The History of Abortions and Government Strategies

In Government Abortions has been the topic of conversation in a lot of court cases and news reviews in the last year or two. By definition abortions is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Many people are pro-choice when it comes to abortions and believe a woman can make her own decisions when it comes to ‘getting rid’ of her baby. While the pro-life group says it is unacceptable for a woman to end her pregnancy at any stage because they classify it as murder. What many people do not think about is how the women got pregnant, if she has money to take care of the baby and/or if she even wants the baby.

The history of abortions has been a roller coaster.  The way people viewed abortions depended on very many things including where they lived and their religion. Romans and Greeks both accepted and welcomed abortion is ancient history. “The Romans and Greeks weren't much concerned with protecting the unborn, and when they did object to abortion it was often because the father didn't want to be deprived of a child that he felt entitled to.” They also believed the conceived child did not begin to truly live until 40 days after conception. In Western history, the development of human civilization beginning in Ancient Greece, believed abortions “was not criminal if it was carried out before 'quickening'; that is before the fetus moved in the womb at between 18 and 20 weeks into the pregnancy.” In colonial America they agreed with abortions, but they were usually done behind closed doors and kept secret because of laws that forbid sexual activity outside of wedlock. As years passed people began to rethink the laws behind abortions and develop laws that made abortions illegal in American. By the late 1800s and early 1900s abortions were made illegal unless it was to save the mother’s life. Then in 1973 the court case Roe v Wade changed the way people viewed abortions and stated that a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy was protected by the constitution. Now in 2019 different state officials passing and signing bills that are now making abortions are legal are causing an uproar in the United States.

When women get pregnant everyone would like to think the consummation of the baby was consensual but what many fails to realize is that pregnancy from rape is a real thing. Woman in this situation feel like they have no other option but to terminate their pregnancy only to get pressured into keeping it because she is called a child murder. Females that keep the baby will end up abusing and abandoning the child because it resembles her rapist. It becomes hard for the woman to cope and move on when she is taking care of her rapist baby. On the other hand, women feel like getting rid of the baby will make the situation worse due to the emotional stress an abortion can put on your body. Catherine, a woman who was raped and kept the baby, states “It's quite selfish actually, I wasn't thinking of the baby's life. I wasn't thinking about it from a moralistic view of not killing a baby. I was thinking of it from the point of view that I knew that it would damage me more and I would find it harder to get though life dealing with not only a rape but then a termination, than I would a rape and then a baby and child.”. 

Abortion is health care. Before this health care was legal and safe, illegal abortions caused at least 1 in 6 pregnancy-related deaths. Many healthcare plans do not have active benefits or plans to assist mothers that wish to terminate pregnancies. Despite the many circumstances that may provide a mother with no other option such as medical risks or dangers to the pregnancy, there often is no financial assistance in a woman’s choice to abort her pregnancy. Often, these abortions are done independently at clinics such as Planned Parenthood and must be paid solely by the responsible party. When women are unable to surgically terminate her pregnancy, she will go to other unsafe ways to get rid of the fetus. Women would throw themselves down the stairs, hit herself in the stomach with a hammer or meat pulverize, swallowing gun powder, consuming opium, and the hanger technique. “As late as 1965, 17 percent of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths were due to women seeking illegal abortions.”

Government officials have recently made adjustments to the rights of women which could possibly make getting an abortion in the future more difficult for any woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy despite the cause or justification. Medical risks are not considered for the mother or unborn child in these situations which makes it very dangerous and expensive for individuals to do what is deemed necessary to ensure safety for all parties involved. Many can argue that women’s rights for pregnancy termination is not necessary on insurance plans due to the decision of the mother to terminate a natural life. This is argued that it is the choice of the mother to murder her unborn child and therefore should be paid for the individual making that choice.

There is also the emotional aspect that is interwoven with the negative perspectives that are connected to a woman getting an abortion. Often times, the female will feel the need to hide, secure, or lie about needing to terminate an existing pregnancy no matter the reasons. Women will have to go to clinics on their own in order to do a procedure that can be necessary in order to save her life and future prospects of having a successful pregnancy in the future. Women feel criticized and attacked when they even bring up the idea of abortion in their family or relationship. Abortions are looked at as murder and negligence to the child the female is growing inside her body. Especially is a woman’s’ family being religions she will feel like she is disobeying the word of the law and her parents by having and abortion. Leading her to taking care of a baby with or without the help of her parents.

 Women throughout history have been verbally abused and beaten with she even thought about getting an abortion. She was looked as a murder and selfish to only think about herself and not the life growing in her body. There is always to side of the story and people tend to focus on the bad. Pro-lifers, people who believe abortions should be illegal, are basically stating a woman has no control over her body and has to carry a baby for 9 months and forced to take care of the child with no help from the government. Women have been given the shorter end of the stick in this situation; men have a lot of the control in the overturning of

Roe v Wade. Men who do not have to carry a child for 9 months and can up and leave at any time they please. Men such a Brent K, Donald T, and Matt G all have made decision for woman in American that could change everything for them.

Work Cited

• “When I Look into My Son's Eyes I See the Man Who Raped Me.” BBC News, BBC, 23 Nov. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/stories-42055511.
• Troisi, Dayna. “How We Got Abortions Before Abortion Was Legal.” Allure, Allure, 10 Apr. 2019, www.allure.com/story/history-diy-abortion-roe-wade-reproductive-rights.
• “Ethics - Abortion: Historical Attitudes to Abortion.” BBC, BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/legal/history_1.shtml.
• Parenthood, Planned. “Roe v. Wade: The Constitutional Right to Access Safe, Legal Abortion.” Planned Parenthood Action Fund, www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/roe-v-wade.
• Bach, Natasha. “Can Roe v. Wade Be Overturned?” Fortune, Fortune, 20 May 2019, fortune.com/2019/05/20/can-roe-v-wade-be-overturned/.