One of the most important, controversial and most discussed social issues in America right now is Abortion. The exercise of Abortion is getting common in America day by day. The other name which is used for Abortion is the “termination of Pregnancy”. The main reasons for the increase in abortion are unintended pregnancy and growing population. There are two types of pregnancy termination, one is spontaneous abortion while the other is induced abortion. Spontaneous abortion is done without any intervention or intent. However, when deliberate steps are taken to terminate a pregnancy it is known as Induced abortion or simply abortion in common language ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ZugRWQZX","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Group, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Group, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":149,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/47N2ASLV"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/47N2ASLV"],"itemData":{"id":149,"type":"article-journal","title":"Induced abortion.","container-title":"Human reproduction (Oxford, England)","page":"1160","volume":"32","issue":"6","author":[{"family":"Group","given":"ESHRE Capri Workshop"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Group, 2017). Unsafe abortion methods can lead to internal damage and sometimes maternal death, especially in the developing world.
Interpretation
People raise these issues in terms of Pro-life phenomenon. Such people raise these issues based on religion, moral values and the basic human right of living. Every religion claim that life should not be destroyed because of someone's choice. Pro-life activists claim that abortion should only be legalized if the birth of the child is associated with any harms towards female health. They claim that human life is more precious than any idea or choice and females with unintended pregnancies should avoid such extreme measures. Essential steps are required for the complete obliteration of abortion as this practice have negative psychological and physical effects on the life of females. If abortion isn't carried out completely and with proper care, it can lead to failing health and in some extreme cases the death of females involved ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"W4mFiNvv","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Darney et al., 2018)","plainCitation":"(Darney et al., 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":150,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/NZZ4T342"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/NZZ4T342"],"itemData":{"id":150,"type":"book","title":"Quality of care and abortion: beyond safety","publisher":"British Medical Journal Publishing Group","ISBN":"2515-1991","author":[{"family":"Darney","given":"Blair G."},{"family":"Powell","given":"Bill"},{"family":"Andersen","given":"Kathyrn"},{"family":"Baum","given":"Sarah E."},{"family":"Blanchard","given":"Kelly"},{"family":"Gerdts","given":"Caitlin"},{"family":"Montagu","given":"Dominic"},{"family":"Chakraborty","given":"Nirali M."},{"family":"Kapp","given":"Nathalie"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Darney et al., 2018). There is a broader agreement over abortion as being one of the major social problems in society. The issue affects different aspects of religion, ethics and human rights which makes it one of the most emerging social issues in the modern world.
History
Before the 1800s abortion was common and wasn't considered unlawful. However, this changed later on and abortion was considered a serious criminal offence as it was considered as taking someone's life. After taking its independence, the United States imposed serious laws to prevent this issue. By the end of the 19th century, the laws to prevent abortion after 15-20 weeks were introduced and in some states Abortion as completely banned ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"GM5Fs6Rh","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mahon, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Mahon, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"020MhJ83/kSMW8mlq","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/JGNM6UCG"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/JGNM6UCG"],"itemData":{"id":99,"type":"chapter","title":"Abortion and the Right to not be Pregnant","container-title":"Philosophy and Political Engagement","publisher":"Springer","page":"57-77","author":[{"family":"Mahon","given":"James Edwin"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mahon, 2016). This issue has immerged to be of greater interest to all of American Nation and government. The issue has been extensively discussed in social, ethical, religious and economic perspectives. Nowadays we see many protests and marches from the supporters of both pro-life and pro-choice people. Pro-choice activists mostly claim these laws against abortion as an effort to control women and restrict them to traditional roles of the stone age in which women were seen only as a childbearing machine. These legislations in the past also meant that the U.S government was also concerned about the race suicide of White ethnicities, and through this legislation they wanted women to reproduce ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"T4qfbIH2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}History of Abortion in the U.S.,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“History of Abortion in the U.S.,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"020MhJ83/PVnTSJmm","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/DPX472J2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/DPX472J2"],"itemData":{"id":100,"type":"post-weblog","title":"History of Abortion in the U.S.","container-title":"Our Bodies Ourselves","abstract":"In the 1960s and 70s, women and men fought, marched and lobbied to make abortion safe and legal. Since then, the right to abortion has been under attack.","URL":"https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/book-excerpts/health-article/u-s-abortion-history/","language":"en","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,30]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“History of Abortion in the U.S.,” n.d.). The practise of abortion wasn't that common and its concepts changed over time. Now people are conscious about the future and growth of their children, which also affect the decisions of plans to raise them. However, ancient history is also full of bans on females who either supported or practised abortion.
Ancient history and concepts of abortion can be found in Egyptian medical texts known as Ebers papyrus. The medical literature or text of abortion comes are considered credible that can date back to 1550 BCE ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a8WIVwuw","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Siegel, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Siegel, 2012)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"020MhJ83/JTiSRgfU","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/XQIULXR4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/XQIULXR4"],"itemData":{"id":102,"type":"chapter","title":"The constitutionalization of abortion","container-title":"The Oxford handbook of comparative constitutional law","author":[{"family":"Siegel","given":"Reva B."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Siegel, 2012). In Egyptian ancient history, the plant-fibre tampon was used along with honey and crushed dates. The concept of abortion was never specifically introduced in any scripture of the Christian bible but from different history books and ancient literature, we know that ancient Egyptians, Persians and Romans used different traditional practices for abortions ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"f5C9XbJa","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Oberman, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Oberman, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":152,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MCHLA45F"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MCHLA45F"],"itemData":{"id":152,"type":"article-journal","title":"Book Review. Mary Ziegler, After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate","container-title":"After Roe: The Lost History of the Abortion Debate","page":"400","author":[{"family":"Oberman","given":"Michelle"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Oberman, 2017). When it comes to the legal ban on abortion, it dates back to the rule of Assura. In the 11th century BCE, he put forward strict laws which prevented women to get themselves aborted without the permission of their husbands ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XSGzeUtV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Siegel, 2012)","plainCitation":"(Siegel, 2012)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":"020MhJ83/JTiSRgfU","uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/XQIULXR4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/cYhHNKoU/items/XQIULXR4"],"itemData":{"id":102,"type":"chapter","title":"The constitutionalization of abortion","container-title":"The Oxford handbook of comparative constitutional law","author":[{"family":"Siegel","given":"Reva B."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2012"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Siegel, 2012). The penalty ranged from stoning for a specific time to even the death of that person. The speeches and scripture from earlier Greeks also suggested that there were strict laws and bans on women who practised abortions but like the laws of Assura these laws also only applied to those women who aborted without the consent of their husbands.
A new layer of encouragement for the promotion of safe abortion have surfaced in recent years. These promotions focus on the standards that are being used in the abortion practices that affect the health of girls involved in abortion. Different sociological organizations are working to educate people about abortions, which include, Committee on the elimination of discrimination against women, the committee on the economic political and social rights, the rights for women in Africa and many other social organizations have highlighted the importance of passing laws on progressive abortion. No organization in the world focuses their attention on the softening of the laws because of the demands of women rather they want abortion to be decriminalized. Historically many voices have been raised for safe and legal abortion but nowadays many socialists organizations also call for the decriminalization as well. These are two different terms in the essence of their legal point of view. Legalization of abortion means to allow the act of abortion by the book of law while decriminalization means removing all the criminal offences against abortion.
Sociological Viewpoint
In almost all the countries in the world except few abortions is legal under the law however, only in Canada it was decriminalized through a supreme court order in 1988 ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"pSV6afFE","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Berer, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Berer, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":143,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/9PEYKVHH"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/9PEYKVHH"],"itemData":{"id":143,"type":"article-journal","title":"Abortion law and policy around the world: in search of decriminalization","container-title":"Health and human rights","page":"13","volume":"19","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Berer","given":"Marge"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Berer, 2017). Except that no other country no matter how liberal or advanced they are have taken steps to completely delimit the practice of abortion.
There are two aspects at which socialists look at the problem of abortion
The Fetus Is Not a Human Being
The Fetus Is a Human Being
The first position is the one taken by people who consider and believe that abortion is a woman’s right. They follow the concept that abortion is not killing a human being since a fetus is a potential person that can grow into a human body. They consider abortion as a medical procedure of removing a probable person, with the focus on the word probable ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"ZChmNWgV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Hanschmidt et al., 2016)","plainCitation":"(Hanschmidt et al., 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":147,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/3A2XLUFZ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/3A2XLUFZ"],"itemData":{"id":147,"type":"article-journal","title":"Abortion stigma: a systematic review","container-title":"Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health","page":"169-177","volume":"48","issue":"4","author":[{"family":"Hanschmidt","given":"Franz"},{"family":"Linde","given":"Katja"},{"family":"Hilbert","given":"Anja"},{"family":"Riedel‐Heller","given":"Steffi G."},{"family":"Kersting","given":"Anette"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Hanschmidt et al., 2016). They believe that women should have the right to remove someone based on any reason that they want because it is their body and their choice. The reasons for abortion might be financial restraints, health problems, reduction of family size, to finish education or simply not wanting a child at that time ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"YGqjict8","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Segers and Byrnes, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Segers and Byrnes, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":151,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MXZ7Z3TE"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/MXZ7Z3TE"],"itemData":{"id":151,"type":"book","title":"Abortion politics in American states","publisher":"Routledge","ISBN":"1-315-28672-6","author":[{"family":"Segers","given":"Mary C."},{"family":"Byrnes","given":"Timothy A."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Segers and Byrnes, 2016). Pro-choice activists demand that the reason for abortion should solely depend on women and the state should not take part in someone’s basic right.
While the second position is of the people who are strongly against abortion. They consider abortion as murder of the most innocent and vulnerable of all human beings. It is taking a life of someone's first right in this world which is the right of living. Pro-life socialists argue that babies are meant to be protected and not killed and murder of someone cannot be justified as a medical procedure. They consider abortion as equal to getting the right to kill your child. There isn't only a women body that is involved in the process of abortion and there are a second life and body that is involved in this matter which is the body of that unborn child. The only exception to allow abortion is when there is a danger involved in the life of mother. They believe that a state or government has no right to legalize murder and abortion should be regarded as illegal and a criminal offence.
Policy
There are some strict policies in many U. S’s states regarding abortion and it is already difficult for many people to access it. The example of the state of Alabama is Infront of us. They have passed a law known as a draconian bill, that can punish doctors with life in prison if they were found out to be performing any act of abortion ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"iyKNull0","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}10 things you need to know about abortion laws in the US,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“10 things you need to know about abortion laws in the US,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":144,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/GHL7PII4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/GHL7PII4"],"itemData":{"id":144,"type":"webpage","title":"10 things you need to know about abortion laws in the US","abstract":"This chilling attack on reproductive rights has been on a long time coming.","URL":"https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/06/abortion-laws-in-the-us-10-things-you-need-to-know/","language":"en","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",10,31]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“10 things you need to know about abortion laws in the US,” n.d.). However, in Alabama abortion is already unreachable for many people in the state of Alabama. This means that most of the people that wanted to abort have to go to other states for the process because almost 93 per cent of clinics in Alabama don't have any abortions facilities available ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"BVmv0zfo","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Jones and Jerman, 2017)","plainCitation":"(Jones and Jerman, 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":148,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/HQTVNNZS"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/HQTVNNZS"],"itemData":{"id":148,"type":"article-journal","title":"Abortion incidence and service availability in the United States, 2014","container-title":"Perspectives on sexual and reproductive health","page":"17-27","volume":"49","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Jones","given":"Rachel K."},{"family":"Jerman","given":"Jenna"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Jones and Jerman, 2017).
Five other states which included Georgia, Ohio, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana all have passed the bills which prevent abortion after six weeks of pregnancy ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8Zl7Zqsp","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Guenther, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Guenther, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":146,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/93UM9P3X"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/93UM9P3X"],"itemData":{"id":146,"type":"article-journal","title":"Review of United States Abortion Policy","author":[{"family":"Guenther","given":"Allison"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Guenther, 2018). This is a very short period and many people don't even realize after about six weeks that they are pregnant ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"VzKZhf68","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Conti et al., 2016)","plainCitation":"(Conti et al., 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":153,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/H9MH3YTS"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/KfR9yuY2/items/H9MH3YTS"],"itemData":{"id":153,"type":"article-journal","title":"Update on abortion policy","container-title":"Current Opinion in Obstetrics and Gynecology","page":"517-521","volume":"28","issue":"6","author":[{"family":"Conti","given":"Jennifer A."},{"family":"Brant","given":"Ashley R."},{"family":"Shumaker","given":"Heather D."},{"family":"Reeves","given":"Matthew F."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Conti et al., 2016). Many people will be specifically affected by these policies, these people include teenagers, coloured people, refugees, immigrants, and people on daily wages or minimum wage workers. It will be more difficult for them to travel to other states for abortion which will further increase expenses of their already low budget.
Bibliography
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