Abortion should be legal for all people. During the recent events in Texas and Ohio, banning abortion, for the most part, has put a knife up to the option of abortion. This has been a controversial topic since the Roe v. Wade court case in 1973 which ruled that abortion must be permitted for any reason a woman chooses until the child becomes viable. Viability of a fetus, by the court, is when the fetus enters the third trimester of pregnancy at week 24. Before this time, the fetus is unable to survive without the mother. The main pro-life argument is that life begins at conception. This is 100 percent true.

The DNA that we have from childhood is the same in our adult life. However, using this argument means that a fetus, which by the court was not ruled as having constitutional rights, has more rights than a mother with her own body. The fetus reacts to society solely through the medium of the mother. Strictly speaking then, society has no legal responsibility to the fetus, but rather to the mother. The mother should have full and final say about the decision of the fetus.

In Roe v. Wade, all nine justices agreed that the use of “person” in the Constitution always assumed a born person, and therefore that the Fourteenth Amendment’s mention of person did not confer constitutional rights until after live birth. So, the part of the Fourteenth Amendment states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” refers to the mother. The mother has the right over what she does.

With the new laws sweeping over in at least 14 states, women’s reproductive rights have been violated. Unplanned pregnancies will happen. Even when contraceptives are used, there is still a chance of it not working. With this, abortions will still be needed. They will continue to happen if they are illegal or not. Whether abortions are safe, is up to the court.

Sources:

https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2015/08/20/fetal-personhood-and-the-constitution/

https://www.statnews.com/2018/12/05/how-abortion-denial-affects-children-well-being

https://www.ifoster.org/blogs/6-quick-statistics-on-the-current-state-of-foster-care/

https://www.adoptuskids.org/meet-the-children/children-in-foster-care/about-the-children#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20most%20recent,old%20(in%20some%20states).

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1979/10/25/the-pro-choice-argument-pthere-are-those/

https://www.frc.org/brochure/the-best-pro-life-arguments-for-secular-audiences

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/11/03/ohio-bill-copies-texas-abortion-ban-and-goes-further-heres-which-states-could-be-next/?sh=4f83a7e75b84

https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992