Kayla Mayhew-Draft #1

Kayla Mayhew
Persuasive Writing
October 30, 2008
Draft #1



Throughout American history, Abortion has been a thoroughly heated topic that has always stayed controversial. Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? The topic has become a social policy that a lot of Americans take sides on, and is talked about greatly by the presidential candidates. Women all over America have the choice, and should always be able to keep that right. Pro-Choice is a better decision for women to be able to make, to allow them to have complete control over their bodies and health privacies. For the benefit of women and their possible children, abortion and privacy should continue to be legal. Women should also always be offered a safe place to receive one.

As human beings, women hold the key of birthing a child, that’s always been obvious, but who is a man or anyone for that matter to tell women that they cannot make a personal decision about their body? Pro-choice allows all women to be able to control their bodily issues. It gives women the right to make a decision that is best for them, and in interest of caring for the future child that they hold. Abortion is a personal and emotional choice for any woman to make, and it holds a lot of meaning. The stress behind deciding on an abortion is immense, and should morally be left up to the woman herself. Since abortion currently is legal, there is a law that constitutes the safety behind it.

Pro-choice should also allow women to receive one in a safe place. The law behind this safety gives women the right to receive an abortion in a safe, legal environment that can be private. This is very important to and for patients, because it brings women to a place where they will not have to harm themselves with illegal operations. Women who are not offered abortions legally in their countries often confide in “alley abortions”, which are unhealthy and sometimes result in death. Safety in procedures can guarantee women seeking abortions credibility in the place they choose to conduct an abortion. Research even shows that “According to a study by the World Health Association, abortion is no less prevalent in countries where it is prohibited; it is just more dangerous. Criminalizing it in the USA will just send the poor into back alleys and the rich overseas. In the 1950s, many women died from "alley abortions." (USA Today, “Conservatives Won’t Compromise on Abortion” October 2007) So if abortion is outlawed, will women really stop trying to get them? The answer is no. This law is the best and only way to ensure that women are being cared for by medicals the correct way, as the right and law allows. Overall, it protects women.

Protecting women and their to-be child is a part of the law, and the unborn child often created the end decision. The time in which a fetus becomes a patient has not yet been declared. Ultimately, the mother is considered the patient and if the child bears a concern that could take the mother’s life, then abortion is an important decision to be made. So if the mother is the patient, shouldn’t she be able to determine what is best for her? The reasons why some women choose to have abortions also vary. Some women feel as though they cannot care for the child properly, while some are subjected to rape or incest where the intercourse was not mutual. In these cases, no one should be forced to bring a life into this world and care for it when they had no intentions of created one, or even having the intercourse to create a life. While these reasons are the ethical way to keep abortion legal and available, some believe otherwise.


For a long time a lot of Americans and different cultures did not believe in abortions, especially certain religions. Catholics have been known to disagree with abortion, and have fought in on the legal field. Their rebuttal in this argument exists in the fact that this form of birth control is a form of murder, and their religion does not agree with it. (America, “The Abortion debate and the Catholic Subculture” July 1992) Though this does not believe in abortion as a law and right for women, there is no “significant difference that exists between Catholics and others who have abortions” (America, “The Abortion debate and the Catholic Subculture” July 1992) With this being said, religion should not have any effect on rights and laws offered because of the separation of church and state. This meaning that not every one follows the same religion and this one religion does not have any legal powers.

Another argument named within this heated debate is that abortion is ‘murder.’ As religions also agree, some American citizens believe that getting an abortion is murdering a child. By the time the fetus is growing and recognized by the mother, they believe that the fetus has now become a patient as well.

Abortion should not be looked at as murder, and should not be determined legal or not by a religious group. Pro-Choice is what gives women the opportunity to make the right decision for themselves, and there should be no law or any way some one else should be able to make this personal decision for them. 44.3% of committed protestants and 24.4% of Catholics (Social Science Quarterly, “Religion and Abortion Survey” March 2005) wish to ban abortions, with no legal rights to do so. Pro-choice, privacy and safety of women’s health decisions are rights, and is the side to take that represents our countries equal rights for women.