The Abortion Debate

Abortion’s being legal or illegal has been a huge debate over the years. One of those people affected by abortions is teenagers. “Every year more than a million American girls under the age 20 become pregnant” (Clark). What does the future look like for those who have had an abortion and for those who had went through with their pregnancy? A question that has been studied and experimented on for years. Many teenagers fear having a baby, ruining their chances at having a good education and a good future. Others go through with the pregnancy, eventually finding themselves struggling to care for and provide for the baby, while also trying to still maintain their high school education. Clark states, “… those who had had abortions were far more

Abortions have been around for many years whether or not they have been legal or not. “The irony is that we live in a time when medical advanced are profoundly changing what it means to live with disabilities”(Baver p. 70). Although it is sad to say, many women get an abortion because their baby isn’t a perfect baby. Baver states, “The abortion debate is not just about a women’s right to choose whether to have a baby; it’s also about a women’s right to choose which baby she wants to have”(pg. 71-72). Women have been using abortions to terminate children with physical or mental disabilities. They don’t want to be given the responsibility of taking care of their child, just because they need extra attention. This was the opposite for Patricia E. Bauer and her daughter Margaret. Patricia constantly struggles to understand why people feel like it is okay to abort children with disabilities, in which she tries to change the mind of those who agree to that statement. When Patricia attended a dinner party she states, “I was seated next to the director of an Ivy League ethics program… he said he believes that prospective parents have a moral obligation to undergo prenatal testing and to terminate their pregnancy to avoid bringing forth a child with a disability; because it was immoral to subject a child to the kind of suffering

The abortion debate has always surrounded itself by these questions, what are the pros and cons of having an abortion? To start off abortion can be a good action or a bad action for the mother, but it is always a bad action taken upon the child, in which, the child had done nothing wrong; Con. Lowen states, “ [There are] 1.5 million American families wanting to adopt a child, there is no such thing as an unwanted child.” Lowen is stating that although some mothers are trying to get rid of their babies, there are women that aren’t even able to have the opportunity to get pregnant. Also stating that women should have ever reason not to want their baby, but when it comes to that child’s life, they should be given the opportunity to live life, with a family that wants them. Women should think twice about what they’re doing when it comes to taking away someone’s life and what their future contains of. Another Con of having an abortion is that the abortion doesn’t only hurt the mother; it hurts the most important victim, the child. Lowen states, “Abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime; instead, it is the perpetrator who should be punished.” Lowen is explaining that the baby shouldn’t be punished for actions that the mother participated in. The mother should have been more aware of what was going to happen. But instead of taking up her responsibly, she decided to be negligent,