Abortion: Pro-Life, Pro-Choice And In-Between Essay

Abortion: Pro-Life, Pro-Choice and In-Between
Often in life, people are faced with trying circumstances that force them to take a moral stance on a controversial matter.   The decision to continue or terminate a pregnancy is a divisive subject in terms of ethics, politics and science.   Abortion has a lengthy timeline that predates reliable recorded history.   Before modern medical advances, an abortion was a brutal and formidable process that was often lethal to women seeking the procedure.   With increased technology and medical marvels, legitimate abortions, strictly as a procedure, have made breakthrough advances in regard to the safety and concern of the pregnant woman.
The controversy, however, lies within each individual that this topic reaches.   Opinions on this matter vary greatly depending on ethical beliefs, political agenda, and parental circumstances.   The different views to be considered are pro-life (against abortion) and pro-choice (for abortion rights) with some middle ground for extraordinary circumstances.
Supporters of the pro-life stance have many valid arguments to support their anti-abortion convictions.   The most predominant reason is the opinion that unborn babies are living human beings.   The common belief among this group of supporters is that human life begins at conception.   Because the fetus is alive and is a developing person, there are facts to support this viewpoint.   A fetus can feel the pain caused by the abortive procedure.   To support this claim, The Washington Times published an article that highlighted new legislation in five states that forbade abortions beyond twenty weeks of gestation.   This is due to common medical knowledge that a fully developed fetus can undoubtedly feel pain.   Where this observation is widespread, many medical experts speculate that a fetal response to pain occurs earlier than twenty weeks.   Another fact of this matter, according to pro-life supporters, is that abortion causes the untimely death of a...