The Legalization of Abortion

Imani Spence

Ceron Bryant

ENC 1101

7/24/2012

Abortion Should Not Be Legal

When women become pregnant, they have to make a choice as to whether or not they

will have the baby. When they are pregnant there are options such as abortion. Abortion is when

a pregnancy is ended by removing and destroying a fetus from a mother's womb. Roe

versus Wade made it legal for women to get an abortion. This decision pleased some and upset

other people who believe that abortion is murder and should be illegal. That is what people are

constantly debating.

In recent history, laws were passed to legalize abortion. Over thirty years ago, in 1973, the

Supreme Court case of Roe versus Wade made it legal for women to get an abortion. The states

could no longer forbid abortions in the first three months of pregnancy. Its legalization was based

primarily on the ninth amendment. In 1990, the Supreme Court decided states could require

minors to get permission from their parents to get an abortion. States can also ban abortion in the

third trimester except when the mother's life is at stake.

Abortion laws and methods of abortion depend on how far along the pregnancy is. A

pregnancy lasts about forty weeks. Ninety percent of abortions are done within the first thirteen

weeks. During the second trimester, the state can regulate the abortion to protect the woman's

health. Most abortions are done by vacuuming the fetus from the womb. Another form of

abortion, intact dilation and extraction, has been called partial-birth abortion and is done between

twenty and twenty-four weeks. Partial-birth abortion is partial delivery of the fetus into the birth

canal .The brain tissue is destroyed, and the pieces are removed. On November 5, 2003, George

W. Bush signed the "Partial-birth Abortion Ban Act" which put a ban on this procedure. Certain

procedures are riskier and more controversial than others.

A poll taken by CBS News showed that half of...