Abortion

5 Pages 1193 Words

Throughout the years of history, there existed several controversial topics which

have caused severe discrepancy among different groups of people. Abortion is a highly

controversial issue which has been constantly argued over for the past few years and

probably for many years to come in the future. Since this is a major election year,

abortion will come under several discussions in each campaign. The main controversy

rests with the question of whether Abortion should be outlawed?- whether the law should

permit a woman to have an abortion and, if so, under what circumstances or whether the

law should protect the unborn. Abortion is the destruction of the fetus or unborn child

while the child is still in the mothers womb. In other words, Abortion is the ending of

pregnancy before birth.

The controversy lies within Induced Abortion. Induced Abortion are procedures

carried out to bring on abortion. Such include vacuum suction, which the most common

type- this is used in the early stages of pregnancy, dilatation and evacuation (D and E),

induction, which the injection of abortifacients such as prostaglandin into the uterus), and

hysterotomy, which is a surgical procedure similar to cesarean section used later in

pregnancy, especially when the woman’s life is in danger. (M. Muldoon, The Abortion

Debate in the United States and Canada : A Source Book )The “abortion pill,” the drug

RU-486 (mifepristone), was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the

United States in 2000. It is used within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. A second drug

is taken two days later to start uterine contractions and complete the abortion. (J. M.

Riddle, Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance).

Therefore, it is clear that there exist several medical techniques for aborting an unborn

child. However, the controversy still exi...