Whose Rights?
Who's Rights?
Abortion, in its most common ways of usage, refers to the voluntary termination of pregnancy, generally through the use of surgical procedures or drugs. As with all public policy issues there are many points of view on this subject. Abortion is a culture
wars issue, and as such "the fissures that [it]...creates are deeper and more difficult to contain within civil and constrained discourse."(Peters 415) Due to the deep moral arguments attached to the issue of abortion, it is very difficult, if not impossible to detach the issue from personal stories and beliefs. Irrefutably the United States of America is not a theocracy, and the separation of church and state is an important ideological pillar to the American way of life. In cases categorized under the idea of the culture wars however, American citizens' personal beliefs and morals are going to affect policy formation and implication. The arguments presented for pro-life are that every child born should be wanted, and every child conceived should be born the opposing argument is that a woman should have the right to decide whether or not to bear a child.
In 1973, the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v Wade made it possible for women to get safe, legal abortions from trained medical surgeons, which then led to large decreases in pregnancy-related injury and death. Since then the argument between the pro-choice advocates and the pro-life advocates has remained strong and heated. Pro-life activists carry a strong argument, and continue to push their beliefs. They feel so strongly about these beliefs that violence has broken out in some known instances. Currently there is a movement to reverse the decision, as is evident by the February 22, 2006 decision of South Dakota to make it illegal for a physician to perform an abortion, except to save the life of the mother (Nieves). This proposal takes away the rights of American women that are guaranteed by our Constitution. The...
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