Axiology

Life is a characteristic of everything on this planet which is capable of growth, development, and reproduction. Imagine a life where you find yourself having a child; a product of poor contraception or even perhaps a rape. Now you are forced to raise this child in a home obviously not suitable for an up bringing of something so delicate and so fragile. With food being scarce, a poor education, and with no appropriate shelter or parenting, you find yourself and your child abandoned from society and left for ruin. Two living and breathing souls suddenly brought to a screeching halt, something which could have been avoided well before the situation escalated.

Abortion has become one of the most widely debated ethical issues of our time. Most of the debate raging about abortion around the world has centered around the question of morality. Is this murder? Is this sinful and immoral? Some religions teach that abortion is a sin; others, that it is a women's duty if a pregnancy endangers her life or her health. This is not true. Reproductive choice is clearly an important aspect of a society committed to the ideals of peace, justice, and freedom. Abortion is an extremely moral choice that benefits women and society. Access to legal abortion upholds women's right to control their destinies and allows children to be born into homes where they will be loved and cared for. The attitude of people who believe abortion is an unnecessary evil doing is dangerous and destructive and undermines the enormous gains due to the availability of good abortion services. Pro choice supporters are simply individuals who favor a woman's reproductive rights, including the right to choose to have an abortion. It is our job as abortion providers to respect the choices of women and to provide abortion services with proficiency, compassion, and empathy.

According to the United States Center for Disease Control, during the 1980s and 1990s total abortions stayed about 1,550,000 annually slowly decreasing in the 1990s. Note that the Guttmacher Institute reported that 10 percent of known abortion providers did not report. Adding 10 percent to its 1,550,000 equals 1,700.000. The total slowly decreased in the 1990s. When unreported abortions are added(income tax evasion, cover-up for privacy, etc.), a figure of 1,800,000 may be more realistic. Live births have hovered just under 4,000,000. In 1973 half of all abortions in the United States were done in hospitals. Twenty years later it was down to 7 percent. Most are done in 440 large free-standing abortion chambers which did 70 percent of all abortions. The rest are done in doctor's offices or in clinics that do less than half of their business in abortion. The abortion rate for black women is approximately three times that for white women. Since 1973, more than 35 million abortions have been committed. An abortion is performed at least once every 23 seconds. More unborn children die each year from abortion than American soldiers died in the Civil, Korean, Vietnam, Persian Gulf, Revolutionary, and both World Wars combined.

Scientific evidence makes it apparent that abortion is not murder. The fetus is at best a potential human being and not yet an actual human being. The differences between a fetus and a newborn baby are many and profound. Take the sensation of pain. A newborn feels pain; this is noticeable by simple observation. Until the very end of pregnancy, however, essentially no evidence exists that a fetus can feel pain. What pro-lifers usually interpret as pain is simply reflex. Before birth, it is not a child or a person with an independent existence. It is a developing mass of tissue that is connected to the woman's vital biological processes. It is part of that woman with no separate social existence. It has the potential to become human, but it is not yet a separate social being that should have separate social rights. Most pro-life supporters have been known to run their own lives after the Bible and its teachings. According to the Bible, life begins