Pro-life vs. pro-choice is a nasty debate that doesn’t seem to have many
answers. There are many questions and facts to back up both sides of the
argument.
Some people say abortion is a women’s rights issue.
Other people
say it’s an issue of morality, and still others an issue of just being “right.”
The issue of abortion rights is an opinionated controversy in public life. Every
person has an opinion about abortion rights, and it seems that a moral objective
has become divided into two different arenas-social issues vs.
religious issues,
with the Church and the politicians in the direct line of fire.
On one side of the abortion rights debate are the pro-life proponents. In the
United States, the position of most Christian churches is that the Church has
something to say about public life and the “good society.” The primary
involvement of the U.S. Catholic bishops in public life in the last decade focused
on abortion.
The movement is not flexible, and while the movement recognizes that some
women might not be ready to become mothers, pro-life supporters offer women
a chance to give up their babies or offer support services. The pro-life movement
is simple: abortion is murder and murder is bad. Pro-lifers measure life as
beginning at the moment of conception. Anything which may disrupt a
pregnancy (including birth control) is wrong.
On the surface, the pro-life movement seems to impact the reproductive rights
of women-because it does. While Roe vs. Wade 1973 allows women the right
to choose to have elective abortions, pro-life supporters believe that the law
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should stop this from happening. Pro-lifers believe that all abortions are wrong
and that every baby should have a chance to be born.
The pro-life movement gave rise in the sixties. The proponents maintain that
the fetus is alive and human. They believe that the unborn fetus is a person and
physically independent, and as a person, the fetus has human rights. Pro-life
believers agree that killing an unborn fetus is murder.
There appears to be a competition between the U.S. Catholic and American
politics. The bishops describe abortion and euthanasia as pre-eminent threats
to human dignity because they directly attack life itself. The bishops declare that
killing an unborn child is evil and to make such an evil action legal is wrong.
Their opposition to legal abortion is the primary social issue.
The Church’s teaching that direct abortion is morally wrong has become a
tradition in the Church itself-the Church teaches that abortion is not only morally
wrong, it is murder. Pro-lifers argue for the rights of unborn fetuses. Catholic
moral teaching is based on the dignity of the human person, and the principles
based on this foundation of human dignity apply across the board to all life
issues. Abortion is now the fundamental human rights issue of today.
The outcome of the debate between pro-choice and pro-life opponents needs
to be politically correct and morally right. Pro-life and pro-choice are terms of
political framing. The Catholic Church does not give women a personal choice in
the abortion issue. Abortion is murder and pro-life is anti-abortion. The end
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result could possibly be that the U.S. bishops and the American politicians will
both win their side of the controversy at hand: the social issue and the religious
issue of abortion rights will not be morally right, and abortion will not be legal.
In the argument for pro-choice, those who want women to have the choice
whether or not to have an abortion, the debate does not discuss whether life
begins at fertilization. The argument in pro-choice is not necessarily that all
women should HAVE abortions, but that women should have the CHOICE
whether or not to have one. Pro-choice is a middle ground; anti-choice is forced
motherhood. Pro-choice supporters believe abortion should be settled privately
between a woman and her doctor.
Pro-choice is not pro-abortion. Supporters include those who are personally
against abortion, but who do not impose their viewpoint on all women. The
pro-choice movement does not advocate abortion over birth-it simply defends
the right of women to decide for themselves.
The pro-choice believers support and work towards preventing unwanted
pregnancies, reducing abortion, promoting contraception, educating women and
youth, and ensuring that families have the necessary resources to raise healthy
happy children. Abortion clinics and hospitals follow proper protocol for abortion.
These clinics must provide full information on the risks and side effects and
procedures. They must allow a woman to view the embryo, inform her if there
are twins, and provide fetal development photos. All women are counseled on
birth control, and counselors offer non-judgmental options to the women.
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Most women have already made up their minds to have abortions when they
visit an abortion clinic, yet 1 to 5% change their minds after counseling.
Clinic counselors clear up women’s anxieties and fears about abortion. An
abortion clinic counselor saves far more unborn babies in a year than an
anti-abortion picketer saves in a lifetime.
The pro-choice movement and abortion providers are in the business of
protecting and respecting women’s rights, their moral autonomy, and their
choices. They want every woman to be willing and every child to be wanted.
Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-family, and pro-life in the true sense of that term.
The movement struggles alone in efforts to decrease the need for abortions.
Anti-choice opposes contraception and sexual education-a possible return to
illegal unsafe abortions. Legal safe abortion is a matter of fundamental rights
for women BECAUSE LAWS AGAINST ABORTION DON’T STOP ABORTION.
Pro-choice supporters do not want to debate with those who wish to strip women
of their rights.
In my opinion, the moral issue has been transferred from Church to “state.”
Pro-life is a struggle between what is politically correct and morality. Both the
pro-life and pro-choice movements have become a moral and political debate
between the Church and the lawmakers and work toward their own desires and
goals.
The Catholic Church says that killing an unborn child is evil and to make such
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an action legal is wrong. The Church interprets abortion as killing and teaches
that killing is a mortal sin. I question where the interpretation comes from: the
Bible? The Ten Commandments? The Vatican? The Church thinks that
abortion is a threat to human dignity because it directly attacks life itself. The
moral issue of abortion becomes a social issue because of the Church’s
opposition to legal abortion. They are saying that the act of making an abortion
legal is wrong. It’s almost like blaming the lawmakers for the sin of abortion.
Then, they want the law to enforce their teachings.
The abortion issue is not whether a woman is committing a sin by having an
abortion, it’s who is legally responsible for her decision and the outcome. A
woman should have the rightful freedom to believe what she wants to believe,
and her sin (if it is a sin), is between her and God-not the Church, and not the
law. The Church does not give women a personal choice in the abortion choice,
therefore, they are taking away their fundamental human rights.
I am not going to debate whether pro-life issues are correct or false, but
rather, try to understand what pro-life is, what it means, and why it’s still being
argued as the right way. On the other hand, the pro-choice movement is an
ethical view that women should have the choice to continue or terminate a
pregnancy. If abortion is not legal, women will return to illegal unsafe abortions.
I believer that a woman should have the RIGHT to choose what to do with her
body, and at the same time, I support the teachings of the Catholic Church that
abortion is morally wrong. Abortion is a moral choice for any woman wishing to
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control her body-and this should be a certain unalienable right.
If I were attempting to exercise my right of choice to have or not have an
abortion, I would need to ask myself the following questions:
-Is the fetus alive? Of course. It’s a biological mechanism-a genesis of
new life. But it does not have human rights-including the right to be
aborted during its gestation.
-Is it human? Yes-a human being in an early stage of development-not
with full human rights.
-Is it a person? No-just a potential person.
-Is it physically independent? No-absolutely dependent on another human
being for its continued existence.
-Does it have human rights? Yes and no. Not before birth.
-Is abortion murder? No-it’s not an independent person.
While I support the teachings of the Church, I believe that a women should
have the right to choose what to do with her body. The pro-choice movement
wants every woman to be willing and every child to be wanted. Pro-woman,
pro-child, pro-family, and pro-life in the true sense of that term. No one has the
right answer, but no one has the wrong answer either. Although the woman
always has the right to choose, the pro-life movement makes some good points
any scared and single mother might want to consider.
As for my feelings, I believe that abortion is a private issue-an issue that
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should be between a woman and God. I believe the Church’s teaching that God
gave me free will to make my own decisions. I think that the pro-choice
movement struggles alone in its efforts to decrease the need for abortion. Legal
safe abortion is a matter of fundamental rights for women because LAWS
AGAINST ABORTION DON’T STOP ABORTION. Pro-life vs. pro-choice is a
vicious debate that doesn’t seem to have many answers. Some people say
abortion is a women’s rights issue. Other people say it’s an issue of morality,
and still other an issue of just being “right.”
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