Self Analysis

After researching abortion over this period of time I have really grown as a thinker. I have learned that all online sources are not credible. The most credible sources are the ones that end in .net, .org, or .edu because they are more reliable. You should also consider the author’s credentials and if the website sources proper documentation. The website should have a scholarly writing style that includes citations, few grammatical and spelling errors, no logical fallacies and appropriate vocabulary. By using credible sources and by looking at both sides of the argument I was able to accumulate information and I re-formulated my own opinion about the issue of abortion. Even though it is not known when the fetus is considered to be alive, after seeing this picture my perspective changed because of how human-like it appears to be. Whenever I heard the word 'abortion' I would automatically just picture a blob of tissue, but after seeing that I have to question myself and wonder if abortions should occur this much. I learned a lot about abortion and never realized before how many long term effects it had with everyone involved. As a result, I am more moderate towards abortion now, whereas before I was pretty far left. I don’t think that mothers should abort simply because they made a mistake and use abortion as birth control. Abortion should not be done solely because the girl is too irresponsible to have a baby since there are other options like adoption and couseling. If they made the decision to have sex than they should be well informed about what can happen if they end up pregnant. I still believe that the mother should do what is best for her and her family but it is imperative that she plans out the pros and cons of the situation. I believe that before going to have an abortion women should be notified of the type of drawbacks that will be experienced. Also, in the case that the child that is supposed to be aborted ended up surviving the mother should know that it could be detrimental to that child later on in life. All information needs to be out in the open and so better choices will be made if people are more educated. My thoughts have not changed about the government not having any involvement with what to do with people’s own bodies. I think that religion and abortion will almost always be connected with one another because people usually turn to faith to help deal with their feelings and to look for guidance. I would like to thank this time now to thank you guys for staying tuned in and for making coments. It has really helped with my understanding of this topic and is greatly appreciated.

Is abortion an unresolvable issue? - Implications

The abortion debate has gone on long enough and needs to come to an end but unfortunately, I feel like the debate will never be fully compromised. Everyone has their own opinion, values and beliefs on life. The only way that the abortion debate could reach a common ground is if everyone thought the same way, which is highly unlikely. Nevertheless, we can try to get both sides closer to each other by finding things that both pro- life and pro-choice groups believe in. For instance, everyone believes that people should take care of and respect their bodies so that you won’t have to be in a situation where you would have to choose to get an abortion. Abortions would probably decrease, especially in teenagers, if birth control and the “morning after” pill were more easily accessible and free, as well as increasing sexual education classes . Also, if woman felt as if they were “equal” to men they will have more confidence in themselves and wouldn’t get pressured into doing things that they don’t want to do. Personally, I believe that abortions will continue to occur. even with people opposed to it, but will decrease over time. If by chance it does get resolved we will be better able to understand the way people think and how people think.

Class Links

There are a few blogs that I think you guys should check out. First off, if you want to learn more about abortion go to KGood’s site. KGood talks about both sides of the abortion issue from a neutral position but he also includes the importance of how the church and government is involved in this debate. The debate of stem cell research is similar to that of abortion because of its binary issue of whether or not stem cells from embryos are considered to be alive or not. Trailrunners is an interesting blog to look at because it offers information about whether or not people should use embryonic stem cells or adult stem cells to further the finding of cures for diseases. It also includes how religion plays a role on the outlook of each side of debate. Along the lines of this, Mike’s blog also discusses stem cell research. His discusses federal funding, cloning and the different viewpoints of the political spectrum.

Extra Information- Links

General Sites regarding abortion
http://www.abortionfacts.com-/ discusses facts , post abortion disorder, gives arguments to pro- choice and pro-life, effects. Everything you need to know and help you decide which side you agree with
http://www.justfacts.com/abortion.asp- talks about sciences, constitution, politics, media, women’s health, consent and population. Quotes different sources and is in bullet format so that it is easily understood
www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/sfaa.html - gives the state facts about abortion. Includes definitions and data sources of abortion, adolescents, contraception, pregnancy and services/finances
www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/abortioninfo.misconce.shtml - Site refutes common misconceptions about abortion. It has links to major media resources, press releases and position statements
www.criticalthink.info/webindex/abortion.htm - It has links to sites with both sides of the issue, facts, abortion laws, tv and important quotes

Pro- Choice Sites:
http://www.naral.org/
http://www.prochoice.com/
http://www.prochoiceresources.org/

Pro-Life Sites:
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/index.html
http://www.prolife.com/
http://www.prolifeaction.org/

Current News about Abortion:
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/news-articles-and-press-room.asp
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/abortion/
http://www.topix.com/news/abortion
http://abortion.capitolannex.com/

Here are some political cartoon sites that you might like: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/A/Abortion.asp
http://www.conservativecartoons.com/cartoon.php?toon=422
http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/bysubject/abortion/byartist.php?id=55

A Theory

There are a couple of different reasons as to why abortion has become such a controversial issue in the world today. The role of religion in your life, the way you were brought up and the values that were instilled in you as a kid, your demographic area and the time period that you were growing up in, all affect a person’s outlook on abortion. If religion played a small part in your life than it is more likely that you and your family are not against abortion but if religion is a major aspect than you might see abortion as murder. Kids normally follow what the parents say and do regarding certain issues in life until they are old enough and are able to come up with their own decision. Until then, if the parents convey a negative attitude towards abortion than I am sure the kids will as well. In addition, if a family lives in a poor country it is more likely to be subject to abortion because they are economically insufficient and won’t be able to take care of the child the way that they want to, while in a country that is flourishing they are better able to support their children. People will have the same attitiude towards abortion if and only if people thought the same way, so people will not always agree with this issue. I will go into more depth about this later on.

The Politics Behind It

Partial abortion births have been performed legally in the United States for years but was banned in about 30 states. Partial birth abortions are supposed to be used in a small amount of cases but it turns out that it is done up to as much as 5000 times a year. Many researchers used the example of "if a new virus swept through neo-natal units and killed even 500 premature babies, that would be a top news story -- not dismissed as an event too "rare" to be of consequence. ” That quote just means that if one event killed 500 people it would receive a lot of publicity but more than 500 partial birth abortions are performed each year and people are considering that to be rare when it's quite the opposite. A little double-standard don't you think? The partial birth abortion ban act of 2003 signed by George Bush was a law that said partial birth abortion couldn’t be used if the child was a “living fetus.” Because of the choice of words that have been used, a couple of loopholes have been created to get around this law, so it wasn’t too effective. This is still an ongoing conflict and this law didn’t really fix much of anything and check this out. If the law is not followed your penalty is up to two years in jail. A worthy punishment? I think not!

An interesting note

A common misconception regarding partial birth abortions is that the anesthesia given to the mother is supposed to painlessly kill the baby, but the babies experience great pain during this procedure. If doctors see this in training for example, which some have, they are surprised that partial birth abortions are still being done, unless it is to save the mother of course. Witnesses notice the child kicking their feet and thrashing their arms. One witness said that once the child was jammed in the head with the scissors the child jerked, jumped and then was “rigid.” While the brains were removed from their skull the child went “completely limp.” Personally, I don’t think that partial abortion births should be performed at all. If the woman is going to have an abortion they should go all the way and completely do the procedure. The baby should not have to experience unnecessary pain. Your thoughts?

Partial birth abortion

A subtopic of abortion is the controvery of partial birth abortions. Partial abortion births are performed to remove the baby from a woman’s cervix easier by reducing the size of the skull. This procedure is done if the fetus is dead, if the mother is in danger or if the baby will have some long term developmental damage. A partial birth abortion is done in either the second or third trimester. The baby is delivered as a breech (feet first). The process is as follows : the legs, arms and torso is delivered, the back of the skull is punctured with scissors, a curette is inserted into the skull, the brain is sunctioned out so that the size of the skull decreases and then the rest of the delivery is completed. This is a dangerous procedure because delivering the baby in a breech position could rupture the uterus and as a result the mother could bleed to death. In addition, if the baby's skull is being punctured than the bone shards could also puncture the uterus. It's not so hot for the baby to experience either. Enough said?!? I will go into more depth about this in my next post.

Men and Abortion?

Abortion is considered to be a “women’s issue” and often neglects the effects that it has on the husband. I’ve looked at how abortion affected the mother, a survived child so now I think it’s time to look at how a husband would feel. It turns out that only one out of every five women is married when they abort. Since the father is often not looked at in this situation there is limited information about the partner. When the abortion occurred it seemed that the men had experienced similar feelings to their wife’s about this incident like confusion, consistent thoughts about the lost child, helplessness, anxiety and regret. In other cases, men experience threats to their masculinity, felt powerless and wanted or needed some type of therapy. To try and reverse these feelings men use certain defense mechanisms like withdrawal and projection as a means of protecting themselves from the emotional and mental pain that they experience. They feel that it is better to ignore their feelings and to be supportive to their woman. In some cases the father has a worse case of depression than the mother. Abortion was sometimes able to ruin the relationship between the husband and wife but most of the time the men became closer to the woman. Usually shared feelings and experiences bring people closer together but a study showed that “Nearly half of women in one study said abortion had “significantly altered their relationship with their partner." What do you think about that?

Abortion Survivors

Many people have expressed their opinion about the effect of the baby being more important than that of the mother. If you choose not to have an abortion I am sure that good things will come out of it . It so happens that if a woman is contemplating abortion it can cause the child to stop the proper in-utero bonding between the parent and child. In addition, these kids have a higher risk of being periodically suicidal than kids that are “wanted” or “planned.” Let’s say, for example, that your sibling was aborted. The “un aborted” child would feel guilty later on in life and wonder why he or she wasn’t the one being aborted. There could also be a distrusting relationship with their parents and parental figures later on in life. Abortion survivors experience a guilt that is similar to that of holocaust survivors mainly because they were selected to live, while the other person or people were left to die. Survivors of abortion are affected if they remember the experience, know that siblings were aborted, or comprehend the social attitude towards them. There are 3 types f survivors 1) haunted child- constantly wonders about the unknown and distrusts the people around him 2) bound child- parents overprotect the child from the harms of the outside world and 3) substitute child- replaced a previous child and has high expectations for them. Survivors feel disassociated and numb from physical, mental and emotional pain as well as experience flashbacks and feelings of guilt and grief. They are more likely to develop self destructive habits, experience fragmentation and detachment. People with Post Abortion Survivor syndrome (PASS) have risk taking behaviors and always think that something bad is always going to happen Whichever way the mother turns there will be consequences and negative effects with every thing you choose.

Analysis

Abortion is a general social issue that has two different arguments of thought and political positions that are constantly in disagreenent with one another. Abortion laws emerged in the 1820s, they were banned by 1965 but in 1973 the roe vs. wade case declared these abortion laws unconstitutional . Modern methods of abortion didn’t appear until the 19th century. Different religions teach different things regarding abortions since their culture is different. One main issue that is argued is whether abortion should be legal or not? The group of people who want abortion to be illegal are the people who are pro-life , meaning that they don’t think abortions should be allowed. This group is mainly made up of conservatives because they want a lot of social government intervention. On the other hand, the people who believe that the woman has the right to choose are called pro-choice. pro-choice groups are mainly liberal. Liberals think that the government should not interfere or have less interference with the social lives of people. The debate over abortion is also centered on whether or not a fetus is a human being. The real question is are fetuses alive? The conservatives or pro- life group thinks that fetuses are alive and believe that the mother is killing the baby; one of their reasons behind believing why abortion is wrong. Because of this, they think that the baby has a right to life since they consider fetuses to be a living, breathing human. Conservatives believe that life starts at the start of contraception . They say that the mother could make other choices instead of performing abortions, like adoption. The goal of the conservatives is to have an amendment added to the constitution giving equal protection under the law to all humans from the time of contraception until death. Of course each side has their own reasons for believing what they do. For instance, people who are against abortion will use religion to back up their reasoning because the bible refers to “David already being cared for by God while in the womb." They also think that woman use abortion as an excuse because they are economically insufficient, immature, or use it as their form of birth control. They think that the woman should suffer the consequences for their actions. On the other hand, liberals or pro- choice say that life begins at birth. In addition their reasoning behind why they can’t make abortion legal is because in our democratic system, people can’t force their religious beliefs on other people. They say that abortions will still occur if abortions were still made illegal so it might as well just be legal. There are certain groups that advocate for certain rights and ideas like Planned Parenthood, clinics and counseling. A positive outcome is that the abortion rate has declined mainly because of better contraceptives, less teen pregnancies and aging of the general population. I personally believe that the woman has the right to choose. They might not be economically ready for a family,be too young to take care of a child or is in some sort of abusive relationship that could affect the child later on in life.

There is no easy way out

Abortion affects the mother in many diferent ways that I dont think the general public looks at. They always just see the mother as someone who "killed her child" or " has no soul" but in actuality the mother suffers a hell of a lot more than people think. Abortions can change the way the mother looks at the world and she can become stressed out easier and even more pessimistic. It can lead to long term emotional changes and the mother could affect not only herself but also everyone around her. In a study of post abortion patients researchers found that 44% complained of nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor. The types of women that are most susceptible to needing psychological treatment are tennagers, seperated women, divorced women and a woman who has had previous abortions. Is the abortion worth the emotional results that the mother could experience after having this procedure done? would it be easier for the mother to just have the baby, try out parenting and if it doesnt work out then give it up for adoption? people try and make things the easiest way that they can so that they can do less work and get more out of it. In this situation there is no easy way. You have to carefully weight out the pros and cons of each side and determine your action from there. Would you feel as if you just have killed your son or daughter or would you feel you have made a better decisin for yourself by aborting so that you can wait until you are ready for that type of responsiibility? If the mother is thinking about abortion they need to think about it quickly but carefully because the earlier the abortion is performed the safer and less attached the mother will be to the fetus. Regardless of this fact, the mother will still experience other side effects like anger, sexual dysfunction, guilt, increase in drug and alchol abuse, flashbacks, avoidance, denial, memory repression, suicidal ideas, and dificulty keeping close relationships. Nevertheless, the mother has to make sure that they will be able to live with the choice that they will make because it WILL affect them later on in life.

Critical Thinking

The World Health Organization had a statistic saying that there were 19 million women that performed unsafe abortions, called back-alley abortions Back alley abortions could ultimately lead to death. Wouldn’t we rather have woman doing this legally so they don’t inflict more damage upon themselves? Grant it that they have certain social pressures that affect them, which shouldn’t be used as an excuse, but the woman has to choose what works for them and how it will affect them in the long run. In some cultures, some families have a preference for a specific sex, some don’t think that the mother will be an acceptable one; some even think that the mother is too immature to have a baby or that it could interfere with her work or education.. In addition, some woman can’t even afford to take care of themselves so how are they going to take care of a baby? There are already many poor people in the world right now and if they can’t be afforded to be taken care of correctly then why add more underprivileged people into it? Say, for instance, that the woman doesn’t even want the baby, why should they have it when they are going to be treated like crap? I know that I wouldn't want to be neglected, lonely, and starved all the time; nobody wants to feel that way. Of course the mother could always put the baby up for adoption but woman like that won’t go through those nine months of agony to have something that they do not want. I don't think these reasons are acceptable to have an abortion but the social problems that are thrown at them makes them feel like that is the only choice for them. Statistics also show that states with legalized abortion had a decreased crime rate because of unwanted children but this fact is discriminatory with regard to race and socioeconomic class. Personally, I believe that abortions could be performed in cases of rape and incest, to save the pregnant mother’s life or physical health, to selectively reduce the number of fetuses to lesson health risks when having multiple pregnancies,and to end a pregnancy that would result in a baby with congenital disorders like heart disease or dysemelia. I only say to end a pregnancy resulting in congenital diseases because it is hard for any family to deal with something like that and also because the kid will be suffering his or her whole life and might not even end up living that long so will it really be worth it to add all of this unnecessary pain when you could stop it before it even starts? Nevertheless, the option of aborting should be open for all women if they need it. Do you think that if the social pressures of women were somehow reduced than there would be a drop in abortion rate?

Something that seemed so simple spawned such a great controversy

There are many social issues out in the world today that hasn’t been solved yet because of conflicting beliefs that people have with how often the government should intervene with our social issues, and religion which divides the public into different political spectrums, specifically into conservatives and liberals. For all of you who don't know what abortion is, it is the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus which results in death. Generally, liberals are associated as being pro-choice which means that the woman has the right to choose but conservatives are normally pro-life meaning that they don’t think abortions should take place. I personally believe that some people in our nation don’t consider the fact that abortion is sometimes necessary in certain situations and that it is the woman’s body so the government has no say with what a person can do with their own body. I am pro-choice because “abortion is a legal decision not a legal debate.” As you can probably tell, the different schools of thought are constantly at each other’s throats regarding the central argument about whether a fetus is considered a human being or not. And you think?