Abortion

Add (Add (Add Abortion As per the findings of Guttmacher Institute, the US abortion statistics indicates that approximately 1. 2 million American women choose abortion each year to end a pregnancy. The decision to continue or end a pregnancy is very personal and this decision may be influenced by various factors. As reported in WebMD, birth control failure is the most common reason why women consider abortion. A vast majority of the women consider abortion as contraceptive method to terminate a pregnancy. In addition, a notable portion of women chooses abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy. Inability to support or afford a child is another major reason for abortion. Sometimes women choose to have an abortion to prevent the birth of a baby with major birth defects or severe delivery complications. Finally, they consider abortion as a means of terminating pregnancy resulting from an incest or rape (WebMD).
All religions consider abortion as an extreme sin because they believe that human life is created by god and therefore no person other than God may take a life (Society for the Protection of Unborn Children). Humanitarians hold the view that every individual has the right to live and abortion is therefore an inhumane activity. In contrast to this, some people opine that the decision must be left to the option of women as they are the child bearers.
The US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade in 1973 made abortion legal in every state of the country (qtd in Rosenthal, 313). Prior to this ruling, legality of abortion was left to the option of individual states. It was illegal in 30 states and legal in 20 states under particular circumstances. However, individual states are allowed to regulate abortion or form trigger laws. Currently, 6 states follows trigger laws and other three states possess laws to criminalize abortion. It must be noted that the US constitution guarantees women’s fundamental right to choose abortion. At the same time, US constitution provides states with the right to restrict abortion practices to varying degrees.
I strongly support the Federal position on abortion. Every child has the right to obtain proper care and love and which is not guaranteed when a woman is forced to give birth to an unwanted child. It is observed that majority of the abortions take place in the first trimester. At this stage, a fetus is fully dependent of the mother and hence it cannot be considered as a separate entity. In many cases, abortion reduces the probability of pregnancy related complications and secures mother’s life. If a woman is forced to bear an unwanted child, the fetus is more likely to grow unhealthy.
While analyzing the US abortion statistics, it seems that abortion rate has been declining since mid 1990s (“ Minnesota Citizens..”). As per United States’ abortion statistics, among abortions reported in 2008, 17% was chosen by girls under the age 19 whereas women aged between 20 and 29 were responsible for 57%. The abortion rate of women in the age group 30-39 was 23% in 2008. A total of 253, 865 White women chose to have abortion in 2008 whereas it was 194, 694 among Black women (United States: Abortion statistics).

Works Cited
Guttmacher Institute. “ In Brief: Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States”. (2008). Web 15 May 2012 Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “ United states abortion statistics.” (2012). Web. 15 May 2012. Rosenthal, Martha S. Human Sexuality: From Cells to Society. USA: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. “ Religious views on abortion.” (2012). Web. 15 May 2012. “ United States: Abortion statistics.” Stateheathfacts. org. (n. d). Web. 15 May 2012. WebMD. “ Women’s health: Abortion-reasons women choose abortion.” (n. d). Web. 15 May 2012. < http://women. webmd. com/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion>