Teenage Abortion

6 Pages 1574 Words

Teenage abortion has become a complicated issue in today’s time. The decision we are faced with is “Who Chooses”, the parent or their pregnant teenage daughter. Most parents are informed and support their daughter’s decision whatever that decision might be. There are a few teenage girls who do not inform their parents they are pregnant and want to have an abortion. Instead they have illegal abortions or travel out of state to have an abortion done because it is illegal in their home state. Teenage abortion is on the increase; it is a never-ending battle that poses a legal, medical, social and moral dilemma.
Many legal battles have been fought in the United States over the issue of abortion. Merz states that the earliest American law on abortion was based on the British common law. In addition, Merz says until 1803 the British common law did not view abortion as a crime if it was performed before the fetus “quickened”. Since a fetus is not yet a baby, does the unborn child have the capacity to feel pain? Doctors today know that unborn children can feel a touch within the womb and that they respond to pain (Reagan 31). In the 1800 time period abortions were legal but in the 1900’s they became illegal in the United States. Merz reveals that in 1973 the Supreme Court, in the

Roe v. Wade case decreed that a constitutional “right to privacy” gave women the right to choose. On the other hand, American Medical Associates in 1970 affirmed abortion was a medical procedure and was to be performed on grounds of “sound clinical judgment” (Burtchaell 61). The Allan Gullmacher Institution reports that in the United States about half of the states have enacted laws requiring minors seeking abortion to have parental consent.
Abortion is induced termination of pregnancy before the embryo or fetus is able to survive on its own. According to Merz, there are several abortion methods: induced abortion is the m...