Opposing Abortion
Supporting Abortion Rights
Respecting Differences
By ushering in an era of abortion on demand, the Supreme Court's Roe decision cheapened human life. The unborn child, which is no less human than its mother, has an inalienable right to life. The sanctity of human life is a moral claim that cannot be violated or superceded by other claims. For this reason, abortion cannot be condoned as an individual decision or as a matter of public policy. Abortion must be prohibited or at least sharply restricted.
The principles on which the Roe v. Wade decision was based -- an individual's freedom of choice, as well as freedom from government intrusion into personal matters -- need to be reaffirmed. The fetus is not yet a person and its rights do not outweigh the mother's right to choose. Decisions about such a personal matter as whether to continue a pregnancy must be left to the individual who is most directly involved, the pregnant woman.
Laws regarding abortion must reflect a concern for two different values. Because we value the human potential of the unborn, we must try to minimize the number of abortions performed. At the same time, public measures must be taken to prevent the tragic dilemma posed by unwanted pregnancy. As members of a pluralistic society, we are obliged to acknowledge that individuals differ about the status of the fetus. For this reason, and because outlawing abortion would be impracticable, thus undermining respect for the law, abortion should be permitted early in pregnancy. After that, it should be sharply restricted.
Opposing Abortion
Supporting Abortion Rights
Respecting Differences
What should be done?
Seek a Supreme Court decision that overturns Roe and protects the unborn by banning abortion, except when the pregnancy poses a clear threat to the mother's life. Protect the life of the unborn by passing a law or constitutional amendment (such as the Human Life Amendment) explicitly recognizing that human life exists from the moment of conception.Until abortion is outlawed, pursue measures to restrict it, such as requiring young, pregnant women to seek parental consent before they can get an abortion; requiring women who intend to have an abortion to consult with their husbands; and requiring counseling before the abortion decision to permit doctors to talk about fetal development with pregnant women. Ban the late-term procedure called partial-birth abortion, and impose criminal penalties on doctors who practice it. Forbid the use of public facilities or public funds to perform abortions. Forbid the sale or distribution of drugs, such as RU486 or the morning after pill, that offer a non-surgical alternative to abortion.
Pass laws guaranteeing a woman's unrestricted right to abortion. Such laws must permit abortion not just when the mother's life or health is threatened, but for any reason a woman considers compelling. Provide publicly funded family planning counseling and clinics to permit all women -- regardless of income -- equal access to safe, medically sound abortion services. Pass legislative measures that would require HMOs, insurance companies, and group medical practices to include abortion as a regular part of their services. Encourage American pharmaceutical firms to distribute RU486, to permit women to carry out safe non-surgical abortions. Offer widespread and effective sex education, and easier access to low-cost birth control. Block legislation that would require spousal or parental notification as a precondition for getting an abortion; oppose waiting periods; and oppose mandatory counseling designed to discourage all abortions.
Pass laws that acknowledge respect for human life as a basic principle. Pass laws that permit abortion only during the first trimester. After the first ten to twelve weeks, abortion should be permitted only when medically necessary for the mother's health. Expand efforts to inform women about alternatives to abortion, such as adoption. Require a one-week waiting period -- except in medical emergencies -- to encourage a carefully considered decision. Significantly expand efforts to prevent unintended pregnancy, including programs for sex education and the provision of contraceptives to sexually active women. Pass laws to ensure that abortions for low-income women are provided at government expense, and that medical facilities performing abortions are licensed to meet high standards of care. Prevent harassment or intimidation intended to dissuade women from abortion who have a right to it.
Arguments For This Approach
Human life begins at conception. Therefore, abortion is murder, which is universally condemned and prohibited. It is not considered a matter of individual moral judgment. The right of the unborn to live supercedes any right of a woman to control her own body. Sanctioning abortion devalues life. Every premise used to justify the killing of an unborn child could also be used to justify the killing of individuals such as senile elderly persons or those who are psychologically impaired -- who some consider less than a person in the whole sense. Since the Roe decision, abortion has become routine: around a quarter of all pregnancies today are terminated by abortions, and it has become a contraceptive of last resort for many women. Considering the moral seriousness of the decision, requiring pregnant women who are thinking about abortion to consult with their spouses, parents, doctors, and other counselors is entirely appropriate. By allowing a policy of abortion on demand, the law conveys the wrong attitudes about sex, parenthood, and what it means to be morally responsible. Abortion on demand has led to this country's high rate of teenage pregnancy, which has contributed to many of our social ills.
Women have an inalienable right to determine the circumstances of their lives, and government must not intrude into decisions about personal and private matters. Forcing a pregnant woman to carry her pregnancy to term, regardless of the circumstances that led to pregnancy, the woman's feelings about becoming a mother, or her ability to take on the burdens of child rearing, is terribly intrusive. Efforts to restrict abortion, such as legislative efforts to ban so-called late term partial birth abortions, jeopardize women's health, and keep physicians from making decisions that reflect their best medical judgment. Contraceptives are not entirely reliable, and for medical or religious reasons many women can't use the most reliable methods. Legal abortion must be available when contraception fails. It is inhuman to ban abortion when pregnancy results from rape or incest, or when continuing the pregnancy threatens the woman's health. Pregnant women considering an abortion shouldn't be forced to seek the permission of their spouses or parents, or submit to anti-abortion counseling.For all women to have the right to an abortion, it must be available at public expense to women who cannot afford it and do not have insurance.
Public policy often balances several legitimate interests. A prudent law on abortion would seek to minimize the number of abortions performed, while respecting differenct views about fetal life. There is nothing contradictory about laws that combine compassion for pregnant women with concern for the fetus, a concern that increases as pregnancy continues. In a pluralist society, most matters of personal morality -- particularly when there is no consensus about them -- should be kept out of the public realm. When abortion takes place early in the pregnancy, the status of the fetus is morally ambiguous, and for that reason discretion ought to be left to the woman. While a fetus is obviously not a complete human being, the potentiality of human life is there -- increasingly so as the pregnancy continues. So the right to abortion cannot be unconditional, and the decision cannot be left entirely to the pregnant woman. Some nations, France included, have settled the issue by allowing abortion up to the tenth week, but thereafter permitting only abortions that are medically necessary.
Arguments Against This Approach
The assertion that life begins at conception is a personal belief, not a biological fact, and it is not universally held. Within the religious community, people differ about the definition of a person and when abortion is morally justified. A woman has a privacy right to control her own body. Under certain circumstances -- when pregnancy results from rape, for example -- abortion is a morally justifiable choice. Banning specific late-term abortion procedures forces physicians into the unconscionable position of jeopardizing a patient's health. Denying young women the right to abortion would, in many cases, force them to drop out of school and doom their families to poverty. If the right to abortion is denied or sharply restricted, we'll return to the situation that existed before Roe. Illegal abortions will be performed by unskilled practitioners in unsanitary circumstances, and the health and safety of millions of women will be jeopardized.
Allowing abortion on demand undermines one of the most basic values in a civil society: respect for human life. By granting the right to abortion with very few restrictions, the law encourages women to resort to abortion too often, and too casually. This perspective reduces abortion to a matter of personal choice and convenience, which ignores the sanctity of human life and the community's compelling interest. This position is based on the false assertion that if pregnancy is accidental -- resulting, for example, from contraceptive failure or rape -- women should feel no moral compunction about aborting the fetus. Many moral obligations are not voluntarily assumed. Expanding sex education, making contraceptives available to teenagers, and granting the right to abortion have encouraged sexual promiscuity and undermined family life.
Agreeing to such an approach would mean permitting abortion on demand during the phase of pregnancy -- the first ten weeks -- in which most abortions take place. Therefore, it would do little to reduce the number of abortions. This amounts to a moral middle ground, which is unacceptable both to those who are convinced that human life begins at conception, and to those who are convinced that a woman's right to choose must take precedence. If there is no consensus about the status of a fetus, why should we go to such lengths to restrict abortion after the first ten weeks? This kind of abortion policy would create a legal straitjacket: When an unwed, pregnant 17-year old discovers in the thirteenth week that she is pregnant, are we prepared to say she must give birth, regardless of her ability to raise the child? This denies the central principle affirmed in Roe, that as a society we affirm individual privacy as well as the right to choose. Because it infringes on a woman's right to privacy, this approach would be a giant step backward.
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