Abortion
Evian Lunceford Gov. Research paper Period 4 4/22/2013 The Fight to Control their Own Bodies
For many years abortion has been a social, and political debate in the U.S. Abortion continues to create controversy between the states, and a number of human rights groups. This controversy has caused each state to develop their own set of laws regarding the issue, and some have also passed abortion bans throughout the years. By leaving such a big decision up to individual states, women’s fundamental freedoms are denied to them. Denying women the right to control their own bodies is not only unconstitutional, but it also violates the ninth, and fourteenth amendment. Rather than continuing to allow state legislators to have the power to make such decisions, abortion should continue to be legalized on a federal level, and nothing less. Abortion has been a source of controversy throughout the history of mankind. Methods of abortion have been recorded in early civilizations dating all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Around the time that the constitution was created, the termination of pregnancy was not only legal in the U.S. but it was openly advertised, and regularly performed. Laws against abortion did not arrive until the mid-1800s. Some of the first abortion laws made in 1820, were created to forbid the procedure after the fourth month of pregnancy. By 1900, doctors and legislators outlawed most abortions in the U.S. Because of these laws, “back alley abortions”, became more frequent, although extremely dangerous. From the 1880s to 1973, the prohibition of legal abortion came under the same Comstock laws that prohibited the circulation of birth Lunceford 1 control information and services. Which were found to be a violation of women’s fundamental freedoms. Rather than the physicians’ usual argument on the medical dangers of abortion, feminists switched the debate to the discussion of a woman’s right to choose
For many years abortion has been a social, and political debate in the U.S. Abortion continues to create controversy between the states, and a number of human rights groups. This controversy has caused each state to develop their own set of laws regarding the issue, and some have also passed abortion bans throughout the years. By leaving such a big decision up to individual states, women’s fundamental freedoms are denied to them. Denying women the right to control their own bodies is not only unconstitutional, but it also violates the ninth, and fourteenth amendment. Rather than continuing to allow state legislators to have the power to make such decisions, abortion should continue to be legalized on a federal level, and nothing less. Abortion has been a source of controversy throughout the history of mankind. Methods of abortion have been recorded in early civilizations dating all the way back to the ancient Egyptians. Around the time that the constitution was created, the termination of pregnancy was not only legal in the U.S. but it was openly advertised, and regularly performed. Laws against abortion did not arrive until the mid-1800s. Some of the first abortion laws made in 1820, were created to forbid the procedure after the fourth month of pregnancy. By 1900, doctors and legislators outlawed most abortions in the U.S. Because of these laws, “back alley abortions”, became more frequent, although extremely dangerous. From the 1880s to 1973, the prohibition of legal abortion came under the same Comstock laws that prohibited the circulation of birth Lunceford 1 control information and services. Which were found to be a violation of women’s fundamental freedoms. Rather than the physicians’ usual argument on the medical dangers of abortion, feminists switched the debate to the discussion of a woman’s right to choose