Many people today consider abortion to be a woman's right to control her body-specifically
her reproductive rights. Reflecting this perspective, many countries around
the world permit abortion. Yet there is also much dissent over this supposedly
enlightened practice.
In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision sparked a huge controversy. No issue since slavery has so divided
the people of the United States. The two opposing views on this issue
are generally called "pro-life," meaning those who support the rights
of the unborn, and "pro-choice," for those who say a woman should have
control over her own body, even if it means terminating the life of the
unborn.
Many who favor allowing abortion have argued that abortions should be
safe, legal and rare. Yet statistics show they are anything but rare.
In the United States alone, some 3,700 babies are aborted every day, amounting
to over 1.3 million per year and more than 45 million since the U.S. Supreme
Court handed down its decision. Statistics also say that 93 percent of
abortions occur not because of serious potential health problems
or rape or incest (a primary reason "pro-choice" advocates give for abortion),
but because of social factors. The child is either unwanted or inconvenient.
The biggest area of debate in the abortion question hinges on when life begins.
Those who favor abortion argue that it doesn't begin until birth or sometime
near then, when the child could be viable on his or her own. Others point out
that at the moment of conception a unique genetic package comes into existence
that contains everything that person will become-from height, size of
feet and color of eyes, to intelligence and basic personality.
