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Essay on Abortion

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Abortion: A Basic Right The abortion controversy has been debated for years. The presidential election this year has become very involved with this topic. On one side, John F. Kerry, along with third party candidate Ralph Nader, the pro-choice supporters, sees individual choice as central to the debate: If a woman cannot choose to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, a condition which affects her body and possibly her entire life, then she has lost one of her most basic human rights. However, George Bush feels the complete opposite. He thinks having an abortion is unethical and unjust. I agree with Kerry. The government has no right to interfere with a mother’s decision and trying to deny abortion to any woman is denying that mother’s civil …show more content…

Someone could argue that an abortion is taking an unborn child’s life, but what life are they talking about? To be alive, one must have experiences, which an unborn child simply does not have. A woman’s rights outweigh those of an unborn child’s. Society is constantly changing and although the Supreme Court shows sympathy and respect for traditional values, it also recognizes the need for change. The Supreme Court agrees with Kerry and other pro-choice supporters.      One such influential case involving abortion was Roe vs. Wade. It all started out in a small town in Texas where a woman under the alias Jane Roe filed a case in district court for a woman’s right to choose abortion (Doudera 142). At this time, the law in Texas prohibited abortion. Eventually the case moved to the Supreme Court. The attorneys for Roe argued that the law was unfair. They said that the unborn fetus is not a real person. Kerry’s position is that the unborn child is not a person, according to the law. Though human, the unborn child is not protectable human life. That means Kerry adheres to and supports the decision made in Roe v. Wade (Cooney). The Supreme Court pointed out that a woman should have the right to control her own life and body. The Supreme Court also argued that women have fundamental rights to abortion. It was a right of privacy and if a woman felt that the right choice was to

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