In this paper, I will offer a personal, ethical, and ideological defense of abortion as a morally justifiable means of birth control. First, I will discuss the legal background of abortion rights. Second, I will discuss the choices and options available to women regarding pregnancy, and third, I will argue that during the first two trimesters of a pregnancy, a woman's right to abortion should not be hampered due to any consideration that the fetus should enjoy the full rights of personhood.
In taking this position, I have carefully considered the question of whether or not the legal framework supporting a woman's right to an abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy that was established in the United States offers a valid framework for this discussion. The United States Supreme Court held in the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973 that the U.S. Constitution offered to women under a penumbra of privacy rights the option of terminating a pregnancy prior to the third trimester. For more than 30 years, this legal background has served women seeking an abortion well.
Since the Supreme Court made its ruling in Roe v. Wade, many challenges to abortion rights have been attempted in various legislatures and courts. Despite heated debate over the fundamental right to abortion, it remains a legal option that is available to adult women who need no consent from a partner or any other person in order to obtain an abortion. Legally, the Supreme Court rulings have firmly established the legitimacy of abortion rights รป a fact which provides ethical as well as legal support for the process.
As a means of birth control, it is quite clear that abortion may well be a somewhat more radical approach than any of the other contraceptive methods that are now readily available to the vast majority of American women. From birth control pills to condoms, sponges, diaphragms, spermicides, and other methods, most unwanted p
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