Abortion



Abortion

Introduction

To fully understand the issue of abortion, we must first understand exactly what abortion is and the history behind the issue. According to the Webster's Dictionary (2012) abortion is defined as the “termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” An abortion can take place under two different conditions. The two conditions are therapeutic and elective. Therapeutic abortion is when a pregnancy is terminated due to medical condition(s) that may endanger a mother's health. On the other hand elective abortion is the termination of a pregnancy under any other conditions outside of health (Medical News Today, 2009).

Legalized abortions have been performed throughout the United States up until the nineteenth century. While growing pressures increased from the Roman Catholic Church banning women from having a abortion. This caused the United States to become stricter with their own laws. Which did make it a crime to obtain or attempt a abortion. Late in the twentieth century in 1973 when the landmark case of Roe v Wade changed the laws for women making it legal to get an abortion.

Though a state cannot completely deny a woman the right to terminate her pregnancy, it has a legitimate interest in protecting both the woman's health and potentiality of human life at various stages of pregnancy. Stating that they were allowed to have an abortion up until the fetus was viable outside of the womb. That's usually at a twenty two to twenty four week gestational period. This gave women the option to have a safe and legal abortion from a medically trained doctor.

Discussion

Throughout history there were various methods that were used in terminating pregnancies. However even though the methods differed, the trimester or duration of the pregnancy determined what type of procedure is used. Also the severity of the side effects and pain differed by what type of procedure use. According to the Medical News Today (2009) the methods used are clinical, surgical, and herbs. The two main types of abortions are the clinical and surgical. Although both procedures have their risks the herbal tends to be considered “extremely dangerous” compared to clinical and surgical abortion due to its history of causing internal injuries (Medical News Today).

Foremost, both the clinical and the surgical procedure are used to thin the uterus wall to induce the pregnancy. Secondly, both procedures use drugs. Thirdly, there are health risks involved in any procedure chosen. Furthermore, cramping similar to those experienced during a menstrual cycle is experienced following the clinical and surgical procedure. Lastly, medical attention of a physician is required.

Both of the procedures use different methods in terminating the pregnancy. Clinical abortion uses two different drugs that are taken orally, whereas, the surgical procedure uses an injection to numb the site. The clinical method is done over a period of two days; on the other hand, the surgical method is done in one procedure. In the clinical procedure the fetus is expelled by the thinning of the ...