The Visit

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate January 2002

download word file, 8 pages 0.0

Abortion Many debates have risen in American politics and society over time; however, none are as complex or as passionate as the debate over abortion. The most controversial questions asked in this debate include when life begins to the social question of the quality of an unwanted child's life; from the legal question of whether some, or all, abortions should be outlawed to the ethical question of whether a rape victim may be required to bear her attacker's child (Greer). Religion as well as a person's own morals and personal views are used to answer these questions. With different views and different answers to these questions, a common ground will be extremely hard to find, if one is ever found. The end result is a highly charged and extremely contentious debate. Along the years, abortion has been misused and abused so much that it seems to everyone a horrible act; however, sometimes it is necessary.

Quite a few facts of abortion are not taken into consideration during this debate. Knowing these facts and understanding them would answer many key questions of abortion. Even when abortion was made illegal altogether in many areas, the law did not treat abortion as murder. In Texas, "murder" was defined as killing a person who was already born and the statute governing abortion called for a much less serious penalty (Gearan). Without knowing the facts of abortion, one would make an ignorant choice to one side or the other of this debate.

The number of abortions in the United States has rapidly increased from 586,780 legal abortion sin 1995 to 35 million legal abortions in 1998, since Roe v. Wade. Such a drastic change in numbers is quite interesting. Out of US women's pregnancies, 24 percent end in abortion. Out of United States teenagers' pregnancies,