The History of Abortion

This article was about where abortion was and where it is in today’s society. Abortions have been practiced for thousands and thousands of years. In the United States, they became illegal around 1820. During this time, women still decided to have abortions, they were just extremely dangerous and usually resulted in death for the baby and mother both. By making abortions illegal, abortion rates unexpectedly did not decrease. Illegal abortions could reach a staggering 1.2 million per year despite the laws forbidding them. In the 20th century, one-third of states decided to legalized abortions. Abortions became legal in all states prior to the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court case in 1973. Since then, laws such as the ban on partial birth abortions have been put into place.

This website provided a lot of information such as dates and what occurred during those dates in order to get a better understanding on the history of abortions. I would use this article in my argumentative paper in order to explain why some people feel as if legalized abortions do more good than harm since when they were illegal, thousands of women would harm themselves in attempts to abort the baby. I could also use this source in my introduction and discuss the timeline of how abortions used to be, how they are now, and how they got to this point. This article has not changed my personal views on abortion, but it helps me get a better understanding of why some people do support them.

According to pro-life advocates, life begins at the time of contraception. However, pro-choice advocates believe that the fetus is not a human until it can live on its own outside of the mother’s body. This source is useful because it gives a clear presentation of both sides opinions regarding when human life begins. This article gives examples and explanations from both points of view to help the reader decide which side to partner with. The information in this source is reliable because it is objective rather than biased. There are multiple charts and graphs within the article which obtains accurate information regarding the topic. The objective of this source is to present both sides of the argument to when human life begins. This article is helpful and I would probably use it in my argumentative paper when I wanted to defend how abortion was wrong because life begins at contraception. A human has 46 chromosomes, and so does a fetus, therefore making it a human. The fetus has a heartbeat, brain activity, cell function and growth.

This was a survey of women who have had an abortion and the aftermath it had on them. It asked questions that showed proof that women who have had an abortion in their teen years were more likely to experience extremely negative psychological moments. The survey also showed that women who had an abortion within their teen years were more likely to have had a rough home life and generally poor relationships with men. It compares to a few of the other articles, as far as being a survey. This is a very reliable source to use since it came from Elliot Institute. I would use this information in my argumentative paper. It presents that a lot of women have psychological issues within their life after having an abortion. I could use the statistics and information within this source in my paper to defend my points on why not to have an abortion because it causes more harm to the mother than it does good.

Parental Consent’ from Gale Cengage Learning, debates on whether or not minors should be able to decide to have an abortion without parental consent are becoming more controversial. The purpose of laws requiring parental consent are to prevent girls from being sexually active or choosing to have an abortion, and to protect ‘parent-child relationships.’ However, the laws are driving young people out of their home state to find a state that does not require parental consent in order to have an abortion. Health care professionals, as well as some government officials, feel as if such laws need to be banned because they are causing young people to make poor decisions such as harming themselves in order to be able to have the abortion.

This source was useful because it gave me a perspective on how pro-choice and pro-life advocates view parental consent laws. The article was not biased because it didn’t side with one way or the other, but told both points of view. The information from this article is reliable because it does not give crazy statistics that can’t be proven, but uses credible people to defend its side. This article would be good to use in my paper if I need to reference the effects that parents have on abortions. Realistically, parents have very little involvement. If the state in which the minor lives in has a law in which the parent must give consent, they generally just leave and go to another state for the abortion. Or, the teens take matters into their own hands and end the pregnancy by inflicting harm on themselves.

This source did kind of change my perspective on things. I am pro-life, anti-abortion, however you want to say it, but are more laws preventing minors from getting abortions really going to stop them from aborting the baby or just stop it legally? I think the emphasis needs to not be on parent consent and abortions as much as parent consent with contraceptive availability to prevent abortions all together.

Abortion: Mandatory Ultrasound’ from Facts on File News Services, some states have made it mandatory for women to receive an ultrasound before getting an abortion. People who support the requirements defend that doing so will protect the woman’s psychologically and physically. This is because the exact age of the fetus could be determined, ensuring that the pregnancy is not too far along to do the abortion safely. Also, by showing the woman the baby, it gives her a chance to connect with the baby, possibly changing her mind or decision to follow through with the abortion. However, people who are against the ultrasound laws say that it is manipulative and inappropriate. They argue that the women are put through more psychological harm from the ultrasound than without it.

This article is useful because it gives a good argument for both sides of the issue concerning ultrasound requirements before to an abortion. The information in it is credible, like the other articles I have read, it does a great job of being objective rather than being biased. This source does not pick a side and only defend it, but rather gives the supporter’s views as well as the opponent’s. This would be a helpful source to use in my argumentative paper to defend my opinion of why women should receive an ultrasound before getting an abortion. It is the reasonable step before any surgical procedure, so it only makes sense to do it before an abortion as well in order to be fully informed. It could help the woman completely understand that what is inside of her is more than a ‘fetus’, it is a baby, with a heartbeat, growing every single second.

This article was about how if birth control was offered to women in the United States for free, than the rate of teen pregnancies and abortions would tremendously decrease. A study in St. Louis demonstrated this concept. The teen pregnancy rates went from about 34 births to 1,000 teens in 2010 to around 6.3 births per teenager. Similarly, the abortion rates decreased phenomenology. The rates went from around 13.4 to 17 abortions per 1,000 women to only 4.4 to 7.5 abortions. The controversy now is whether or not free contraceptives should be provided nationwide. This article is not biased. It’s goal is to show the knowledge of if women were able to have free birth control, then abortion rates would greatly decrease.

This information is reliable because it came from ABC news, which is a very reliable news source. I would use this article in my argumentative paper although it doesn’t give much information about abortions, but I could use it in order to explain different options to fix the inclining number of abortions in the United States. A controversy now is whether or not some women use abortions as their birth control. If free birth control was available or provided, then the percent of abortions would decrease. However, the issue with this concept is that the government would be paying for the immense of the medicine, therefore taxes would probably increase. In the article, it stated that mostly poor women were the ones who fought to have this free birth control. If this was the case all over America, than the hard-working middle class would probably end up supporting prostitutes to receive their birth control.