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Persuasive Essay About Abortion

How To Write A Persuasive Essay On Abortion

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How To Write a Persuasive Essay About Abortion?

Abortion is a controversial topic, with people having differing points of view and opinions on the matter. There are those who oppose abortion, while some people endorse pro-choice arguments.

It is also an emotionally charged subject, so you need to be extra careful when crafting your persuasive essay.

Before you start writing your persuasive essay, you need to understand the following steps.

Step 1: Choose Your Position

The first step to writing a persuasive essay on abortion is to decide your position. Do you support the practice or are you against it? You need to make sure that you have a clear opinion before you begin writing.

Once you have decided, research and find evidence that supports your position. This will help strengthen your argument.

Check out the video below to get more insights into this topic:

Step 2: Choose Your Audience

The next step is to decide who your audience will be. Will you write for pro-life or pro-choice individuals? Or both?

Knowing who you are writing for will guide your writing and help you include the most relevant facts and information. Additionally, understanding your audience will help you craft a focused thesis statement that clearly addresses their concerns and perspectives.

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Step 3: Make an Outline & Define Argument

Now that you have chosen your position and identified your audience, it’s time to craft your argument. Start by clearly defining your stance on the issue and outlining the reasons behind your belief. Use evidence to support each of your claims, such as facts, statistics, or expert opinions.

To organize your thoughts, create a persuasive essay outline that maps out the structure of your essay.

For instance, your persuasive essay on abortion outline might include:

Introduction: Present the topic and state your thesis.
Body Paragraph 1: Explain your first supporting argument and provide evidence.
Body Paragraph 2: Discuss your second supporting argument with additional evidence.
Body Paragraph 3: Address opposing arguments and provide counterarguments to refute them.
Conclusion: Summarize your main points and restate why your position is valid.

By outlining your essay, you ensure that your argument is logical and well-structured, making your essay more balanced and convincing.

Step 4: Format Your Essay

Once you have the argument ready, it is time to craft your persuasive essay. Follow a standard format for the essay , with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Make sure that each paragraph is organized and flows smoothly. Use clear and concise language, getting straight to the point.

Step 5: Proofread and Edit

The last step in writing your persuasive essay is to make sure that you proofread and edit it carefully. Look for spelling, grammar, punctuation, or factual errors and correct them. This will help make your essay more professional and convincing.

These are the steps you need to follow when writing a persuasive essay on abortion. It is a good idea to read some examples before you start so you can know how they should be written.

Continue reading to find helpful examples.

Persuasive Essay About Abortion Examples

To help you get started, here are some example persuasive essays on abortion that may be useful for your own paper.

Abortion laws are a contentious issue, and persuasive arguments often revolve around the balance between individual rights and moral considerations. Advocates for more permissive abortion laws argue that these laws are essential for safeguarding women’s health and personal autonomy. Access to safe and legal abortion services allows individuals to make critical decisions about their own bodies and futures. Restrictive laws can lead to unsafe, unregulated procedures, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities and exacerbating health disparities.

Moreover, persuasive arguments against overly restrictive abortion laws emphasize that personal circumstances vary widely. Women facing unplanned pregnancies may encounter complex situations, including health risks or severe financial hardship. In such cases, the ability to choose abortion can be crucial for their well-being and that of their families.

Opponents of restrictive laws often argue that decisions about abortion should be made by individuals in consultation with their healthcare providers, rather than by lawmakers who may not fully understand the personal or medical intricacies involved.

In conclusion, persuasive arguments for more flexible abortion laws highlight the importance of personal choice and access to safe medical procedures, advocating for a legal framework that respects individual rights and promotes public health.

Here is another short persuasive essay about abortion:

Abortion remains one of the most polarizing issues in contemporary discourse, and a persuasive argument against it often centers on the moral and ethical considerations surrounding the sanctity of life. Opponents of abortion argue that life begins at conception and that every embryo or fetus has an inherent right to life. This perspective asserts that terminating a pregnancy is a profound moral wrong, akin to ending a human life.

From a moral standpoint, many believe that the potential for human life deserves protection regardless of the circumstances surrounding conception. They argue that adoption presents a viable alternative for those who cannot or choose not to raise a child, ensuring that the unborn have the opportunity to live and contribute to society.

Additionally, some argue that the availability of abortion can lead to a devaluation of human life in general. They contend that societies should focus on strengthening support systems for pregnant individuals, such as improved access to prenatal care and financial assistance, rather than offering abortion as an option.

In conclusion, the argument against abortion emphasizes the ethical obligation to protect potential life and advocate for alternatives that respect both the unborn and the needs of individuals facing unplanned pregnancies.

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You can also read m ore persuasive essay examples to imp rove your persuasive skills.

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Abortion

An argumentative essay is a type of essay that presents both sides of an argument. These essays rely heavily on logic and evidence.

Here are some examples of short argumentative essays with an introduction, body, and conclusion that you can use as a reference in writing your own argumentative essay.

The debate over whether abortion should be made illegal is a deeply divisive issue, marked by moral, ethical, and legal considerations. On one hand, proponents of making abortion illegal argue that it is a moral and ethical wrong, asserting that the fetus has a right to life from conception. They contend that every potential life should be protected, and that alternatives such as adoption provide viable options for those facing unwanted pregnancies.

Conversely, those opposed to making abortion illegal argue that such a move would infringe on personal autonomy and reproductive rights. They believe that individuals should have the freedom to make decisions about their own bodies, including whether to continue or terminate a pregnancy. Making abortion illegal could lead to unsafe, unregulated procedures, disproportionately affecting low-income women and those without access to safe medical care. Historical evidence suggests that criminalizing abortion does not eliminate it but drives it underground, where it becomes much riskier.

Ultimately, the debate centers on balancing ethical considerations with personal rights. While the protection of potential life is important, ensuring safe, legal access to abortion respects individual autonomy and public health.

Let’s take a look at another short example:

Legalizing abortion remains one of the most contentious issues in modern society, with passionate arguments on both sides. Advocates for legalizing abortion assert that it is a fundamental right for individuals to have control over their own bodies. They argue that access to safe and legal abortion services is essential for protecting women’s health and autonomy. By legalizing abortion, individuals can make informed decisions based on their personal circumstances, including financial stability, health risks, and life goals.

Additionally, legalizing abortion helps prevent unsafe, illegal procedures that can lead to severe health complications or even death. Historical data indicates that restrictive abortion laws do not eliminate abortions but drive them underground, where they become significantly more dangerous.

On the other hand, opponents of legalization often argue that abortion ends a potential life and is therefore morally wrong. They advocate for alternatives such as adoption and assert that society has a responsibility to protect the unborn.

However, the ethical and moral arguments must be balanced with practical considerations. Legalizing abortion ensures that individuals can access safe, regulated medical care and make personal decisions without facing undue risks. It respects the autonomy of individuals while also considering their health and well-being, making it a crucial component of a just and equitable society.

Here are some PDF examples that you can download and read for free!

Abortion Persuasive Essay Introduction

Argumentative Essay About Abortion Conclusion

Argumentative Essay About Abortion Pdf

Argumentative Essay About Abortion in the Philippines

Argumentative Essay About Abortion - Introduction

Persuasive Topics about Abortion

If you are looking for some topics to write your persuasive essay on abortion, here are some examples:

Should abortion be legal in the United States?
Is it ethical to perform abortions, considering its pros and cons?
What should be done to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies that lead to abortions?
Is there a connection between abortion and psychological trauma?
What are the ethical implications of abortion on demand?
How has the debate over abortion changed over time?
Should there be legal restrictions on late-term abortions?
Does gender play a role in how people view abortion rights?
Is it possible to reduce poverty and unwanted pregnancies through better sex education?
How is the anti-abortion point of view affected by religious beliefs and values?

These are just some of the potential topics that you can use for your persuasive essay on abortion. Think carefully about the topic you want to write about and make sure it is something that interests you.

Check out m ore persuasive essay topics that will help you explore other things that you can write about!

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Facts About Abortion You Need to Know

Here are some facts about abortion that will help you formulate better arguments.

According to the Guttmacher Institute , 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion.
The majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester.
Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures, with less than a 0.5% risk of major complications.
In the United States, 14 states have laws that restrict or ban abortion of most forms after 20 weeks gestation.
Seven out of 198 nations allow elective abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
In places where abortion is highly illegal, more women die during childbirth and due to complications resulting from pregnancy.
A majority of pregnant women who opt for abortions do so for financial and social reasons.
According to estimates, 56 million abortions occur annually.

In conclusion, these are some of the examples, steps, and topics that you can use to write a persuasive essay. Make sure to do your research thoroughly and back up your arguments with evidence. This will make your essay more professional and convincing.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to start a persuasive essay about abortion.

To start a persuasive essay about abortion, begin with a compelling introduction that grabs the reader's attention and clearly presents the topic. Provide some background information on the issue and state your thesis statement, which should outline your position on the matter. Ensure your introduction sets up the argument you will be making throughout the essay.

What is a good argument for abortion?

A good argument for abortion could be that it is a woman’s choice to choose whether or not to have an abortion. It is also important to consider the potential risks of carrying a pregnancy to term.

What is a good hook for an essay about abortion?

A good hook for an essay might involve a thought-provoking question, a startling statistic, or a powerful quote. For example:

"Did you know that nearly one in four women will have an abortion by age 45? This staggering statistic highlights the urgency of the abortion debate."
"‘The right to choose is fundamental,’ argues many pro-choice advocates. But how does this stand against the moral objections of pro-life supporters?"

What is a persuasive speech about legalizing abortion?

A persuasive speech about legalizing abortion argues for the importance of granting individuals the right to make autonomous decisions regarding their reproductive health. It emphasizes that legalizing abortion ensures safe, regulated medical procedures, protects women's health, and supports personal autonomy. The speech often highlights the risks associated with illegal abortions, the need for access to healthcare, and the ethical consideration of allowing individuals to choose based on their unique circumstances.

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Abortion Argumentative Essay: Definitive Guide

Academic writing

Abortion remains a debatable issue even today, especially in countries like the USA, where a controversial ban was upheld in 13 states at the point this article was written. That’s why an essay on abortion has become one of the most popular tasks in schools, colleges, and universities. When writing this kind of essay, students learn to express their opinion, find and draw arguments and examples, and conduct research.

It’s very easy to speculate on topics like this. However, this makes it harder to find credible and peer-reviewed information on the topic that isn’t merely someone’s opinion. If you were assigned this kind of academic task, do not lose heart. In this article, we will provide you with all the tips and tricks for writing about abortion.

Where to begin?

Conversations about abortion are always emotional. Complex stories, difficult decisions, bitter moments, and terrible diagnoses make this topic hard to cover. Some young people may be shocked by this assignment, while others would be happy to express their opinion on the matter.

One way or another, this topic doesn't leave anyone indifferent. However, it shouldn’t have an effect on the way you approach the research and writing process. What should you remember when working on an argumentative essay about abortion?

Don’t let your emotions take over. As this is an academic paper, you have to stay impartial and operate with facts. The topic is indeed sore and burning, causing thousands of scandals on the Internet, but you are writing it for school, not a Quora thread.
Try to balance your opinions. There are always two sides to one story, even if the story is so fragile. You need to present an issue from different angles. This is what your tutors seek to teach you.
Be tolerant and mind your language. It is very important not to hurt anybody with the choice of words in your essay. So make sure you avoid any possible rough words. It is important to respect people with polar opinions, especially when it comes to academic writing.
Use facts, not claims. Your essay cannot be based solely on your personal ideas – your conclusions should be derived from facts. Roe v. Wade case, WHO or Mayo Clinic information, and CDC are some of the sources you can rely on.

Speaking of Outline

An argumentative essay on abortion outline is a must-have even for experienced writers. In general, each essay, irrespective of its kind or topic, has a strict outline. It may be brief or extended, but the major parts are always the same:

Introduction. This is a relatively short paragraph that starts with a hook and presents the background information on the topic. It should end with a thesis statement telling your reader what your main goal or idea is.
Body. This section usually consists of 2-4 paragraphs. Each one has its own structure: main argument + facts to support it + small conclusion and transition into the next paragraph.
Conclusion. In this part, your task is to summarize all your thoughts and come to a general conclusive idea. You may have to restate some info from the body and your thesis statement and add a couple of conclusive statements without introducing new facts.

Why is it important to create an outline?

You will structure your ideas. We bet you’ve got lots on your mind. Writing them down and seeing how one can flow logically into the other will help you create a consistent paper. Naturally, you will have to abandon some of the ideas if they don’t fit the overall narrative you’re building.
You can get some inspiration. While creating your outline, which usually consists of some brief ideas, you can come up with many more to research. Some will add to your current ones or replace them with better options.
You will find the most suitable sources. Argumentative essay writing requires you to use solid facts and trustworthy arguments built on them. When the topic is as controversial as abortion, these arguments should be taken from up-to-date, reliable sources. With an outline, you will see if you have enough to back up your ideas.
You will write your text as professionals do. Most expert writers start with outlines to write the text faster and make it generally better. As you will have your ideas structured, the general flow of thoughts will be clear. And, of course, it will influence your overall grade positively.

Abortion Essay Introduction

The introduction is perhaps the most important part of the whole essay. In this relatively small part, you will have to present the issue under consideration and state your opinion on it. Here is a typical introduction outline:

The first sentence is a hook grabbing readers' attention.
A few sentences that go after elaborate on the hook. They give your readers some background and explain your research.
The last sentence is a thesis statement showing the key idea you are building your text around.

Before writing an abortion essay intro, first thing first, you will need to define your position. If you are in favor of this procedure, what exactly made you think so? If you are an opponent of abortion, determine how to argue your position. In both cases, you may research the point of view in medicine, history, ethics, and other fields.

When writing an introduction, remember:

Never repeat your title. First of all, it looks too obvious; secondly, it may be boring for your reader right from the start. Your first sentence should be a well-crafted hook. The topic of abortion worries many people, so it’s your chance to catch your audience’s attention with some facts or shocking figures.
Do not make it too long. Your task here is to engage your audience and let them know what they are about to learn. The rest of the information will be disclosed in the main part. Nobody likes long introductions, so keep it short but informative.
Pay due attention to the thesis statement. This is the central sentence of your introduction. A thesis statement in your abortion intro paragraph should show that you have a well-supported position and are ready to argue it. Therefore, it has to be strong and convey your idea as clearly as possible. We advise you to make several options for the thesis statement and choose the strongest one.

Hooks for an Abortion Essay

Writing a hook is a good way to catch the attention of your audience, as this is usually the first sentence in an essay. How to start an essay about abortion? You can begin with some shocking fact, question, statistics, or even a quote. However, always make sure that this piece is taken from a trusted resource.

Here are some examples of hooks you can use in your paper:

As of July 1, 2022, 13 states banned abortion, depriving millions of women of control of their bodies.
According to WHO, 125,000 abortions take place every day worldwide.
Is abortion a woman’s right or a crime?
Since 1994, more than 40 countries have liberalized their abortion laws.
Around 48% of all abortions are unsafe, and 8% of them lead to women’s death.
The right to an abortion is one of the reproductive and basic rights of a woman.
Abortion is as old as the world itself – women have resorted to this method since ancient times.
Only 60% of women in the world live in countries where pregnancy termination is allowed.

Body Paragraphs: Pros and Cons of Abortion

The body is the biggest part of your paper. Here, you have a chance to make your voice concerning the abortion issue heard. Not sure where to start? Facts about abortion pros and cons should give you a basic understanding of which direction to move in.

First things first, let’s review some brief tips for you on how to write the best essay body if you have already made up your mind.

Make a draft

It’s always a good idea to have a rough draft of your writing. Follow the outline and don’t bother with the word choice, grammar, or sentence structure much at first. You can polish it all later, as the initial draft will not likely be your final. You may see some omissions in your arguments, lack of factual basis, or repetitiveness that can be eliminated in the next versions.

Trust only reliable sources

This part of an essay includes loads of factual information, and you should be very careful with it. Otherwise, your paper may look unprofessional and cost you precious points. Never rely on sources like Wikipedia or tabloids – they lack veracity and preciseness.

Edit rigorously

It’s best to do it the next day after you finish writing so that you can spot even the smallest mistakes. Remember, this is the most important part of your paper, so it has to be flawless. You can also use editing tools like Grammarly.

Determine your weak points

Since you are writing an argumentative essay, your ideas should be backed up by strong facts so that you sound convincing. Sometimes it happens that one argument looks weaker than the other. Your task is to find it and strengthen it with more or better facts.

Add an opposing view

Sometimes, it’s not enough to present only one side of the discussion. Showing one of the common views from the opposing side might actually help you strengthen your main idea. Besides, making an attempt at refuting it with alternative facts can show your teacher or professor that you’ve researched and analyzed all viewpoints, not just the one you stand by.

If you have chosen a side but are struggling to find the arguments for or against it, we have complied abortion pro and cons list for you. You can use both sets if you are writing an abortion summary essay covering all the stances.

Why Should Abortion Be Legal

If you stick to the opinion that abortion is just a medical procedure, which should be a basic health care need for each woman, you will definitely want to write the pros of abortion essay. Here is some important information and a list of pros about abortion for you to use:

Since the fetus is a set of cells – not an individual, it’s up to a pregnant woman to make a decision concerning her body. Only she can decide whether she wants to keep the pregnancy or have an abortion. The abortion ban is a violation of a woman’s right to have control over her own body.
The fact that women and girls do not have access to effective contraception and safe abortion services has serious consequences for their own health and the health of their families.
The criminalization of abortion usually leads to an increase in the number of clandestine abortions. Many years ago, fetuses were disposed of with improvised means, which included knitting needles and half-straightened metal hangers. 13% of women’s deaths are the result of unsafe abortions.
Many women live in a difficult financial situation and cannot support their children financially. Having access to safe abortion takes this burden off their shoulders. This will also not decrease their quality of life as the birth and childcare would.
In countries where abortion is prohibited, there is a phenomenon of abortion tourism to other countries where it can be done without obstacles. Giving access to this procedure can make the lives of women much easier.
Women should not put their lives or health in danger because of the laws that were adopted by other people.
Girls and women who do not have proper sex education may not understand pregnancy as a concept or determine that they are pregnant early on. Instead of educating them and giving them a choice, an abortion ban forces them to become mothers and expects them to be fit parents despite not knowing much about reproduction.
There are women who have genetic disorders or severe mental health issues that will affect their children if they're born. Giving them an option to terminate ensures that there won't be a child with a low quality of life and that the woman will not have to suffer through pregnancy, birth, and raising a child with her condition.
Being pro-choice is about the freedom to make decisions about your body so that women who are for termination can do it safely, and those who are against it can choose not to do it. It is an inclusive option that caters to everyone.
Women and girls who were raped or abused by their partner, caregiver, or stranger and chose to terminate the pregnancy can now be imprisoned for longer than their abusers. This implies that the system values the life of a fetus with no or primitive brain function over the life of a living woman.
People who lived in times when artificial termination of pregnancy was scarcely available remember clandestine abortions and how traumatic they were, not only for the physical but also for the mental health of women. Indeed, traditionally, in many countries, large families were a norm. However, the times have changed, and supervised abortion is a safe and accessible procedure these days. A ban on abortion will simply push humanity away from the achievements of the civilized world.

Types of abortion

There are 2 main types of abortions that can be performed at different pregnancy stages and for different reasons:

Medical abortion. It is performed by taking a specially prescribed pill. It does not require any special manipulations and can even be done at home (however, after a doctor’s visit and under supervision). It is considered very safe and is usually done during the very first weeks of pregnancy.
Surgical abortion. This is a medical operation that is done with the help of a suction tube. It then removes the fetus and any related material. Anesthesia is used for this procedure, and therefore, it can only be done in a hospital. The maximum time allowed for surgical abortion is determined in each country specifically.

Cases when abortion is needed

Center for Reproductive Rights singles out the following situations when abortion is required:

When there is a risk to the life or physical/mental health of a pregnant woman.
When a pregnant woman has social or economic reasons for it.
Upon the woman's request.
If a pregnant woman is mentally or cognitively disabled.
In case of rape and/or incest.
If there were congenital anomalies detected in the fetus.

Countries and their abortion laws

Countries where abortion is legalized in any case: Australia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.
Countries where abortion is completely prohibited: Angola, Venezuela, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Paraguay, Palau, Jamaica, Laos, Haiti, Honduras, Andorra, Aruba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, Senegal, etc.
Countries where abortion is allowed for medical reasons: Afghanistan, Israel, Argentina, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, Bahamas, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Algeria, Monaco, Pakistan, Poland, etc.
Countries where abortion is allowed for both medical and socioeconomic reasons: England, India, Spain, Luxembourg, Japan, Finland, Taiwan, Zambia, Iceland, Fiji, Cyprus, Barbados, Belize, etc.

Why Abortion Should Be Banned

Essays against abortions are popular in educational institutions since we all know that many people – many minds. So if you don’t want to support this procedure in your essay, here are some facts that may help you to argument why abortion is wrong:

Abortion at an early age is especially dangerous because a young woman with an unstable hormonal system may no longer be able to have children throughout her life. Termination of pregnancy disrupts the hormonal development of the body.
Health complications caused by abortion can occur many years after the procedure. Even if a woman feels fine in the short run, the situation may change in the future.
Abortion clearly has a negative effect on reproductive function. Artificial dilation of the cervix during an abortion leads to weak uterus tonus, which can cause a miscarriage during the next pregnancy.
Evidence shows that surgical termination of pregnancy significantly increases the risk of breast cancer.
In December 1996, the session of the Council of Europe on bioethics concluded that a fetus is considered a human being on the 14th day after conception.

You are free to use each of these arguments for essays against abortions. Remember that each claim should not be supported by emotions but by facts, figures, and so on.

Health complications after abortion

One way or another, abortion is extremely stressful for a woman’s body. Apart from that, it can even lead to various health problems in the future. You can also cover them in your cons of an abortion essay:

Continuation of pregnancy. If the dose of the drug is calculated by the doctor in the wrong way, the pregnancy will progress.
Uterine bleeding, which requires immediate surgical intervention.
Severe nausea or even vomiting occurs as a result of a sharp change in the hormonal background.
Severe stomach pain. Medical abortion causes miscarriage and, as a result, strong contractions of the uterus.
High blood pressure and allergic reactions to medicines.
Depression or other mental problems after a difficult procedure.

Abortion Essay Conclusion

After you have finished working on the previous sections of your paper, you will have to end it with a strong conclusion. The last impression is no less important than the first one. Here is how you can make it perfect in your conclusion paragraph on abortion:

It should be concise. The conclusion cannot be as long as your essay body and should not add anything that cannot be derived from the main section. Reiterate the key ideas, combine some of them, and end the paragraph with something for the readers to think about.
It cannot repeat already stated information. Restate your thesis statement in completely other words and summarize your main points. Do not repeat anything word for word – rephrase and shorten the information instead.
It should include a call to action or a cliffhanger. Writing experts believe that a rhetorical question works really great for an argumentative essay. Another good strategy is to leave your readers with some curious ideas to ponder upon.

Abortion Facts for Essay

Abortion is a topic that concerns most modern women. Thousands of books, research papers, and articles on abortion are written across the world. Even though pregnancy termination has become much safer and less stigmatized with time, it still worries millions. What can you cover in your paper so that it can really stand out among others? You may want to add some shocking abortion statistics and facts:

40-50 million abortions are done in the world every year (approximately 125,000 per day).
According to UN statistics, women have 25 million unsafe abortions each year. Most of them (97%) are performed in the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 14% of them are especially unsafe because they are done by people without any medical knowledge.
Since 2017, the United States has shown the highest abortion rate in the last 30 years.
The biggest number of abortion procedures happen in the countries where they are officially banned. The lowest rate is demonstrated in the countries with high income and free access to contraception.
Women in low-income regions are three times more susceptible to unplanned pregnancies than those in developed countries.
In Argentina, more than 38,000 women face dreadful health consequences after unsafe abortions.
The highest teen abortion rates in the world are seen in 3 countries: England, Wales, and Sweden.
Only 31% of teenagers decide to terminate their pregnancy. However, the rate of early pregnancies is getting lower each year.
Approximately 13 million children are born to mothers under the age of 20 each year.
5% of women of reproductive age live in countries where abortions are prohibited.

We hope that this abortion information was useful for you, and you can use some of these facts for your own argumentative essay. If you find some additional facts, make sure that they are not manipulative and are taken from official medical resources.

Abortion Essay Topics

Do you feel like you are lost in the abundance of information? Don’t know what topic to choose among the thousands available online? Check our short list of the best abortion argumentative essay topics:

Why should abortion be legalized essay
Abortion: a murder or a basic human right?
Why we should all support abortion rights
Is the abortion ban in the US a good initiative?
The moral aspect of teen abortions
Can the abortion ban solve birth control problems?
Should all countries allow abortion?
What consequences can abortion have in the long run?
Is denying abortion sexist?
Why is abortion a human right?
Are there any ethical implications of abortion?
Do you consider abortion a crime?
Should women face charges for terminating a pregnancy?

Want to come up with your own? Here is how to create good titles for abortion essays:

Write down the first associations. It can be something that swirls around in your head and comes to the surface when you think about the topic. These won’t necessarily be well-written headlines, but each word or phrase can be the first link in the chain of ideas that leads you to the best option.
Irony and puns are not always a good idea. Especially when it comes to such difficult topics as abortion. Therefore, in your efforts to be original, remain sensitive to the issue you want to discuss.
Never make a quote as your headline. First, a wordy quote makes the headline long. Secondly, readers do not understand whose words are given in the headline. Therefore, it may confuse them right from the start. If you have found a great quote, you can use it as your hook, but don’t forget to mention its author.
Try to briefly summarize what is said in the essay. What is the focus of your paper? If the essence of your argumentative essay can be reduced to one sentence, it can be used as a title, paraphrased, or shortened.
Write your title after you have finished your text. Before you just start writing, you might not yet have a catchy phrase in mind to use as a title. Don’t let it keep you from working on your essay – it might come along as you write.

Abortion Essay Example

We know that it is always easier to learn from a good example. For this reason, our writing experts have complied a detailed abortion essay outline for you. For your convenience, we have created two options with different opinions.

Topic: Why should abortion be legal?

Introduction – hook + thesis statement + short background information

Essay hook: More than 59% of women in the world do not have access to safe abortions, which leads to dreading health consequences or even death.

Thesis statement: Since banning abortions does not decrease their rates but only makes them unsafe, it is not logical to ban abortions.

Body – each paragraph should be devoted to one argument

Argument 1: Woman’s body – women’s rules. + example: basic human rights.

Argument 2: Banning abortion will only lead to more women’s death. + example: cases of Polish women.

Argument 3: Only women should decide on abortion. + example: many abortion laws are made by male politicians who lack knowledge and first-hand experience in pregnancies.

Conclusion – restated thesis statement + generalized conclusive statements + cliffhanger

Restated thesis: The abortion ban makes pregnancy terminations unsafe without decreasing the number of abortions, making it dangerous for women.

Cliffhanger: After all, who are we to decide a woman’s fate?

Topic: Why should abortion be banned?

Essay hook: Each year, over 40 million new babies are never born because their mothers decide to have an abortion.

Thesis statement: Abortions on request should be banned because we cannot decide for the baby whether it should live or die.

Argument 1: A fetus is considered a person almost as soon as it is conceived. Killing it should be regarded as murder. + example: Abortion bans in countries such as Poland, Egypt, etc.

Argument 2: Interrupting a baby’s life is morally wrong. + example: The Bible, the session of the Council of Europe on bioethics decision in 1996, etc.

Argument 3: Abortion may put the reproductive health of a woman at risk. + example: negative consequences of abortion.

Restated thesis: Women should not be allowed to have abortions without serious reason because a baby’s life is as priceless as their own.

Cliffhanger: Why is killing an adult considered a crime while killing an unborn baby is not?

Argumentative essay on pros and cons of abortion

Examples of Essays on Abortion

There are many great abortion essays examples on the Web. You can easily find an argumentative essay on abortion in pdf and save it as an example. Many students and scholars upload their pieces to specialized websites so that others can read them and continue the discussion in their own texts.

In a free argumentative essay on abortion, you can look at the structure of the paper, choice of the arguments, depth of research, and so on. Reading scientific papers on abortion or essays of famous activists is also a good idea. Here are the works of famous authors discussing abortion.

A Defense of Abortion by Judith Jarvis Thomson

Published in 1971, this essay by an American philosopher considers the moral permissibility of abortion. It is considered the most debated and famous essay on this topic, and it’s definitely worth reading no matter what your stance is.

Abortion and Infanticide by Michael Tooley

It was written in 1972 by an American philosopher known for his work in the field of metaphysics. In this essay, the author considers whether fetuses and infants have the same rights. Even though this work is quite complex, it presents some really interesting ideas on the matter.

Some Biological Insights into Abortion by Garret Hardin

This article by American ecologist Garret Hardin, who had focused on the issue of overpopulation during his scholarly activities, presents some insights into abortion from a scientific point of view. He also touches on non-biological issues, such as moral and economic. This essay will be of great interest to those who support the pro-choice stance.

H4 Hidden in Plain View: An Overview of Abortion in Rural Illinois and Around the Globe by Heather McIlvaine-Newsad

In this study, McIlvaine-Newsad has researched the phenomenon of abortion since prehistoric times. She also finds an obvious link between the rate of abortions and the specifics of each individual country. Overall, this scientific work published in 2014 is extremely interesting and useful for those who want to base their essay on factual information.

H4 Reproduction, Politics, and John Irving’s The Cider House Rules: Women’s Rights or “Fetal Rights”? by Helena Wahlström

In her article of 2013, Wahlström considers John Irving’s novel The Cider House Rules published in 1985 and is regarded as a revolutionary work for that time, as it acknowledges abortion mostly as a political problem. This article will be a great option for those who want to investigate the roots of the abortion debate.

FAQs On Abortion Argumentative Essay

Is abortion immoral?

This question is impossible to answer correctly because each person independently determines their own moral framework. One group of people will say that abortion is a woman’s right because only she has power over her body and can make decisions about it. Another group will argue that the embryo is also a person and has the right to birth and life.

In general, the attitude towards abortion is determined based on the political and religious views of each person. Religious people generally believe that abortion is immoral because it is murder, while secular people see it as a normal medical procedure. For example, in the US, the ban on abortion was introduced in red states where the vast majority have conservative views, while blue liberal states do not support this law. Overall, it’s up to a person to decide whether they consider abortion immoral based on their own values and beliefs.

Is abortion legal?

The answer to this question depends on the country in which you live. There are countries in which pregnancy termination is a common medical procedure and is performed at the woman's request. There are also states in which there must be a serious reason for abortion: medical, social, or economic. Finally, there are nations in which abortion is prohibited and criminalized. For example, in Jamaica, a woman can get life imprisonment for abortion, while in Kenya, a medical worker who volunteers to perform an abortion can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

Is abortion safe?

In general, modern medicine has reached such a level that abortion has become a common (albeit difficult from various points of view) medical procedure. There are several types of abortion, as well as many medical devices and means that ensure the maximum safety of the pregnancy termination. Like all other medical procedures, abortion can have various consequences and complications.

Abortions – whether safe or not - exist in all countries of the world. The thing is that more than half of them are dangerous because women have them in unsuitable conditions and without professional help. Only universal access to abortion in all parts of the world can make it absolutely safe. In such a case, it will be performed only after a thorough assessment and under the control of a medical professional who can mitigate the potential risks.

How safe is abortion?

If we do not talk about the ethical side of the issue related to abortion, it still has some risks. In fact, any medical procedure has them to a greater or lesser extent.

The effectiveness of the safe method in a medical setting is 80-99%. An illegal abortion (for example, the one without special indications after 12 weeks) can lead to a patient’s death, and the person who performed it will be criminally liable in this case.

Doctors do not have universal advice for all pregnant women on whether it is worth making this decision or not. However, many of them still tend to believe that any contraception - even one that may have negative side effects - is better than abortion. That’s why spreading awareness on means of contraception and free access to it is vital.

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Persuasive Essay Writing

Persuasive Essay About Abortion

Learn How to Craft a Compelling Persuasive Essay About Abortion With Examples!

Published on: Jan 12, 2023

Last updated on: Jul 23, 2024

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Abortion?

Writing a persuasive abortion essay can be tricky. After all, abortion is an emotionally charged topic, and it can be hard to write objectively.

But with careful planning and research, you can write an effective persuasive essay on abortion.

Here are five steps to get you started.

Step 1: Research Both Sides of the Issue

Before writing your essay, you should familiarize yourself with both sides.

Read up on both pro-choice and pro-life arguments so that you have a comprehensive understanding of the debate.

This will help ensure that your argument is well-informed and balanced.

Step 2: Choose a Stance and Develop Your Thesis Statement.

Once you've researched, decide which side of the debate you want. Construct a thesis statement that reflects this stance.

This statement should be clear, concise, and specific enough to guide your essay.

Step 3: Support Your Argument With Evidence & Sources.

Now it's time to back up your thesis statement with evidence from credible sources such as scholarly articles or government reports.

As much as possible, use facts rather than opinions when citing evidence to make your argument more convincing.

Be sure to cite any sources used properly in either MLA or APA format, so readers can easily find them. Check out this video explaining the importance of supporting your persuasive essays with evidence.

Step 4: Keep a Formal and Persuasive Tone Throughout Your Essay.

When writing about such a sensitive subject, it's important to maintain a formal tone throughout your essay.

Avoid emotional language or personal anecdotes, as these can be biased or unprofessional.

Instead, focus on presenting logical arguments backed up by reliable evidence.

This helps to create an argument that is compelling yet unbiased in presenting both sides of the issue.

Step 5: Make Sure You've Addressed Counterarguments & Objections.

Before submitting your essay for grading or publication, take some time to reflect on potential counterarguments.

Address these issues directly, if necessary, to strengthen your argument's validity and persuasiveness further.

Read our extensive guide on crafting a persuasive essay , so that you know all ins and outs of crafting a perfect persuasive essay.

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Outline of a Persuasive Essay on Abortion

Here is a detailed outline of a persuasive essay about abortion. Follow this to make sure your essays stand out.

A. Definition of Abortion

B. Thesis statement

A. Pro-choice Argument

1. Right to privacy and autonomy over body

2. The outcomes of banning abortion are worse than allowing it

3. Women will seek unsafe abortions if banned

B. Pro-life Argument

1. Abortion is the taking of innocent life

2. Abortion devalues human life

3. Unborn babies are entitled to protection under the law

A. Summary of arguments and positions

B. Final stance on issue backed with evidence and logic

C. Call to action

D. Impactful closing statement

Read our extensive blog on how to create a persuasive essay outline here!

Persuasive Essay About Abortion Examples

Having different examples and points of view on an abortion essay is a great way to learn about this controversial issue.

Here are a few examples of persuasive essays about abortion that you can look at for more information.

Short Persuasive Essay About Abortion

Persuasive Essay About No To Abortion

What Is Abortion? - Essay Example

Persuasive Speech on Abortion

Legal Abortion Persuasive Essay

Persuasive Essay About Abortion in the Philippines

Check out some more persuasive essay examples to learn more!

Example of Argumentative Essay About Abortion

Reading samples of argumentative abortion essays can provide insight into different perspectives.

Argumentative essays seek to challenge existing beliefs as well as propose new ones.

Here are a few examples of argumentative essays about abortion that you can look at for more information:

Abortion Persuasive Essay Introduction

Argumentative Essay About Abortion Conclusion

Argumentative Essay About Abortion Pdf

Argumentative Essay About Abortion in the Philippines

Abortion Persuasive Essay Topics

Here is a list of few topics that can inspire you for your next essay. Take a look at them.

Should abortion remain legal?
Are there any circumstances where abortion should be illegal?
Is there a moral obligation to have an abortion in certain situations?
Why is the debate on abortion so contentious?
What are the psychological effects of abortion?
How can society better support pregnant women who do not wish to have a baby?
Should there be stricter regulations around access to abortion services?
What are the long-term effects of abortion on a woman's reproductive health?
Could pro-choice and pro-life advocates come together to compromise on abortion policies?
Does a woman's right to choose trump the potential life of a fetus?
What are some of the possible medical complications related to abortion?
Can men have an opinion on abortion that is just as valid as a woman's?
Are there any alternatives to abortion that can be used in cases where the baby cannot survive?
How has the legality of abortion affected women's rights over the years?
What is the best way to reduce abortions without denying a woman her right to choose?

Check out our comprehensive list of persuasive essay topics . You might find the inspiration to write your next persuasive essay!

A Few Interesting Facts About Abortion

Abortion is a highly controversial topic, and many different viewpoints exist.

Some people believe that abortion is morally wrong, while others believe that it is a woman's right to choose what happens to her body.

There are many facts about abortion that both sides of the debate can agree on, however. Here are some key points

1. Globally, an estimated 56 million abortions are performed each year.

2. In the US, about 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion.

3. Most women who have abortions (78%) are unmarried, and 25% are younger than 20.

4. About half of all abortions performed in the US are done in the first eight weeks of pregnancy.

5. There is a direct correlation between the legal availability of abortion and decreased infant mortality rates.

6. In countries where abortion is illegal, women are more likely to die during childbirth due to a lack of access to safe, medical abortions.

7. Most women (75%) who have abortions do so because they cannot afford to care for a child.

8. The most common reasons why a woman would choose to have an abortion are financial, relationship issues, and feeling unprepared for the responsibility of parenting.

9. Most abortions in the US occur in clinics or doctor's offices rather than hospitals.

10. Abortion is one of the safest medical procedures available, with a low rate of complications (less than 0.3%).

In the end, a persuasive essay is all about making your point convincingly. With the right evidence, logical reasoning, and engaging tone, you can make an argument for any topic you choose.

If you're still struggling to put your thoughts together or need help getting started, don't worry. Trust our professional essay writer with your next essay.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Abortion — Argumentative Essay Outline On Abortion

Argumentative Essay Outline on Abortion

Categories: Abortion

About this sample

Words: 665 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 665 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Introduction, thesis statement, paragraph 1: the right to bodily autonomy, paragraph 2: the health and safety of women, paragraph 3: reproductive freedom and economic justice.

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Abortion - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Abortion is a highly contentious issue with significant moral, legal, and social implications. Essays on abortion could explore the various aspects of the debate including the ethical dimensions, the legal frameworks governing abortion, and the social attitudes surrounding it. They might delve into historical changes in public opinion, the different arguments presented by pro-life and pro-choice advocates, and the impact of legal rulings on the accessibility and safety of abortion services. Discussions could also explore the intersection of abortion with issues like gender equality, religious freedom, and medical ethics. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Abortion you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Issue of Sex-Selective Abortion

Sex-selective abortion is the practice of ending a pregnancy due to the predicted gender of the baby. It has been occurring for centeriues in many countries many people believe that males are more valuable than females. This practice has been happening in many Asian countries but even in the US many Asians still hold strong to those beliefs. Due to these beleifs there is a huge shift in sex ratio in Asian countries. People are using the technology to determine […]

Abortion and Women’s Rights

In spite of women's activist desires, the matter of conceptive decision in the United States was not settled in 1973 by the important Supreme Court choice on account of Roe v. Wade. From the beginning there was animal-like restriction by the Catholic Church. Anyway, in the course of at least the last 20 years, the too early or soon birth discussion has changed into a definitely spellbound, meaningful debate between two differentiating societal talks that are moored to the problems […]

Women’s Rights in the United States in the 1970s

In the 1940’s-1960’s, there was a blurred distinction between clinical and sexual exams within the medical field (Wendy Kline, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry). For example, many male doctors would provide pelvic exams as a means to teach women sex instruction, and were taught to assert their power over their patients. This led to women instituting new training programs for proper examinations, creating a more gentle and greatly-respected method of examining women and their bodies. There was also an increase […]

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Abortion: a Woman’s Choice

Women have long been criticized in every aspect of their lives. They have even little to no choice about how to live their lives. Much like, abortion, which is the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. It has been one of the most sensitive topics, society sees it as a murderous act. On, January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled on making the availability of abortion […]

Abortion: the most Debated Topic

There is no question that abortion is one of the most debated topics of the last 50 years. Women all over the United States tend to feel passionately over one side or the other, either pro-choice or anti-abortion. Not one to shy away from controversial subjects, I chose this topic to shed light on both sides of the ethical and moral decision of this important issue surrounding a termination of pregnancy. There is no question the gravity of this decision, […]

Women’s Rights to Choose

Every person in the United States is granted inalienable rights, whether it be to practice their own religion or vote, which should include autonomy over their own bodies. A woman should have the right to choose what she does with her own body, and in 1973 that became a possibility for American women. In 1973 Roe v. Wade made it possible for women to legally choose to terminate unwanted pregnancies within their first two trimesters. The government finally took into […]

Don Marquis’s View on Abortion

Don Marquis begins his argument of abortion being immoral by mentioning the pro-choice premise, which was that the statement of a fetus is never a person being too narrow. It's too narrow because if the fetus is never a person, then what would be the difference of a 9-month-old fetus and a newborn baby? That would just mean that infanticide isn't considered murder because a 9-month-old fetus and newborn weren't ever considered to be a person. Marquis further mentions that […]

Effects of Abortion on Young Women

Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. It is a controversial conversation that most people avoid having. Abortion is different than most issues in politics, because it directly impacts women, rather than men. Young women being targeted over the last forty-five years, has changed the way the public views abortion and what it does to women. A rise in physical complications, mental health problems, and the modern wave of feminism are the effects of legalized abortion […]

The Murder of Innocence

Abortion is a new generation's way of shrugging off accountability of their action at the cost of human life agreeing to the first revision to the structure that says we have the proper way to give of discourse. Me personally for one beyond any doubt that most of us would agree to the reality that ready to say and do what we need and select. For it is our choice to control of speech our conclusions. In connection, moms at […]

The History of Abortion

The history of abortion' is more complex than most people realize. There has been a lot of debate in the past few years about abortion being murder/not murder. Abortion has become illegal in most states. There are several women who believe in "pro-choice" which means they want to have a choice taking care of the baby. I, personally, believe abortion is murder. You are killing a fetus that is going to be born within months and they don't have a […]

Abortion: Go or no Go

Premature birth ends a pregnancy by killing an actual existence yet the mother isn't accused of homicide. Is this right? Shockingly, this has happened roughly twenty million times in the previous twenty years. Tragically, in South Africa, an unborn human has been slaughtered lawfully because of the nation's insufficient laws! The enemy of a honest unprotected human is a killer, accordingly, the individual merits the discipline proportional to a killer by law. Premature birth on interest just gives a mother […]

Abotion: Right or Wrong

When does a person learn right from wrong? Is someone that knows right from wrong, different from someone who does not? These questions bring up the topic of the difference between a "Human" and a "Person". A human would be of human genetics and have a certain build. On the other hand, a human can also not be a person at certain points in the stage of life. If you can distinguish right from wrong, and are able to make […]

Let’s Talk about my Abortion Article

Why is something that requires two people, almost always considered the woman's problem? Every answer to this question is different, more aggressive in some cases, but it narrows down to basic human rights. Now you may be asking "What the hell is she talking about?" and I can assure you, we will get to that. I'd like for you to first put yourself in a situation: You're given a puppy, yet you're allergic to dogs and absolutely do not have […]

Debates on Abortion Theme

Abortion has proved to be a highly controversial topic in religion, politics, and even ethics. Its debate has caused division between factions with some supporting and others opposing its practice. This issue has also landed in the realm of philosophy where several ethicists have tried to explain why they think the method should either be supported or opposed. This essay looks at the works of Judith Thomson and Don Marquis as a representation of both sides of arguments (advocates and […]

Abortion on Teens should be Abolished

Am sure we have all heard of the girl meets boy story, where the girl falls in love with the boy despite receiving plenty of warnings and criticism from any person who has ever mattered in the girl's life. Everything is merry and life is good for the girl until one day she realizes she has missed her period and rushes to her man's home telling herself that everything will be okay. Reality checks in, hard, when the boy declines […]

The Mother and Abortion

For Gwendolyn Brooks, writing poetry that would be considered out of the ordinary and frowned upon was a common theme for her. Her widespread knowledge on subjects like race, ethnicity, gender, and even abortion placed this African American poet apart from many others. Like many poets, Brooks based many of her works on her own life experiences. Although it's unclear whether or not Brooks had an abortion herself, she creates hints and provokes strong feelings towards the issue, revealing the […]

An Issue of Women’s Reproductive Rights

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that men and women are created equal (Elizabeth Cady Stanton). In America this has been the basis of what our nation stands for. It is stated that every citizen has the right to equality that shall not be stripped away, in many cases that is not true. Whether man or women you should possess the same rights, but more often than not the women's rights are taken away. There are many instances in […]

What is Abortion

Every year, approximately 40-50 million abortions are conducted. That's about 125,000 little human beings being vacuumed, sucked out, and dissolved, everyday. That's 1 baby being aborted every 26 seconds. As of 58% of Americans think abortion should be legal.. Only 37% thinks it should be illegal in all, Or most cases. Abortion should be eliminated because it is murder, gives women mental health issues, and can cause high risks in the mother's future baby's health. There are two different types […]

The Complex Debate: Exploring Abortion Laws and their Implications

There has been a disputed discussion in history among religious, political, ethical, moral and practical grounds when it comes to the case about abortion. Abortion law forbids, allows, limits and governs the availability of abortion. Abortion laws alter to a high degree by country. For example, three countries in Latin America and two others in Europe ban the act of abortion altogether. In other countries like the United Kingdom contains the abortion act of 1967 that clarifies and prescribes abortion […]

My Beliefs on Abortion

Society today condones the killing of a life, they call it abortion, but I will try to show you why this is wrong. Life begins at conception. The Bible provides proof that God knew us before we were even formed. This provides truth that what is inside a woman's body is a human life. I believe that when you decide to have an abortion, you are deciding to kill an innocent baby. Whether you're doing it because the baby may […]

Research on Abortion Issues

The raging battle for women's rights can be found in almost every avenue of American culture. Whether it be in the workplace, in the government, in churches, or within families, females are fighting for their freedom to control their own lives. They want to work in whichever field they desire, to love whomever they want, and to make decisions for themselves. One of the biggest cases in the quarrel for feminism is the legalization of abortion. Women argue that it […]

Reasons the Constitution of Texas should be Rewritten

The constitution of Texas was written in 1876 but this constitution is not successful in this modern time. Rules and set of protocols which are written in this constitution are not valid for urban Texas these rules need to be amended. From the time of the adoption of this constitution, a total number of 653 amendments were proposed and out of these 653 a total of 474 amendments were approved by the voters and 179 were rejected. Some ?urrent political […]

Get Rid of Abortion or Not?

The world includes a huge variety of people who share different beliefs and morals, however, the Bible states that no one should judge others. One is supposed to respect another for whom they are as a person. The people in this world are beginning to divide because of the debate concerning if abortion is right, or if it is wrong. People identifying themselves to be pro-choice are in support of abortion because they believe a woman should be allowed to […]

Abortion Issues in Modern World

Premature birth alludes to the end of a pregnancy by evacuating or removing the baby or fetus from the uterus before it is prepared for birth. There are two noteworthy types of premature birth: unconstrained, which is regularly alluded to as an unsuccessful labor or the intentional fetus removal, which is frequently instigated fetus removal. The term fetus removal is normally used to allude to the prompted premature birth, and this is the premature birth, which has been loaded up […]

My Understanding of Abortion

Life has a beginning and an end and every individual knows this, as much as they may not want to know or understand it. An abortion, however, brings a thought to many people within our modern society: Is a baby alive before it is born? There are many ways to look at this but scientist have found out that there is an age of viability, where a baby is considered alive after a certain period of a woman's pregnancy. Before […]

Potential Factors that Influence Abortion

When it comes to women and unplanned pregnancies, there are alternatives other than abortions that a woman can use who and go for who isn't interested in having a child. Adoptions could be one of those alternatives; however, some women can't bear the thought of actually carrying a child. Therefore, they turn to their only option which is the abortion. For women, there are several reasons that may lead to them wanting to have an abortion. According to Stacey (2018), […]

The Status of Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights

The consequences of sexual behaviour between women and men have driven a desire and determination of women to control their fertility, yet in an environment in which anti-choice legislators and organizations do not protect women's reproductive rights, there is an ongoing dispute on who decides the fate of such rights. The status of women's sexual and reproductive rights remains controversial and while there have been many attempts to gain such basic human right, the fight for reproductive freedoms remains intense. […]

Abortion and Fathers Rights

In this section I will be focusing on the fathers' situation before and after conception, and bring out arguments how he could effectively avoid becoming a parent in any way (biological, bearer of financial costs, emotional). The father after conception has no alternatives left, unlike the mother has. She is in a position that can terminate the pregnancy by opting for an abortion, or she can carry out (or at least try to) the pregnancy until the end. The father […]

Abstinence only Vs. Abortion Rates

If an individual decides to have premarital sex and becomes pregnant it is likely that they will be shamed by someone no matter what decision they make. If they decide to keep the baby they will be shamed. If they decided to put the baby up for adoption they will be shamed. If they decide to get an abortion they will be shamed. Although the United States of America was founded on the ideas of freedom of religion and the […]

Why Abortion should be Illegal

Abortion is an issue in today’s society, people that agree or disagree about taking an innocent life away. Even though women now have the legal right to decide what to do with their bodies and to decide whether to end a baby’s life, there are options other than abortions. Each and every life is valuable, and babies should be able to experience a future ahead of them. Abortions should be illegal. Making abortion illegal could allow children to live a […]

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why abortion is legal.

Due to the outcome of a Supreme Court hearing, abortion is completely legal. In 1973, the Supreme Court's ruling on Roe vs Wade provided people legal access to abortion across the entire country. While legal, some doctors will not perform abortions.

How Abortion Affects Economy?

Women who have access to legal abortion will have the ability to continue their education and careers. Women denied an abortion because of gestational limits are more than 80% more likely to experience bankruptcy or face eviction.

Where Abortion is Illegal?

Abortion is legal in the entire country of the US, but some states have restrictions based on gestational status, fetal fatal conditions, and even rape. Other countries around the world have different laws and some have completely outlawed abortion, including Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and El Salvador.

Will Abortion Affect Health?

Women who have an abortion by a medical professional are at no risk for future pregnancies and there are no risks to overall health. Abortions do not increase any risk of breast cancer or have any effect on fertility.

Is Abortion Morally Justifiable?

This will depend on the person and their beliefs. Many women find abortion to be moral and a choice they are allowed to make in regards to their own bodies. Some religions have a strict stance on abortion and deem it immoral, regardless of the reason.

How To Write an Essay About Abortion

Introduction to the topic of abortion.

Abortion is a deeply complex and often controversial topic, encompassing a range of ethical, legal, and social issues. In your essay's introduction, it is important to define abortion and the various viewpoints and ethical considerations surrounding it. This introduction should establish the scope of your essay, whether you are focusing on the moral arguments, the legal aspects, the impact on individuals and society, or a combination of these. Your introduction should set a respectful and scholarly tone, acknowledging the sensitivity of the topic and the diverse opinions held by different groups.

Developing a Balanced Argument

The body of your essay should be dedicated to presenting a balanced and well-reasoned argument. Whether your essay is persuasive, analytical, or exploratory in nature, each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of the abortion debate. This could include the ethical implications of abortion, the legal history and current laws regarding abortion in different regions, the psychological and physical effects on individuals, or the societal impacts. It's crucial to back up your points with evidence, such as statistical data, legal texts, ethical theories, medical research, and sociological studies. Addressing counterarguments is also important to show that you have considered multiple viewpoints and to strengthen your own argument.

Exploring Ethical and Societal Implications

An essay on abortion should also delve into the ethical dilemmas and societal implications surrounding the topic. This might involve discussing the moral philosophies related to the right to life, bodily autonomy, and the definition of personhood. The societal perspective might include the impact of abortion laws on different socio-economic groups, public health considerations, and the role of education and family planning. This section of your essay should challenge readers to think critically about their own values and the role of societal norms and laws in shaping the abortion debate.

Concluding the Discussion

In your conclusion, bring together all the threads of your argument, emphasizing the complexity of the abortion debate. This is your final opportunity to reinforce your main points and leave a lasting impression on your readers. Reflect on the broader implications of the debate and the ongoing challenges in finding a consensus in such a polarized issue. You might also offer recommendations for future policy, research, or public discourse. Remember, a strong conclusion doesn't just restate what has been said; it provides closure and offers new insights, prompting readers to continue thinking about the topic long after they have finished reading your essay.

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Comparison/Contrast Essays: Two Patterns

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First Pattern: Block-by-Block

By Rory H. Osbrink

Abortion is an example of a very controversial issue. The two opposing viewpoints surrounding abortion are like two sides of a coin. On one side, there is the pro-choice activist and on the other is the pro-life activist.

The argument is a balanced one; for every point supporting abortion there is a counter-point condemning abortion. This essay will delineate the controversy in one type of comparison/contrast essay form: the “”Argument versus Argument,”” or, “”Block-by-Block”” format. In this style of writing, first you present all the arguments surrounding one side of the issue, then you present all the arguments surrounding the other side of the issue. You are generally not expected to reach a conclusion, but simply to present the opposing sides of the argument.

Introduction: (the thesis is underlined) Explains the argument

The Abortion Issue: Compare and Contrast Block-by-Block Format

One of the most divisive issues in America is the controversy surrounding abortion. Currently, abortion is legal in America, and many people believe that it should remain legal. These people, pro-choice activists, believe that it is the women’s right to chose whether or not to give birth. However, there are many groups who are lobbying Congress to pass laws that would make abortion illegal. These people are called the pro-life activists.

Explains pro-choice

Abortion is a choice that should be decided by each individual, argues the pro-choice activist. Abortion is not murder since the fetus is not yet fully human, therefore, it is not in defiance against God. Regardless of the reason for the abortion, it should be the woman’s choice because it is her body. While adoption is an option some women chose, many women do not want to suffer the physical and emotional trauma of pregnancy and labor only to give up a child. Therefore, laws should remain in effect that protect a woman’s right to chose.

Explains pro-life

Abortion is an abomination, argues the pro-life activist. It makes no sense for a woman to murder a human being not even born. The bible says, “”Thou shalt not kill,”” and it does not discriminate between different stages of life. A fetus is the beginning of life. Therefore, abortion is murder, and is in direct defiance of God’s will. Regardless of the mother’s life situation (many women who abort are poor, young, or drug users), the value of a human life cannot be measured. Therefore, laws should be passed to outlaw abortion. After all, there are plenty of couples who are willing to adopt an unwanted child.

If we take away the woman’s right to chose, will we begin limiting her other rights also? Or, if we keep abortion legal, are we devaluing human life? There is no easy answer to these questions. Both sides present strong, logical arguments. Though it is a very personal decision, t he fate of abortion rights will have to be left for the Supreme Court to decide.

Second Pattern: Point-by-Point

This second example is also an essay about abortion. We have used the same information and line of reasoning in this essay, however, this one will be presented in the “”Point-by-Point”” style argument. The Point-by-Point style argument presents both sides of the argument at the same time. First, you would present one point on a specific topic, then you would follow that up with the opposing point on the same topic. Again, you are generally not expected to draw any conclusions, simply to fairly present both sides of the argument.

Introduction: (the thesis is underlined)

Explains the argument

The Abortion Issue: Compare and Contrast Point-by-Point Format

Point One: Pro-life and Pro-choice

Supporters of both pro-life and pro-choice refer to religion as support for their side of the argument. Pro-life supporters claim that abortion is murder, and is therefore against God’s will. However, pro-choice defenders argue that abortion is not murder since the fetus is not yet a fully formed human. Therefore, abortion would not be a defiance against God.

Point Two: Pro-life and Pro-choice

Another main point of the argument is over the woman’s personal rights, versus the rights of the unborn child. Pro-choice activists maintain that regardless of the individual circumstances, women should have the right to chose whether or not to abort. The pregnancy and labor will affect only the woman’s body, therefore it should be the woman’s decision. Pro-life supporters, on the other hand, believe that the unborn child has the right to life, and that abortion unlawfully takes away that right.

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The Rhetoric That Shaped The Abortion Debate

Women take part in a 1977 demonstration in New York City demanding safe and legal abortions for all women. Peter Keegan/Stringer/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

Women take part in a 1977 demonstration in New York City demanding safe and legal abortions for all women.

Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling By Linda Greenhouse and Reva B. Siegel Hardcover, 352 pages Kaplan Publishing List Price: $26

Before the Supreme Court struck down many state laws restricting abortion in the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade , the Justices read briefs from both abortion-rights supporters and opponents.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse has collected the best of these briefs -- as well as important documents leading up to the decision -- in a new book, Before Roe v. Wade: Voices that Shaped the Abortion Debate Before the Supreme Court's Ruling.

In an interview on Fresh Air, Greenhouse explains the arguments in favor of decriminalizing abortion -- and the rhetoric used by both sides of the debate that continues to resonate more than 35 years after Roe.

After researching the book, Greenhouse says, she came away with a more nuanced understanding of how the abortion debate has affected so many other issues.

"What the research did indicate to me is how multifaceted the issue is and how the word [abortion] came over time to stand for so much more than the termination of a pregnancy," she says. "It really came to stand for a debate about the place of women in the world."

Linda Greenhouse is a senior fellow at Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times for three decades. courtesy of the author hide caption

Linda Greenhouse is a senior fellow at Yale Law School. She covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times for three decades.

Interview Highlights

On why the medical community's lobbying groups shifted to support the decriminalization of abortion

"The medical impetus to start reforming the old abortion laws actually came, not from the American Medical Association but from the American Public Health Association -- from the public health profession. There is a public health doctor, Mary Calderon, who was medical director of Planned Parenthood and also very active in professional public health circles. She wrote some influential articles depicting abortion as a serious public health issue -- that is to say, illegal abortion, back-alley abortion, as a serious public health issue -- and basically started calling on the medical profession to take a new look at this old issue. Abortion could now be a very safe medical procedure when done properly and under the right conditions. And so the facts on the ground had changed: Women were having secret abortions in large numbers; there was a good deal of medical bad consequences and suffering because of this, and it was really the public health doctors who sounded the call."

On the use of the phrase 'the right to choose'

"Jimmye Kimmey was a young woman who was executive director of an organization called the Association for the Study of Abortion (ASA), which was one of the early reform groups and was migrating in the early 1970s from a position of reforming the existing abortion laws to the outright repeal of existing abortion laws, and she wrote a memorandum framing the issue of how the pro-repeal position should be described: 'Right to life is short, catchy, composed of monosyllabic words -- an important consideration in English. We need something comparable. Right to choose would seem to do the job. And ... choice has to do with action, and it's action that we're concerned with.' "

On the significance of J.C. Willke, who wrote Handbook on Abortion

"He is a key figure in the right-to-life movement. He and his wife self-published this little book called Handbook on Abortion in 1971 in the form of questions and answers about abortions from the right-to-life point of view. And it got distributed like wildfire. It now exists in many, many editions. People can go on Google and Amazon and find it easily. It's been translated in many languages, and it really became a Bible of the right-to-life movement. And we were grateful to Dr. Willke for giving us permission to republish it. The reason we wanted to have a substantial excerpt from it is because people on the pro-choice side, I'm quite certain, have never seen it. And it's a very striking document and his voice was and continues to be an important voice on that side."

On feminism's role in shaping the abortion debate

"The feminist community at that time, in the mid-'60s, was much more interested in empowering women to take a full place in the economy, in the world-place. Things like child care. Things like equal pay. Things like getting rid of sex-specific help-wanted ads. Woman wanted, man wanted -- that type of thing. And there wasn't much talk about abortion reform in feminist circles until quite late in the '60s, when Betty Friedan, in a very influential speech, drew the connection between the ability of women to participate fully in the economy and the ability of women to control their reproductive lives. That began a reframing in feminist terms of the issue of abortion reform as part of women's empowerment and of women assuming a new role in society."

Before Roe v. Wade

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America’s Abortion Quandary
1. Americans’ views on whether, and in what circumstances, abortion should be legal

Public views of what would change the number of abortions in the U.S.
A majority of Americans say women should have more say in setting abortion policy in the U.S.
How do certain arguments about abortion resonate with Americans?
In their own words: How Americans feel about abortion
3. How the issue of abortion touches Americans personally
Acknowledgments
Methodology

A chart showing Americans’ views of abortion, 1995-2022

As the long-running debate over abortion reaches another key moment at the Supreme Court and in state legislatures across the country , a majority of U.S. adults continue to say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. About six-in-ten Americans (61%) say abortion should be legal in “all” or “most” cases, while 37% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. These views have changed little over the past several years: In 2019, for example, 61% of adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 38% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Most respondents in the new survey took one of the middle options when first asked about their views on abortion, saying either that abortion should be legal in most cases (36%) or illegal in most cases (27%).

Respondents who said abortion should either be legal in all cases or illegal in all cases received a follow-up question asking whether there should be any exceptions to such laws. Overall, 25% of adults initially said abortion should be legal in all cases, but about a quarter of this group (6% of all U.S. adults) went on to say that there should be some exceptions when abortion should be against the law.

Large share of Americans say abortion should be legal in some cases and illegal in others

One-in-ten adults initially answered that abortion should be illegal in all cases, but about one-in-five of these respondents (2% of all U.S. adults) followed up by saying that there are some exceptions when abortion should be permitted.

Altogether, seven-in-ten Americans say abortion should be legal in some cases and illegal in others, including 42% who say abortion should be generally legal, but with some exceptions, and 29% who say it should be generally illegal, except in certain cases. Much smaller shares take absolutist views when it comes to the legality of abortion in the U.S., maintaining that abortion should be legal in all cases with no exceptions (19%) or illegal in all circumstances (8%).

There is a modest gender gap in views of whether abortion should be legal, with women slightly more likely than men to say abortion should be legal in all cases or in all cases but with some exceptions (63% vs. 58%).

Sizable gaps by age, partisanship in views of whether abortion should be legal

Younger adults are considerably more likely than older adults to say abortion should be legal: Three-quarters of adults under 30 (74%) say abortion should be generally legal, including 30% who say it should be legal in all cases without exception.

But there is an even larger gap in views toward abortion by partisanship: 80% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with 38% of Republicans and GOP leaners. Previous Center research has shown this gap widening over the past 15 years.

Still, while partisans diverge in views of whether abortion should mostly be legal or illegal, most Democrats and Republicans do not view abortion in absolutist terms. Just 13% of Republicans say abortion should be against the law in all cases without exception; 47% say it should be illegal with some exceptions. And while three-in-ten Democrats say abortion should be permitted in all circumstances, half say it should mostly be legal – but with some exceptions.

There also are sizable divisions within both partisan coalitions by ideology. For instance, while a majority of moderate and liberal Republicans say abortion should mostly be legal (60%), just 27% of conservative Republicans say the same. Among Democrats, self-described liberals are twice as apt as moderates and conservatives to say abortion should be legal in all cases without exception (42% vs. 20%).

Regardless of partisan affiliation, adults who say they personally know someone who has had an abortion – such as a friend, relative or themselves – are more likely to say abortion should be legal than those who say they do not know anyone who had an abortion.

Religion a significant factor in attitudes about whether abortion should be legal

Views toward abortion also vary considerably by religious affiliation – specifically among large Christian subgroups and religiously unaffiliated Americans.

For example, roughly three-quarters of White evangelical Protestants say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. This is far higher than the share of White non-evangelical Protestants (38%) or Black Protestants (28%) who say the same.

Despite Catholic teaching on abortion , a slim majority of U.S. Catholics (56%) say abortion should be legal. This includes 13% who say it should be legal in all cases without exception, and 43% who say it should be legal, but with some exceptions.

Compared with Christians, religiously unaffiliated adults are far more likely to say abortion should be legal overall – and significantly more inclined to say it should be legal in all cases without exception. Within this group, atheists stand out: 97% say abortion should be legal, including 53% who say it should be legal in all cases without exception. Agnostics and those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” also overwhelmingly say that abortion should be legal, but they are more likely than atheists to say there are some circumstances when abortion should be against the law.

Although the survey was conducted among Americans of many religious backgrounds, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus, it did not obtain enough respondents from non-Christian groups to report separately on their responses.

Abortion at various stages of pregnancy

As a growing number of states debate legislation to restrict abortion – often after a certain stage of pregnancy – Americans express complex views about when abortion should generally be legal and when it should be against the law. Overall, a majority of adults (56%) say that how long a woman has been pregnant should matter in determining when abortion should be legal, while far fewer (14%) say that this should not be a factor. An additional one-quarter of the public says that abortion should either be legal (19%) or illegal (8%) in all circumstances without exception; these respondents did not receive this question.

Among men and women, Republicans and Democrats, and Christians and religious “nones” who do not take absolutist positions about abortion on either side of the debate, the prevailing view is that the stage of the pregnancy should be a factor in determining whether abortion should be legal.

A majority of U.S. adults say how long a woman has been pregnant should be a factor in determining whether abortion should be legal

Americans broadly are more likely to favor restrictions on abortion later in pregnancy than earlier in pregnancy. Many adults also say the legality of abortion depends on other factors at every stage of pregnancy.

Overall, a plurality of adults (44%) say that abortion should be legal six weeks into a pregnancy, which is about when cardiac activity (sometimes called a fetal heartbeat) may be detected and before many women know they are pregnant; this includes 19% of adults who say abortion should be legal in all cases without exception, as well as 25% of adults who say it should be legal at that point in a pregnancy. An additional 7% say abortion generally should be legal in most cases, but that the stage of the pregnancy should not matter in determining legality. 1

One-in-five Americans (21%) say abortion should be illegal at six weeks. This includes 8% of adults who say abortion should be illegal in all cases without exception as well as 12% of adults who say that abortion should be illegal at this point. Additionally, 6% say abortion should be illegal in most cases and how long a woman has been pregnant should not matter in determining abortion’s legality. Nearly one-in-five respondents, when asked whether abortion should be legal six weeks into a pregnancy, say “it depends.”

Americans are more divided about what should be permitted 14 weeks into a pregnancy – roughly at the end of the first trimester – although still, more people say abortion should be legal at this stage (34%) than illegal (27%), and about one-in-five say “it depends.”

Fewer adults say abortion should be legal 24 weeks into a pregnancy – about when a healthy fetus could survive outside the womb with medical care. At this stage, 22% of adults say abortion should be legal, while nearly twice as many (43%) say it should be illegal . Again, about one-in-five adults (18%) say whether abortion should be legal at 24 weeks depends on other factors.

Respondents who said that abortion should be illegal 24 weeks into a pregnancy or that “it depends” were asked a follow-up question about whether abortion at that point should be legal if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or the baby would be born with severe disabilities. Most who received this question say abortion in these circumstances should be legal (54%) or that it depends on other factors (40%). Just 4% of this group maintained that abortion should be illegal in this case.

More adults support restrictions on abortion later in pregnancy, with sizable shares saying ‘it depends’ at multiple points in pregnancy

This pattern in views of abortion – whereby more favor greater restrictions on abortion as a pregnancy progresses – is evident across a variety of demographic and political groups.

Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say that abortion should be legal at each of the three stages of pregnancy asked about on the survey. For example, while 26% of Republicans say abortion should be legal at six weeks of pregnancy, more than twice as many Democrats say the same (61%). Similarly, while about a third of Democrats say abortion should be legal at 24 weeks of pregnancy, just 8% of Republicans say the same.

However, neither Republicans nor Democrats uniformly express absolutist views about abortion throughout a pregnancy. Republicans are divided on abortion at six weeks: Roughly a quarter say it should be legal (26%), while a similar share say it depends (24%). A third say it should be illegal.

Democrats are divided about whether abortion should be legal or illegal at 24 weeks, with 34% saying it should be legal, 29% saying it should be illegal, and 21% saying it depends.

There also is considerable division among each partisan group by ideology. At six weeks of pregnancy, just one-in-five conservative Republicans (19%) say that abortion should be legal; moderate and liberal Republicans are twice as likely as their conservative counterparts to say this (39%).

At the same time, about half of liberal Democrats (48%) say abortion at 24 weeks should be legal, while 17% say it should be illegal. Among conservative and moderate Democrats, the pattern is reversed: A plurality (39%) say abortion at this stage should be illegal, while 24% say it should be legal.

A third of Republicans say abortion should be illegal six weeks into pregnancy; among Democrats, a third say abortion should be legal at 24 weeks

Christian adults are far less likely than religiously unaffiliated Americans to say abortion should be legal at each stage of pregnancy.

Among Protestants, White evangelicals stand out for their opposition to abortion. At six weeks of pregnancy, for example, 44% say abortion should be illegal, compared with 17% of White non-evangelical Protestants and 15% of Black Protestants. This pattern also is evident at 14 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, when half or more of White evangelicals say abortion should be illegal.

At six weeks, a plurality of Catholics (41%) say abortion should be legal, while smaller shares say it depends or it should be illegal. But by 24 weeks, about half of Catholics (49%) say abortion should be illegal.

Among adults who are religiously unaffiliated, atheists stand out for their views. They are the only group in which a sizable majority says abortion should be legal at each point in a pregnancy. Even at 24 weeks, 62% of self-described atheists say abortion should be legal, compared with smaller shares of agnostics (43%) and those who say their religion is “nothing in particular” (31%).

As is the case with adults overall, most religiously affiliated and religiously unaffiliated adults who originally say that abortion should be illegal or “it depends” at 24 weeks go on to say either it should be legal or it depends if the pregnant woman’s life is in danger or the baby would be born with severe disabilities. Few (4% and 5%, respectively) say abortion should be illegal at 24 weeks in these situations.

Majority of atheists say abortion should be legal at 24 weeks of pregnancy

Abortion and circumstances of pregnancy

Majorities say abortion should be legal if pregnancy threatens woman’s life; more uncertainty when it comes to baby being born with severe disabilities

The stage of the pregnancy is not the only factor that shapes people’s views of when abortion should be legal. Sizable majorities of U.S. adults say that abortion should be legal if the pregnancy threatens the life or health of the pregnant woman (73%) or if pregnancy is the result of rape (69%).

There is less consensus when it comes to circumstances in which a baby may be born with severe disabilities or health problems: 53% of Americans overall say abortion should be legal in such circumstances, including 19% who say abortion should be legal in all cases and 35% who say there are some situations where abortions should be illegal, but that it should be legal in this specific type of case. A quarter of adults say “it depends” in this situation, and about one-in-five say it should be illegal (10% who say illegal in this specific circumstance and 8% who say illegal in all circumstances).

There are sizable divides between and among partisans when it comes to views of abortion in these situations. Overall, Republicans are less likely than Democrats to say abortion should be legal in each of the three circumstances outlined in the survey. However, both partisan groups are less likely to say abortion should be legal when the baby may be born with severe disabilities or health problems than when the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy is the result of rape.

Just as there are wide gaps among Republicans by ideology on whether how long a woman has been pregnant should be a factor in determining abortion’s legality, there are large gaps when it comes to circumstances in which abortions should be legal. For example, while a clear majority of moderate and liberal Republicans (71%) say abortion should be permitted when the pregnancy is the result of rape, conservative Republicans are more divided. About half (48%) say it should be legal in this situation, while 29% say it should be illegal and 21% say it depends.

The ideological gaps among Democrats are slightly less pronounced. Most Democrats say abortion should be legal in each of the three circumstances – just to varying degrees. While 77% of liberal Democrats say abortion should be legal if a baby will be born with severe disabilities or health problems, for example, a smaller majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (60%) say the same.

Democrats broadly favor legal abortion in situations of rape or when a pregnancy threatens woman’s life; smaller majorities of Republicans agree

White evangelical Protestants again stand out for their views on abortion in various circumstances; they are far less likely than White non-evangelical or Black Protestants to say abortion should be legal across each of the three circumstances described in the survey.

While about half of White evangelical Protestants (51%) say abortion should be legal if a pregnancy threatens the woman’s life or health, clear majorities of other Protestant groups and Catholics say this should be the case. The same pattern holds in views of whether abortion should be legal if the pregnancy is the result of rape. Most White non-evangelical Protestants (75%), Black Protestants (71%) and Catholics (66%) say abortion should be permitted in this instance, while White evangelicals are more divided: 40% say it should be legal, while 34% say it should be illegal and about a quarter say it depends.

Mirroring the pattern seen among adults overall, opinions are more varied about a situation where a baby might be born with severe disabilities or health issues. For instance, half of Catholics say abortion should be legal in such cases, while 21% say it should be illegal and 27% say it depends on the situation.

Most religiously unaffiliated adults – including overwhelming majorities of self-described atheists – say abortion should be legal in each of the three circumstances.

White evangelicals less likely than other Christians to say abortion should be legal in cases of rape, health concerns

Parental notification for minors seeking abortion

Age, ideological divides in views of whether parents should be notified before abortion performed on minor

Seven-in-ten U.S. adults say that doctors or other health care providers should be required to notify a parent or legal guardian if the pregnant woman seeking an abortion is under 18, while 28% say they should not be required to do so.

Women are slightly less likely than men to say this should be a requirement (67% vs. 74%). And younger adults are far less likely than those who are older to say a parent or guardian should be notified before a doctor performs an abortion on a pregnant woman who is under 18. In fact, about half of adults ages 18 to 24 (53%) say a doctor should not be required to notify a parent. By contrast, 64% of adults ages 25 to 29 say doctors should be required to notify parents of minors seeking an abortion, as do 68% of adults ages 30 to 49 and 78% of those 50 and older.

A large majority of Republicans (85%) say that a doctor should be required to notify the parents of a minor before an abortion, though conservative Republicans are somewhat more likely than moderate and liberal Republicans to take this position (90% vs. 77%).

The ideological divide is even more pronounced among Democrats. Overall, a slim majority of Democrats (57%) say a parent should be notified in this circumstance, but while 72% of conservative and moderate Democrats hold this view, just 39% of liberal Democrats agree.

By and large, most Protestant (81%) and Catholic (78%) adults say doctors should be required to notify parents of minors before an abortion. But religiously unaffiliated Americans are more divided. Majorities of both atheists (71%) and agnostics (58%) say doctors should not be required to notify parents of minors seeking an abortion, while six-in-ten of those who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” say such notification should be required.

Penalties for abortions performed illegally

Public split on whether woman who had an abortion in a situation where it was illegal should be penalized

Americans are divided over who should be penalized – and what that penalty should be – in a situation where an abortion occurs illegally.

Overall, a 60% majority of adults say that if a doctor or provider performs an abortion in a situation where it is illegal, they should face a penalty. But there is less agreement when it comes to others who may have been involved in the procedure.

While about half of the public (47%) says a woman who has an illegal abortion should face a penalty, a nearly identical share (50%) says she should not. And adults are more likely to say people who help find and schedule or pay for an abortion in a situation where it is illegal should not face a penalty than they are to say they should.

Views about penalties are closely correlated with overall attitudes about whether abortion should be legal or illegal. For example, just 20% of adults who say abortion should be legal in all cases without exception think doctors or providers should face a penalty if an abortion were carried out in a situation where it was illegal. This compares with 91% of those who think abortion should be illegal in all cases without exceptions. Still, regardless of how they feel about whether abortion should be legal or not, Americans are more likely to say a doctor or provider should face a penalty compared with others involved in the procedure.

Among those who say medical providers and/or women should face penalties for illegal abortions, there is no consensus about whether they should get jail time or a less severe punishment. Among U.S. adults overall, 14% say women should serve jail time if they have an abortion in a situation where it is illegal, while 16% say they should receive a fine or community service and 17% say they are not sure what the penalty should be.

A somewhat larger share of Americans (25%) say doctors or other medical providers should face jail time for providing illegal abortion services, while 18% say they should face fines or community service and 17% are not sure. About three-in-ten U.S. adults (31%) say doctors should lose their medical license if they perform an abortion in a situation where it is illegal.

Men are more likely than women to favor penalties for the woman or doctor in situations where abortion is illegal. About half of men (52%) say women should face a penalty, while just 43% of women say the same. Similarly, about two-thirds of men (64%) say a doctor should face a penalty, while 56% of women agree.

Republicans are considerably more likely than Democrats to say both women and doctors should face penalties – including jail time. For example, 21% of Republicans say the woman who had the abortion should face jail time, and 40% say this about the doctor who performed the abortion. Among Democrats, far smaller shares say the woman (8%) or doctor (13%) should serve jail time.

White evangelical Protestants are more likely than other Protestant groups to favor penalties for abortions in situations where they are illegal. Fully 24% say the woman who had the abortion should serve time in jail, compared with just 12% of White non-evangelical Protestants or Black Protestants. And while about half of White evangelicals (48%) say doctors who perform illegal abortions should serve jail time, just 26% of White non-evangelical Protestants and 18% of Black Protestants share this view.

Relatively few say women, medical providers should serve jail time for illegal abortions, but three-in-ten say doctors should lose medical license

Only respondents who said that abortion should be legal in some cases but not others and that how long a woman has been pregnant should matter in determining whether abortion should be legal received questions about abortion’s legality at specific points in the pregnancy. ↩

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10 Essential Essays About Women’s Reproductive Rights

“Reproductive rights” let a person decide whether they want to have children, use contraception, or terminate a pregnancy. Reproductive rights also include access to sex education and reproductive health services. Throughout history, the reproductive rights of women in particular have been restricted. Girls and women today still face significant challenges. In places that have seen reproductive rights expand, protections are rolling back. Here are ten essential essays about reproductive rights:

“Our Bodies, Ourselves: Reproductive Rights”

bell hooks Published in Feminism Is For Everyone (2014)

This essay opens strong: when the modern feminism movement started, the most important issues were the ones linked to highly-educated and privileged white women. The sexual revolution led the way, with “free love” as shorthand for having as much sex as someone wanted with whoever they wanted. This naturally led to the issue of unwanted pregnancies. Birth control and abortions were needed.

Sexual freedom isn’t possible without access to safe, effective birth control and the right to safe, legal abortion. However, other reproductive rights like prenatal care and sex education were not as promoted due to class bias. Including these other rights more prominently might have, in hooks’ words, “galvanized the masses.” The right to abortion in particular drew the focus of mass media. Including other reproductive issues would mean a full reckoning about gender and women’s bodies. The media wasn’t (and arguably still isn’t) ready for that.

“Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights”

Angela Davis Published in Women, Race, & Class (1981)

Davis’ essay covers the birth control movement in detail, including its race-based history. Davis argues that birth control always included racism due to the belief that poor women (specifically poor Black and immigrant women) had a “moral obligation” to birth fewer children. Race was also part of the movement from the beginning because only wealthy white women could achieve the goals (like more economic and political freedom) driving access to birth control.

In light of this history, Davis emphasizes that the fight for reproductive freedom hasn’t led to equal victories. In fact, the movements driving the gains women achieved actively neglected racial inequality. One clear example is how reproductive rights groups ignored forced sterilization within communities of color. Davis ends her essay with a call to end sterilization abuse.

“Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights”

Dorothy Roberts Published in Dissent Magazine (2015)

Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and Fatal Invention , describes attending the March for Women’s Lives. She was especially happy to be there because co-sponsor SisterSong (a collective founded by 16 organizations led by women of color) shifted the focus from “choice” to “social justice.” Why does this matter? Roberts argues that the rhetoric of “choice” favors women who have options that aren’t available to low-income women, especially women of color. Conservatives face criticism for their stance on reproductive rights, but liberals also cause harm when they frame birth control as the solution to global “overpopulation” or lean on fetal anomalies as an argument for abortion choice.

Instead of “the right to choose,” a reproductive justice framework is necessary. This requires a living wage, universal healthcare, and prison abolition. Reproductive justice goes beyond the current pro-choice/anti-choice rhetoric that still favors the privileged.

“The Color of Choice: White Supremacy and Reproductive Justice”

Loretta J. Ross, SisterSong Published in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology (2016)

White supremacy in the United States has always created different outcomes for its ethnic populations. The method? Population control. Ross points out that even a glance at reproductive politics in the headlines makes it clear that some women are encouraged to have more children while others are discouraged. Ross defines “reproductive justice,” which goes beyond the concept of “rights.” Reproductive justice is when reproductive rights are “embedded in a human rights and social justice framework.”

In the essay, Ross explores topics like white supremacy and population control on both the right and left sides of politics. She acknowledges that while the right is often blunter in restricting women of color and their fertility, white supremacy is embedded in both political aisles. The essay closes with a section on mobilizing for reproductive justice, describing SisterSong (where Ross is a founding member) and the March for Women’s Lives in 2004.

“Abortion Care Is Not Just For Cis Women”

Sachiko Ragosta Published in Ms. Magazine (2021)

Cisgender women are the focus of abortion and reproductive health services even though nonbinary and trans people access these services all the time. In their essay, Ragosta describes the criticism Ibis Reproductive Health received when it used the term “pregnant people.” The term alienates women, the critics said, but acting as if only cis women need reproductive care is simply inaccurate. As Ragosta writes, no one is denying that cis women experience pregnancy. The reaction to more inclusive language around pregnancy and abortion reveals a clear bias against trans people.

Normalizing terms like “pregnant people” help spaces become more inclusive, whether it’s in research, medical offices, or in day-to-day life. Inclusiveness leads to better health outcomes, which is essential considering the barriers nonbinary and gender-expansive people face in general and sexual/reproductive care.

“We Cannot Leave Black Women, Trans People, and Gender Expansive People Behind: Why We Need Reproductive Justice”

Karla Mendez Published in Black Women Radicals

Mendez, a freelance writer and (and the time of the essay’s publication) a student studying Interdisciplinary Studies, Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies, responds to the Texas abortion ban. Terms like “reproductive rights” and “abortion rights” are part of the mainstream white feminist movement, but the benefits of birth control and abortions are not equal. Also, as the Texas ban shows, these benefits are not secure. In the face of this reality, it’s essential to center Black people of all genders.

In her essay, Mendez describes recent restrictive legislation and the failure of the reproductive rights movement to address anti-Blackness, transphobia, food insecurity, and more. Groups like SisterSong have led the way on reproductive justice. As reproductive rights are eroded in the United States, the reproductive rights movement needs to focus on justice.

“Gee’s Bend: A Reproductive Justice Quilt Story From the South”

Mary Lee Bendolph Published in Radical Reproductive Justice (2017)

One of Mary Lee Bendolph’s quilt designs appears as the cover of Radical Reproductive Justice. She was one of the most important strip quilters associated with Gee’s Bend, Alabama. During the Civil Rights era, the 700 residents of Gee’s Bend were isolated and found it hard to vote or gain educational and economic power outside the village. Bendolph’s work didn’t become well-known outside her town until the mid-1990s.

Through an interview by the Souls Grown Foundation, we learn that Bendolph didn’t receive any sex education as a girl. When she became pregnant in sixth grade, she had to stop attending school. “They say it was against the law for a lady to go to school and be pregnant,” she said, because it would influence the other kids. “Soon as you have a baby, you couldn’t never go to school again.”

“Underground Activists in Brazil Fight for Women’s Reproductive Rights”

Alejandra Marks Published in The North American Congress on Latin America (2021)

While short, this essay provides a good introduction to abortion activism in Brazil, where abortion is legal only in the case of rape, fetal anencephaly, or when a woman’s life is at risk. The reader meets “Taís,” a single mother faced with an unwanted pregnancy. With no legal options, she researched methods online, including teas and pills. She eventually connected with a lawyer and activist who walked her through using Cytotec, a medication she got online. The activist stayed on the phone while Taís completed her abortion at home.

For decades, Latin American activists have helped pregnant people get abortion medications while wealthy Brazilians enter private clinics or travel to other countries. Government intimidation makes activism risky, but the stakes are high. Hundreds of Brazilians die each year from dangerous abortion methods. In the past decade, religious conservatives in Congress have blocked even mild reform. Even if a new president is elected, Brazil’s abortion rights movement will fight an uphill battle.

“The Ambivalent Activist”

Lauren Groff Published in Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020)

Before Roe v. Wade, abortion regulation around the country was spotty. 37 states still had near-bans on the procedure while only four states had repealed anti-abortion laws completely. In her essay, Groff summarizes the case in accessible, engaging prose. The “Jane Roe” of the case was Norma McCorvey. When she got pregnant, she’d already had two children, one of whom she’d given up for adoption. McCorvey couldn’t access an abortion provider because the pregnancy didn’t endanger her life. She eventually connected with two attorneys: Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. In 1973 on January 2, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that abortion was a fundamental right.

Norma McCorvey was a complicated woman. She later became an anti-choice activist (in an interview released after her death, she said Evangelical anti-choice groups paid her to switch her position), but as Groff writes, McCorvey had once been proud that it was her case that gave women bodily autonomy.

“The Abortion I Didn’t Want”

Caitlin McDonnell Published in Salon (2015) and Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020)

While talking about abortion is less demonized than in the past, it’s still fairly unusual to hear directly from people who’ve experienced it. It’s certainly unusual to hear more complicated stories. Caitlin McDonnell, a poet and teacher from Brooklyn, shares her experience. In clear, raw prose, this piece brings home what can be an abstract “issue” for people who haven’t experienced it or been close to someone who has.

In debates about abortion rights, those who carry the physical and emotional effects are often neglected. Their complicated feelings are weaponized to serve agendas or make judgments about others. It’s important to read essays like McDonnell’s and hear stories as nuanced and multi-faceted as humans themselves.

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

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Ramapo College of New Jersey Home Page » Academics » SSHS » Ramapo Journal of Law & Society » Thesis » Why Women Should Make the Abortion Decision: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

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Why Women Should Make the Abortion Decision: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

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Law and Society Major
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( PDF ) (DOC) (JPG) September 17, 2020

Christina San Filippo [1]

As a woman in today’s society, a woman who has had life-altering decisions about her body made for her throughout her entire life, I want to call attention to other women who are just trying to make their own decisions about their own bodies.

With this work, I recognize that within society there is a split between those who support a woman’s choice to have an abortion, and those who do not. I argue that both the decisions, to have an abortion, as well as to carry a pregnancy to term, have consequences. These consequences can be physical, sociological, and/or psychological. Therefore, the decision should be left to individual women to decide which consequences they are able to bear. For this reason, access to safe, medical care regarding reproduction and abortion should be available to all women, across all states.

Initially, I will establish the foundational background on the legalization of abortion. It will begin in the early 1800s, a time where abortion before “quickening” was legal for women in the United States. However, as women began to die from abortion inducing drugs, and Dr. Horatio Storer teamed with the American Medical Association to begin the “crusade on abortion,” disdain for the procedure grew. Throughout the mid-to-late 1800s, states began passing legislation to ban the drugs used for abortions and, eventually, the procedure itself. Contraception was also federally outlawed with the Comstock Law of 1873. Almost 100 years later both became legalized again with the major Supreme Court cases Griswold v. Connecticut, Eisenstadt v. Baird, and Roe v. Wade.

This legalization has not come without obstacles, however. The second section of this work delves into the state barriers put on abortion. Although legal federally, state constitutions still allow for each state to put laws in place that restrict access to abortion, including zoning laws, mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting periods, and minor consent or notification. All of these barriers within states were upheld by the Supreme Court in the case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. In addition to these ongoing issues in states, the current President proposed a domestic gag rule, and reinstated a global gag rule, that limits funding to abortion providers. This section will further discuss the specific details of the state laws regarding access to abortion, and the status of the issue of abortion within the current federal administration.

Thereafter, the physical, sociological, and/or psychological effects of access, or lack thereof, to abortion may have one women is considered. Reasons for having an abortion vary from financial instability to unstable relationships. Upon receiving one, there is mixed research on whether women suffer future physical, sociological, and/or psychological effects. A sad reality is that even if a woman wants an abortion and feels she is capable of handling these possible consequences, she may be unable to get one. Whether the reason be barriers related to geographic location or financial situation, being forced to carry an unwanted child may also bear physical, sociological, and/or psychological effects.

Finally, the analysis concludes that both having an abortion and not being able to have an abortion can have negative effects on a woman. These effects can be either physical, psychological, and/or sociological. Women are capable of making their own decisions, and this should include access to abortion.

I. History of Abortion and Contraception Legalization

Today, it is easy to take certain things for granted. As people living in America, the land of the free, we do not take a second glance at some of the things we are able to do. Two of these things are the ability to receive educated medical advice on reproductive health from physicians, and the ability to get a safe and legal abortion. However, this was not always the case. At certain points in history, all things regarding contraception and abortion were outlawed in the US. Though we usually think of women’s reproductive health as happening chronologically – first contraception and then abortion – the attention to women’s bodies happened in the opposite order. Historically, abortion began to be regulated before contraception.

Legal Abortion Before “Quickening”

Before and during most of the 1800s, certain abortions were legal, and not uncommon. A woman was only allowed to seek an abortion before “quickening,” which was when she could feel the fetus moving. Before this, it was believed that human life did not exist. Surprisingly, even the Catholic Church shared this view, believing that abortions before quickening were “prior to ensoulment” (Ravitz, 2016). In society, early pregnancies that ended were not even considered abortions, but were rather seen as pregnancies that “slipped away” (Reagan, 2008, p. 8). At this time, conception was seen as something that created an imbalance within the body, due to the fact that it interrupted a woman’s menstruation cycle (Reagan, 2008, p. 8). The way abortions usually worked was that women would take certain drugs to induce abortions. If these drugs failed, a woman could then visit a medical practitioner for an actual procedure to be rid of the fetus (Ravitz, 2016). Abortions before quickening were seen as a way to “bring the body back into balance by restoring the flow,” which meant the returning of the menstrual cycle (Reagan, 2008, p. 8). It was a practice done openly and honestly for pregnant women at this time.

Abortion Outlawed: The Beginning of the End

Although abortions done before quickening were legal, they were not entirely a safe practice. The drugs that women took to induce the abortions often ended in the death of the woman, rather than just the termination of the fetus. Due to this, states began passing statutes that controlled the sale of “abortifacient drugs” as a “poison control measures designed to protect pregnant women” (Reagan, 2008, p. 10). Each of these laws sought to punish whoever administered the drug, rather than the woman who received it (Mohr, 1979, p. 43). In 1821, Connecticut passed a statute outlawing the use of abortion inducing drugs, believing they were a threat to life by causing death by poisoning. However, the law was only applicable if the woman had already experienced quickening. It is important to note that the law was not focused on the actual act of abortion and did not even mention surgical abortions; the focus was on the drugs used for abortions. After this statute was passed in Connecticut, more states began to follow. Missouri in 1825, and then Illinois in 1827, also passed legislation outlawing the use of abortion inducing drugs in an attempt to avoid deaths by poisoning. However, both of these states did not mention quickening, and made the use of these drugs illegal at any point during a woman’s pregnancy (Mohr, 1979, pp. 22–26).

Within the next few years, several states also began passing legislation regarding abortion. However, these statutes focused more on the act of abortion, rather than the drugs that caused them. Similar to the anti-drug laws, these statutes also sought to punish the person who performed the abortion, not the woman who received it (Mohr, 1979, p. 43). In 1834, Ohio passed a law stating that “the death of either the mother or the fetus after quickening” is a felony (Mohr, 1979, p. 39). Missouri soon followed by revising their previous abortion law and making “the use of instruments to induce an abortion after quickening a crime equal to the use of poisonous substances after quickening” (Mohr, 1979, p. 40). In 1840, Maine made “attempted abortion of any woman ‘pregnant with child’ an offense, ‘whether such child be quick or not’ and regardless of what method was used” (Mohr, 1979, p. 41). This Maine offense was punishable by jailtime or a large fine. As states continued to pass anti-abortion legislation, certain groups rallied behind this new-found fight against abortion.

American Medical Association (AMA) and Horatio Storer

Despite certain states passing laws prohibiting the sale of abortion inducing drugs, the nationwide business for them continued to grow. The drugs were openly discussed, even advertised in newspapers, and were readily available (Ravitz, 2016). A woman was able to purchase the drugs from physicians, pharmacists, or order them and have them delivered by mail (Reagan, 2008, p. 10). Along with the growth in popularity of these drugs came criticism.

In 1847, the American Medical Association was founded. The establishment of this Association was the beginning of the politicization of abortion. At this time period, when a woman and a man got married, “the husband assumed virtually all legal rights for the couple” (Primrose, 2012, p. 170). This was both a law, and a patriarchal viewpoint that was accepted within society. It was seen as the duty of women to bear children to their husbands. The American Medical Association asserted that abortions not only posed health risks to women, but also prevented wives from fulfilling this role in their marriage contract. At this time women were also seeking entry into Harvard Medical School, where many sought to pursue careers in gynecology and obstetrics. These career goals threatened the role of women as subjects of their husbands, and so created a kind of push-back by the American Medical Association (Ravitz, 2016).

American Medical Association Role in Outlawing Abortion

In 1857, the American Medical Association began focusing mainly on getting abortion to be outlawed, with Dr. Horatio Storer at the head of this crusade. On top of the previously mentioned patriarchal reasons pushing for this criminalization, a couple of other factors contributed. One was the fear of immigrants in the United States. Storer was one of many Americans who shared this fear, worrying that the nation would soon become out-populated by people of other ethnicities, leaving white people outnumbered. Another was the threat that licensed physicians felt from midwives and homeopaths, who they saw as their competition in the medical field. By outlawing abortion, this threat would be neutralized, and physicians would have power and control over practicing medicine. For these reasons, physicians supported Storer and the American Medical Association in the fight to outlaw abortion (Ravitz, 2016). Overall, Storer, backed by physicians around the nation, helped influence abortion laws by appealing to “a set of fears of white, native-born, male elites losing political power to immigrants and to women” (Reagan, 2008, p. 13). However, their anti-abortion campaign also had to try to reach women in America as well.

Dr. Horatio Storer was the son of David Humphreys Storer, a professor at Harvard Medical School in the field of Obstetrics and Medical Jurisprudence. David Storer argued that the only time an abortion was acceptable was if it was to save the life of the mother, and that a fetus becomes a human being as soon as the embryo enters the uterus. David’s son, Horatio, adopted this mentality and used it in his crusade against abortion. In 1866, he wrote a book entitled, Why Not? A Book for Every Woman , followed by Why Not? A Book for Every Man , which were widely distributed to female patients by their physicians. The books were an attempt to make women feel guilty for having abortions and convince men that they were equally guilty as the father of the unborn. Storer was smart enough to recognize that not all women may give in to arguments based on morals and guilt. For this reason, he “recommended that their physician readers appeal to women’s concerns about their own health as a way to persuade them to have their children” (Dyer, 2003). This ensured that the American Medical Association was fighting against abortion from all possible angles and viewpoints.

Anti-Abortion Laws Continue

With much help from the American Medical Association, the anti-abortion movement gained traction in the nation. This social shift towards the nonacceptance of abortion was reflected in laws passed by states at the time. Within the time period of 1860-1880, “the United States produced the most important burst of anti-abortion legislation in the nation’s history” (Mohr, 1979, p. 200). During these years, states passed “at least 40 anti-abortion [laws],” and “13 jurisdictions formally outlawed abortion for the first time” (Mohr, 1979, p. 200).

The first state to start this wave of legislation was Connecticut in 1860. The law contained four separate sections laying out all things that were now illegal regarding abortion. The first section discussed abortion in general, stating that the act was considered “a felony punishable by up to $1000 fine and up to five years in prison” (Mohr, 1979, p. 201). The second section stated that any accomplices of the person who performs the abortion is guilty of the crime as well. The third section said that the woman who receives the abortion is also guilty of the felony, even if she attempts one on herself. The fourth section discussed abortifacient information and materials, stating that the distribution of either was punishable by fines between $300 and $500 (Mohr, 1979, pp. 201–202). The contents within the third and fourth sections of this statute were things that had never been mentioned before in anti-abortion laws, and signified the “evolution of abortion policy” that was about to sweep the nation (Mohr, 1979, p. 201). This Connecticut law set the stage for other states, which began passing their own more intense abortion laws. Examples include “Colorado Territory and Nevada Territory in 1861, and Arizona Territory, Idaho Territory, and Montana Territory in 1864,” which each made abortion a punishable offense (Mohr, 1979, p. 202).

Contraception Outlawed: Comstock Law of 1873

In 1873, The American Medical Association gained a victory when the Comstock Law was passed. This statute, passed on March 2, 1873, banned both the importation and distribution of any information or drug that aimed towards the prevention of conception (Tone, 2000, p. 439). The law made it illegal to “mail contraceptives, any information about contraceptives, or any information about how to find contraceptives” (Primrose, 2012, p. 173). Congress was able to do this by “enacting the antiobscenity statute to end the ‘nefarious and diabolical traffic’ in ‘vile and immoral goods’ that purity reformers believed promoted sexual licentiousness” (Tone, 2000, p. 439). Simply put, the government banned birth control and any information related to birth control under the guise that both its availability and use would contribute to sexual promiscuity, making it obscene, and allowing it to fall under the purity laws. The penalty for anyone who was caught violating the Comstock Law was “one to ten years of hard labor, potentially in combination with a fine” (Primrose, 2012, pp. 173–174). After Congress enacted this law, twenty-four states passed their own state versions to affirm the federal law (Tone, 2000, p. 441). On top of these federal and state laws, the government also gave “the United States Postal Service authority to decide what was ‘lewd, lascivious, indecent, or obscene’” (Primrose, 2012, p. 174). This was based on the fact that the business of birth control relied heavily on interstate commerce (Tone, 2000, p. 441).

Despite the fact that birth control and all information regarding it was outlawed people did not stop having sexual intercourse. As expected, this resulted in unwanted pregnancies. Women in this position who still sought an abortion despite its illegality were forced to look elsewhere to receive the procedure, which many times consisted of unsafe and unsanitary conditions (Primrose, 2012, p. 175).

Contraception Legalized: Contribution of a “First Wave Feminist” Movement in the United States

Around 1915, coinciding with advocates for the right of women to vote, a large feminist movement began growing, headed by Margaret Sanger, which focused on the importance of birth control. Sanger was a nurse who visited homes and was often asked questions by women on how to prevent having more children. One of Sanger’s patients died from a self-induced abortion, which led her to become more vocal about the unjustness that comes from restricting information on birth control. Sanger believed that the only way to achieve equal rights among men and women was for society to release women from the expected role of being a childbearing wife. In 1916, she attempted to open a contraceptive clinic in Brooklyn, New York, but was shut down after ten days. Despite being open for a short amount of time, the clinic had visits from 464 women. This staggering number displays the desperate need for contraception at the time.

Sanger continued her efforts to fight for contraception, and with support growing, she created the American Birth Control League (Galvin). In 1932, after Sanger was arrested for mailing birth control products, a judge from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals “ordered a relaxation of the Comstock laws at the federal level” (Primrose, 2012, p. 182). The opinion, written by Judge Augustus Hand, stated that contraception could no longer be described as “obscene,” and that there was a great amount of damage caused by this ban. He “ruled that doctors could prescribe birth control not only to prevent disease, but for the ‘general well-being’ of their patients” (Galvin, 1998). This was a great win for Sanger and those who also fought for the legalization of birth control.

In 1942, the American Birth Control League decided to switch their approach and portray birth control as a means of family planning rather than a way to “liberate women” (Primrose, 2012, p. 183). With this change in approach also came a name change: Planned Parenthood. Although Sanger did not approve of this shift in philosophy or name change, both helped the organization present itself as much friendlier towards both men and women, and to become socially accepted (Primrose, 2012, pp. 183–184).

As time went on, the feminist movement towards legalized contraception and abortion continued. In the 1960s, the women’s liberation movement gained much more support after many were being “inspired by the civil rights and anti-war movements” (Ravitz, 2016). This traction in the women’s movement could be seen in the years to come within court decisions.

First Comes Marriage

After the ruling by Augustus Hand in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, there was a large move towards the social acceptance of birth control. However, a Second Circuit decision is only binding in one jurisdiction. While this was a win for those within this area, and certainly did reflect a growing social acceptance, it was not sufficient to repeal laws nationwide. At this point, disagreement among the states on the issue of abortion was rising. For this reason, the issue rose all the way to the US Supreme Court.

Griswold v. Connecticut , 381 U.S. 479 (1965)

In 1965, the Supreme Court helped strike down any laws within the states that mimicked the Comstock Law in Griswold v. Connecticut. In this case, Estelle Griswold was the executive director of Planned Parenthood in Connecticut. Griswold was arrested for giving out information about contraception under a Connecticut law which banned this. The Supreme Court brought up the idea of privacy within homes and ruled that although the “right to privacy” is not overtly written in the Bill of Rights, it still is a fundamental right protected under the Constitution. They discussed the idea that the Bill of Rights throws “penumbras” under which certain fundamental rights lie. In this case specifically, the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Amendments all cast grey areas in which the “right to privacy” stands, which is then applied against the states using the Fourteenth Amendment. The court held that the Connecticut statute was overly broad and caused more harm than needed to be done. The statute encroached on a certain area in life where privacy is essential – inside a marriage. This ruling declared that a state is unable to ban the use of contraceptives within a marriage due to the right to privacy.

Then Comes All Persons

Eisenstadt v. Baird , 405 U.S. 438 (1972)

While this was a great win for birth control advocates, it only made the distribution of contraception legal for married couples. In 1972 came Eisenstadt v. Baird , the Supreme Court case which extended this ruling to single peoples as well. In this case, Bill Baird was arrested for selling birth control in the form of vaginal foam to multiple women at Boston University. He was charged under a Massachusetts statute that mimicked the previous federal Comstock Law. After the ruling of Griswold v. Connecticut , this statute had been amended, but it was only to legalize the distribution of birth control to married couples. In the opinion of Eisenstadt v. Baird , Supreme Court Justice William Brennan “declared that ‘whatever the right of the individual to access to contraceptives may be, the rights must be the same for the unmarried and the married alike’” (Garrow, 2001, p. 65). The foundation of this argument stemmed from the fact that “the law violated ‘the rights of single persons under the Equal Protection Clause’ of the Fourteenth Amendment” (Garrow, 2001, p. 64). This ruling helped establish legal contraception for all individuals.

Abortion Legalized Federally

Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

In 1973, the contraception movement came to a peak when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Roe v. Wade , federally legalizing abortion. In this case, a single pregnant woman in the state of Texas challenged a “criminal abortion statute which only allowed abortions ‘for the purpose of saving the life of the mother’” (Zagel, 1973). The plaintiff, named anonymously as Jane Roe to protect her identity, who was later revealed to be Norma McCorvey, asserted in the legal briefs that the statute was unconstitutional and a violation of the right to privacy, therefore the law was null and void. Texas argued that it has compelling state interests in the life of the mother, the protection of prenatal life, and in the discouragement of illicit sexual activity, making this statute constitutional. The court understood the state’s concern for the mother and unborn child but did not accept the argument regarding sexual activity. After weighing the valid points brought forward by both Roe and Texas, the Court ruled accordingly. In the first trimester, the state has no say, and all decisions are to be made between a woman and her doctor. In the second trimester, a woman is still able to receive an abortion, but the state is able to make some regulations in order to protect the mother’s life. In the third trimester, abortions are contingent upon demonstrated threats to the mother’s health, due to the fact that the life of the fetus is considered viable.

Throughout history, the idea of access to “family planning” – whether that be birth control or abortion – has been controversial. Abortion drugs were initially very common but were then banned under the Comstock Law after much lobbying by the American Medical Association. After this, feminist movements began picking up the fight for contraception. The pleas of the movements were not answered until much later, when the Supreme Court made their rulings in Griswold v. Connecticut, Eisenstadt v. Baird, and Roe v. Wade.

Before 1800s	Abortion before “quickening” is legal, both
1820s	begin passing statutes outlawing the use of abortion inducing drugs
1830-40s	A few begin passing statutes outlawing the actual procedure of abortion (Ohio, Missouri, Maine)
1860-80s	Anti-abortion statutes continue to pass throughout the in the nation, with 13 jurisdictions formally outlawing abortion for the first time
1965	v. , 381 U.S. 479 declares that a state is unable to ban the use of contraceptives within a marriage due to the right to privacy
1972	v. , 405 U.S. 438 legalizes the use of contraceptives for all individuals
1973	v. 410 U.S. 113 legalizes abortion

Figure 1: Legal Historical Timeline of Abortion and Reproductive Rights

II. Current Legal Obstacles Preventing Abortion

After several federal court decisions legalized abortion and the distribution of contraception, and any information regarding it, it seemed as though the fight for reproductive rights was over. Significantly, an “undue burden” on a woman was ruled as unconstitutional. Additionally, the American Medical Association, a previously large motivator in the anti-abortion movement, moved towards a more pro-choice viewpoint and backed up from being vocal against abortion. In 1990, the AMA stated that “the issue of support or opposition to abortion is a matter for members of the AMA to decide individually, based on personal values or beliefs.” In 2013, the Association as a whole shifted further towards pro-choice, stating that “the Principles of Medical Ethics of the AMA do not prohibit a physician from performing an abortion,” as long as it is done in “good medical practice” and does not violate the law (Hart, 2014, p. 292).

However, the federal court rulings only set a legislative basis for states, which were then responsible for the abortion statutes within their own borders. Despite the fact that abortion was made legal on the federal level, states were, and still are, able to enact statutes that could create certain barriers making it hard for women to obtain an abortion. These barriers include zoning laws, mandatory counseling, waiting periods, and minor consent or notification. Besides being inconvenient hurdles to overcome, these barriers also insinuate an assumption that women seeking abortions have not thoroughly contemplated their decision, and/or are not able to properly educate themselves before doing so.

Hyde Amendment of 1976

In 1976, the United States Congress passed an “amendment to a federal appropriations bill specific to [the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services].” This amendment, titled the Hyde Amendment, “prohibits using U.S. federal funds to pay for abortions in programs administered through” the two aforementioned federal departments. One of the programs that is affected by this amendment is Medicaid, which is “a joint state-federal program for low-income people.” Under the Hyde Amendment, Medicaid programs in states are unable to access and use federal funds to help low-income people get abortions. Since its installment, the Amendment has “been altered to include exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape and incest” (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 341–342, 774). This Amendment is a possible barrier for women who are unable to afford an abortion on their own, which is discussed further below.

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey , 505 U.S. 833 (1992)

In 1989, Pennsylvania passed the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act, which sought to intensely restrict a woman’s ability to get an abortion. Under this law:

A woman seeking an abortion must (i) be given certain state-approved information about the abortion procedure and give her informed consent; (ii) wait 24 [hours] before the abortion procedure [after receiving this information]; (iii) if the woman was a minor she had to obtain parental consent; and (iv) if the woman was married she had to notify her husband, in writing of her intended abortion (Medoff, 2009).

Following the passing of this law, the Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit, claiming that the law was unconstitutional. The suit made its way to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that “states could regulate abortions before viability as long as the regulation did not place an ‘undue burden’ on a woman’s access to an abortion” (Medoff, 2009). However, the Court did not give an explicit definition of what an “undue burden” entails, giving states leeway to enact restrictions on the access to abortion. The Court also upheld the first three parts of Pennsylvania’s statute, but struck down the fourth, requiring husband notification. By upholding the first three, the Supreme Court allowed Pennsylvania to set the stage for other states across the nation which sought to limit the access to abortion (Medoff, 2009).

Types of Abortion Barriers

Zoning Laws

One possible barrier to abortion access that states are able to implement is zoning laws. Under the Constitution, each state has a certain amount of police powers that allow for the enactment of laws and regulations that aim to protect, preserve, and promote the public safety, health, morals, and general welfare of the people (Legal Information Institute). Local governments within states are able to pass zoning laws in the community under these police powers. “Zoning laws determine what types of land uses and densities can occur on each property lot in a municipality.” In some areas throughout the nation, local governments use zoning ordinances to limit the areas where abortion providers can reside (Maantay, 2002, pp. 572–575). This topic is further discussed below.

Mandatory Counseling

According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of March 1, 2019, “34 states require that women receive counseling before an abortion is performed” (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). The legal basis of mandatory counseling laws lies upon the principle of informed consent. This principle is the idea that patients “have the right to receive accurate and unbiased medical information from their health care provider so that they can make an informed decision about their treatment” (Medoff, 2009). Mandatory counseling laws in states make it a requirement for physicians to read a “’script’ to any patient seeking an abortion” (Rose, 2006, p. 105). These scripts are specific to each state, which are left to approve of the information they wish to include. While the counseling information may vary state-to-state in terms of what exactly must be included, each have the same general idea: to warn women who are seeking an abortion of the possible complications, side effects, and other options.

To stay in accordance with the idea of providing unbiased and objective information, states must also counsel women about options other than abortion, and the possible effects associated with them. For example, North Carolina’s “Woman’s Right to Know Act” states that physicians must inform the woman that she “has other alternatives to abortion, including keeping the baby or placing the baby for adoption.” The act also requires abortion providers to provide patients with printed materials that detail the possible complications and effects of abortion, “as well as the medical risks associated with carrying an unborn child to term” (Stam, 2012, pp. 18–20).

The issue with this counseling is that not all the information distributed is necessarily accurate and may “dissuade women from having an abortion by giving them biased medical information … that is deliberately inaccurate and false” (Medoff, 2009).

One piece of information included in the counseling materials of several states is the idea that “abortion is detrimental to a woman’s mental health” (Medoff, 2009). While this may be the case for some women who receive abortions, it is not true for all. This topic is considered further below.

Other information that is commonplace in counseling materials is that abortions are linked to future medical issues within women. In 6 out of the 34 states that include mention of medical issues, the emphasis is on the correlation between abortion and breast cancer, and 22 out of 34 include information about infertility (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). However, research has shown that the claims being made are not necessarily accurate. Among the 6 states that discuss breast cancer, 5 “inaccurately assert a link between abortion and an increased risk of breast cancer” (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). Furthermore, in 1996, The National Cancer Institute stated that after doing research, they found “no evidence of a direct relationship between breast cancer and either induced or spontaneous abortion” (Medoff, 2009). Regarding infertility, there is research showing that “vacuum” abortions, which are “the most common method used in over 90% of all abortions – poses no long-term risk of infertility” (Medoff, 2009). In 4 of the 22 states that discuss infertility, the risk is inaccurately portrayed (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). The distribution of this inaccurate information may scare women away from having an abortion, fearing they will have serious health complications in the future.

In 13 out of the 34 states, the mandatory counseling information tells women that the fetus is able to feel pain during the procedure of the abortion (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). However, not every state provides the same facts. In South Dakota, women are told that the fetus feels pain no matter how far along the pregnancy may be. In Texas, women are told the fetus can feel pain as early as 12 weeks, while women in Arkansas and Georgia are told it is 20 weeks (Medoff, 2009). However, research has shown “that the necessary physical structures to perceive pain develop between 23 and 30 weeks’ gestation” (Gold & Nash, 2007). This disagreement between states clearly shows how inaccurate the information being distributed to women may be.

Aside from possibly dissuading women from getting an abortion by providing potential complications and side effects, the counseling information can also be laced with bias language meant to do the same. For example, in 2003, Texas passed a law entitled “Woman’s Right to Know Act,” which required abortion patients be given a twenty-three-pages long booklet discussing all of the possible risks listed above. However, the booklet refers to the fetus as an “unborn child,” using word choice to place personhood on the fetus (Rose, 2006, p. 106). It also “speaks at length about the euphoria of giving birth,” while barely touching on the possible issue of post-partum depression if the woman chooses to have the child (Rose, 2006, p. 106). The subtle use of language and emphasis on happy childbirth shows that the state favors the idea of carrying the fetus to term rather than letting the woman have an abortion.

Waiting Periods

Following the mandatory counseling, as of March 1, 2019, 27 out of these 34 states require that there be a waiting period of at least 24 hours until the woman can receive the abortion (Guttmacher Institute, 2019a). In these cases, women are required to visit the physician twice: once to be counseled, and second to undergo the procedure after the waiting period is complete. While this may be a minor inconvenience for some women, it can be quite major for others. For example, if a woman has traveled a far distance to receive the abortion, there are extra costs involved, whether that be money for gasoline, public transportation fees, and/or paying to stay in a hotel. By forcing these women to visit the physician twice, the money they are spending increases, whether that be by a few dollars for a couple of more gallons of gasoline in their car or by a few hundred dollars for an extra night in a hotel room. While the waiting period may be a helpful time for some women to read and further inform themselves on the procedure they are about to receive, it may be a burden for others who have already confirmed their decision and cannot afford these extra costs (Rose, 2006, p. 106).

Minor Consent or Notification

As of March 1 2019, 37 states in the nation require the involvement of a minor’s parent when deciding to have an abortion. In 11 of these 37 only require parental notification, while 21 require parental consent (Guttmacher Institute, 2019b). Among the many barriers put on access to abortion, “parental involvement laws have some of the highest public support” (Rose, 2006, p. 107). A large portion of this support comes from the idea that minor’s may be too immature to make this life-altering decision on their own and require the potentially important input of their parents (Rose, 2006, p. 107).

In an attempt to avoid the laws requiring them to involve their parent, some young girls travel across state lines to receive the procedure in a state that does not have these laws. If that is not a possibility, other girls turn to unsafe illegal procedures to terminate their pregnancy (Rose, 2006, p. 107). One specific example of this is Becky Bell, a seventeen-year-old girl from Indianapolis. In 1988, afraid to inform her parents that she was pregnant, Becky sought out an illegal abortion (Lewin, 1991). During the procedure, unsanitary instruments were used, which resulted in the young girl contracting a bodily infection. Within one week, Becky’s veins collapsed, her heart stopped, and she died (Rose, 2006, p. 107). This case became an example of the potential issues with the forced involvement of parents.

While parental involvement laws may seem rational, they pay no attention to the possible circumstances within each minor’s situation. For a young girl who has an open and close relationship with her parents, these laws may not pose an issue. Oppositely, for a young girl who has a distant, unhealthy, and/or violent relationship with her parents, such as Becky Bell, these laws may be extremely problematic. In a 1991 study that looked at reasons why minors seeking abortions did not want to inform their parents, the most common reasons listed “were wanting to preserve their relationship with their parents and wanting to protect the parents from stress and conflict” (Henshaw & Kost, 1992). These reasons may be especially true in a household where the pregnancy is the result of a friend/family rape, which would put much stress on the family relationships. Due to these possible issues, 36 out of the 37 states with parental involvement laws “include a judicial bypass procedure, which allows a minor to obtain approval from a court” (Guttmacher Institute, 2019b). This procedure, if approved, grants a minor the ability to receive an abortion without involving a parent.

Current Federal Administration

Election of Donald Trump

Although states have been able to place these barriers limiting the access to abortion within their borders, the rights granted in Roe v. Wade have continued to hold steady in federal law. However, more recently, there has been fear of a perceived threat to these rights. This fear began with the election of President Donald Trump in November 2016. When elected, Trump vowed “to nominate socially conservative Supreme Court Justices, withhold federal funding from Planned Parenthood, and sign legislation banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy” (Reinhard, 2016). Although Trump has not signed any legislation doing so, he has indeed followed through on the first two promises.

Nomination of Socially Conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh

In 2018, President Donald Trump nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to become a Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Since this nomination, Kavanaugh has been elected to the Supreme Court, replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy, who “protected [ Roe v. Wade ] as the court’s swing vote on abortion” (Bassett, 2018). By replacing Kennedy, Kavanaugh creates “a solid conservative majority on the court,” which could potentially threaten Roe , given his standpoint on the issue of abortion (Gershman, 2018). Although Kavanaugh has not spoken directly about his views on the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade , he has spoken about “the government’s ‘permissible interests’ in ‘favoring fetal life’ and ‘refraining from facilitating abortion,’” indicating his opinions on the subject lean toward a pro-life viewpoint (Bassett, 2018). However, despite the possible personal opinions of Kavanaugh, he has stated that he believes Roe v. Wade is a “settled law” (Gershman, 2018). While there was no further explanation on what exactly Kavanaugh meant by those words, a logical interpretation would mean that “he believes the precedent is too deeply embedded in the fabric of the law to be re-examined” (Gershman, 2018). This would mean that Kavanaugh himself is not even confident in the fact that the Supreme Court could overturn the landmark decision.

Trigger Laws

Although the possibility of Roe v. Wade being overturned is questionable, some states have “trigger laws” set up in the event that it does happen. These laws are blatant state bans put on abortion, but are presently unconstitutional, therefore, unenforceable. The point of these laws is to have statutes set in place, ready to “become enforceable without further legislative action” the moment Roe v. Wade gets overturned, if ever (Rose, 2006, p. 102). The states that have put these laws in place are Mississippi, Louisiana, North Dakota, and South Dakota (Gershman, 2018).

Gag Rules Withholding Federal Funding from Planned Parenthood

When getting elected, President Trump also promised to withhold federal funding from Planned Parenthood. In February 2019, the Trump administration announced, “that it will bar organizations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal family planning money” (Belluck, 2019). This new legislation is a form of a “gag rule,” which “prohibit those working in state-run health care facilities from even speaking of abortions as an option with patients” (Rose, 2006, p. 109). In this specific federal rule, “clinics will be able to talk to patients about abortion, but not where they can get one” (Belluck, 2019). This means that organizations meant to help women, such as Planned Parenthood, could potentially lose millions of dollars in funding (Belluck, 2019). As of this writing a federal court in Washington state issued a nationwide injunction that stops the rule from taking effect while various lawsuits are pending (Barbash, 2019).

Trump Reinstatement of Global Gag Rule

Aside from being present within the United States, every recent Republican Administration has enforced such gag rules internationally. “The United States is the largest donor of international family planning money, which is dispersed through the United States Agency for International Development.” This agency “funds international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in contraceptives, training, technical assistance, and other family planning needs.” However, in 1984, the Reagan Administration instituted a global gag rule, which mandated that any NGO “that performed or promoted abortion services” were no longer “eligible for USAID funding,” even if abortion was legal in their jurisdiction. When the Clinton Administration came into power, this global gag rule was overturned. This back-and-forth has continued ever since, with the Bush Administration reinstating the global gag rule, and then the Obama Administration overturning it (Gezinski, 2012, pp. 839–840). Predictably, President Trump reinstated it – on his first day in office. This global gag rule is a large setback for many countries in the developing world, where NGOs are a primary source for women’s health care. For example, in some parts of Africa, these clinics “offer HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, maternal health, and counseling on sexual violence like genital mutilation.” This rule also cuts funding for the International sector of Planned Parenthood (Quackenbush, 2018). By cutting funding to NGOs around the world, the global gag rule can have serious effects on a woman’s ability to get proper health care.

III. Possible Effects After Having an Abortion or Being Denied an Abortion

Before being able to fully understand the potential effects of an abortion, one should know exactly what the abortion process consists of. There are multiple different kinds of abortion procedures a woman can receive that vary in methods and depend on how far along the pregnancy is. By being fully educated on the details of the actual procedure, individuals are able to understand the issues surrounding abortion on a more comprehensive level. The following paragraphs will go through the vital specifics of each procedure.

Receiving an Abortion: How is it Done?

First Trimester Abortions

“In the United States, most abortions (88 percent) are performed during the first trimester,” which includes the first twelve weeks of pregnancy. Currently, there are two different forms of first-trimester abortions: a medication abortion or an aspiration abortion. A woman is able to choose which one she wishes to receive. As of 2011, aspiration abortion is more commonly used than medication abortion, but the interest for the latter continues to rise. If a medication abortion fails, an aspiration abortion is necessary to abort the fetus (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 324–328).

“In a medication abortion, the pregnancy is interrupted and expelled over the course of a few days using medicines.” While in the presence of the doctor, a woman swallows a pill containing a drug called mifepristone. Later, when at home, the woman takes another drug, misoprostol, either by inserting it vaginally or letting is dissolve inside her mouth. The abortion begins a few hours later, consisting of heavy bleeding and cramping. To ensure the abortion worked, the woman must go back to the doctor one week later for a follow-up appointment. In 95 to 98 percent of cases, this method is effective. However, if it fails, the woman must then undergo an aspiration abortion (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 324–326).

In an aspiration abortion, also known as surgical or vacuum abortion, “suction is used to remove the pregnancy.” A thin tube, called a cannula, is “inserted into the uterus and connected to a source of suction, either an electric pump or a handheld syringe,” which then removes the fetus from the woman. Unlike medical abortions, aspiration abortions only take 5-10 minutes to complete and do not require a follow-up appointment with the doctor unless the woman is experiencing problems (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 324–328).

Second and Third Trimester Abortions

When Do They Happen?

“In the United States, about 12 percent of all abortions take place after the first trimester” (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 332). Women enter the second trimester of pregnancy at week 12, and the third trimester at week 28 (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 332; Cha, 2015). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2015, only “about 1.3 percent of abortions were performed at or greater than 21 weeks of gestation.” This means that within the aforementioned 12 percent, almost all of these abortions are done during the beginning and middle of the second trimester. In the rare cases where women seek abortions in their third trimesters, the reasons are serious and based on “an absence of fetal viability,” and/or risks to the mother’s health or life (Cha, 2015).

Procedure Details

For second and third trimester abortions, the procedures differ from those in the first trimester. Currently, there are two different methods used to abort a fetus after the first trimester: dilation and evacuation (D&E), and induction abortion (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 332).

In a D&E procedure, the fetal and placental tissues are removed by using a combination of instruments and suction. This method is more commonly used, and quite similar to the aspiration abortions performed during the first trimester. However, due to the fact that the pregnancy is further along, the woman’s cervix must “be opened wider to allow the larger pregnancy tissue to pass, which requires the clinician to soften and dilate the cervix ahead of time.” This can take anywhere from a few hours to two days and can be done either by the use of instruments (osmotic dilators), or drugs (misprostol). The earlier a woman is in her pregnancy, the less time this portion of the abortion takes. After the cervix is prepared, “the clinician removes the pregnancy (fetal and placental tissue) with vacuum aspiration, forceps, and a curette (a small, spoonlike instrument)” (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 332–333).

“After a certain point in pregnancy (usually around twenty-four weeks), a D&E can no longer be performed and the only option is an induction abortion.” In an induced abortion, a woman is given drugs that induce labor. The drugs that are used can vary depending on the circumstances of the situation, and can either be inserted into the vagina, be given through an intravenous line, or injected into the woman’s abdomen. These drugs cause contractions of the uterus, thus sending the woman into labor. The fetus and placenta are then ‘delivered,’ expelling the pregnancy. This method “usually takes place in specialized facilities or hospitals,” and takes more time than D&E’s. Due to this, and the fact that it forces women to endure the mental and physical stress of labor, induction abortion is less commonly chosen than D&E. However, in a case where the pregnancy being ended is wanted, this method allows the woman to deliver and hold the fetus, and say good-bye (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 332–334).

Reasons Why Women May Get an Abortion

Despite the possible attempts by state law to limit a woman’s ability to get an abortion, the medical procedure is still performed across the nation. While the specific reasoning behind every abortion is different in each individual situation, in many cases, there are common themes of reasoning.

In 2004, a study was done by the Guttmacher Institute to explore the reasons why a woman may seek an abortion. In the study, over 1200 abortion patients at 11 providers completed a survey that asked questions regarding their reasoning. The first portion of the survey was open ended, asking the woman to briefly explain why she was choosing to get an abortion at that time. If there were multiple reasons, she was asked to give them in order from most to least important. After that, there were specific reasons listed that the woman had to confirm whether or not were applicable to her. There were three large reasons listed that then provided even more specific sub-reasons underneath. These three included: “having a baby would dramatically change my life,” “can’t afford a baby now,” and “don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems” (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). Under “having a baby would dramatically change my life,” the sub-reasons for why it would do so were because it would interfere with the patient’s education and/or career, and/or because she already had other dependents in her life (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). Under “can’t afford a baby now,” a few sub-reasons for lack of funds were because the woman was unemployed, could not leave her job to care for the child, and/or could not even afford the basic necessities of life (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). Under “don’t want to be a single mother or having relationship problems,” a couple sub-reasons were because the woman was unsure about her current relationship, or because she was not in a relationship at the moment (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). After the breakdown of these three large reasons, there were various others listed, including: “have completed my childbearing,” “don’t want people to know I had sex,” “don’t feel mature enough to raise a child,” “victim of rape,” and “result of incest” (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). Finally, the questionnaire provided a space where the woman could write in her own reasons that were not listed or did not qualify within the given categories. The results showed that most women identified with reasons that fell within the three large ones, with 74% of respondents feeling that “having a baby would dramatically change [their] life,” 73% saying they “[could not] afford a baby [at the moment],” and 48% “[citing] relationship problems or a desire to avoid single motherhood” (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). This study provided many possible reasons as to why a woman may seek an abortion.

In 2013, a similar study was published by BioMed Central Women’s Health that examined the reasons why women get abortions. This study looked at the data collected during the Turnaway Study , which was done to evaluate “the health and socioeconomic consequences of receiving or being denied an abortion in the US” (Biggs et al., 2013, p. 1). Although the premise of the Turnaway Study was not to focus on the reasons why women wanted an abortion, those who participated were required to give their reasoning. This 2013 study took those women’s answers and analyzed them. The sample for this study was “954 women from 30 abortion facilities across the US,” who were questioned between 2008 and 2010 (Biggs et al., 2013, p. 1). Many of the reason’s women mentioned in this study overlapped with those given during the 2004 study, falling under the general concepts of financial instability, partner-related issues, and inconvenient timing. However, some women delved into other reasons motivating their decision. Out of all the respondents, 12% had health-related reasons regarding either herself, the fetus, or both. One woman explained that the medication she had been taking for her bipolar disorder was known to cause birth defects and felt it would be considered child abuse to bring a baby into the world knowing that it may have life-altering defects. Five percent of respondents mentioned reasons that included family members. One woman was scared her family would not accept that she would be having a biracial child, while another stated that her dad wanted her to finish school before having a child (Biggs et al., 2013, pp. 7–8). The 2013 study differed from the 2004 study in the fact that the women were only given open ended questions to answer, rather than checking off possible reasons from a provided list. This emphasis on personal words helped yield answers that reflected how each woman’s reasoning is specific to her own life and situation.

It is important to note that every woman and situation is different. While these studies show a plethora of reasons why women decide to get abortions, the circumstances surrounding every single abortion are personal to the individual(s) involved. The range of reasons can include physical and mental health issues, economic needs, and/or fear of social stigma.

Potential Physical, Sociological, and Psychological Effects of Abortions

A hypothetical woman who wanted an abortion did it. She jumped through all the hoops: she was granted the fundamental right to receive one by the federal government, came to the educated and reasonable decision that she wanted one, overcame any legal barriers her state instituted on the matter, and was able to get the abortion she sought out to get. Now what? Does the life-altering procedure she just underwent truly alter her life? Or does she return to her regular weekly schedule, viewing the abortion as a minor inconvenience in her life?

The general consensus on this matter is contradicting. When speaking about physical, sociological, and psychological health, some research states that there are no effects on women who receive an abortion, while other research state that they are indeed affected. That is because “both opponents and advocates could easily prove their case by picking and choosing from a wide range of contradictory evidence” (Arthur, 1997, p. 7).

Physical Effects

After receiving an abortion, there is research concluding that women may suffer from possible physical health effects in the future. The effects that will be discussed below are increased risk of breast cancer and future reproductive health issues.

Breast Cancer

One health risk that has been linked to abortion is an increased risk to breast cancer. According to biologist and endocrinologist Joel Brind, Ph.D., as stated in an article published in Human Life Review :

Breast lobules, which are the lactational apparatus of the breast, remain in their immature Type 1 and 2 states unless they are stimulated by a pregnancy. The pregnancy signals the mother’s body to send estrogen (a potential carcinogen) to her breasts, and the lobules begin to multiply. This multiplication continues until the thirty-second week of pregnancy, when the milk cells are fully mature. If a woman has an abortion or delivers prematurely before the thirty-second week, cancer is more likely to develop in the immature cells. Mature milk cells are much less prone to becoming cancerous (Adamek, 2017, p. 28).

Many other health professionals agree upon this statement and have offered further medical information. One comprehensive review that looked at the link between breast cancer and induced abortion stated that “it is only after 32 weeks’ gestation that elevated levels of pregnancy hormones allow sufficient maturation of cancer-resistant breast tissue to occur” (Lanfranchi & Fagan, 2014, p. 5). After carrying a pregnancy to full-term, “only about 10 to 30 percent of a mother’s breast tissue remains susceptible to forming cancer,” and this risk decreases another 10 percent with each subsequent pregnancy (Lanfranchi & Fagan, 2014, p. 6).

Future Reproductive Health

Another physical health risk that has been linked to abortion is the risk of future reproductive health issues. Although occurring in less than 1% of cases, after an abortion, there is a possibility that a woman can develop an upper genital tract infection. The upper genital tract involves the pelvis and fallopian tubes, which are important parts of a woman’s reproductive system. Serious infections can cause major issues to these, including chronic pelvic pain and damage to the fallopian tubes. This damage can consequentially lead to future issues, such as infertility and ectopic pregnancy (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 318; Lohr et al., 2014, p. 4).

Physical Health: Opposing Views

Despite these statements, there have been dissenting opinions on the idea that induced abortions and breast cancer are linked. “In February 2003, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) convened a workshop of over 100 of the world’s leading experts who study pregnancy and breast cancer risk” (National Cancer Institute, 2003). The conclusion of this workshop was that having an abortion “does not increase a woman’s subsequent risk of developing breast cancer” (National Cancer Institute, 2003). The NCI is a part of the National Institutes of Health under the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and states on the website homepage that it is “the nation’s leader in cancer research.” Due to the fact that it is an organization under the federal government, one can assume that the research they publish is trustworthy. This disagreement upon health professionals makes it hard for women to know the true risk. The scientific facts of the development of breasts points to a clear correlation between abortion and breast cancer, but the highly respected National Cancer Institute dissents from that idea. Similarly, in regard to the possible development of an upper genital tract infection, it is difficult for women to measure the possible risk. The fact that it happens in only 1% of cases is promising, but women are left unsure of whether or not they will end up falling into that small percentage until they actually undergo the abortion procedure.

Sociological Effects

Social Norms and Stigmas

Within every society, there are certain human behaviors that become normalized over time. These behaviors, also known as “social norms,” can include essentially anything about a person, such as how they speak or dress, their mannerisms, or traits of their personality. A stigma can be described as “an attribute that is deeply discrediting that negatively changes the identity of an individual to a tainted, discounted one” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 626). Stigmas are created and reproduced through a social process. In a 2001 Annual Review of Sociology , Link and Phelan describe this process:

In the first component, people distinguish and label human differences. In the second, dominant cultural beliefs link labelled persons to undesirable characteristics – to negative stereotypes. In the third, labelled persons are placed in distinct categories so as to accomplish some degree of separation of ‘us’ from ‘them’. In the fourth, labelled persons experience status loss and discrimination that lead to unequal outcomes (2001, p. 367).

Throughout history, worldwide, societies have constructed and enforced stereotypical social norms on women as a whole. Some of the most widely held stereotypes are based around the fact that women bear children. Female sexuality can be seen “solely for procreation,” and becoming a mother viewed as being natural and inevitable (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 628). Due to this, societal norms may expect women to be instinctually warm, kind, caring, and nurturing. Therefore, when a woman wishes to end a pregnancy by receiving an abortion, she is challenging these “assumptions about the ‘essential nature’ of women” by using “her agency to deem a potential life unwanted and then [acting] to end that potential life” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 628). By terminating a fetus, which would eventually develop into a baby, a woman getting an abortion deviates from the assumption that she should be naturally maternal. Instead, she may be labelled with opposite stereotypes, seen as being heartless, promiscuous, and/or selfish. Consequentially, for those who accept these social norms about women, abortion can be seen as a stigmatized act (Kumar et al., 2009, pp. 628–629).

Stigma Causes Underreporting, Which Perpetuates Further Stigma

Over the past several decades, surveys have been an essential way for researchers to gather data on topics they are studying. However, “the usefulness of surveys in studying highly personal or sensitive individual characteristics” has been questioned (Jagannathan, 2001, p. 1825). This may include topics that involve things that are typically regarded as private matters, such as mental health, income, and/or sexual behavior. Personal topics like these can easily have some type of stigma attached to them if a person deviates from any type of social norm within the matter. Survey data involving these topics may be inaccurate if people refuse to participate, even if they are affected by the topic, in fear of being a social deviant. As previously mentioned, abortion is a controversial issue in society that has been stigmatized. Therefore, women who have gotten abortions may feel a social pressure to stay silent, making “it challenging to know the true prevalence of abortion in a given community” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 629). Studies that have specifically looked at the underreporting of abortions have stated that “only 35% to 60% of abortions are reported in surveys” (Jagannathan, 2001, p. 1825). The social construction of deviance in regard to abortion creates an ongoing cycle of silence about the topic. This cycle is demonstrated in the following chart, provided by Kumar (2009, p. 629):

Figure 2: Cycle of Stigmatization in Society

This chart shows how “silence and fear of social exclusion keeps women” from speaking openly about abortion, “thus sustaining the negative stereotype” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 630). Underreporting of the issue makes it seem uncommon, which makes it a deviant from social norms. Those who do not behave in accordance with social norms are typically outcasted or discriminated against, making women who get abortions fear stigmatization and not report it, consequentially creating inaccurate data due to underreporting. This then brings the issue back to the beginning of the cycle (Kumar et al., 2009, pp. 629–630).

Psychological Effects

Similar to the physical health effects linked with abortion, the idea that there are mental health consequences after receiving the procedure is a topic of controversy. However, the issue with psychological compared to physical is the fact that every individual is different, and every mind works in unique ways. Physical effects are a matter of science and fact, while psychological effects rely on the unpredictability of the human brain. There is research concluding that after receiving an abortion, women may suffer from possible mental health effects. The effects that will be discussed below are “post-abortion syndrome,” anxiety/panic disorders, and depression.

Post-Abortion Syndrome

The largest source of controversy within the discussion of abortion and possible mental health effects stems from the concept of “post-abortion syndrome.” The idea behind this syndrome is that abortion can cause women “severe and long-lasting guilt, depression, rage, and social and sexual dysfunction,” and can be categorized under post-traumatic-stress-disorder (Arthur, 1997, p. 7). However, this so-called syndrome is “not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association” (Robinson et al., 2009, p. 269).

Anxiety/Panic Disorders and Depression

Over the years, studies have been done that concur with the idea that abortion is linked to post-abortion syndrome and further mental health problems. Research has stated that most panic disorders in adults form in the six months following a major stressful life event. Therefore, if women view the abortion they received as a traumatic life event, it “may trigger a psychological .. process that culminates in an anxiety disorder” (Coleman et al., 2009, p. 775). Aside from anxiety disorders, a 2009 study found:

Women who have aborted are at a higher risk for a variety of mental health problems including anxiety (panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia, PTSD), mood (bipolar disorder, major depression with and without hierarchy), and substance abuse disorders when compared to women without a history of abortion (Coleman et al., 2009, p. 775).

When looking specifically at anxiety and depression, the study found that among women who had abortions, the risk for panic disorders increased by 111%, and the risk for depression increased by 45% (Coleman et al., 2009, p. 773).

Furthermore, in 2011, “a comprehensive review and analysis of 22 of the world’s best large studies of abortion’s impact on women’s mental health” concluded that “women who had undergone an abortion experienced an 81 percent greater risk of mental health problems” (Adamek, 2017, p. 32).

Psychological Effects: Opposing Views

Despite the studies claiming that women who get abortions are at a higher risk for mental health issues, there is also research that opposes this view.

One study examined 442 women over a two-year period to assess their mental health after receiving an abortion. Those who participated were evaluated one hour before the abortion, and then one hour, one month, and two years after. The study assessed the women for “preabortion and postabortion depression and self-esteem, postabortion emotions, decision satisfaction, perceived harm and benefit, and posttraumatic stress disorder.” The results concluded that two years after receiving their abortion, 72% of the women were satisfied with the decision they made, and 69% would make the same decision again. From pre-abortion to post-abortion, depression decreased, self-esteem increased, and some women reported feeling a sense of relief more than any negative emotions (Major et al., 2000). Further research has agreed with this, stating that “although there may be sensations of regret, sadness, or guilt,” more frequently, women “report feeling relief and happiness” following their abortion (Adler et al., 1990, p. 41). It is important to note that “feelings” do not translate into true psychological issues. For example, a woman may feel a sense of sadness following the procedure, but that does not imply she is clinically depressed.

Link Between Socio- and Psycho-

When looking at whether abortion has a psychological effect on women, it is important to note the intersectionality between sociology and psychology. As discussed above, culturally developed societal norms and stigmas influence individuals to behave and think certain ways. Therefore, the way abortion is socially accepted within a certain group may have an impact on the psychological effects a woman experiences after getting the procedure. If a woman belongs to a community where there are stereotypes put on women, and stigma surrounding abortion, she may have a poor view of herself afterwards. “Women may feel that they are selfish or immoral because they perceive themselves to be defying familial expectations, cultural norms or ideas of motherhood” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 633). In comparison, if women are part of a community that shows support for their personal decision, they “may experience less grief and anxiety than those who were unsupported by their communities or the larger environment” (Kumar et al., 2009, p. 632). This interrelationship shows how important it is to be socially accepted within society, and how being outcasted may cause real psychological issues within human beings.

Trauma from Unwanted Pregnancy

When looking at the possible realness of “post-abortion syndrome,” it is essential to look more deeply at the root of the issue. This syndrome claims that abortion is an event so traumatic that it may lead to serious psychological effects for women. However, this poses the question: is the abortion the traumatic life event triggering psychological issues, or is it the unwanted pregnancy?

In 2008, the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Mental Health and Abortion published a report that “concluded ‘that among women who have a single, legal, first-trimester abortion of an unplanned pregnancy … the relative risks of mental health problems are no greater than risks among women who deliver an unplanned pregnancy” (Kaplan, 2009). Furthermore, one study concluded that abortion patients who “had no intention to become pregnant” were significantly less depressed than women whose pregnancy was wanted and “viewed as personally meaningful by the woman” (Adler et al., 1990, p. 42). These research findings indicate the possibility that it is the unplanned/unwanted pregnancy that raises the risk of psychological issues, rather than the actual abortion.

Abortion is Not Always an Option

Making the choice to get an abortion is a huge decision. Women are forced to decide whether they want to alter their lives by going through pregnancy and bringing a child into the world, or if they want to terminate the fetus and risk the possible side effects. However, for some women, the burden of this choice is not the only difficult part about the situation. Depending on circumstances, even if a woman wants to get an abortion, the likelihood of getting one may be close to impossible. As discussed above, states have been able to pass statutes within their borders that make it difficult for a woman to get an abortion. These legislative barriers include zoning laws, mandatory counseling, waiting periods, and minor consent or notification. On top of these legal obstacles put in place by the state, there may be additional conditions that cause prevention of the procedure. Two large circumstances that may play into a woman’s decision are her geographical location and her financial situation.

Reasons Why Women May Not Be Able to Get an Abortion

Zoning laws and access to abortion providers .

One large obstacle for women who wish to receive an abortion is the ability to access a provider. As discussed above, some local governments attempt to block abortion providers from residing in an area by using zoning laws, applicable under the police powers given to each state. The use of these zoning ordinances to limit providers can make it extremely difficult for women who want to get an abortion to be able to find a place to receive the procedure within a reasonable geographical range.

A couple current examples of the use of these zoning laws to limit access to abortion providers can be seen in Manassas, Virginia, and San Antonio, Texas. In 2015, both the city’s made amendments to their zoning codes that consequentially affected the access to abortion providers.

In Manassas, Virginia, the amendment “[requires] medical care facilities, including abortion clinics, to obtain a special use permit that would be granted only after a period of public comment and City Council approval.” This means that any new clinics trying to open in Manassas would need to obtain the permit, as well as any current clinics that want to relocate or make expanding renovations. Due to the fact that the city’s council is predominantly Republican, the need for their approval may cause a possible barrier for abortion providers (Stein, 2015).

In San Antonio, Texas, a bill was passed in 2013 that required “all facilities that provide abortion services [to] meet the standards of an [ambulatory surgical center] in order to remain in operation.” Then, in 2015, a zoning code amendment was passed that put restrictions on where these centers can be built. Under the new amendment, ASC’s cannot be built in C-1 areas – a level of classified area for commercial use – “without permission from the Zoning Committee and the City Council, both of which will then have to vote on each individual case.” Similar to the amendment made in Manassas, Virginia, these San Antonio zoning laws “effectively [target] any future abortion providers in the city (Cato, 2015).

Access to Abortion Providers

“Most abortions are provided by freestanding clinics,” and “fewer than 5 percent of abortions are performed in hospitals” (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 317). As of 2008, only 610 hospitals in the US perform abortions, and 87% of counties do not have an abortion provider. This means that for the women who want an abortion but do not live in that small thirteen-percent that have providers, they must travel outside of their local community to get one. Large organizations such as Planned Parenthood and The National Abortion Federation provide resources for women to help find the closest abortion providers (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 317–318).

Financial Situation and Cost of Abortion

Just like anything in life, the abortion procedure has a cost. According to Planned Parenthood, an abortion can cost anywhere between zero and almost a thousand dollars. Whether it is performed in a clinic or hospital, and is paid for by the patient, insurance, or government funding, someone is paying for it in the end. However, the price tag of the procedure is not one-size-fits-all. The cost of an abortion varies on many factors, including where the procedure is taking place or how far along a woman’s pregnancy is.

Another factor is the type of abortion a woman decides to get, as discussed above. Due to the fact that these abortions include various differences: where they take place (home vs. doctor’s office), what is used (medication vs. instruments), and follow-up care, the cost of the type a woman gets may vary. Further, if a woman has to get an aspiration abortion after the failure of a medication abortion, she is forced to pay for both.

A few final factors that involve the cost of an abortion are whether or not a woman has health insurance and her overall financial situation, which will be further discussed below (Emily @ Planned Parenthood, 2014).

Cost of Abortion: Health Insurance, Income, and Funding

A large factor that plays into the cost of the procedure is whether or not the patient has health insurance. This factor is different from the rest because it does not determine the actual cost of the procedure, but rather how the procedure will be paid for. If she does have health insurance, it may cover some or all of the costs of the abortion. The patient must call her insurance provider to find out about her coverage. If she does not have health insurance, or chooses not to use it to maintain privacy, the patient must pay out of pocket (Emily @ Planned Parenthood, 2014). Depending on her income and/or financial situation, this factor may be debilitating to the woman seeking the abortion and completely prevent her ability to get one. Simply put, if you cannot pay for a service, you cannot receive a service.

One source, The National Network of Abortion Funds, provides a website where women can search their location and find different organizations that may help them with the costs of their abortion (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, p. 320). On the “About” page of their website, the NNAF states that some of their member organizations “work with clinics to help pay for [women’s] abortions[s].” Other member organizations offer to help with different factors that may cost the woman, such as childcare, transportation, and/or a place to stay if they had to travel for the abortion ( About: What are Abortion Funds , n.d.).

In some states, the government may offer financial assistance to women through “Medicaid programs [that] use state funds to provide abortion coverage.” However, “twenty state Medicaid programs do not fund abortion under any circumstances.” As mentioned above, the Hyde Amendment prohibits state Medicaid programs to use federal funds to help pay for abortions. This barrier contributes to a lack of funding, which in turn hurts poor women who are desperately searching for a way to pay for the procedure (Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, 2011, pp. 341–342).

Furthermore, if the domestic gag rule takes effect, this will affect the range of choices for women without other health insurance. As discussed above, the Trump Administration announced in February 2019 “that it will bar organizations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal family planning money” (Belluck, 2019). This gag rule affects places such as Planned Parenthood, which provides many reproductive health services to women who cannot afford health insurance.

Relation Between Geographical Location and Financial Situation

Individually, the possible geographical and financial obstacles of receiving an abortion are difficult to deal with. However, for some women, the issues may intersect. Take for example a woman who is financially struggling and must travel over 30 miles to reach the nearest clinic that performs abortions. Not only must this woman travel a far distance to undergo the procedure, but she is also forced to worry about all the costs associated with it. First, there is the cost of the actual abortion. Then, there are the travel costs to get to the clinic and back home, whether it be gas money or public transportation fees. If she has children and does not want to bring them with her, there is the possible cost of childcare while absent. If her state has a mandatory waiting period, she is forced to pay these transportation and childcare fees a second time when going back to the clinic to get the procedure. If she gets a medication abortion and requires a follow-up appointment a week later, she has to pay them a third time. On top of all of this, there is the cost of her time. The time it takes for her to travel the far distance, possibly multiple times, is time she could have spent at her job making the money she desperately needs.

Physical, Sociological, and Psychological Effects on Women Denied Abortions

For women who seek an abortion but cannot receive one due to factors mentioned above, there may be certain physical, sociological, and/or psychological effects.

For women who are unable to get an abortion, the physical effect is obvious: pregnancy. If cannot abort the fetus inside of her, she is forced to continue the pregnancy, and carry the child inside of her until it is delivered. According to a website powered by the American Academy of Family Physicians, being pregnant comes with many physical effects. These effects include, but are not limited to, tiredness, nausea, frequent urination, lightheadedness, heartburn, and vaginal discharge and bleeding ( Changes in Your Body During Pregnancy , 2009). Two of the largest, and most obvious, physical changes with pregnancy are belly and breast growth. As the fetus develops into a fully functioning baby, it grows, causing a woman’s uterus and belly to grow in size as well. Breasts also physically change during pregnancy to allow a woman to breastfeed her child once born, as discussed earlier.

Episiotomies

In addition to pregnancy, the actual delivery of a child may bear its own physical effects on a woman’s body. One of the most common of these effects is the use of an episiotomy during childbirth. “An episiotomy is a surgical enlargement of the vagina by means of an incision in the perineum, the skin and muscles between the rectum and vagina.” This is done “as the baby’s head is crowning,” in order to “enlarge the vagina so that forceps [can] be inserted high into the pelvis, thereby assisting in the birth of the baby.” Aside from the physical incision made to the body, episiotomies may lead to further physical effects, such as postpartum pain, infection at the site of the incision, problems with having intercourse, and vaginal swelling. One article published in 1995 stated that “The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) estimates that as many as 90 percent of women giving birth to their first child in a hospital will have an episiotomy.” Although this number may have changed throughout the years, this statistic shows how significant episiotomies have been within the last twenty years (Griffin, 1995).

Financial Instability

One factor that may motivate a woman to seek an abortion is her current financial situation. In a 2004 study discussed above, 73% of participants listed “can’t afford a baby now” as their reason for abortion, with sub-reasons including that the woman was unemployed, could not leave her job to care for the child, and/or could not even afford the basic necessities of life (Finer et al., 2005, p. 113). While many women identify with these reasons, not all are able to receive the abortion they want. In these cases, the intense burden of financial instability becomes a possible reality, with the newly added cost of raising a child. While there is the option of giving the child up for adoption, that is not the right choice for every woman.

One study published in 2018 looked at the socioeconomic outcomes of women who were denied wanted abortions compared to women who were able to get them. Similar to the study discussed earlier, done by BioMed Central Women’s Health, this study looked at data collected during the Turnaway Study . After analyzing the collected data, it was determined that women who were unable to get the abortion they sought were more likely to “experience economic hardship and insecurity lasting years” (Foster et al., 2018, p. 407). More specifically, compared to women who were able to receive a wanted abortion, women who were unable were “more likely to be in poverty for 4 years after denial,” and “less likely to be employed full time” six months after denial (Foster et al., 2018, p. 407). These results are an example of how following through with an unintended pregnancy as a result of being unable to receive an abortion can have a negative sociological impact a woman, pushing them into severe financial struggle.

Welfare Stigma

As discussed earlier, when something deviates from the widely accepted social norms and stereotypes within society, it is stigmatized, creating further stereotypes. One of the generally accepted ideas about America is that it is a land full of equal opportunity for everyone. “Most Americans believe that anyone can succeed [through] hard work, and that those at the bottom of the social heap have not tried enough to make it.” Due to this, being impoverished and receiving help from public assistance programs has become a stigmatized act. This is especially true in the case of women who face financial struggles as a result of unintended pregnancy. People who are impoverished due to a physical or mental disability are less stigmatized than those whose financial dependency on the government results from something that is perceived as a “personal failure, such as [being an] unwed mother.” These stigmas further perpetuate stereotypes on poor people and women as whole groups (Goodban, 1985, pp. 403–404).

One study aimed to further examine this social stigma, interviewing one hundred black single mothers who were getting assistance from public programs. The women were asked a variety of questions about being on welfare, such as why they were on it and their feelings surrounding it. Many of the women “believed that they were on welfare for temporary, uncontrollable reasons having to do with their situation, rather than personal characteristics.” Out of the one hundred women, “sixty-one said they were sometimes ashamed of their welfare status” (Goodban, 1985, pp. 414–418). The results of this study exemplify the severity of stigma and stereotypes within society.

Psychological Effects

Postpartum Depression

One of the most well-known psychological effects of giving birth to a child is postpartum depression. This form of depression is experienced by women in “the postpartum period, which is increasingly viewed as up to 1 year after childbirth” (O’Hara, 2009, p. 1258). Furthermore, women who give birth to a child resulting from an unintended pregnancy have a possible higher risk of developing postpartum depression compared to women who gave birth to a child that was planned and wanted. One study in North Carolina analyzed a group of 550 women who were 12 months postpartum for the possibility of depression. This group included a mixture of women whose pregnancies were intended (64%) and women whose pregnancies were unintended (36%). The results concluded that “depression was more common among women with unintended pregnancy [12%] than women with intended pregnancy [3%]” (Mercier et al., 2013, pp. 1116–1118). Although every individual is different, the possibility of developing postpartum depression is a real consequence that may affect women who give birth to a child. These results imply that this fact may be especially true for women whose pregnancies were unwanted and/or unintended, which can include women who wanted to get an abortion but were unable to. Postpartum depression has also been linked to further psychological, such as suicidal ideation and self-harm (Coker et al., 2017).

When looking at whether being unable to get an abortion has a psychological effect on women, it is important to note the intersectionality between sociology and psychology. Social norms and stereotypes within society can cause people to become outcasted if they do not act in accordance.

As discussed above, being impoverished and receiving help from government programs is stigmatized in American society. In the study that examined one hundred black single mothers on welfare, over half of the participants admitted to sometimes being ashamed of their status. This shame stemmed from the feeling that “they could not seem to succeed no matter how hard they tried, and [were] stigmatized by a society that devalues the poor.” Consequentially, this shame and guilt resulted in a handful of the participants experiencing low self-esteem (Goodban, 1985, p. 418). All of these feelings circle back to the socially normative belief in America that poor people do not work hard and accept government handouts, and that is why they are poor. Aside from guilt and low self-esteem, low socioeconomic status has also been linked as a risk factor for postpartum depression in women who gave birth (O’Hara, 2009, p. 1261).

When comparing women who receive a wanted abortion to women who do not receive a wanted abortion, it is important to note that both may suffer from physical, sociological, and psychological effects. A summary of the effects that were discussed can be found below.

-Increased risk of developing breast cancer

-Future reproductive health issues

-Stigmatized for deviating from the social norm that women should be maternal

Developing:

-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Post-Abortion Syndrome)

-Anxiety/panic disorders

-Depression

-Must endure all bodily changes that come with pregnancy (belly growth, breast growth, nausea, frequent urination, etc.)

-Being financially unstable/living under poverty line

-Stigmatized for being on welfare

-Postpartum Depression

Figure 3: Possible Effects of Receiving and Not Receiving a Wanted Abortion

IV. Conclusion

Abortion is an issue that has been relevant for over two hundred years. Before and during most of the 1800s, certain abortions were legal, and not uncommon. However, a woman was only allowed to seek an abortion before “quickening,” which was when she could feel the fetus moving. Before this, a fetus was not equivalated with a human life. Women who wished to abort their fetus were given certain drugs that would induce the process, and if those failed, a woman could visit a medical practitioner to remove the fetus.

Although abortions done before quickening were legal, they were not an entirely safe practice, and often ended in women dying. As a result, in the 1820s-40s, states began passing various laws in an attempt to control the procedure, which included outlawing the abortion inducing drugs (Connecticut, Missouri, and Illinois), the instruments used in the procedure (Missouri), or the actual procedure itself (Maine).

Within the late 1840s-50s, the American Medical Association was founded and began a crusade against abortion, headed by Dr. Horatio Storer. The Association, made up of licensed physicians, aimed to tarnish society’s view of abortion by painting it as a dangerous and immoral procedure. This anti-abortion movement gained traction, and the social shift towards the nonacceptance of abortion began to reflect in state laws. Beginning in the 1860s, states began passing legislation to criminalize the procedure of abortion and continued to do so throughout the early-to-mid-1900s.

In 1873, Congress went even deeper into the issue of women’s reproductive health and outlawed the importation and distribution of any information or drug that aimed to prevent conception with the passing of the Comstock Law. However, with much help from the feminist movements fighting for contraception, this was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965 (married persons), and then Eisenstadt v. Baird in 1972 ( single persons).

In 1973, the Supreme Court struck down all state laws criminalizing abortion with the landmark case of Roe v. Wade , which made the procedure federally legal. Despite seeming like a victory for reproductive health, this federal ruling only set a legislative basis for states. Within their own borders, states are responsible for the abortion statutes, and can create certain barriers making it hard for women to obtain an abortion. These barriers include zoning laws to limit the areas where abortion providers can reside, mandatory counseling and/or waiting periods for women who want an abortion, and parental consent or notification requirements for minors. These state barriers are all federally legal under the 1989 ruling of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Some states even went as far as to implement “trigger laws” that will automatically ban abortion if Roe v. Wade ever gets overturned.

On top of these state-by-state barriers, there are also federal barriers that prevent women easy access to an abortion. In 1976, the Hyde Amendment was passed to prevent federal funds from being used by state Medicaid programs to help low-income people get abortions, and it is still in effect today. When President Trump took office, he re-implemented a global “gag rule” that prevents any international non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortion services from receiving funding from the United States Agency for International Development. In 2019, the Trump Administration implemented a “gag rule” within the US, barring organizations that provide abortion referrals from receiving federal funds. However, despite the possible attempts by state and federal law to limit a woman’s ability to get an abortion, the medical procedure is still performed across the nation.

In the end, each individual’s story is different. Your circumstances are different, your reasoning is different, your journey is different, and your aftermath is different. All of the research in the world cannot predict how a woman is going to be affected by either receiving an abortion or being unable to receive an abortion. The most common reasons and effects of these two situations can be summarized in the tables below.

Figure 4: Common Reasons Why a Woman May Want to Receive an Abortion vs. Common Reasons Why a Woman May Not Be Able to Receive an Abortion

Possible Effects of Receiving and Not Receiving a Wanted Abortion

Cases Cites :

Eisenstadt v. Baird , 405 U.S. 438 (1972).

Griswold v. Connecticut , 381 U.S. 479 (1965).

Roe v. Wade , 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

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[1] Christina San Fillipo is a Law and Society graduate of Ramapo College of New Jersey

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Abortion Essay Writing Guide

Abortion is a controversial issue that has been at the center of public debate for decades. It is a multifaceted problem that can be discussed from different aspects, including legal, ethical, philosophical, moral, religious and medical. Also, abortion is a highly sensitive subject that leaves no one untouched. Everyone has an opinion or a personal experience related to abortion. The debate on abortion can take various forms, and likewise, there are different types of essays that can be written on the subject. This article offers an overview of the most common types of essays on abortion. A detailed description is given for each particular type, including its structure, outline, basic information on its contents, and tips for successful writing. Examples of well-written sample essays are also provided.

Essays on abortion can be divided into several categories which will be discussed below. The types include argumentative essays, persuasive essays, research papers, cause and effect essays, satirical essays and expository essays.

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY ON ABORTION

The argumentative essay is a type of writing which requires extensive investigation of a topic. The writer needs to collect and evaluate information and take a stand on the subject. Literature and previously published texts need to be researched with great scrutiny. This leads to a writer having in-depth knowledge on the subject and understanding different standpoints expressed by various authors. Based on that the writer can take his/her own position and then back it up with evidence. All argumentative essays involve stating a clear thesis and adhering to strict rules of reasoning. What argumentative essays are all about is establishing a position and then trying to convince the readers of the validity of one's points of view. Factual evidence is given to support one's opinion. To be able to do that, the writer should have explored the issue from various angles beforehand, collected facts, expert opinions, and statistics to support his/her claims.

Research and data collection are the first steps when writing an argumentative essay. After a topic and a position on it have been determined, the author goes on to develop an outline of the future essay. This allows for the basic structure of the essay to be established. The structure of the outline is as follows:

A thesis statement : the topic is reviewed in a general way setting the stage for the discussion that will ensue.
A smooth transition is made between the introduction and the body of the article, and later between the body and the conclusion.
Paragraphs forming the body of the article contain all relevant arguments, supported by different types of evidence, statistical, logical, factual, experiential, etc. Opposing views are also introduced with the evidence.
In the conclusion , the thesis is addressed once again and argued with regard to evidence presented.

When outlined in this way, the structure of an argumentative essay seems quite clear, but even so, when attempting to write an argumentative essay on abortion, you could have specific issues concerning that particular subject that need further explanation.

Abortion is a highly sensitive subject with people usually having strong feelings towards it and quite polarized opinions. A person is either strongly for abortion, therefore considering it as a question of personal freedom, or strongly against it, seeing it as a crime. Writing an argumentative essay is not about making statements but investigating them and finding supporting evidence for each of them. Before you can start doing that, it is important to choose and define the topic of the essay carefully. There is an almost indefinite number of possible topics you might choose, but they all come down to either looking at the problem from the pro-life perspective, which means being against abortion; or, from the pro-choice point of view, meaning being in favor of its legalization. When you decide on the perspective you would like to take, in-depth systematic research of the existing literature is needed to make an objective evaluation of the subject. No facts should be presented without backing evidence or testimonials given by recognized authorities on the subject. Since abortion is such an arguable topic, with two firmly opposed sides, both of them should be given careful consideration in your essay. But, as mentioned before, you are supposed to take a side and to give supporting evidence to your views, along with presenting the opposite opinion and arguments for it and then refuting it with evidence.

If, for example, you were to write an argumentative essay on why abortion should not be fully legalized, you would want to highlight four or five arguments supporting your opinion, backing them up with statistics, official standpoints of prominent figures and authorities, and other evidence. If you write your essay from a pro-life position, you could argue that a fetus is actually a human being from the point of conception, and, as such, has a right to live; it can feel pain, therefore, abortion causes suffering. These statements should be reinforced by medical evidence in the form of analysis of sonograms, which clearly show that after three months of gestation, human embryos are fully formed; they have a beating heart and a developed nervous system allowing them to feel the sensation of pain. By the time most abortions take place, the fetus can move his legs and arms, has fully developed fingers and toes and is a vibrant and thriving human being inside the mother's womb.

This would be the first argument in favor of the position you are taking when writing an argumentative essay. Another three or four solid arguments should follow. Next, you could look at the issue from the perspective of possible medical and psychological consequences for a woman. The procedure of an abortion potentially has significant health risks along with possible mental health issues following the psychological trauma of abortion. Another point is religion. The position of most major religious denominations has been made clear over the centuries and can be used as an argument here. A further point can be made with protection of human rights, rights of all humans including developing ones, which are usually referred to as fetuses.

When embarking on a journey of writing an argumentative essay, it is helpful to divide it into four or five sections beforehand and then simply add content to each section. This forms the outline of your essay and can make the process of composing your paper much easier. The outline starts with an introduction in which the topic is first addressed in a general manner. After that, the author should explain the importance of the subject, or why it is worth investigating. Finally, a thesis is formulated, with a short elaboration on it. So for example, if your subject is “Why abortion should not be legalized,” you would give a brief introduction of the problem and clarify your point of view by explaining why you believe that it should not be legalized. You could argue that it represents a murder because a fetus is already a human being from the moment of conception. You would point that out in the introduction section of your argumentative essay on abortion.

In the following section, which belongs to the body of the essay, you would start introducing arguments which favor your position and continue with disproving the opposing arguments. It is not ethical to only give evidence which proves your point. In the interest of objectivity, it is necessary to include evidence to the contrary. So, in this example, you would present the arguments of those who support the legalization of abortion, and then give evidence as to why they are mistaken. You could say that although a woman should not be coerced into raising an unwanted child, there are better options she can resort to instead of abortion. There are numerous couples whose desire for having children is denied by problems with infertility, and who would be willing and able to adopt a child and give it a loving home. By acknowledging the opposing views, you make your essay less arbitrary and more objective. You recognize, in part, the validity of views that are contrary to yours but go on to explain how they can be addressed without resorting to abortion. This makes an even more powerful point. The body of the essay usually has several paragraphs. In each paragraph, a single general idea is discussed, while keeping a logical link between the discussion of each idea and the thesis statement formulated in the introduction section.

The closing section of your essay is the conclusion. Since it is the part of your essay which would make the strongest impression on the reader, you should formulate it to be effective as well as logical. It should follow naturally the presented body of evidence, and make a synthesis of all the facts given in the body of the essay. No new information should be presented in this section. You restate your thesis, repeat the most important arguments and motivate your readers to continue thinking about the subject, suggesting an approach to abortion which would make the person considering it think more thoroughly about it, weigh all the options and only resort to it when absolutely necessary.

If you decide to support the opposing position, that abortion should be fully legalized, the structure of the argumentative essay stays the same. You state your thesis, write about the subject from the perspective of pro-choice advocates, and give arguments that support your point of view backing them with factual evidence, statistics and information coming from reliable sources. You can use articles written on this topic, opinions from renowned experts; give a historical overview of the issue, etc. Make sure to include enough evidential support for your position, as well as substantial refuting arguments for the opposing standpoint. An essay outline is essential to give an organized structure to your writing. In the introduction section, you would state your thesis about fully legalizing abortion and then go on to discuss it in terms of every woman having the right to decide for herself with no interference from society or the legal system. The body of the essay would present evidence to larger numbers of illegal and unsafe procedures being performed in countries with restrictive law policies towards abortion. Statistical data on complications following illegal abortions should further advance your cause. Other pro-choice arguments should ensue, discussing the issue in the context of health, demography, personal liberties, legislation, religion, etc. You can mention the expert opinions that fetuses that are not yet viable outside the womb cannot be considered to be independent human beings and that it is wrong for the government to decide on issues pertaining to a woman's body on her behalf.

Your essay than continues with the presentation of opposing arguments on which your opponent's position relies upon. Abortion is really a matter of perspective: when you consider it from the perspective of a developing fetus, you can argue that it has every right to live and thrive inside the mother's womb and to be born and have a life of its own. Conversely, from the mother's perspective, she has the right to have her privacy protected and not to be intruded on by the government, as well as the right to make decisions about her own body. You can discuss issues of congenital diseases and birth defects, age and socioeconomic circumstances of a mother, maternal physical and mental illnesses that could affect the unborn child and so on.

All the issues you dealt with in the body of the essay should be summarized in the conclusion section. Once again, this is the place for you to make your argument even more effective by restating the most important facts given throughout your essay, perhaps with a punch line that would make your view of the matter stand out from all other possible points of considering the problem at hand. You could refer to unwanted pregnancies that are in fact consequences of rape or incest, or situations when a child is bound to be born with a serious and debilitating health condition.

To sum up what is said on writing an argumentative essay, it consists of stating your position and then giving a comprehensive list of supporting and contrasting arguments with those in favor of your point of view, prevailing over those opposed to it. What you are doing is essentially trying to convince the reader of the validity of your opinion, while simultaneously discrediting the opposing opinions. Covering the issue with strong arguments is crucial, while also giving an evidence-based presentation of the other side's arguments, and then invalidating them convincingly. In argumentative essays on abortion, you give arguments supporting both opposing opinions. Here is a plan you can implement when listing the pros and cons concerning the subject of abortion in an argumentative essay:

a) Introduction, followed by two pro-points supported by evidence, then a con-point which is refuted and conclusion;

b) Introduction, followed by a con-point which is disputed, then two pro-points with supporting evidence and conclusion;

c) Introduction, three con-points which are disputed and conclusion;

d) Introduction, body of the essay consisting of two parts – in the first part three counterclaims are presented accompanied by refuting evidence, and in the second part, three claims are given with evidence to support them. All this is followed by a conclusion.

e) A pattern in which claims and counterclaims are given in an alternating order: introduction, a claim followed by supporting evidence, a counterclaim with refuting evidence, another claim with evidence, another counterclaim, and so on. The conclusion is given at the end as always.

The patterns a) - c) are suitable for short argumentative essays on abortion while patterns d) and e) are more suited for advanced college essays .

Always bear in mind that your opinions should be well supported by factual evidence, rational justifications, and testimonials given by experts, if available. Also, some counterarguments would need to be proven incorrect, or refuted; and others - shown to be irrelevant to the subject, or rebutted. Both approaches can be valuable in discrediting the other side's argument.

These suggestions on how to write an argumentative essay on abortion cover all the basic elements required to be successful. Should you, however, need additional assistance you can turn to sample essays on abortion that are readily available online and can give you a starting point for your own writing. You can follow the structure of these essays to ensure that your composition has all the necessary components presented properly. If you would like to find arguments for the debate on abortion, there is a wide array of those in the already written material. All that is left for you to do is to decide on the position you would like to take in this matter, whether it is the pro-choice or the pro-life argument that makes more sense to you.

Samples of argumentative essays each discuss different aspects of the abortion issue, some of them take a historical perspective, some discuss the problem from the legal point of view, yet others focus on human rights or even medical issues. These samples can provide a good basis for your work, an example of how an argumentative essay is supposed to be structured and which content is the most suitable for this type of essay. Abortion is obviously a multifaceted subject, and these examples can be your guide leading you in the right direction after you have decided on the position you would like to support. They offer a comprehensive overview of the subject, covering all possible angles some of which could have never crossed your mind before but are certainly worth mentioning.

The abundance of material available on the internet sometimes makes it hard and time-consuming to find what you are looking for, and it is easy to become overwhelmed. Free argumentative essays on abortion that are now available online can be time saving and inspiring, thus, allowing you to compose a well-structured and convincing essay in just a margin of time you would need if you were to start from scratch. It can be helpful to review already existing work to refine one's own standpoint and come up with a strategy for writing the assigned essay. After you have checked the sources used in sample essays for authenticity and reliability, you can also use them in your own work, instead of going through tons of books and articles printed in scientific journals.

Samples of argumentative essays can be used throughout the process of writing an argumentative essay on abortion. Also, when you have completed your work, you can compare it against the example essays to check if an important issue had been left out or if a significant line of arguments had been omitted. For instance, the issue of abortion can be covered from the medical point of view, including mental and physical health issues of the mother, as well potential risks to the health of the fetus. Or, you could approach it from the legal point of view, with statistical data on numbers of illegal and unsafe procedures in countries with restrictive legislation compared to those registered in countries with more permissive laws concerning abortion. Or, focus on the demographic point, discussing the overpopulation problem and the one-child, or two-children per couple policy which exists in some countries. Regardless of the perspective you choose, the arguments should always be logical, well-established and supported by expert opinions, statistical data as well as originating from reliable sources.

Here are some pointers on how you can successfully write an argumentative essay on abortion:

Research the subject thoroughly . You could be keen on starting your essay immediately, or you could feel it is a waste of time to investigate the topic extensively. It is actually never a waste of time. If you do not have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the subject, you will not be able to distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources of information on the Internet and to reject those that are complete fiction or a matter of an author's personal biased opinion, which is not based on evidence.
Take your time . Never skip steps in a rush to get the work done. Your urge to get on with it is perfectly understandable, but you should try not to start writing until you have made extensive notes, covering all the major sides of the topic you wish to discuss. Go through your notes once again; check if there is anything you would like to add or if there are any unnecessary repetitions. Scrutinizing the material another time could produce more ideas or even induce you to continue your research if you find that your notes are not covering all the angles.
The introduction is crucial . Beginnings are always the hardest. You may even feel as if you were not up to the task, not competent enough or that the work that lies ahead of you exceeds your abilities. Forcing yourself to come up with ideas while staring at an empty piece of paper is never helpful. For starters, you can use one of the introductory sentences from existing papers. Once you get started, and your own work starts to flow, you can go back and change the opening line into something original. The introduction could contain some political or moral views, but avoid opening your essay with religious aspects of the subject as your readers could be easily upset or offended by those. There is no need to avoid the issue completely. You are free to discuss it in the following segments of your paper. Assure your readers that you have considered the topic in a serious and meticulous manner, which you can achieve by providing statistical data, references to reliable and well-trusted sources and by paying attention to the counterarguments as well as to arguments supporting your position.
Base your essay on facts . There are two sides to any story, and both of them must be portrayed impartially. You are writing an argumentative essay, so you need to set aside all prejudice and use only factual evidence to reinforce your claims. Being professional in presenting the evidence is imperative, because any attempt to bend the truth is bound to end in disaster, and only make you look unprofessional. Use the information you gathered. You have already learned how to write an argumentative essay from two opposing perspectives, so you are ready to start working on the main part of your essay – the body. This is where the bulk of advice for writing an argumentative essay lies, so pay close attention to the following:

If you decided to address the abortion issue from the pro-choice perspective, you would examine the problem from the angle of a pregnant woman. Perhaps the best policy is to avoid starting the essay with the issue of human rights since you can easily be trapped into the debate of whose rights are more important, those of a mother or those of a fetus. It is much safer to open with some medical information on pregnancy and abortion, as well as on safe ways to end a pregnancy before full term. This can be accompanied by statistical data but beware of boring your reader with tons of statistics. Try to apply just the right dose of statistical information to prove your point, but then use examples or personal stories to make the reading more lifelike and enjoyable. Here are some of the reasons a pregnant woman might want to induce miscarriage and not bring her pregnancy to term:

The continuation of pregnancy poses a great risk for the mother due to complications of the pregnancy or illnesses that might be exacerbated by pregnancy.
The risk of death during childbirth is significant for either the mother or the child or both.
There is a genetic abnormality in the fetus which will make it not viable after birth or condemn it to a life of suffering.
The pregnancy might be a result of rape or incest and bringing it to term, and raising the child afterward would pose a tremendous strain on an already traumatized woman.
The woman is too young for motherhood, both from the health perspective (given that such an early pregnancy might cause reproductive problems later on and put a young woman's health at serious risk), and from the socioeconomic perspective, because a teenage mother is not capable of providing for her child, and they would both most probably be living in poverty without financial means to provide them with opportunity for education.
The mother is mentally ill and cannot be expected to take good care of her child. Also, some mental illnesses are highly hereditary, so there is a strong possibility that the child would be affected.

There is also the controversial argument that the world is already overpopulated and that bringing an unwanted child to life is irresponsible since resources in some parts of the globe are getting scarce. You should be very careful if you choose to use this argument and expect to find some strong opposition.

You could also argue that fetus is not considered to be an independent person before birth, and therefore ending a pregnancy cannot be considered a murder. If the pregnancy is terminated early enough, the fetus is still not capable of experiencing pain, especially if nonaggressive methods of abortion are used. Therefore, it is up to the mother to make a choice. She should not be punished for conceiving an unwanted child since this can happen even with regular use of contraceptives.

The above-mentioned arguments are some of the most common claims you could make when writing an argumentative essay from the pro-choice perspective. Of course, you can think of other examples and add to the list.

If you decided to write your argumentative essay on abortion from the pro-life perspective, you should look at the issue from exactly the opposite angle, considering abortion murder and substantiating your claims with some of the following evidence:

Abortion is a medical procedure that can have serious consequences, both immediate and long-term, including heavy bleeding, damage to the woman's reproductive or other organs, sterility and even death.
Abortion is physically and psychologically traumatizing. A woman can regret having an abortion for the rest of her life. She is at great risk of mental health problems, depression or even suicide.
Since so many couples struggle with infertility, a woman carrying an unwanted child can easily find loving parents for her baby and avoid having an abortion.
Most major religions are opposed to abortions and consider them a sin. Of course, not everyone is religious, but still it is an argument worth mentioning.
The unborn child, like any other human being has rights but is unable to stand up for him/herself, so he/she needs protection from legal institutions.
Philosophically speaking, if abortion is easily accessible and done without giving it a lot of thought, what does that tell us about the value of human life? Here you can call upon your readers to think for themselves and perhaps to consider the issue more deeply than before.

Bottom line, take a side. If you did not have strong feelings before starting to investigate the issue of abortion more thoroughly, this is the point when you have gathered enough information to decide which side to take. You might have even changed the opinion you previously had in light of all the evidence you had never seen before. But now you really have to pick a side and to either write from the pro-choice or the pro-life perspective. You need to be sure why you have chosen a particular point of view, and believe in it yourself if you want to convince your readers of its legitimacy. In the closing part of your essay, you will recap some of the arguments given throughout the body of the text, possibly adding a personal touch to the concluding section allowing your readers to understand exactly why you decided to support this particular viewpoint.

PERSUASIVE ESSAY ON ABORTION

A persuasive essay is an essay in which the writer takes a stand for or against something and tries to convince the readers to accept it as true or compel them to do something. A persuasive essay can be created on the basis of any idea that you strongly believe in. There is no room for the opposing point of view; if you are ambivalent yourself, there is no way you will be able to convince anybody else. You should be very well informed on the subject. If not, you should try to expand your knowledge using multiple sources, all legitimate ones, such as expert opinions, statistical facts, logical reasons, etc. Knowing how to compose a persuasive essay is a skill everyone should learn since it can be widely used in a number of situations; for example, if you would like your boss to give you a raise, you would need to persuade him with strong arguments that you actually deserve it. Even if your readers previously thought exactly the opposite, you can learn how to convince them in the validity of your position and ultimately induce them to change their opinions.

In a persuasive essay on abortion, as mentioned before, there are two opposed sides and no middle ground between them. So after carefully reviewing the available literature and giving it some thought, it is time for you to decide on a thesis that would most accurately represent your own opinion on the topic. The thesis should be formulated in a single sentence and yet reflect a strong position. If for example, after going through all the factual evidence, you decide that abortion is just the wrong thing to do, you can write a persuasive essay from the pro-life position, proving that abortion is murder and, therefore, should be legally sanctioned as such. You can prove your point by asserting that a fetus is a human being from the point of conception and, therefore, has a right to live and anyone trying to deprive it of its right should be treated as a criminal.

In this type of essay, the introduction contains a hook which is used to secure the readers' attention. It can be a quote, an unusual fact, a question, an anecdote or even an exaggerated statement meant to induce a psychological shock, an emotional reaction which would compel your audience to continue reading. When writing an essay against abortion, it can be a quote from the Bible, citing the commandment saying “You shall not kill.” Or, it can be a medical fact on how the fetus already feels pain at six weeks gestation or a sentence taken from an interview you conducted with someone who underwent an abortion and later regretted it.

When writing the body of your persuasive essay, each paragraph should begin with a strong assertion, a mini-thesis of a sort, which would reinforce your claim from different angles adding to its persuasiveness with each succeeding paragraph. Do not forget to add a paragraph including concession statements. A concession is a form of anticipating what your readers might say against your opinion. You acknowledge it and then prove that the particular argument is not valid, or not applicable to the case you are presenting. The concession is not a weakness; it actually adds to the strength of your opinion since it shows you to be open for debate and willing to recognize that there are more sides to the matter than the one you are taking.

Apart from having a strong opinion on the subject, you must be able to communicate it in a logical and professional manner. As easy as it may seem to simply articulate your opinions, you have to follow certain rules if you want to persuade your readers that you are absolutely right. To do that, it is necessary to back your views with supporting evidence in the form of personal experience, statistical facts, and logical justifications. Especially when your statements involve something that is not instantly obvious or common sense, you should be prepared to support it with strong evidence. The evidence you rely on should be factual and objective; otherwise, it will hardly be plausible to your audience. Also, remember to keep your sentences short if you want them to convey a strong message. Only use one point per sentence; otherwise, you will only weaken the argument you are trying to make.

Persuasive essays are relatively short, the body of the essay usually comprising of no more than three paragraphs, out of which two are used for your claims supported by evidence, and one for a counterclaim, followed by refutation thereof. In your pro-life essay on abortion, you could go into detail describing the cruelty and inhumanity of abortion techniques. Pay close attention to conveying the medical information accurately; they are gruesome enough for the average reader to become appalled with and start supporting your position. In the next part of the body, you can portray the fetus as a developing human being, able to experience pain from an early gestational period. It has a beating heart starting at six weeks gestation. Go on to describe the intrauterine development of the bodily systems, explaining when a fetus starts to hear, sleep, open its eyes, has a sense of taste, etc.

You can continue by introducing the religious issue into your essay, citing the commandments and interpreting abortion as murder, therefore being a capital sin. The fetus originates from two human beings and can only be human, nothing else. Also, it is human from the point of conception, although the opponents argue that it cannot be considered a human being before it is viable outside the womb, or before it can exist independently. Nevertheless, its humanity from the conception on cannot be questioned.

After stating your two strongest claims, go on to mention the most common counterclaim and try to refute it with evidence, expert opinions, statistical data, etc. You could make use of the statistics on abortion which show the most unwanted pregnancies to happen in women of young age, of low socioeconomic background, low education, that are in abusive relationships, or currently have no partners at all. One might argue that these are not the best conditions to bring a baby to life. On the other hand, is abortion really the best solution? Should the society not do more for these women in dire need? For example, they can be offered free housing, help with childcare, educational opportunities, jobs. Since every abortion carries a risk of complications including future sterility, this might be a woman's only opportunity to become a mother.

To be persuasive while writing this type of essay, the topic you have chosen has to appeal to you personally. It should be something you feel strongly about and will, therefore, be able to argue it passionately. It should be a highly debatable topic, with two strongly opposed sides. Make sure that your position potentially has enough arguments that support it. If the counterarguments are overwhelming, you should choose another subject to write about.

As mentioned before, persuasive essays are relatively short, so after writing a solid introduction and three segments of the body of the paper, you should summarize the crucial elements of your argument and emphasize once again what you want your readers to believe, what you want them to feel or what action you want them to take. This makes the conclusion part of your essay. Use it to refresh your readers' memory on the important points you made throughout your essay and then add a personal comment at the end. You can close with a quotation which sums up what has been discussed and calls for more in-depth thinking or for taking action to make a difference on the subject. You could end it with a personal note, elaborate on why you took a personal interest in this matter or why it is important to you.

Although writing a persuasive essay on abortion can be a complex task, since it is a highly sensitive issue and everyone tends to feel strongly about it, you should try to be very clear in your points of view. Repeat the most important ones in conclusion, and do it in a meticulous and explicit way. Go through your essay once more, check if there is a nice and natural flow of ideas, if your arguments are relevant to the subject and well supported by evidence and if your conclusion follows your argumentation logically. Also, make sure that the counterarguments have been dealt with objectively and refuted beyond doubt. In the conclusion section of the essay on abortion, you would want to underline the importance of your point of view and induce the readers to start looking at the issue from your perspective.

Revise your essay both regarding content and form. Correct any spelling or grammatical errors, and make sure the writing style is satisfactory. You may need to rephrase something, rearrange the paragraphs in the body of the essay, rethink some evidence and possibly remove a particular argument for being unconvincing or substitute it with another. Remember your task is to persuade the audience of the validity of your claim. You are allowed to appeal to the readers' emotions as well as their common sense and logic.

What has been said on persuasive essays against abortion can also be applied to persuasive speeches against abortion. Similar to writing an essay, when drafting a speech, you also start with an outline, divide what you would like to say in a few segments, each explaining your position from different angles but in a well-defined and persuasive manner. When speaking against abortion, you open with a thesis, give supporting evidence to your claims in the main part of your speech, and close with a recapitulation, a short summary of your position and a call for action. When drafting an outline for your persuasive speech on abortion, do not forget to ask a few questions and then attempt to offer plausible answers to them in the course of your speech. You can talk about statistical data concerning the number of intentional terminations of pregnancies that are performed each year, different legislations on abortion all over the world and how they reflect on the abortion practice. You can bring up the issue of the procedure safety about maternal health; refer to the possible immediate and long-term consequences etc. There is also the issue of human rights of the fetus to be discussed. You do not want to appear bigoted or blindly conservative and oblivious of the instances when abortion is indeed a necessity. Discuss those cases further, talk about the physical and mental health problems of a mother, cover all the angles and leave no stone unturned, so to speak. Remain objective and rational while occasionally also engaging the audience emotionally.

There is an abundance of persuasive essay samples online. They can come in handy when preparing to write your own essay of this type. You can use them to extract ideas or to find reliable sources of information on the subject. To illustrate how a persuasive essay on abortion should look like, here is an example:

Abortion is a term used to describe a purposeful ending of a pregnancy by means of fetus or embryo removal before it is viable to survive outside the mother's womb. It is also called an induced miscarriage in contrast to miscarriages that occur spontaneously. It used to be illegal in most parts of the world but is gradually becoming legalized. The turning point in changing the legislation on abortion was the infamous Roe v Wade case in which it was ruled that the state was not entitled to interfere with a woman's right to privacy or to prevent her from having a pregnancy terminated at request. Regardless of the procedure now being performed legally in the U.S., it remains a controversial and highly debatable subject. There are even attempts to reverse the ruling and limit the availability of abortion. The public opinion is divided into two opposed groups, the pro-life and pro-choice advocates. The pro-life supporters argue that a fetus is a human being entitled to all the rights other human beings have and that abortion is the wrong thing to do from the moral, religious and human rights perspective. Conversely, the pro-choice groups insist on a woman's right to decide over her own body without the interference from the government. Termination of pregnancy has been a common practice for centuries. This was, however, not regulated by law. Nowadays, abortions are legal and available on demand in most of the developed world countries. Legislations vary from country to country and, sometimes, within a single country. In the most permissive legislations, abortion is allowed on broad grounds including on a woman's request, without any medical indications. Other countries only allow it in special cases including the pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, or cases when the fetus has severe congenital malformations. 97% of the countries, however, allow the pregnancy to be terminated when the mother's health is at risk. Although those in favor of abortion claim that a fetus feels no pain, that it is merely a “clump of cells”, this can be challenged as Doctor Maureen L. Condic, a professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah, explains that embryos cannot be reduced to collections of human cells, they can grow, to mature, maintain a delicate physiological balance, and adapt to changing conditions. The embryos may not resemble a human being at the beginning, but Dr. Condic raises the question if our respect for human life should really depend on its appearance. The real-life stories of women faced with the dilemma of whether to terminate their pregnancy or not can be heartbreaking. Helen found out that her unborn son had a terrible congenital disease which would make his life filled with pain and misery. The laws on abortion gave her the right to decide if he was to be born or not. This, of course, was not an easy decision. The responsibility for this choice was overwhelming, and Helen had to make it. What would any of us have decided in a similar situation is hard to tell. To conclude, we could argue that the issue of abortion is a highly sensitive and debatable one. No one is left indifferent. Whether it is legally accessible through the health system or performed in illegal unsanitary facilities by unskilled people, it is still the reality of life. There are always circumstances under which women would resort to abortion. Everyone has their own opinions on the reasons that can be considered substantial enough to warrant a termination of pregnancy, no matter if they are economic, medical, social, or even personal. However, human life is precious and worth preserving with utmost care, so that a decision to terminate it should never be made lightly or without thinking.

This essay example could be used when writing a high school level essay on abortion, while a more advanced educational level requires substantiating it with more factual evidence and discussing them in more detail.

RESEARCH PAPER ON ABORTION

A research paper analyses a chosen subject from a particular perspective and argues a point. It involves going through tons of literature, scientific articles, books, encyclopedias and other sources but it cannot be reduced to presenting a collection of those. When it is finished, a research paper represents your own views on a certain topic, strongly supported by meticulously collected facts and pieces of information. You draw upon what you already know about the subject and try to determine what experts in the field have to say about it.

There are several steps in successful writing of a research paper :

Precisely defining the topic of your research paper . For example, a topic defined as “Abortion should be prohibited by law” is not considered good enough because it lacks precision. A better one would sound something like “Abortion should be prohibited by law since it involves killing a fetus that is already a human being.” In this way, the topic is narrowed down and made more precise. When trying to determine the specific topic you would like to write about, you can resort to literature or personal experiences of people who had confronted the issue. Next, you need to explain why you chose to investigate that particular aspect of abortion, to clarify why you regard it as an important subject.
Defining your thesis . It should be a debatable issue that involves facts which are verifiable and can be either confirmed or refuted. Keep your language professional and avoid using expressions like “I think” or “if you ask me,” etc. An example of a thesis on abortion could sound like “It is morally wrong and illegal to perform abortions since a developing fetus can already be viewed as a human being.”
Writing an outline . It serves as means of organizing your notes and making a list of everything you would like to include in your essay. You can divide your topic into subtopics and determine what each of them would contain. The outline consists of an introduction which has a thesis statement at the end, the body of the paper containing several points of argument such as information on legislation, statistical data, medical facts including the explanation of intrauterine fetal development, and a conclusion. The introductory section is supposed to be short and powerful in order to catch the readers' attention and induce them to continue reading. The body of the paper further discusses the main idea suggested in the introduction, and the conclusion summarizes all the main points made throughout the research paper and proves the postulated thesis. So if you have chosen to write a research paper against abortion, you would need to explain your standpoint, look for trustworthy sources of information on it, and use real-life stories of those who had undergone the procedure. Based on your outline, you can define research questions that you would like to answer in your paper. They could include the question of human rights, if, in fact, a fetus’s right to live should prevail over a pregnant woman's right to choose. Or, you could raise a legal question, if making abortion illegal would only raise the number of operations being performed in an unsafe manner; or, the religious question of what the Bible has to say on the subject.
Composing a draft . Focus your attention on the content, as this version of the text will later be revised and any grammatical or spelling mistakes corrected.
Writing a final draft . This version should meet the style requirements, and be free of any spelling or grammatical errors. It should only encompass ideas that are relevant and well supported by factual evidence. The required format of the paper should also be respected which includes adding citations and references, and a title page if requested.

Hopefully, these instructions will assist you in writing your own research paper. If however, you still find that the task exceeds your capabilities or time limitations, you can always order a research paper online .

CAUSE AND EFFECT ESSAY ON ABORTION

A cause and effect essay is a paper in which ideas are organized in such way as to determine why certain things occur, what is their cause, or what possible consequences could something have, what are its effects. Sometimes, there are lots of causes of a single effect, or conversely, different effects can be the outcome of a single cause. When writing this type of essay, your first step would be to determine whether you would like to focus on a cause, such as abortion, and then investigate its possible effects, like health-related complications or psychological issues such as grief, remorse or depression. Or, think if you would like to focus on abortion as an effect, and to examine the factors leading to it. The essay can have the purpose to inform or to persuade, and you would write it accordingly.

When discussing causes to an event, you should stay focused on those narrowly related to the event, and ignore any possible remote or indirect causes for which it could be rather difficult to prove that they played a role in the event. As always, you should support your claims with factual evidence, give examples to clarify your point and offer personal observations to elucidate your ideas further. Pay close attention to the terminology you use, qualify something as a cause only if there is strong evidence to support that qualification; otherwise, speak only of correlation or things occurring simultaneously or in succession but with no clear causal relationship. This is usually a five-paragraph essay, opened with an introduction, followed by two paragraphs discussing cause and effect separately and one in which these are combined, and ended with a conclusion. The instructions for writing a cause and effect essay seem rather straightforward, but should you require further assistance, you can find it online.

SATIRICAL ESSAY ON ABORTION

This sort of essay uses satire to criticize or ridicule the subject of discussion or make it absurd. Primarily, it is not meant to be funny or to amuse the audience, as much as it is intended to get your readers interested in what you have to say, humor being the shortest way to get someone's attention. A satirical essay uses hyperbole or exaggeration to accentuate things you would like to emphasize. Irony is also useful, in a way that saying the exact opposite of what you mean in an ironic way expresses your opinions even more effectively. Make jokes but be careful not to cross the line of good taste and risk offending the audience. When writing about a highly sensitive topic like abortion, you should be extra careful when using humor and irony. You could however quite easily get away with statements like “sex should be forbidden by law,” to point to the absurdity of certain claims that are usually made in connection with the termination of pregnancy.

EXPOSITORY ESSAY ON ABORTION

Expository essay is a type of essay in which a specific idea, or several ideas, are investigated, backed up with evidence, developed further into an argument which conveys the author's point of view on the subject. The means of accomplishing this task include providing definitions, contrasting opposing arguments, listing examples, analyzing what led to an event, etc. It can be written with very little preparation, as it usually does not require extensive research. It is more about your own thoughts on a subject, reinforced by real-life examples or other evidence. When the structure of the essay is concerned, this is a classic five-paragraph essay that starts with an introduction, develops into a three-paragraph body of the essay, and ends with a conclusion. If you are writing on the topic of abortion, you could define your thesis statement as “Abortion should be prohibited because it denies the fetus its human rights.” After composing an outline, you should think of illustrative examples that prove your point. Real life stories can be very useful in this type of essay, but be sure to connect them to the thesis consequently. Try to make your conclusion logical and to the point; it is likely to leave the greatest impression on your audience. If you follow these instructions carefully, writing an expository essay will not be a difficult task for you.

WRITING AN ABORTION ESSAY OUTLINE

After choosing a subject of an essay and doing thorough research on the available literature and other sources, what precedes the actual writing of a paper is drafting an outline. Most types of essays follow the same basic pattern:

Introduction in which the general idea on the topic is conveyed which is meant to grab the readers' attention. The topic is defined, and a thesis statement is formulated. When writing about abortion, the topic can be expressed as “Abortion should be prohibited,” and the thesis statement would be “Abortion should be prohibited because it denies the fetus its human rights.”
Body of the essay which consists of arguments linked to the thesis, backed with supporting evidence. Counterarguments should also be included followed by refuting evidence. Termination of pregnancy is such a controversial and debatable topic that it offers an abundance of possible claims and counterclaims to choose from. It is important to use only those that can be directly linked to the thesis.
Conclusion in which the thesis is restated, all the information is summarized and connected to the thesis.

OTHER USEFUL INFORMATION ON WRITING AN ABORTION ESSAY

Tons of written materials are readily available wherever you look. So what can you do to make your essay stand out from the multitude of similar essays and appeal to the audience? Well, first of all, you should determine who your audience or target group (or possibly a target person) is. It can be your high school teacher or a college professor who assigned you a writing project and who will grade your work afterward. It can be a group of classmates or peers or another social group. The tactic you will employ depends primarily on who you are writing for. If it is your teacher, your essay should instigate him to give you a good grade, if it is a person in charge of college admission, your aim is to convince them to admit you to college. But in the case of these two examples, there is not an issue of whether they would actually read your paper. They are required to do it; it is in their job description. Other audiences, however, are a completely different story. Since they are not obliged to read your essay, and can easily skip it and find something else to read, you need to catch their attention and make them interested in what you have to say.

Luckily, abortion is a topic which never ceases to be popular or widely debated. Nevertheless, you would need a good essay hook. A hook is a sentence or a phrase that attracts attention by presenting intriguing information which makes you want to continue reading and find out more about it. Consequently, you decide to read the essay through, which is exactly what the author wanted you to do. The hook is also dependent on who your audience is and what they want to read about. Do they simply want to be entertained, or do they need instruction on how to do something or how to resolve an issue? Or are they looking for answers to a particular question? When you have determined what your audience expects to get from reading your essay, you should try to formulate your hook in the way that corresponds to the readers' needs best. There is no simple formula how to do this. Just come up with one or two strong sentences to start your essay with, and you will successfully grab your readers' attention.

It is also necessary to determine the purpose of your essay. The purpose basically depends on the type of essay you are planning to write, whether it is an argumentative essay, a persuasive essay, a research study or any other kind which was previously discussed throughout this paper. In certain types of essays, the main purpose is to describe the subject in detail; in others, it is to persuade the audience to look at an issue from your particular point of view. A successful hook would be able to elicit an emotional response, and the type of emotions involved would depend on how you want your audience to feel after reading your essay, what is the desired effect that you aim to accomplish. In order to come up with a good hook for your abortion essay, it is always a good idea to read a few abortion essays written in a similar way, to evaluate them critically to determine what caught your attention and to find an advantage for yourself.

Some of the possible hooks for an abortion essay would be:

Is abortion a murder?
Whose child gets to be born?
Abortion – a solution to overpopulation
You are poor – get an abortion
It is your body – why should the government decide?

CHOOSING THE RIGHT TOPIC

The selection of a suitable topic is essential when planning to write an argumentative essay. Abortion being an extremely popular subject, there is almost no way you could go wrong. It all comes down to actually choosing a topic that suits you, that is in line with your personal opinions and points of view so that you can argue it convincingly. When it comes to abortion, there are two opposed fractions with basically no middle ground between them. They are the pro-life and pro-choice advocates. If you are not assigned to write from a particular position, simply go ahead and choose the one that is the closest to how you actually feel about the subject. Then you can decide to focus on different angles, including the religious point, the health issues argument, the legal aspects of abortion, the human rights issue, etc. Examples of good topics are: “Should abortion be fully legalized?”, “Is abortion a violation of human rights?”, “Is abortion morally right?”

CLOSING SECTION OF THE ABORTION ESSAY

The conclusion serves the purpose of recapitulating all that has previously been said in the course of the assignment. If your essay was rather long, then it is useful to summarize in short what has already been said on the subject. On the other hand, if your essay was a shorter one, you could just give a concise review of your argument. This is your chance to round up your major ideas, connect them all together and provide a closure for the subject you have been writing on, without completely shutting the discussion down, but rather creating a basis for continued thinking on the subject. When writing on abortion, there is an abundance of possible topics to choose from, such as:

Should the government have a say in ending a pregnancy?
Should a woman be required to undergo an abortion in specific cases?
How many abortions are women allowed to have in her lifetime?

Regardless of the specific content you decided to write about, the conclusion should contain a powerful message, perhaps putting the subject of the essay in a larger context or talking about the possible implications of the debated issue. The conclusion should make an impression on the audience; compel them to look at the problem from your perspective.

To become proficient in writing a high quality essay on abortion, the best policy is to adhere to the advice provided to you throughout this article, and combine what you have learned with reading several example essays that exist on the subject. It should equip you with tools necessary to get the structure of the essay just right, expand your knowledge on the topic as well as your vocabulary that you could later put to good use in your own paper, teach you how to use proper grammatical constructions and well-composed sentences. Apart from that, examples are indicative of the way a good essay should look like, what it consists of, where and how to formulate your thesis statement, how to secure a natural and logical flow of ideas, how to use a hook, how to link all the pieces of evidence and all the arguments to the thesis, and finally, how to write a strong conclusion that will convince your readers in the idea you are trying to put through.

There is absolutely no reason to start everything from scratch. Why waste time and energy on creating something that already exists, and has already been optimized by others? You can simply use the existing essays as sources of ideas, and make your own original work of art. You can combine solutions provided in multiple papers to accomplish the desired result. Also, if you experience a writer's block, you are temporarily unable to come up with fresh and original ideas, or lack time to do it, feel free to turn to the free essays on abortion available online. They will give you a much-needed push start, which you can later build on and make it original and stylish. All different types of essays on abortion, including the argumentative essay, the persuasive essay, the research paper, the expository essay, the satirical essay and the cause and effect essay can be found on the internet.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON WRITING AN ESSAY ON ABORTION

A possible way to address the issue of abortion is to look at it from a positive or a negative point of view. Depending on what you decide, you would either demonstrate its advantages or disadvantages. If you write from the advantages perspective, you will accentuate its good sides presenting them from various angles. From the legal point of view, it is much better to have permissive legislation that allows abortion on broad grounds so that women carrying unwanted children would not have to resort to illegal and unsafe procedures done by unskilled people in unsanitary conditions. Also, a woman should not be coerced to give birth to a child when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. From the social perspective, if a woman is too young, or still in school and with no income of her own, it would be better for her to postpone childbearing until she has finished school or found a decent job. This would potentially be beneficial for the child as well, as he/she would have better chances of growing up in a stimulating and loving environment. There is also the issue of terminating a pregnancy on medical grounds, when the mother's or the baby's life is in danger.

The issue of abortion can also be discussed in terms of philosophical questions it raises. Our modern society has still not reached a consensus when this sensitive issue is concerned. It remains a highly controversial topic. If you would want to argue it in a philosophical way you would need to formulate a plausible thesis, come up with arguments to support it and anticipate any possible counterarguments so that you can prepare a defense against them. You would need to create a comprehensive list of pros and cons and discuss each one of them in view of your thesis. An excellent philosophical essay on abortion has been written by Carl Sagan. He tries to ascertain at what moment is it considered that a fetus is a human being whose life should be preserved. He also raises the question of how it can be murder to kill a newborn infant, but not murder if it was killed just a day before. Was it not human then? Was the crime any less then? These are some of the most difficult questions to answer, and every profession involved in the issue has dealt with them in ways they can use in practice. Courts have ruled on the matter and stuck to their rulings; the medical profession has strict policies on when and on what grounds abortions can be performed. But the philosophical question of the value of human life, or indeed when the human life begins, remains open.

After having read these instructions and advice on how to write an essay on abortion, if you need further assistance, please contact our custom writing services , and a high-quality essay will be provided for you.

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Persuasive Essay Why Abortion Should Be Legalized

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News24,(2013). Why abortion should be legal. Retrieved from https://ww.news24.com/MyNews24/Why-abortion-should-be-legal-20131230
Amnesty International,(2018). Facts on Abortion. Retrieved from www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/abortion-facts/
More than 25 million Abortions are performed every year. Retrieved from www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/09/174289/unsafe-abortion-statistics-
Kartha Pollitt, Abortion quotes. Retrieved from www.brainyquote.com/topics/abortion
Mesce D; Sines E (2006). Washington, D.C., Population Reference Bureau [PRB], 2006. 58 p. Retrieved from https://www.popline.org/node/563328
https://brightkite.com/essay-on/women-have-the-right-to-abortion
https://essayforum.com/writing/right-abortion-argumentative-paper-6112/
https://www.debate.org/opinions/do-women-have-the-right-to-abortion
https://www.allfamilieshealth.org/abortions/
https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Women-Have-the-Right-to-Abortion- P3RXPEYTJ
https://revcom.us/a/1265/what-is-abortion.htm
https://www.babygaga.com/15-whisper-confessions-of-women-forced-to-have- the-baby-they-didnt-want/

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Argumentative Essay

Jazatte Dalisay is a ninth-grade student at the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics. This essay was composed in a class tutored by James Traub, a long-time PEN Member and coordinator of PEN’s Writers in the Schools program.

Women’s rights have greatly evolved throughout the centuries. As of 2014, women in the U.S. are entitled to their right to decide when to have a child. But there is a constant debate on whether or not abortion should remain legal in the United States. The legalization of abortion has not only kept women from danger, but has provided women with a concrete solution to unplanned pregnancies and protects their civil rights. Taking abortion off the shelf of opportunity for women will only make them seek illicit and dangerous methods to abort an unwanted child and takes away the ability of women to decide what to do with their own bodies.

It is understandable why some might think abortion is an inhumane act that is unnecessary and unlawful, especially since there are alternatives. Adoption has been seen as the perfect solution to unplanned pregnancies; women can simply give their unwanted child away to someone who wants it. With adoption, infertile couples get another chance at making a family, and the child still has a chance at life. This would seem to be the most logical, and humane thing to do. So why does abortion exist?

What people who are pro-life fail to see is the psychological and emotional damage that is inflicted on the woman during the pregnancy. If abortion were to be banned, women who have gotten pregnant through rape and/or incest would have to withstand the shame and pain of knowing that an unwanted child is growing inside them. Victims would be forced to have a constant reminder of their rape. A recent study shows that rape victims are 13 times more likely to attempt suicide, and 26 times more likely to abuse substances such as alcohol and drugs (mscu.edu). Banning abortion would mean destroying the chances of women who are victims of rape to get closure. The psychological and emotional stress can fuel their desperation to rid themselves of the fetus and make them go to great lengths to do that. According to Daniel R. Mishell, Jr., MD, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, “before abortion was legalized women would frequently try to induce abortions by using coat hangers, knitting needles, or radiator flush, or by going to unsafe “back-alley” abortionists.” In the end, banning abortion will not stop women from trying to rid themselves of the fetus, but just put their own well-being in jeopardy.

Abortion is also a concrete solution to unplanned pregnancies. Though the use of contraceptions, such as the morning-after pill, have been proven to work, it is not always as effective. “Fifty-one percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method in the month they got pregnant, most commonly condoms (27 percent) or a hormonal method (17 percent)” (guttmacher.org). Often, women and teenage girls are too afraid to speak up or don’t even know that they are pregnant, and once they realize they are, it’s already too late—contraceptions are not effective after a certain amount of time. Abortion is their last chance of terminating the pregnancy in a safe and legal way.

Lastly, keeping abortion legal protects women’s rights. Women have full control over their bodies, meaning what they do with them is their decision. If abortion were illegal, women would be stripped of this right. According to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner, “The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives” (procon.org). Abortion is also viewed as a fundamental right under law. The Constitution gives “a guarantee of certain areas or zones of privacy,” and that “This right of privacy…is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy” (procon.org). Making abortion illegal means robbing women of their rights.

Keeping abortion legal ensures a woman’s safety when faced with unplanned pregnancies, provides hope for rape victims and helps them in moving on with their lives, and protects women’s rights. Making abortion illegal does not stop women from trying to terminate a pregnancy, nor does it save lives. Rather, it does the opposite — illegalizing abortion puts women in danger and prevents them from having control over their own bodies.

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Thoughts on writing abortion persuasive essay

Abortion is a common term refers to the termination of a pregnancy before it has developed to full term whether spontaneous (miscarriage) or purposely induced. While writing Abortion persuasive essays, therefore, one has to try to convince the target group that it is right to terminate a pregnancy.

In America, abortion is legalized though special legislations governing the subject vary from state to state. The U.S Supreme Court in 1973 decided that legalized the termination of pregnancy if the mother or the parties involved wished to do so. While writing abortion persuasive essays, it is important to put your points articulately so as to connive your audience to your opinion. The following writing tips will come in handy.

Tips to remember

Thesis Statement: The thesis statement on the essay should be such that at the onset it is appealing, convincing and defendable. The stance was taken, Pro-choice, in this case, should be clear to the reader without leaving him in any doubt whether the writer is pro – life or pro-choice. It should be in black and white as it was that the writer is persuading the reader on abortion.
Moral and legal issues: The moral and legal issues should be put across such that the reader’s mind is opened on the merits of terminating a pregnancy as opposed to carrying it to term.
Religious issues: The fact that the Presbyterians and the United Methodists among the Christians are the main proponents of Pro-choice while up to 40% of those who prescribe to the Catholic and the Lutheran faith feel that there is nothing wrong with termination of pregnancies yet their leaders are strictly Pro – life and quite vocal in the condemnation of abortion should be pointers to be used in your persuasion. It all depends on the reason why the termination is desirable.
The Bible does not consider abortion as a crime. Consider the case in Exodus 21: 20 – 25 on miscarriage versus the death of the mother.
While raising every issue in support of abortion, do not leave the reader to try and make their own interpretation or decipher what you intended to convey. Every fact should be clear and if possible supported by enough reference in law and daily life that the reader resonates with.

Laying the groundwork

A case in point is the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) which can be cited in support of abortion and the United General Assembly appreciates that the right to make decisions about ones’ reproductive health and life is a basic human right that is protected by international agreements and women should not be discriminated against.
Rape cases are on the increase, and incidences of incest are not entirely unheard of in the US in particular and the whole world in general. The agony of carrying a pregnancy resulting from such a heinous act as rape or incest is nothing compared to bringing up a child, a product of rape or incest case. Expound the points while taking care not to lose the readers while being too wordy.
The sentences used in writing should be short precise and to the point, while using every persuasive technique conceivable to ‘woo’ your readers to your side of the divide.
Conclusion: the conclusion should summarize whatever you have discussed in your entire essay and give a final verdict on your stand on the issue.

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How To Write A Persuasive Essay On Abortion

How To Write a Persuasive Essay About Abortion?

Step 1: Choose Your Position

Step 2: Choose Your Audience

Step 3: Make an Outline & Define Argument

Step 4: Format Your Essay

Step 5: Proofread and Edit

Persuasive Essay About Abortion Examples

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Abortion

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Facts About Abortion You Need to Know

Frequently Asked Questions

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What is a good hook for an essay about abortion?

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Abortion Argumentative Essay: Definitive Guide

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Speaking of Outline

Abortion Essay Introduction

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Body Paragraphs: Pros and Cons of Abortion

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Trust only reliable sources

Edit rigorously

Determine your weak points

Add an opposing view

Why Should Abortion Be Legal

Types of abortion

Cases when abortion is needed

Countries and their abortion laws

Why Abortion Should Be Banned

Health complications after abortion

Abortion Essay Conclusion

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Examples of Essays on Abortion

A Defense of Abortion by Judith Jarvis Thomson

Abortion and Infanticide by Michael Tooley

Some Biological Insights into Abortion by Garret Hardin

FAQs On Abortion Argumentative Essay

Learn How to Craft a Compelling Persuasive Essay About Abortion With Examples!

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Abortion?

Step 1: Research Both Sides of the Issue

Step 2: Choose a Stance and Develop Your Thesis Statement.

Step 3: Support Your Argument With Evidence & Sources.

Step 4: Keep a Formal and Persuasive Tone Throughout Your Essay.

Step 5: Make Sure You've Addressed Counterarguments & Objections.

Outline of a Persuasive Essay on Abortion

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