A Brief Note On George Loutrell Timanus Performed Abortions Essay

“Abortion: Roe v. Wade” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol 8: 1970-1979.

Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy at any stage that does not result in birth. What a lot of people don’t realize is a miscarriage is also considered an abortion even though it is not medically induced; it is called a spontaneous abortion because it is not a medical procedure. Recently a study was done and it showed that the number of abortions worldwide have gone down considerably because of family planning, having reasonable birth control methods introduced, the prices for them lowered and the availability of them are accessible by the younger generation. More and more we are seeing young women using abortion as a birth control method, this is making the

Justice Blackmun argued that historically abortion was accepted and legal since the times of the Greeks and Romans. He pointed out that under common law, it was without dispute that an “abortion performed before “quickening”—the first recognizable movement of the fetus in utero, appearing usually from the 16th to the 18th week of pregnancy—was not an indictable offense.” Indeed, it was only in the last two centuries that any real regulation had been passed to punish the abortion of “quickening” fetuses. The abortion of a “pre-quickening” child was not illegal in the United States until it was banned in New York in 1860. To be sure, Blackmun argued that abortion laws in the United States were relatively stricter in the 1970’s than they had been in the past two thousand years. Therefore, under Blackmun’s argument, the Roe v. Wade ruling was more in step with the past interpretation of abortion law up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

In the paper titled “A Defense of Abortion” Judith Thomson uses several premises to bring the readers to the conclusion that Abortion is not morally wrong. After reading her paper I have concluded, that abortion is in fact morally wrong, excluding extenuating circumstances. In this paper I will show that abortion is morally wrong by way of the following argument:

In 1949, it was illegally to have an abortion under Colorado State law. Many women still had the procedure done, but they had to find a doctor to perform it illegally. Dr. Julius A. Wolf was the mastermind over an illegal abortion clinic. Many women had successful procedures done, but some had complications. When a woman was admitted into a local hospital under mysterious circumstances, the police were called in to question her. She admitted to having an abortion done illegally and pointed the police in Dr. Wolf’s direction. Authorities arrived at Wolf’s office and entered without a search warrant. They took evidence from the scene, including a list of Wolf’s patients, then left. Police then gathered more evidence, including witness statements,

In the 19th century, after tremendous progress in surgical processes, abortions were then conducted by surgeons on a wide scale, while medical abortions are used concurrently. However, as abortion technology prospers, legal restrictions came with it. In 1803, a English statute abolished the previously-legal first trimester abortions. The act “condemned the willful, malicious, and unlawful use of any medical substance when used with the intent to induce abortion” (Stern, 1968). In 1821, Connecticut enabled the first statute in the United States regulating abortions. Within 10 years, states like Illinois, Ohio, New York, Alabama, and others enabled abortion restriction statutes, and by 1968, 50 of the 51 jurisdictions in the United States have prohibited abortion except in the case women’s life is endangered (Ibid., at 3). In 1965, Britain, however, legalized abortion for “medical conditions of the mother, for socio-economic reasons, for eugenic considerations, and for pregnancies which resulted from rape or incestuous intercourse”, which is still law today (Ibid, at 4). In Canada, abortion has been legalized since 1969 through Bill C-150 if “a committee of three physicians determined that the pregnancy was a threat to the woman's life or health” (Norman, 2012). In 1988, Canadian Supreme Court struck down bill C-150’s provision requiring committee approval to receive an abortion in its decision R v Morgentaler, legalizing abortion across Canada for any reasons (Ibid.).

I am a firm believer that life is a gift from God, and that the creation of life in the womb is created by God when a man and a woman have engage in sexual intercourse. I also believe that there are times when babies are created at an inopportune time for the parents. This doesn’t mean that the life created was a mistake, I just think that there are times when partners may agree that they aren;t ready for the responsibility of raising a child. For example think of the baby that is created as a result of rape or incest, should the mother of the child be forced to give birth to the child? Although the life created is by God and should still be considered a blessing, what type of life would the child have if it’s mother has on desire to care for it, or if she isn’t mentally or finically unprepared to care for the child or herself.

In this paper I will discuss the relevance of J.J. Thomson’s argument in her article, A Defense of Abortion, to that of pregnancy reduction and if there is any relevance, if there are exceptions or situations where that might change. J.J. Thomson’s argument in A Defense of Abortion is that the one thing a person has rights to is his/her body and the right to control what happens with it. Thomson also states that there is an innate desire and need for self-preservation that we all have that must additionally be considered.

There are many common pregnancy alternatives, but most often the resulting decision is abortion because it is effortless. Abortion is endings a women’s pregnancy by removing or forcing a fetus or embryo from the mother’s womb before it is able to survive on its own. Not all abortions are purposely done some are spontaneous like when a women that has a miscarriage. Rather abortion is done purposely or naturally it is a worldwide complication as to it being wrong or right. Abortion is an ethical issue that will be analyzed according to a personal worldview and Christian worldview. Ethical thinking will be examined by value-based decisions that address abortion from the perspective of a Christian worldview and comparing it to a personal assumption by addressing ethical dilemma, core beliefs, resolution, evaluation, and comparison.

Abortion, the “early ending of a pregnancy” (“Abortion - Topic Overview” 1), was and remains a controversial topic all across the world. Most states, such as Texas, had made abortions illegal. However, Norma L. McCorvey was a Texas resident with an unwanted pregnancy. “At the time, Texas law only allowed for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother” (“On This Day” 1). With this, McCorvey was forced to give birth to a child she truthfully did not want; she could not afford to travel to a state where abortion was legal. Therefore, McCorvey, using the alias Jane Roe, sued a man named Henry Wade, a Dallas County State Attorney, who enforced the law of abortion.

In the United States, the late term abortion procedure, Dilation and Evacuation, inhumanely terminates the unborn human fetus and causes harmful side effects to the woman. The medical procedure has been legalized although the actions performed during the process raises ethical concerns for the way the physician executes the fetus.

This author has chosen to discuss the ethical issues of abortion. This is a highly debated topic that will exist amongst women. It is happening at high rates. “In 2013, 664,435 legal induced abortions

In every society whether it was legal or legal, abortions were used to control fertility. In the United States it was practiced legally until about 1880, by then most states had banned it except to save a woman's life. It was widely practiced through the entire period it was illegal. In the 1890’s there were an estimate of two million abortions per year and, one to two million annually during the 1920’s-30’s. Whether a

Of all the legal, ethical, and moral issues we Americans continuously fight for or against, abortion may very well be the issue that Americans are most passionate about. The abortion issue is in the forefront of political races. Most recently the “no taxpayer funding for abortion act”, has abortion advocates reeling. Even though abortion has been legal in every state in the United States since the monumental Supreme Court decision, “Roe v Wade”, on January 22, 1973; there are fewer physicians willing to perform abortions today than in 2008. (Kraft) At the heart of the ethical dilemma for many in the medical profession is the viability of the fetus. And just to make this whole dilemma more confusing, according to the United States

     Abortion is the ending of a pregnancy before birth. An abortion results in the death of the embryo or fetus and may be either spontaneous or induced. For years, abortion has been an extremely controversial subject. The history of abortion reaches back not just decades, but centuries, and even milleniums. Today, policies regarding legal abortion in the U.S. is being debated everywhere. Many myths and misconceptions confuse this issue. A better understanding of the history of abortion in America can help provide a context for an improved policy in the future.