Abortion

1.      The NARAL website explains abortion and says that all women should have the option to make the decision they want (Roe v. Wade 1973). They go on to say that although abortion is legal in America it is not safe. Anti-Choice groups target women’s right to choose and make it hard to get an abortion. NARAL believes that although women have the right to choose there should still be preventative measures in place like birth control and sex education. Doctors, nurses and patients who utilize abortion clinics are harassed daily by pro-life activists. The NARAL website talks about the Crisis Prevention Centers (CPCs) and how they are misleading to women. First of all there are 4,000 CPCs across the country and some of them get tax dollars. The CPCs lie to women about the dangers of abortion and birth control. They tell these vulnerable women that birth control is the same thing as abortion and abortion can make you sterile, cause breast cancer, and convince them that abortion is not the right route.

On the other side of the issue is the National Right to Life or the NRL they explain abortion as any premature expulsion of a human fetus, whether naturally spontaneous, as in a miscarriage, or artificially induced, as in a surgical or chemical abortion. They say 93% of abortions today are done for social reasons. The website also talks about the development of the fetus. Under the alternatives to abortion tab is the number for the CPC hotline to find a place to help women make an informed decision. NRL goes in to vivid detail explaining the different techniques of abortion they use such language as “dead, burned, and shriveled baby” and says that death isn’t unheard of in the mothers. The way it describes partial birth abortion is unnecessary and very graphic.

As someone looking at both the websites it seems that the NARAL is winning the debate. It allows the option for women that want to get an abortion but those who don’t do not have to get one if they don’t want. The NARAL is not imposing views on anyone else but the NRL is. They are giving violent graphic descriptions of the abortions on their website. I also didn’t like how the NRL’s main point was that it isn’t health for the mother to get an abortion and tries to scare women into not getting them. In my opinion scaring people isn’t helping them make an informed decision.

2.      As a 17 year old girl I think that generally a parent should know if a child is having an abortion. I believe that they can be a great support system while she is going through a tough time. But, just because some people might have supportive, loving parents doesn’t mean everyone does. I don’t think that they should be forced to tell their parents, everyone had a different relationship with their mom and dad and in some situations telling them only makes the choice harder. I think that when a teen goes to an abortion clinic they should be told about the benefits of telling their parents and how they could help them in the situation but ultimately it should be her choice to tell her parents or not. Not everyone has the same situation at home and not every parent may support the abortion which makes the decision even harder to make.

3.      I don’t think that the father should have any say over the child until it is born. He is not the one who has to walk around with everyone knowing that he is pregnant for 9 months, he doesn’t have to go to doctor appointments and classes, and most importantly he does not have a child living inside of him. The fetus is part of the woman’s body until the baby is born so I believe she is the only one that has the right to make the decision of an abortion. The man needs to be supportive of a woman’s right to choose but sometimes they are not which makes the decision even more difficult to make and allows the mother to not make an informed decision.