Abortion - Should the Government Have the Legal Power to Take Away a Woman's Right to Make Decisions Regarding Her Own Body?

Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in America today. Abortion is the ending of pregnancy before birth. There are approximately 1.5 million abortions every year in this country. Abortion was made legal in the 1970s. However, pro-life activists argue that it is murder. Should the government have the legal power to take away a woman's right to make decisions regarding her own body?

An abortion results in the death of an embryo or a fetus. Abortion destroys the lives of helpless, innocent children. In many countries abortion is illegal. By aborting these unborn infants, humans are hurting themselves; they are not allowing themselves to meet these new identities and unique personalities. Abortion is very simply wrong. Everyone is raised knowing the difference between right and wrong. Murder is wrong, so why is not abortion? People argue that it is not murder if the child is unborn. Abortion is murder since the fetus being destroyed is living, growing and moving. Why is it that if an infant is destroyed months before the birth, there is no problem, but if killed a month after birth, this is inhumane murder?

Everyday, innocent, harmless fetuses that could soon be laughing children are being cruelly destroyed. One form of abortion is to cut the fetus into pieces with serrated forceps before being removed, piece-by-piece from the uterus by suction with a vacuum aspirator. Another form consists of bringing the fetus feet first into the birth canal, puncturing its skull with a sharp instrument and sucking out the brain tissue. The remains of the fetus or embryo, as the case may be, are put into plastic buckets and then sent to a dumpster where these precious bones and limbs are disposed. However, how and when an abortion takes place are of little significance to pro- abortionists and other defenders of abortion. Even former abortion practitioners have a new view on abortion. These changes of heart were caused by psychological, religious and scientific reasons. One doctor, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, performed 60,000 abortions and supervised 10,000. Scientific evidence and the use of an ultrasound convinced him he was promoting and participating what he now calls “the most atrocious holocaust in the history of the United States.” Other doctors refuse to perform legal abortions, saying they should save lives rather than destroy them.

Abortion becomes particularly immoral when the bond between mother and child is broken and is being used as an alternative birth control. When humans cannot control their careless sexual drives it leads them to pregnancy. If humans are responsible enough to be sexually active, they should also be responsible to accept consequences, and if those consequences include becoming pregnant and creating a life like no other, then that life should have the chance to live. Whether born or unborn, there should be a bond or relationship between a mother and child.

The Vatican teaches that all humans have a right to life, from the moment of conception until the natural moment of death. According to the Catholic church, a person is living when as young as an embryo, which refers to an organism at its early stage of development, through the fetus stage, which is from the end of the eighth week until birth and when considered a baby, until the last second of life before death. It is selfish to abort an unborn child. This child could have been meant to create world peace, make the invention of the century, find a cure for AIDS or other deadly diseases or maybe have children of his or her own.

There is no excuse for having an abortion. Pro-choice followers advocate abortion if the child is an outcome of rape, a painful reminder, may be born defected,