Why Abortion Should Be Legal Essay

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Total Length: 1949 words ( 6 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

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Abstract

Abortion is one of the most controversial topics around the globe, and a hot topic for debate in both the political and personal arenas.  In this argumentative essay, the author will present the case for why abortion should be legal.  The essay will address compelling reasons for keeping abortion legal.  These reasons include the fact that criminalizing abortion does not prevent abortions, the role of abortions in health care, the right to personal autonomy, and the fact that there is no rational basis for differentiating between right to abortions based on how conception occurred.  In addition, the essay will respond to the most common arguments in favor of criminalizing abortion, which focus on the idea of abortion being immoral. 

Abortion Should be Legal Essay Titles

1.  My Body, My Choice: The Critical Role of Personal Autonomy in the Abortion Rights Debate

2.  It’s Not a Baby: Society Already Recognizes a Difference Between Miscarriages and Stillbirths, So Why Do Anti-Choice Activists Insist Aborted Fetuses Are Babies?

3.  The Illusory Biblical Case Against Abortion: Understanding the Context of Jeremiah 1:5

4.  Babies Should Not Be Punishment: Why “Do the Crime, Do the Time” Approaches to Abortion Rights are Harmful to Women and Children

5.  Safe, Accessible, and Rare: Why Access to Abortion Is Only Part of the Goal for Reproductive Health Activists



Abortion Should be Legal Essay Topics

1.  How current medical advances regarding fetal viability change the basic structure for abortion rights outlined in Roe v. Wade? 

2.  How social approaches to unintentional early pregnancy loss through miscarriage reflects a broader social ideal that these deaths do not represent the death of a child, and why those social constructs undermine the entire anti-abortion debate.

3.  Understanding the Bible’s actual stance on abortion, the specific context of Jeremiah 1:5, and the historical role of abortion in Judeo-Christian societies.

4.  The history of anti-abortion legislation in the Western world.

5.  The logical fallacies and potential dangers of creating rape and incest exceptions for abortion access contrasted with the cruelty of not allowing rape or incest victims to access abortions.

Abortion Should be Legal Outline

I. Introduction

A. Define abortion

B. Criminalizing abortion does not prevent abortions

C. Abortions are essential healthcare

D. Personal autonomy

E. The false difference in rape and incest exceptions

F. Exploring arguments against abortion

G. Thesis statement:  Abortion is a human right and failure to provide safe and affordable access to abortion not only fails to accomplish the goals of protecting life, but actually increases the danger to living people.

II. Criminalizing abortions does not prevent abortions

A.  People still access criminal abortions

B.  Unsafe abortions is a leading cause of maternal injury and death

III. Abortions are essential healthcare

A.  Abortions are lower-risk than carrying a full-term pregnancy

B.  Abortions may be required to save a woman’s life or health

C.  Abortions can protect a woman’s mental health

IV. Personal Autonomy

A.  In no other context does society demand someone sacrifice their body for another

B.  Access to medical care should be protected by privacy

C.  Most decision-makers about abortion access have been male and therefore never at risk of being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.

V.  Rape and Incest Exceptions

A. Cruelty of expecting rape or incest victims to carry their assailant’s child

B. No difference between a child conceived that way or through the mother’s own choices

C. Highlights the misogyny of the anti-choice position by suggesting that a baby is a punishment for bad actions.

VI. Arguments against Abortion

A.  Adoption

B.  Religion

VI. Conclusion

A.  Restate thesis

B.  Arguments against abortion

C.  Rape and incest exceptions

D.  Personal autonomy

E.  Essential healthcare

F.  Criminalization is ineffective 

Main Title: Abortion Should Be Legal, Even If Some People Think It Is Immoral

Hook Sentence: Not even self-labeling pro-life people think a…

[…… parts of this paper are missing, click here to view the entire document ]

…if abortion is about protecting the life of the unborn, the method of conception should not matter.

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  Instead, this exception highlights the underlying misogyny of anti-choice people; they view pregnancy as a punishment for sex and have a “do the crime, do the time,” mentality towards childbirth that is as fundamentally anti-child as it is anti-woman.

In fact, the two most commonly used arguments against legal abortion are easily defeated.  The first argument is the adoption argument and the idea that all aborted babies would easily find loving adoptive homes if only their mothers carried them to term.  In reality, the supply of loving adoptive homes is dwarfed by the number of unwanted pregnancies each year.  In addition, adoption does not change the fact that even healthy pregnancies can have lifelong effects on a woman’s body.  The religious issue is often summed up in Jeremiah 1:5, which provides “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.”  However, this biblical verse is taken completely out of context when used to argue against abortion.  God was specifically addressing the prophet and differentiating him from others in this statement; he later says that he set the prophet aside from others.  It was a specific statement about a specific man, not a global statement about all embryos and fetuses.

Conclusion

No one wants to have an abortion. There is no rational person out there who wants to find herself in the position of carrying an unwanted pregnancy or in the position of being forced to consider terminating a wanted pregnancy because of risks to her life or health.  However, these conditions exist, and, as long as they do, abortion access is a critical human right.  The arguments against abortion simply do not stand up to scrutiny.  There are not enough adoptive homes to handle all unwanted children.  The religious arguments are not supported by textual and historical evidence from any of the major religions.  Moreover, the recognition that abortion exceptions should be made for rape and….....

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