Abortion: “To Be or Not To Be?”
“To be or not to be?” That is the question that has expectant mothers everywhere in a dilemna. Not to be is the answer that women all over the world have decided for over thirty million unborn babies each year. Here in San Antonio over one thousand abortions take place each month equalling thirty per day or more than one per hour.(Walker, 2) Abortion not only takes millions of lives, it also has long term serious physical and pyschological effects on the women who have had one. I believe abortion is murder and that it must be stopped.
Many people, in fact the majority of Americans today, would disagree with my stand. They define abortion as the removal of the products of conception or the termination of a pregnancy. In their minds abortion does not take a life, and in fact it is socially good. For example, it allows would be teenage mothers to go on with their lives, education, career and etc.. It also reduces the amount of people on welfare thus reducing our tax dollar. The one argument for abortion that won over in the U.S. Supreme Court was that of the right to privacy.
Such trivial reasons as privacy, social welfare and economic good cannot possibly or logically take preeminance over the most basic constitutional right to life. Pro abortionists, however, state that the removal of the products of conception is not taking one’s life. This is unreasonable and contradictory, for the very word conception is defined as “the beginning, as of a process” (Guralnik, 129). Therefore, conception is the beginning of life. The definition of murder is the act of taking a person’s life. The moment of conception is the beginning of an individual’s life and the act of abortion is the ending of that life. Consequently, abortion is murder. There is a life taken.
According to pre natal examinations by doctors A. Liley, J. Diamond, A. Hellegers, P.E. Rockwell and others the facts they found speak for themselves. The heart begins to beat between the 18th and 21st day, and by the 25th it is operating through a closed circulatory system (Willke, 2). The brain is completely present by eight weeks while brain waves are recorded as early as forty days (2). The structure of the human body is completely formed at ten weeks and at twelve weeks all organ systems are present and functioning.
At this point the baby breathes, swallows, digests, urinates, sleeps, wakes, tastes, hears, feels pain, and can even be taught things (2). The only difference between this hidden entity and the newborn is it’s position in or out of the womb.
The method of abortion is repulsive. The pregnant woman is given a shot for the pain and then taken to the room where the procedure then takes place. After removing her clothes she is then positioned lying down with her legs upward and seperated by stirrups. After the shot takes it’s course the doctor then opens the vagina and places a vacuum in the woman. The baby is then sucked out of the uterus through the vacuum hose (Tisdale, 66). It is a bloody and a degrading experience.
Not only is the act criminal and the method gruesome, abortion also has long term physical effects on the woman’s body. Abortion has become the number one medical procedure in the world and claims great success. However, because of mass abortions adequate medical follow up is not possible and the claimed success is based solely upon immediate physical prognosis (Walton, 1). The absolute ultimate risk of abortion is death. Profuse hemorrhaging caused by uterus perforation results in approximately thirty deaths out of 100,000 legal abortons (Willke, 90). According to Obstetrist and Gynecoligical institutes around the world, there are also other abortion related disorders: increase in premature births by after first abortion 14%, after second 18%, after third 24%; irreversible sterility increase of 10 20%; increase of blood disorders of future babies; increase of .5 3.9 total percent of tubal pregnancies; increase of fifty percent in miscarriages; and an increase of fetal death by fifty percent (91 93). Abortion is anunnatural act that has devastating physical effects.
In addition to the already listed dismal facts about abortion, there are also serious pyschological effects. Fifty nine percent of women who have had an abortion end up with pyschological disorders (50). The ten most prominent are guilt, anxiety, depression, sense of loss, anger, change in relationship with husband or boyfriend, excessive crying, feelings of misguidance, deterioration of self image, and regret (Watts, 131). A survey by Suiciders Anonymous in Cincinnati revealed that out of four thousand attempted suicide females, over eighteen hundred had had an abortion (Uchtman, 1981). This doesn’t mean that an abortion will absolutely result in suicide, but it does show the intensity of the negative mental pressure caused by having one.
My previous anger toward abortion has now turned into anguish. I am distressed over the moral state of my country. Millions upon millions of children have been denied the right to live. Their right to try, to experience, to see, to believe, to learn, to make a change, to trust, to love and to be loved have all been taken away through a vacuum of emptiness and lack of natural affection. The women have also lost, physically and mentally. We as a people have lost.
In conclusion, I believe the presented material proves that abortion is not only immoral but also criminal and heartless. Without reservation, abortion is murder. Even the Lord God of the Holy Bible recognized the unborn child as a living human being worthy of his attention; “..before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee…” (Jeremiah, 695). Nothing is more precious than life. The Bible also tells us that even if a man gains the whole world and loses his own life he has profited nothing (Matthew, 893). “For what shall a man give in exchange for his life?” (893). No right should ever surpass the importance of the right to life. Furthermore, the vacuum procedure is nauseating and has serious long term effects physically and mentally. Something must be done. No more precious lives should be taken or ruined by this modern day holocaust. Abortion must be stopped!
WORKS CITED
Guralnik, David. Webster’s New World Dictionary. New York: Warner, 1983.
Jeremiah. Jeremiah, The Holy Bible. KJV 1611. New York: Harpers
Matthew. Matthew, The Holy Bible. KJV 1611. New York: Harpers
Tisdale, Sallie. “We do Abortions here; a Nurse’s Story.” Harpers 275 (October 1987):66
Uchtman, Meta. Testimony. September 1, 1981, Cincinnati City Council. *
Walker, Tom. “Abortions in San Antonio.” S.A. The Magazine of San Antonio (August, 1978):2 *
Walton, L. “Immediate Morbidity on a Large Abortion Service.” N.Y. State Journal of Medicine (April, 1972):1 *
Watts, W.F. Psychological Aspects of Abortion. University Publications of America, 1979 *
Willke, J.C. Handbook on Aborion. Hayes Publishing Co.,1979 *
Willke, J.C. The U.S. Supreme Court Has Ruled It’s Legal To Kill A Baby. Cincinnati: Hayes, 1976 (p.2) *
COLLEGE RESEARCH PAPER by Dahra Kincaid, 1988 **