Abortion has been a back and forth debate for centuries and wasn’t made legal in the United States until 1973. An abortion, also known as the termination of pregnancy, is the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus. This is a medical or surgical procedure that is performed by a licensed health care professional. There are two ways an abortion can be performed and it can be done either medically or surgically.
A medical abortion involves terminating a pregnancy with pharmaceutical drugs known as the “abortion pill”. The two medications typically used are Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and Misoprostol (Cytotec) (American Pregnancy Association, 2017). This combination is sometimes referred to as not only the “abortion pill”, but “RU-486” (American Pregnancy Association, 2017). Medical abortions typically take place in the first trimester between seven to nine weeks of pregnancy. The first medication administered is the Mifepristone, which contains an agent that blocks the hormone progesterone, resulting in the breakdown of the lining in the uterus and preventing a pregnancy from occurring or progressing (Devettere, 2016).
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If you ask someone that is pro-life when life begins they will tell you that is starts at conception. If this is the case and life does in fact begin at conception than abortion is considered the murder of an unborn child. In 2004 around 29 states had passed “The Unborn Victims of Violence Act” which recognized an unborn child as a victim if their mother was attacked and injured or killed both of them (National Right to Life, 2004). This would mean the attacker would be charged with murdering not only the woman, but also her unborn child. Individuals against abortion now argue that this law should also pertain to terminating pregnancies, for is classifies the unborn child as a human life and the law is supposed to protect them from intentional harm and