Pro-Life v. Pro-Choice
A hot topic for young and older people alike has been pro-life vs pro-choice. Just another issues that’s divided democrats and republicans for many years with seemingly no end to the argument. The goal of today is to see the facts; the good, the bad, and the ugly. Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice you will be represented. Too many times are articles biased or never show both sides so here we are.
First, when and where did abortions start?
From as far as we can tell abortions started in the 1800’s as soon as the pilgrims came to the US. These were extremely dangerous and painful and oftentimes killed both the child and mother. At this time though they were legal for all doctors to perform in the US, but very quickly was it made illegal forcing women to get what was known as “back alley abortions”. These were often performed in a dirty environment and the person doing them had little to no skill in this area. Doctors started to establish themselves in abortions in order to avoid these back alley abortions from happening. That’s when the American Medical Association deemed abortions immoral and criminal. This statement led to all but one state in the 1910s to have made abortions a criminal offense. The only time was it allowed was for when the physician deemed it as life saving.
Now let’s go through the history of the laws that’s mad abortions go from legal to illegal several times.
In 1973 Roe v. Wade supreme court case rids of state laws that make abortion illegal. Planned parenthood and hyde amendment formed after this giving information to low income women as well as giving them more options. In 1991 Rust v. Sullivan upholded the “gag rule” previously in the constitution, making doctors unable to refer abortions as an option to their parents. 2003 a federal ban on abortions was placed no longer allowing any states to give abortions legally. 2004 NAF won against repealing the ban and once again allowed abortions to be deemed legal. Now to the present we have Trump who recently placed a funding ban for planned parenthood and any place allowing abortions.
What does it mean to be a supporter of pro-choice?
Often when you hear of pro-choice you will hear NARAL. NARAL is called Pro-choice America. Its an organization much like PETA where they accept donations, put on protests and constantly inform their followers. They fight for reproductive freedom as they put it. If you go onto their website you will see many tabs letting you know who they are, what you can do, and the injustices that are facing reproductive rights. They has 2-million supporters. Of course there are other campaigns but this being the best known and the head front of any and all rallies or debates. The website even has a tab full of laws and policies relating to these topics. They seek against trump and his wants to renew the gag law where doctors aren’t allowed to offer abortion as a solution. Not only that but paid maternity leave, right to abortions and contraceptives.
Well now we’ve covered pro-choice so what is it at the forefront of Pro-life?
Pro-Life action league is an often popular association when discussing pro-life. Just like NARAL their website includes their story, the facts, donations, and how you can take action. Many of their followers are religious and things they do to take action have religion underline heavily. They promote anti abortion and often seek for others to just put them up for adoption. They also offer counseling or more so persuasion of why a woman seeking abortion should not. You can see a lot of their activism take place on side streets or even right outside of abortion clinics.
Now what is an abortion?
There are many different types of abortions. The most common being an suction abortion. The doctors will give the patient both a pain medication and sedation before starting the procedure. They use a hand held suction to go up into the patient’s cervix and essentially suck the baby out. There’s also taking pills to remove the baby as well as D&E which is the natural way and essentially can push it out. D&E and suction can essentially be done at any point. How far along you are allowed to get an abortion at varies from state to state most commonly being 15 weeks though. Now with every abortion there are risks there can be infections in the womb, pregnancy can persist, or even excessive bleeding and sometimes can result in infertility. Though these are risks and have happened they are very unlikely.
How successful are abortions and who has them?
According to abort73 Based on the latest state-level data, approximately 881,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2017 — down from approximately 885,000 abortions in 2016 and 913,000 abortions in 2015. In 2015, unmarried women accounted for 86% of all abortions (CDC). According to the NCBI Effectiveness of the buccal misoprostol-mifepristone regimen was 98.3% for women with gestational ages below 60 days. The oral misoprostol-mifepristone regimen, used by 278 women with a gestational age below 50 days, had a success rate of 96.8%.
Sources used for this article:
Belluck, Pam. “Trump Administration Blocks Funds for Planned Parenthood and Others Over Abortion Referrals.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/health/trump-defunds-planned-parenthood.html.
“History of Abortion.” National Abortion Federation, prochoice.org/education-and-advocacy/about-abortion/history-of-abortion/.
“Issues.” NARAL Pro-Choice America, www.prochoiceamerica.org/issues/.
“Abortion Facts Archives — Pro-Life Action League.” Pro, prolifeaction.org/fact_type/abortion-facts/.
NHS Choices, NHS, www.nhs.uk/conditions/abortion/what-happens/.
“U.S. Abortion Statistics.” Abort73.Com / Abortion Unfiltered, abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/.
