Abortion: Pro/Con Discussion
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Without fail, the issue of abortion elicits passionate reactions from virtually everyone who discusses it due the emotional, personal nature of the subject. The philosophical questions that such a topic raises often strike at the very heart of oneÆs religious and moral beliefs, and immediately seem to put one on the defensive. The discussion becomes all the more thorny when rape is introduced into the equation. Indeed, in the case of rape, we have the ultimate unwanted pregnancy, and it is difficult to analyze that situation in the same way that we might consider abortion in cases where it seems to function as birth control after the fact. Rape victims who find themselves pregnant seem to require special consideration as women who have been brutalized in a most hideous way and now must deal with the aftermath in the painful form of a child. Many pro-life supporters, however, view abortion as murder, regardless of the circumstances. It is thus a dilemma without any easy answers. The philosophical question at the center of any argument involving abortion regards the moral status of the fetus. This is due to the fact that if the fetus is indeed a human life worthy of protection, abortion cannot be reduced to a matter of individual liberty, namely that of a womanÆs right to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy. For if the fetus does represent a human life, then it too has rights that must be guarded, and abortion, a process which destroys the fetus, would n
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their way into the public arena via politics, as abortion (particularly in cases of rape) is inevitably made a key issue in political campaigns and debates. Republican candidates must be extremely careful in their views on abortion because often times, their nominations rely heavily on the support of the right-wing conservatives within the party who are devoted to the pro-life movement. Though President Bush does not oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest, he was under heavy pressure to pass the Partial-Birth Ban Act of 2003, which he did in October, 2003. Such an act serves to establish fetal personhood, as it criminalizes a specific abortion procedure due to the rights of the fetus (Saletan, 2003). Pro-life groups view the Partial-Birth Ban Act as a victory because they hope it will further the cause of fetal rights and eventually lead to the criminalization of all abortion, even in cases of rape.
It becomes important to understand how both the pro-life and pro-choice movements view the act of abortion in cases of rape because it relates to the central philosophical issue at play here. Pro-life supporters believe that a fetus, even a fetus that is the result of rape, is a human life. Indeed, while they recogniz
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Approximate Word count = 2047
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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