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Karla Ponzio

RWS 1302
Riley Welcker (Teach)
05/06/2015
Unwanted Pregnancies: What is the Correct Choice?
Many people in society are opposed to abortion publicly, yet there are still
about 1.21 million abortions performed yearly only in the United States. The
conversation about abortion in society has never been a very pleasing one to
women that are going through unintended pregnancies, or to any of us for that
case. Society, religions, and even the governments have always imposed in our
heads that abortion is the worst decision any woman can make. As Rebecca Traister
states in her blog called Let's Just Say It: Women Matter More Than Fetuses Do,
Most people, no matter their politics, have absorbed some aspect of the right-wing
narrative that abortions are uniformly harrowing and traumatic, when for many
women they are brief events that leave no lasting mark. She is stating that, not all
experiences with abortion are unpleasing ones, but society has made everyone
believe that it is a terrible decision to make, and that it shouldnt even be a
consideration in a womans life. So when did society start favoring fetal life over
female life? In this essay I will be presenting both sides on the topic of abortion and
explaining why in some cases I believe that the rights, the obligations, the
decisions, and the health of any woman should outweigh the rights of the unborn
and not the contrary. This essay might sound insensitive or unkind, and might even
offend many anti-abortionists, and I can understand why. I consider myself a pretty
conservative girl that was raised in a catholic home and even though I have some

conservative views about many things in the way I live life, I believe that women
should be able to make the choice of having an abortion without being judged. In
the end it is her body and her life it will be affecting and not that of the people
judging her.
There are many views out there about abortion, the conservative view, which
is what the Catholic Church teaches. Which as Vaughn states in the book called
Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues having an abortion is is
never, or almost never, morally permissible only when the mothers life is at stake.
Their argument is that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception, since
the fetus is already a person it already should be believed to have human rights and
abortion is killing, killing a human is wrong, therefore abortion is wrong (L.Vaughn,
2008, p.169). This is a very interesting argument, but who gets to decide when an
organism is an actual human being? If it doesnt show any signs of personhood at
this stage, then why do we consider it a human being and give it the same or more
rights than the mother who is keeping the fetus alive? I believe it is a decision that
should privilege the mother and not the fetus living off of the mother. I only support
abortion before these 8 weeks that I have spoken about. After these 8 weeks the
fetus is able to feel harm and starts developing the brain and many other vital
organs. Making this topic even more controversial.
Another view toward this topic is the moderate view, which are usually
viewed as liberals as well. They believe that abortion is justifiable in some cases,
but not in all like liberals do. This is my position in the argument. I believe that
abortion should be kept legal, and free of judgement, but only when the embryo is 8
weeks old. This position is further explained by Vaughn, as being more liberal than
conservative.

What we need to do as a society to be able to progress in this topic, is that


women that have had a good experience when going through abortion need to
speak up. This way society will start believing that abortion is an option, for many
women before the embryo is 8 weeks old. Many women should start taking
decisions on what they believe is best for their lives and their health instead of
letting society impose ideas in their heads. I believe that now a days we get
influenced too much by what other people say, and dont get to know ourselves
enough to take these types of decisions by ourselves. If more women speak up
about their positive experiences, maybe other women taking the decision wont feel
as judged, and take the best option for their situation.

Refrences
Fieser, J. (2015, January 1). ABORTION: From Moral Issues that Divide Us and
Applied Ethics:

A Sourcebook. Retrieved from the University of Tennessee Martin

website: http://

www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/160/5-abortion.htm

Guttmacher Institute. (2003, March). Lessons from Before Roe: Will Past be
Prologue? (vol.6).

DC: Rachel Benson Gold

Traister, R. (2014, November 11). Let's Just Say It: Woman Matter More Than Fetuses
Do.

Retrieved from http://www.newrepublic.com/

Vaughn, L. (2008). Abortion. In P. J. Simon (Ed.), Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and
Contemporary Issues (pp. 163-228). New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company,
Inc.References

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