the abortion regulations that these states are wanting. “babies are carried to term are Commented [PA11]: No need for ellipses at the start of a
quote.
dying in those states more frequently than in many others” (Edwards). Mississippi has the

highest infant mortality overall in the United States, the national rate was 5.8 per 1000 live births

according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mississippi was staggeringly higher

making it all the way to 8.6 per 1000. This was mostly in part to theirs, as well as the other states
discussed, lack of Medicaid coverage provided to expectant mothers so that everyone has access

to the proper care they need throughout their term. Based off of a separate research from the Commented [PA12]: This is interesting, but what relevance
does it have to your thesis? What is the connection to the
mortality rates and abortion?
Center for Disease Control and Prevention about pregnancy-related deaths, “about 700 women

die from pregnancy-related complications each year in the United States” (CDC), this classifies

deaths that occur from anytime during the pregnancy, during labor, up to a year of life

postpartum. Majority of these deaths, about 2/3 of them occur before one week of the infant’s Commented [PA13]: This is a teeny tiny paragraph. If
you’re going to bother with a paragraph, you need to really
spend time with it. Otherwise, attach it to another paragraph
life (during pregnancy and delivery particularly). where it would fit or just cut it.

Increasing access to contraception could be a huge factor in determining infant mortality

rates and abortion rates altogether. In another article, the New York Times reported in 2018 that

the United States reports that infant mortality rates were at an all-time low. They did not link this

drop was due to recent abortion restrictions it claimed the decline was related to increase in

accessibility to contraception. It also discussed the Affordable Care Act, which made health

insurance more affordable and available to many people, specifically those of lower income and

allows certain tax cuts on different types of necessary and desired medications such as birth

control, prenatal care necessities, and more including basic health items. Something common

about people in general, people want what they can’t have. When you are under the age of 21

people are more tempted to drink illegally, but when you turn 21 it just does not seem as special,

so you are less likely to feel a strong need to do so. This goes the same for everything else in life, Commented [PA14]: This is going a little too far off topic.

When people have access to abortions, they are less likely to use it because they feel like they are

able to have a choice and decide for themselves what is best for them. But when they are

mainstreamed streamlined and told what they are and are not allowed to do, they tend to want

something other than what they might if they had a choice.

 Women seek abortions for many different reasons, and no situation is the exact same as

another. Some decide that it is the best option due to health issues involving the safety of the

mother, or quality of life of the baby. Others, due to the traumatic experience of rape or incest.

But the reasons that really spark the controversy are the people that “just do not want”, “are not

ready for”, “cannot afford” the baby, or do not want to raise a child due to complications in their

relationship. All cases are extremely different and finding the common ground between all of

those as well as looking out for the fetus is what makes everything so hard. One woman might

die if she carries a pregnancy to term, and another one just is not ready to have a child which is a

difficult decision to make either way. What is hard, lawfully, is justifying what is an acceptable

reason for the induced abortion of a child so that all sides of the debate can reach common

ground.

There are countless stories that can be found about women who have traveled to Commented [PA15]: Why does your font keep changing?

unknown places and put their lives at risk just to receive an abortion. There are many activist

groups that have come together to form groups such as the “Haven Coalition” to allow women to

have access to abortions or medical attention that they might be deprived of in their home states.

Or even worse, women turning to their own means of termination and trying “Do- It- Yourself”

tricks at home to induce miscarriage. One of the main components of the abortion debate is

where the line of no return is, when it is no longer acceptable or safe to terminate a pregnancy;

some say after there is a heartbeat, some say at the time of conception, some say that there is not

one. Some states have what they call a “heartbeat law” which outlaw abortions after 6 weeks

gestation, but not all pregnancies are even detectable at this time. Based off of a study, is says

that approximately 68,000 women die each year of unsafe abortions which makes it one of the

leading causes of maternal mortality. On the Planned Parenthood Website, it says that typically
in the United States, abortion is available from 4-6 weeks gestation until about 24 weeks

gestation but can be available later than 24 weeks in certain cases for medical necessity. After a

certain time frame an abortion could be very dangerous to the mother, and have lasting negative

effects, or not even work at all.

Are abortions morally wrong? In 1977 on April 6th, a woman walked into an abortion

clinic 7 and a half months pregnant, about 32 weeks, and underwent an elected to terminate her

pregnancy by saline. 18 hours later after laboring over her unwanted child, the baby girl was

finally delivered. Alive. Gianna Jessen was a survivor of a late-term abortion. A saline abortion

described as they presented this story in an article from The Washington Post, “burns the baby

inside and out, blinding and suffocating the child” (Bever). Although she did suffer from oxygen

deprivation to her brain and now lives with Cerebral Palsy, she has now found the silver lining in

her traumatic story and is now a pro-life advocate as well as a motivational speaker. The use of

this article is not to create a bias and say that abortion is bad, but to show another side of the

debate that advocates for the side of the fetus. Even though a woman thought she was just ending

her pregnancy, her unborn child still had to suffer the pain of almost dying, only to survive with

long term health issues as well as one where she does not know her own mother.

This next paragraph might be a little graphic, especially towards the end, so just a

warning to whoever is reading this to be prepared. There are many different types of abortions,

the most common type of method is Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA), a syringe is used to

take the pregnancy tissue out of the uterus. There are also abortion pills that can be taken early

on to also pass the pregnancy tissue. These methods do not sound too bad, but these are only

viable in the first trimester, after then, they start to get more graphic. Next option is Dilation and

Evacuation (D&E) where they basically just go into the cervix, dilate it so that they may use their
tools to go in and scrape out all of the tissue out inside the uterus. Next is late term abortions

which is anything after 20 weeks’ gestation. One way is “induction abortion”, at this point in the

pregnancy we are reaching premature viability meaning there is possibility of it surviving outside

of the uterus, in this case a substance is injected into the uterus cause the fetus to enter cardiac

arrest then will induce labor and she will then have to deliver the baby anyways but will be

lifeless. One that was mentioned earlier is a saline or Instillation Abortion which is a rare type of

surgical procedure but is used in late term abortions, substances like saline are injected directly

into the womb where the baby is basically burned alive, to the point where their top layer of skin

is removed, poisoned, and takes about an hour to complete, then labor is induced and the baby is

delivered stillborn. Again, this was not to show bias but to show the extreme other side of what

actually goes on during abortions and why there are people who also advocate on the side of the

child. This is the main reason that there is a debate questioning the morality and justification of

abortions.

Like it was stated earlier, abortion is a moral issue, not one to be debated on and

criminalized by politicians and the government, but one that should be handled gently and

graciously. One idea that is not one that is talked about much is spontaneous abortions. A

spontaneous abortion, better known as a miscarriage, is the accidental loss of a fetus before 20

weeks gestation. A peer reviewed article written by Bruce Blackshaw questioned why politics

focus so much on intentional abortions and their debate, when we should be focusing on the real

cause of infant mortality which is miscarriage. Banning abortions and regulating them does not

decrease infant mortality rates, it just prevents women from intentionally aborting children but

does not stop the sad phenomenon of miscarriage that happens naturally to many women for

sometimes unknown reasons. He says that if we really want to see change and want the mortality
rate of unborn children to decrease, the way to do it is by putting more effort into preventing or

slowing down miscarriage and not regulating the intentional ones that take up a significantly

smaller percentage. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth presents data that suggests “43 percent of

women reported having had 1 or more first trimester spontaneous abortions” and “1 in 17… have

3 or more.” (Cohain). Showing that it is a common occurrence among women. If anti-

abortionists are so caught up in lowering infant mortality then their focus needs to be on

improving their health care and accessibility to it for expectant women and do more research on

what can be done to stop a miscarriage or finding ways to prevent prenatal issues that may lead

to the need for induced abortion due to the lack of quality of life for infants as well as the safety

of the mothers.

Alongside the idea of morality, one’s religious affiliation or practice is also a factor in

this debate. This is one thing that creates a large divide within political parties, Studies show that

about 75% of “white evangelical Protestants” agree that abortion is not justifiable in the eyes of

God and should be illegal in all or most cases. It is a part of specifically Christian religion to

believe that committing murder is going against one of the 10 commandments and that it an act

that can only be punished by eternal death. Therefore, the intentional termination of potential life

goes against one of the most basic concepts in the Christian bible. In comparison to that, there

are more citizens that have to affiliation to religion, and about 80% of them disagree and say that

abortion should be legal and accessible.

The only thing that everyone can agree on, it that there is no end in sight for this debate.

Abortion is such an emotional and graphic concept and effects so many different kinds of people

in many different ways and can be a sensitive subject to discuss. There will never be a solution

that can ever make everyone happy, there will always be controversy over whether or not
abortion is murder, whether it is a sin, a right as a human being for the mother or the fetus or

whether it can be justified in any manner. There is no way It is possible but extremely difficult to

find a balance between the rights of the mother and those of the unborn child due to there not

being a cohesive answer on what is life, what one considers a living unborn child and what

another does. But there does need to be a line of where abortion is not ok anymore due to the

ability for the fetus to live outside of the mother’s womb, excluding developmental health issues

that may turn up, but still allowing the woman to make decisions regarding her livelihood and

her body. The best way to go about this is to just leave room for both sides, allowing abortion in

certain situations, but prohibiting them after a certain point to protect the health and well-being

of both the mother and the fetus. Abortion goes deeper than just politics and cannot be treated as

another bill or piece of legislation.

There is no way It is very difficult to properly determine whether abortions are immorally

wrong or if there is a justified need for an abortion in any given case, opinions vary from every

person regardless of their religion, socioeconomic status, and political affiliation. Every person

has different morals and their right to do so, even science and research cannot determine an

answer to this they can just both use their data to back up both sides of the argument in many

different ways. This is not an issue of life, but an issue of morality.

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