Free Essays,College Free Essays,Free College Essays at Anti Essays

The Right to Live

Abortion is defined as “the deliberate termination of a pregnancy, usually before the embryo or fetus is capable of independent life.” The argument dealing with this medical procedure is not as simple as the definition is. One side of the argument is in support of abortion, a fight to help tear down the laws that ban it and to allow new laws supporting it to be created. The other side of the argument is against abortion, fighting to create new laws that would ban such a procedure in as many states as possible. This struggle between legalizing or illegalizing abortion has gone on for years and plays an important role in our government political party system. However most people tend to fall in that grey area of the controversy, believing that abortion is wrong but in certain circumstances an abortion is appropriate. The main concept of the argument is whether or not a woman should have the choice to terminate her own pregnancy.
Many court cases in the past years have involved the issue of abortion. These cases involve either women challenging the laws against or for abortion or asking for laws to be created or demolished that deal with the medical procedure. The most famous of these cases, Roe vs. Wade of 1973, dealt with the issue of privacy and a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. This case changed the laws dealing with abortion by ruling that during the first trimester, state laws and regulations may not interfere with a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. During the second trimester, state laws and regulations can regulate abortion in order to protect the woman's health. Finally during the third trimester and after the fetus is able to live on its own, state laws and regulations may prohibit abortion except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman. A more recent case dealing with the issue of abortion is Gonzales vs. Planned Parenthood of 2007. This case however addressed a specific...