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Pros and Cons of Instituting Legal Sanctions
This paper will explore the different reasons and options surrounding the pros and cons of instituting legal sanctions against mothers who abuse alcohol and use illegal drugs during pregnancy. In society today it is debatable whether or not a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body during pregnancy. If a woman is using drugs while pregnant should the law be able to step in and tell her how to take care of her body? This paper will provide: information explaining the effects that substance abuse has on pregnant women, provide a view of both sides of a woman’s right to choose as well as provide an overview of laws and organizations that work to prevent fetal abuse.
Women Right to Choose
Who’s right is it to choose whether or not a child is aborted? It is the woman’s body, but the child is both the man and woman’s offspring. The issue of woman’s right is one thing that should be considered. In the event that the mother was raped, if she is (for example) a 10 yr. old child or if by having the baby it would put the mother’s life in danger, then there is something that needs to be done.
Forcing a woman to carry the child of a rapist simply because one believes that abortion is wrong would be infringing in on the rights of the mother. It could be considered wrong when individuals have careless sex and utilize abortions as birth control, especially when there are hundreds of birth control choices out there already (Pushaw, 2008). There is another way that this could be viewed; there are women that just don't think they can handle being a single mom. The reality here is that there is a choice to be made before a person finds them in this type of situation.
The vast majority of Americans, including those who favor a right to choose during the early stages of pregnancy, support laws that prohibit partial-birth abortion. But it is the minority of Americans that bring forward the...