Abortion
is one of today’s most controversial topics.
Some people say the women has a choice because it is her body, others
say the child is alive, meaning it has human rights. No matter what you stance on the abortion
debate, it is important to know the history of it in our country.[1]
Long ago in the early 1800’s abortion was legal in America,
in fact it was not until the mid-1800’s that there were laws against
abortion. At the time of the writing of
the constitution abortion was very openly advertised, and many people practiced
it. Abortion had been practiced many,
many years before the discovery of America, so from the time of the early
settlers abortion was practiced.[2]
There are many reasons why abortion was starting to be
made illegal in the States, one was people were worried the children of the immigrants
would dominate the population. The
reason for this fear was that the birthrates of those incoming women were much
higher, than the Anglo-Saxon women that were already living there. The earliest known law against abortion was in
Connecticut in 1821, and by 1860 twenty states had laws limiting abortion.[3]
In the 1800’s any surgical procedure, not just abortion
was risky, but with abortion becoming illegal many of the “doctors” carrying
out the procedures were not qualified at all.
This resulted in many women being injured, possibly even killed, because
they thought they needed an abortion.[4]
From the 1880’s- 1973 is known as the prohibition on
abortion, meaning that the number of “back alley abortions” were on the
rise. In the years before Roe v. Wade it
is said that illegal abortions were as high as 1.2 million per year. This is proof that making abortion illegal
did not reduce the amount of abortions being had during this time period.
In 1973 a critical decision was made in favor of abortion
in the Roe v. Wade case. The Supreme
Court decided that a woman could get an abortion from a well-trained doctor. Jane Roe, a 21 year old pregnant woman, took
Henry Wade a Texas Attorney General to court over a law that said abortion was
illegal unless the woman’s life was on the line. The court heard her case and the decision for
legal abortion was made.[5] Side note, today Jane Roe is pro-life, and
100% against abortion.[6]
Today, the country is divided on the topic, some states
are for abortion some are against. I
personally think the abortion is wrong the child is alive, and well in the
womb. And the best proof for this is the
laws when you kill a pregnant woman in some states it counts as two cases of
murder. If the baby is not alive, why
count it as two counts of murder? In the
end abortion will always be a topic of controversy, and we are far from solving
it.
-Nathan Brown
[1] National Abortion Federation, "The
History of Abortion." Last modified 2010. Accessed March 31, 2014. https://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/history_abortion.html.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid
[5]
ibid
[6] Steven, Ertelt. Lifenews.com, "Woman
Behind Roe v. Wade: “I’m Dedicating My Life to Overturning It." Last
modified Jan. 22, 2013. Accessed March 31, 2014.
http://www.lifenews.com/2013/01/22/woman-behind-roe-v-wade-im-dedicating-my-life-to-overturning-it/.
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