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Kevyn J. Silva Villalobos

Steve Waszak

English 100

November 8th, 2024

Should abortion be banned in the United States?

Abortion should not be banned in the United States. Since 1973 until 2022 the state cannot be

intervening in a person’s decision to abort during the first trimester, and this protects the right to

take decision about their own body like the Fourteenth Amendment said. The access to safe and

legal abortion is important for protect and preserve public health. In 2022 the court retracted

about the lawsuit of Roe v. Wade, and now the government has legal authority about abortion

and some states took the opportunity to ban the abort, while some protected the access to it.

However, this was an achievement for the conservative ones. Although some may argue that

abortion should be banned, because this takes innocent lives, I firmly argue that everyone should

be able to choose about their own body without anyone’s approval. Besides, those who support

the ban classify as pro-life, and they argue that abortion goes against the cycle of life and should

be considered homicide, because it’s considered a human being since its conception, and they are

mostly impulse by religious viewpoints, which is completely dishonest, due to the fact that they

think no one can take a life away or decide about ‘’someone’s’’ life; and claim that once born it

can be placed on adoption. On the other hand, abortion is a decision that just can’t be influenced

by religion, because religion it’s a personal choice and all people are free to believe in what they

want, it is not right to put their own beliefs over someone’s body. Mostly of the counter

arguments are just made with personal opinions, they don’t use any scientifical sources to justify

their positions, they just use religion, the ‘’correctly moral opinion’’, and the ‘’homicide’’

argument over and over, when it addresses a decision about someone’s body, we need to be

impartial and not try to force all to follow personal beliefs. It’s fundamental to remark that
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abortion is done between 4 to 13 weeks, within these weeks the embryo or fetus can’t be

described as a person, and, some may argue that ‘’we don’t know exactly when it becomes a

person’’, and this argument isn’t that accurate, because in fact there’s a lot of medical and

scientifical researches that can invalidate that argument, scientifically speaking, there’s 3 stages

during the pregnancy, a fertilized egg develops into a blastocyst, then an embryo and then a fetus

( https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/women-s-health-issues/normal-pregnancy/stages-of-fetal-

development). Furthermore, we also need to know; What is a person? Well, the definition of a

person is ‘’a human being regarded as an individual’’, now knowing this, an embryo is not a

person because this doesn’t have yet all the organs a person in fact has to survive, and of course,

it cannot survive on its own, the embryo needs the woman’s womb and not only this, it also need

the oxygen the woman provides, the nutrients, the food, the vitamins, basically the woman’s

provides all the fuel it needs to develop. However, even while being a fetus, this can’t guarantee

it can survive outside the woman’s body, so in fact it is not yet a person because it cannot even

survive without the woman, just like I previously claimed, the abortion is done between week 4

to 13, when the embryo or fetus is not able to live on its own or even feel pain, this doesn’t have

all the organs fully developed. Uphold abortion rights is pretty important to defend women’s

rights, providing gender equality, and the right to make their own decisions about their

reproductive health, because abortion isn’t really about ‘’protect lives’’, they just want to control

woman’s body. Likewise, some women aren’t ready for motherhood, and this may affect most

parts of their lives, like their economy, some of them can’t really afford all the needs of the child

once it is born, and some aren’t psychologically able to raise a child, or just doesn’t want to

become a mother due to their age or because that isn’t the right time. In addition, sadly there are

a lot of little girls, teenagers, and also grown woman that are victims of rape, and incest, and they

should be able to take the decision if they want to continue with the pregnancy or just abort

because is cruel to force a woman to gave birth a child who is the result of a traumatic stage in
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his life, it’s just cruel, and it has a heavy impact on his psychological health, compassion, and

understanding are necessary when addressing the complex realities faced by those impacted by

such circumstances. As well, there is another reason for woman to take the decision of have an

abortion, and it because of complications during the pregnancy, some are aware that they have a

high-risk pregnancy, and it’s dangerous to continue with it, because it can cause the death of the

women, and sometimes the fetus is the one with the problem, it can have a disease or a disability,

which could affect its life, along with; there’s also exist the ectopic pregnancies, this happens

when the fertilized egg implants itself and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus, this type

of pregnancy can also occur in different areas of the body, a pregnancy like this can’t proceed as

is supposed to be, because the fertilized egg can’t survive, and the growing tissue may cause life-

threatening bleeding, so, in this case, there’s no other option, it needs to procced an abortion, but

what happens when it is illegal to perform an abortion?. In conclusion, as I said, some people are

just against abortion because of religious reasons and there isn’t a real worry about the

newborns, the indices of successful adoptions aren’t as good as they think, they think is pretty

easy just to give birth and put the child on adoption, because they’re not seeing the reality behind

that, in 2022 it was reported that about of 108,000 children’s where available for adoption and

couldn’t get a permanent, and only 53,665 where adopted, and 2022 had the fewest number of

adoptions since 2015 (https://adoptioncouncil.org/article/foster-care-and-adoption-statistics/) ,

even adopted some children are under the wrong conditions, some are under physical or

psychological abuse, I would like to remark that ‘’you’re not saving a life just letting it live’’

because most of pro-life doesn’t care about what happens once it born because they don’t really

care about their lives, they’re just conservative. As well making it legal in every state doesn’t

force anyone to abort, it is not obligatory, meanwhile, making it illegal in fact forces women to

give birth to a child under any circumstance, which I find it hypocrite, because the United States,

claims to be a free country, but at the same time they don’t want women to become free to
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choice about their body. The ban of the abortion would lead to more deaths rather than saving

lives, (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/01/health/texas-miscarriage-death-propublica/index.html)

unfortunately Josseli Barnica, was a victim of this unfair system, she died because the doctors

refused to help her, because it would be a crime to do an abortion, and is so heartbroken that

many woman has to died because of this law, the deaths per 100,000 births increased from 7.2 to

24.9 in 2020 (https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/php/pregnancy-mortality-surveillance/?

CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/pregnancy-

mortality-surveillance-system.htm).

Spitzer, Elyssa, et al. "Abortion Bans Will Result in More Women Dying." Gale Opposing

Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/ILAXBU173051192/OVIC?u=cclc_palomar&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=c36bcc0d. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024. Originally published as "Abortion Bans Will

Result in More Women Dying," Center for American Progress, 2 Nov. 2022.

Arkes, Hadley. "Abortion Is a Violation of Natural Rights." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online

Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/HJZAGV153324831/OVIC?u=cclc_palomar&sid=bookmark-

OVIC&xid=0453f707. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024. Originally published as "Abortion as Anti-law,"

National Review, 11 Nov. 2021.

"Reproductive Rights." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2024. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3010999318/OVIC?

u=cclc_palomar&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=cc304f3a. Accessed 7 Nov. 2024.

"Adoption." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2023. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/KQDKXF659505097/OVIC?

u=cclc_palomar&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=4cce7665. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

“Foster Care and Adoption Statistics – AFCARS Annual Update.” National Council For

Adoption, 20 June 2024, adoptioncouncil.org/article/foster-care-and-adoption-statistics/.

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[3:59 AM]

Muñoz, Jessian L. “Stages of Fetal Development.” MSD Manual Consumer Version, 10 Sept.

2024, www.msdmanuals.com/home/women-s-health-issues/normal-pregnancy/stages-of-fetal-

development.

“Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System.” Maternal Mortality Prevention, 15 May 2024,

www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/php/pregnancy-mortality-surveillance/?

CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternal-mortality/pregnancy-

mortality-surveillance-system.htm.