abortion
Trevor Signorino
Professor
Intro To Political Science
March 9th 2015
For my topic I chose to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of abortion. This is clearly a very hot debate in todays world and many of us wonder should it be legal or illegal? I have never really looked into the issues of abortion but within my recent research I have a come to the conclusion that abortion should never have been legal from the start! First I am going to just give a brief history of it, then I will include both sides of abortion, why people think it is good and why others do not, and lastly I will conclude with my valid opinion on my disapproval of abortion.
The history of abortion is almost like a game of tug-o-war. Decisions on it were never clearly made, there were loopholes at times during different abortion acts, and whether legal or illegal it was never difficult for a woman to get an abortion. Going back to 1861, the Offenses Against the Person Act made it illegal to supply or use any "poison or other noxious thing" or to use "any instrument or other means" to cause a woman to miscarry. It outlawed abortion by either the woman or any other person such as a doctor, nurse, midwife or pharmacist.
Carrying on to 1938 Dr. Bourne would illegally perform an abortion on a 14 year old girl who was raped by a soldier. He went on to turn himself in but when he went to trial he argued that, “If this girl were to go through with this birth she would have been a mental wreck for the rest of her life.” As it turns out he would not be charged for performing the abortion, because of this many new abortion cases would be allowed as long as the doctor believed the child would cause any kind of pain or danger to the mother. This was a major loophole in the system and would soon get out of hand.
In 1966, David Steel MP introduced the bill into parliament that became the 1967 Abortion Act. The Abortion Act would require two signatures from any such doctors and as long as they
Professor
Intro To Political Science
March 9th 2015
For my topic I chose to discuss the good, the bad and the ugly of abortion. This is clearly a very hot debate in todays world and many of us wonder should it be legal or illegal? I have never really looked into the issues of abortion but within my recent research I have a come to the conclusion that abortion should never have been legal from the start! First I am going to just give a brief history of it, then I will include both sides of abortion, why people think it is good and why others do not, and lastly I will conclude with my valid opinion on my disapproval of abortion.
The history of abortion is almost like a game of tug-o-war. Decisions on it were never clearly made, there were loopholes at times during different abortion acts, and whether legal or illegal it was never difficult for a woman to get an abortion. Going back to 1861, the Offenses Against the Person Act made it illegal to supply or use any "poison or other noxious thing" or to use "any instrument or other means" to cause a woman to miscarry. It outlawed abortion by either the woman or any other person such as a doctor, nurse, midwife or pharmacist.
Carrying on to 1938 Dr. Bourne would illegally perform an abortion on a 14 year old girl who was raped by a soldier. He went on to turn himself in but when he went to trial he argued that, “If this girl were to go through with this birth she would have been a mental wreck for the rest of her life.” As it turns out he would not be charged for performing the abortion, because of this many new abortion cases would be allowed as long as the doctor believed the child would cause any kind of pain or danger to the mother. This was a major loophole in the system and would soon get out of hand.
In 1966, David Steel MP introduced the bill into parliament that became the 1967 Abortion Act. The Abortion Act would require two signatures from any such doctors and as long as they
Cited: 1. Abortion ProCon.org. (2015, February 11). Retrieved March 7, 2015, from http://abortion.procon.org/