Abortion: Life or Death Essay

Submitted By abirlew
Words: 636
Pages: 3

Andrea Birlew
Elizabeth Larson
Abortion: Life or Death If a drunk driver kills a pregnant woman or their unborn baby in an accident they are taken to trial for murder charges. There are many laws surrounding this subject. However, it is legal for a mother to abort her unborn baby, making it ok to take their own child’s life. Does this make any sense? When a child is conceived from day one of conception that unborn child has a life, a plan, a purpose, and a future; by a woman choosing abortion they are choosing to destroy all of that for a tiny baby that has no choices yet. Abortion refers to the purposeful termination of a pregnancy. Millions of girls and women have chosen abortion with in the two eras that abortion has been legal. (Solinger,Rickie,1998) The abortion of a fetus continues to be an emotional debate that involves the right of a fetus and a mother. (Philip’s,2007)
Legal abortions can be performed all the way up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. An unborn baby begins to develop two weeks after the mother’s last period begins. After that the baby is rapidly developing. During week three chromosomes will help determine the baby's sex, traits such as eye and hair color, and, to some extent, personality and intelligence. At week 6 basic facial features will begin to appear and, the heart is pumping blood throughout the baby’s tiny body. (Clinic, Mayo, n.d.) Though tiny during these stages, the baby is showing signs of life. Some people seem to believe that because this tiny baby is just that tiny, that they have no feeling. All of this shows proof that an unborn baby is at least a living being from the very moment of conception. The law says that if you take someone else’s life you are a murder. Why does this not apply in this case? According to a study done in 1991, 204,000 women were seeking adoption. (Adoption Stats Website, n.d.) With the number of people wanting to adopt why isn’t adoption suggested as much, if not more than abortion. A lot of the families looking to adopt pray every day for a child to call their own. There are a lot of circumstances than happen every day such as; rape, incest, pre-marital sex, teen pregnancy, and low income. These are a few of the reasons why women choose abortion. Even though these are very extreme circumstances that would make it hard to take care of or…