123PHILOSOPHY – Dr. Carlo Alvaro



Women’s Rights Arguments Against AbortionWhile it is typical of feminists to speak in favor of women’s rights to abortion, there are also feminists who are against abortion.Abortion Does Not Free WomenSome argue that abortion does not liberate women, but allows society penalize women even more.They say that what women need for equality is not free access to abortion but to?be given what they need to survive?financially and socially as mothers:Inexpensive, readily available childcareA workplace or school that acknowledges the needs of mothers,e.g. providing flexible scheduling and maternity leave,State support that helps to reintegrate a woman into the workforceThey say that if women couldn't have abortions so easily, governments would have to invest more money in supporting mothers.Abortion Sidesteps Oppression Of WomenOthers oppose abortion because it provides a way of sidestepping other real issues that should be addressed. Megan Clancy put it like this:There are women who are raped and become pregnant; the problem is that they were raped, not that they are pregnant. There are women who are starving who become pregnant; the problem is that they are starving, not that they are pregnant.There are women in abusive relationships who become pregnant; the problem is that they are in abusive relationships, not that they are pregnant.Abortion Damages WomenSome people oppose abortion because it can damage the long-term physical and emotional health of women who have an abortion.Abortion Violates Feminist PrinciplesSome feminists oppose all forms of violence, including abortion, because they are inconsistent with the core feminist principles of justice, non-violence and non-discrimination.They believe in a woman’s right to control her body, and she deserves this right no matter where she lives, even if she's still living inside her mother’s womb.Abortion Is A Male PlotYet another group object to abortion because they see it as a male plot. (In fact many of this group don't object to abortion; they want people to be aware that men often support abortion for a thoroughly bad reason.)They argue that men see the risk of pregnancy as something that stops men having sex when they want it. If men are to achieve full sexual freedom (i.e. the freedom to have sex without responsibility) it is essential that abortion be freely available to backup contraception.So abortion on demand is vital if men are to be able to have women on demand, and thus men are arguing for abortion so that they can continue to exploit women.This was one of the reasons that 19th century feminists opposed abortion: they regarded it as a way for men to have sex with women without having to take responsibility for any resulting children by getting the women to risk their lives in what were then dangerous operations in order to prevent the child being born.Abortion Is MurderThe killing of an innocent human being is wrong, even if that human being has yet to be born. Unborn babies are considered human beings by the US government. The federal Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was enacted “to protect unborn children from assault and murder,” states that under federal law, anybody intentionally killing or attempting to kill an unborn child should “be punished... for intentionally killing or attempting to kill a human being.” The act also states that an unborn child is a “member of the species homo sapiens.” At least 38 states have passed similar fetal homicide laws. Life Begins At ConceptionUnborn babies are human beings with a right to life. Upon fertilization, a human individual is created with a unique genetic identity that remains unchanged throughout his or her life. This individual has a fundamental right to life, which must be protected. Jerome Lejeune, the French geneticist who discovered the chromosome abnormality that causes Down syndrome, stated that “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion... The human nature of the human being from conception to old age is not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence.” Fetuses Feel Pain During The Abortion ProcedureMaureen Condic, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, explains that the “most primitive response to pain, the spinal reflex,” is developed by eight weeks gestation, and adds “There is universal agreement that pain is detected by the fetus in the first trimester.” According to Kanwaljeet J. S. Anand, MBBS, DPhil, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology and Neurobiology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, “If the fetus is beyond 20 weeks of gestation, I would assume that there will be pain caused to the fetus. And I believe it will be severe and excruciating pain.” Bernard N. Nathanson, MD, the late abortion doctor who renounced his earlier work and became a pro-life activist, stated that when an abortion is performed on a 12-week-old fetus, “We see [in an ultrasound image] the child's mouth open in a silent scream... This is the silent scream of a child threatened imminently with extinction.”Abortion Is The Killing Of A Human Being, Which Defies The Word Of GodThe Bible does not draw a distinction between fetuses and babies: the Greek word brephos is used in the Bible to refer to both an unborn child and an infant. By the time a baby is conceived, he or she is recognized by God, as demonstrated in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.” The Sixth Commandment of the Bible’s Old Testament, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), applies to all human beings, including unborn babies. In the Hindu religion, the holy text Kaushitaki Upanishad states that abortion is an equivalent misdeed to killing one's own parents. The BBC states, “Traditional Buddhism rejects abortion because it involves the deliberate destroying of a life.” The Decision In Roe V. Wade Was Wrong And Should Be OverturnedUS Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia stated that the right to privacy defended in Roe v. Wade is “utterly idiotic” and should not be considered binding precedent: “There is no right to privacy [in the US Constitution].” In his dissenting opinion in Roe v. Wade, Justice William H. Rehnquist stated that an abortion “is not ‘private’ in the ordinary usage of that word. Nor is the ‘privacy’ that the Court finds here even a distant relative of the freedom from searches and seizures protected by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution...” Furthermore, the 14th Amendment bars states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The Supreme Court overreached in Roe v. Wade when it excluded unborn children from the class of “persons.” Abortions Cause Psychological DamageA peer-reviewed study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health found that “Young adult women who undergo... abortion may be at increased risk for subsequent depression.” A peer-reviewed study published in BMC Medicine found that women who underwent an abortion had “significantly higher” anxiety scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale up to five years after the pregnancy termination. A peer-reviewed study published by the Southern Medical Journal of more than 173,000 American women found that women who aborted were 154% more likely to commit suicide than women who carried to term. A study published in the British Medical Journal reported that the mean annual suicide rate amongst women who had an abortion was 34.7 per 100,000, compared with a mean rate of 11.3 per 100,000 in the general population of women. A Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology study of men whose partners had abortions found that 51.6% of the men reported regret, 45.2% felt sadness, and 25.8% experienced depression. Abortions Reduce The Number Of Adoptable BabiesInstead of having the option to abort, women should give their unwanted babies to people who cannot conceive. The percentage of infants given up for adoption in the United States declined from 9% of those born before 1973 to 0.5% of those born in 2014. As a result of the lack of women putting their children up for adoption, the number of US infant adoptions dropped from about 90,000 in 1971 to 18,329 in 2014. [46] [203] Around 2.6 million Americans are seeking to adopt children. Selective Abortion Based On Genetic Abnormalities (Eugenic Termination) Is Overt DiscriminationPhysical limitations don’t make those with disabilities less than human. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 provides civil rights protection to people born with disabilities so they can lead fulfilling lives. The National Down Syndrome Society states that “people with Down syndrome live at home with their families and are active participants in the educational, vocational, social, and recreational activities of the community. People with Down syndrome are valued members of their families and their communities, contributing to society in a variety of ways.” The increase in abortions of babies with Down syndrome (over 80% of women choose to abort Down syndrome babies) reduced the Down syndrome population by 15% between 1989 and 2005.Women Should Not Be Able To Use Abortion As A Form Of ContraceptionIt is immoral to kill an unborn child for convenience. The Guttmacher Institute reported that 45% of all women having abortions every year have had at least one previous abortion, while 8.6% of abortions reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2014 were undergone by women who had three or more previous abortions. This suggests that many women are using abortion as a contraceptive method. Freakonomics co-author Steven Levitt, PhD, wrote that after abortion was legalized, “Conceptions rose by nearly 30 percent, but births actually fell by 6 percent, indicating that many women were using abortion as a method of birth control, a crude and drastic sort of insurance policy.”If Women Become Pregnant, They Should Accept The Responsibility That Comes With Producing A ChildPeople need to take responsibility for their actions and accept the consequences. Having sexual intercourse, even when contraceptive methods are used, carries with it the risk of a pregnancy. The unborn baby should not be punished for a mistake made by adults. If women are unprepared to care for their children, they should at least put them up for adoption. The original text of the Hippocratic Oath, traditionally taken by doctors when swearing to practice medicine ethically, forbids abortionOne section of the classical version of the oath reads: “I will not give a woman a pessary [a device inserted into the vagina] to cause an abortion.” The modern version of the Hippocratic Oath, written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, still effectively forbids doctors from performing abortions in the line, “Above all, I must not play at God.”Abortion Promotes A Culture In Which Human Life Is DisposableThe legalization of abortion sends a message that human life has little value. Pope Francis condemned “the throwaway culture” in Jan. 2014, stating “what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary’. For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day.” House Representative Randy Hultgren wrote in Jan. 2014 “When we tell one another that abortion is okay, we reinforce the idea that human lives are disposable, that we can throw away anything or anyone that inconveniences us.” Allowing Abortion Conflicts With The Unalienable Right To Life Recognized By The Founding Fathers Of The United States The Declaration of Independence states, “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Abortion takes away from the unborn the unalienable right to life that the Founding Fathers intended for all human beings. Abortion Disproportionately Affects African American BabiesIn the United States, black women are 3.3 times as likely as white women to have an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In New York City in 2015, more black babies were aborted (23,720) than had live births (23,116). Abortion Eliminates The Potential Societal Contributions Of A Future Human BeingAccording to Heisman Trophy-winning football player Tim Tebow, “the reason I’m here” is because his mother ignored the advice of doctors who recommended an abortion. It has also been reported that the mothers of entertainers Celine Dion, Cher, and Justin Bieber were either advised to have abortions or were considering the procedure, but chose to give birth to their babies instead. Abortion May Lead To Future Medical Problems For The MotherA study published by the peer-reviewed International Journal of Epidemiology estimated that about 15% of first-trimester miscarriages are attributed to a prior history of induced abortion, and stated, “Induced abortion by vacuum aspiration is associated with an increased risk of first-trimester miscarriage in the subsequent pregnancy.” A Chinese study published in the peer-reviewed Indian Journal of Cancer found an association between breast cancer and a history of abortions. A study published in the peer-reviewed Cancer Causes and Control found that abortion “is significantly associated with an increased risk of breast cancer” and that “the risk of breast cancer increases as the number of [abortions] increases.” ................
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