Synthesis Essay on Abortion

Many people consider abortion as a terrible form of violence, an equivalent to murder as they describe the process of abortion as partially delivering an embryo and then killing it almost immediately after its 'half-birth'. There are those who have voiced their thoughts against abortion, proclaiming that killing a child at the partial-birth stage is evil and unnecessary. However, another school of thought promotes the ideas that abortion is not really murder since the child has not yet been born. This opposing point of view sees killing unborn babies as a right of a woman who does not want to have a child. Proponents of this thought are organizations such as the National Organization for Women who want abortion to remain legal and accessible as they think that everyone has a right to choose whether they want to keep the baby or kill it. This view is commonly known as 'pro-choice' where the proponents believe that the parents should have the right to choose between having an abortion or not. It is also of my contention that abortion should be allowed and parents who do not want to have a child should be allowed to have abortion.

Different political figures throughout different times have had varying opinions on about abortion. When President Bush imposed the ban in 2003, the Democratic candidates were the ones who spoke against this ban and vocalized their resentment against the Bush administration's steps. Bush signed this legislation in hopes of broadening the circle of the moral concerns of the Americans and for protecting innocent and vulnerable children from reaching an unnecessary and unethical death. However, the democratic candidates have different opinions and ideas. John Kerry of Massachusetts called this as a step back for women by arguing that this was an offensive gesture aimed against the rights of the women. He also blamed the president for exploitation of this issue. Howard Dean also spoke against this and said that it would endanger the health of many women around the country. He also blamed Bush and says that he was exasperated at the fact that Bush could think he was allowed to dictate medicine and thus control the lives of millions of women all over America. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connected is also against this as he calls it unconstitutional as it hampers the person's right to choose. Of course, this does not mean that all Democrats think this way. Many people, like Kristen Day, director of Democrats for Life of America, think that the Democratic Presidential Candidates are being naive and sad when they express their views about abortion in such a manner as if they are expressing the views of all the Democrats, when in reality, they are only catering to a small minority of people. Other pro-life groups also condemned the Democratic Presidential candidates as they said that it is highly unlikely that this ban would have been signed if there were any Democratic officials in the office. Some people who spoke for this bill said that the Bush administration has done an excellent job by implementing this bill.

Overall, throughout our history of America, we find that there has always been controversy involved in making the decisions about abortions. This has caused a lot of cultural strife in the country and has given way to many social conflicts. From a sociological point of view, and according to Niebuhr, the main or as he pens 'ultimate' source of social conflicts are ignorance and selfishness present in the basic makeup of humans. This is essentially true; ignorance gives way to misconceptions and dissonance, and acts of selfishness includes surety of ones' own point of view against anybody else's, which gives way to an inevitable conflict.

Selfishness can be said to be a truism as it is because of our inherent selfishness that we see others through a lens distorted by our own wishes, needs, and experience. This view is seen tainted by our own thoughts and wishes and tends to give rise to misconception of the actions of others and thus give way to conflict, because our perception is followed very closely by our actions (Rummel, 1977, Chapter 4). Some people, like White (1966), have even tried to explain that wars, especially the Vietnam War, were a consequence of ignorance and misconception. “Correct the misperceptions, so the argument goes, and we will have made a gigantic step toward peace and harmony” (Rummel 1977, Chapter 4).

Perhaps one of the most important cases in the history of abortion rights is the Roe vs. Wade case (Thompson 1971, 47). This case began in 1970 when a pregnant woman, Norma McCorvey started a class action lawsuit against Texas' anti abortion laws under the pseudonym of women's rights under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution were violated. The defendant in this case was Dallas district attorney Henry Wad