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Perhaps no issue inspires more heated debate than abortion - the deliberate termination of a pregnancy. ... Pro - choice activists, believe in the right to choose a safe, legal abortion or Pro - life activists believe that abortion is murder. So why is the debate over abortion so emotional? Some argue about the rights of the fetus (the unborn child); while others argue if abortion should be legal. ... Pro - life supporters argue that the rights of the fetus are as important as those of the mother, and that abortion is murder. Other pro - choice defenders argue that if abortion is murder, why do so many pro - life advocates fight against the most logical methods of preventing this so - called genocide - birth control and sex education? (Reardon, 138) Another reason for the bitterness of this debate is that most pro - choice and pro - life advocates reached their conclusions about abortion very early in life, probably even earlier than they can remember. ... According to recent public opinion polls, the majority of Americans (at least 60 percent) hold beliefs that place them somewhere between the two most extreme, or radical, positions on the abortion issue. ... Most people feel uncomfortable with abortion and are troubled by many of the reasons given for having one but these same people are also uncomfortable with the governmentss interference in a womans right to choose an abortion, a right granted in 1973 by the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. ... Other polls show that many Americans are poorly informed about the abortion issue, and that they drastically underestimate the number of abortions performed each year - approximately 1. ... " (Guernsey, 32) Choice is a central concept of the abortion issue. ... Abortion soon became one of the central issues in this movement. ... Some people suspect that the real intent of laws that prohibit abortion is to control female sexuality and to restrict a womens independence. ... Laws regarding abortion rights tend to change over time - sometimes gradually, sometimes dramatically. ... " Primarily these changes occur because men and women with differing stands on abortion get elected to public office or are appointed to the Supreme Court by the president. ... For about 100 years preceding the Roe ruling, each state legislature had been solely responsible for deciding when and if abortion was legal; but abortion laws underwent reform during the 1960s. The legal argument for reform asserted that existing laws against abortion took away a womens constitutional right of personal privacy. Advocates of abortion - law reform also claimed that a fetus had never been considered a person in the eyes of the law. ... She lived in Texas, which had one of the most restrictive laws against abortion. Jane Roe could have gotten an abortion legally in California, but she could not afford to go there . ... Abortion - rights groups, supplying expert legal help, became involved in this case. The Roe Case also coincided with the growing strength of the abortion - reform movement, and the case came before a liberal Supreme Court. ... Wade ruling struck down all existing state laws restricting abortion and created a new law for the entire nation. The Court ruled that the "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment bars a state from prohibiting abortion. ... Jane Roe claimed that Texas, by enforcing its anti - abortion law, deprived her of "liberty" with due process of law. Liberty, she claimed, included the freedom to have an abortion. ... Wade left many issues unaddressed: Can a minor have an abortion without her parents consent or notification? ... Wade, abortion opponents fought to have the ruling overturned. ... Make no mistake, Reagan said, abortion - on - demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. ... Wade allows states to prohibit abortion once the fetus is viable. ... Because of this and other technological reasons, Justice Sandra Day OConner wrote in her dissent of another, later abortion case that Roe vs. ... Wade granted women in the United States the right to choose abortion. ... As part of the Webster ruling, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a Missouri law that sharply restricted the availability of abortion services. ... The Court also ruled that states may require doctors to test the viability of a fetus before performing an abortion on a woman who has been pregnant for 20 or more weeks. The language of the Webster ruling also encouraged state legislatures to pass new laws that would limit access to abortion. The Supreme Court accepted several subsequent abortion cases pertaining mainly to parental consent, federal funding of abortion clinics, and standards and rules such clinics are required to obey.
Approximate Word count = 3687
Approximate Pages = 14.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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