This issue will look at
some facts about how many abortions are conducted at each stage of pregnancy
and implications of abortions at each stage. Let us begin.
Abortion facts:
1) In the first week to
two weeks, the egg is not fertilized. The end of the 2nd week once the
menstrual period starts to end is when a women is most likely to get pregnant.
As such, once sex occurs at the end of the menstrual period, the women
has the highest chance to become pregnant (occurring in the third week at the end
of menstruation). An egg and sperm meet in the fallopian tubes at which
time conception occurs. From there the fertilized egg commences cell division
and descends the fallopian tubes. Sperm which lives for up to five to six
days may not have interacted with the egg yet however for the egg must be far
enough down in the tube for this to occur.
Hormone treatments like
birth control which prevent periods and the egg falling aid in preventing the
fertilization of the egg. Thus it acts as a form of contraception and is
not abortion (I am fine with all forms of contraception that I know of). The
morning after pill prevents the fertilized egg from settling in the uterine
wall once it descends and can potentially be considered an abortion pill, but
that is because it prevents the fertilized egg from latching onto the uterine
wall. Depending on your views, the morning after pill is abortion, but
you are not considered pregnant until the fertilized egg has latched onto the
wall.
2) Once latched to the
uterine wall the fertilized egg develops further. Upon week five the
nervous system develops and can, depending on how fast development occurs,
actually feel pain. On week’s six to seven, the heart forms, limbs
develop and sensory organs like eyes and ears begin to develop. This is
where right to life people want to be with, with respect to compromises.
In week five (their
ideal goal) they want it banned for the child can feel pain. Though some
will settle for the heart as the heart pumping is generally a recognized symbol
of a living being, and is most easily understood. As such, abortion if it
were to be banned at a stage of development, it would most likely be based on
when the child is most recognizable as a living human, which would be once the
heart forms in weeks six and seven and begins to beat. Up to the first 12
weeks is the 1st trimester with 89 to 91% of all abortions taking place.
3) Weeks 13 to 27 is
where final development of the body before growing ever larger. 7.8% of
abortions happen here. In this instance, the abortions here are largely
unnecessary however as the woman's life is not in danger at all as far as what
I have read is concerned.
4) With respect to the
third trimester, this is where abortion is banned save for a woman's life being
in danger. In this case, only 1% to 1.4% of abortions occur here.
What should be understood as well is that as technology progresses, the
need for this exception of saving the mother's life continues to shrink (thank
God for science).
Obviously, after the third trimester, the baby
is born.
At this point I would like to add some facts
about rapes and pregnancies from the Washington Post article "The claim that the incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy is
‘very low’". In this case the article cites a 1996 study by the
American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where 4,008 adult women
were interviewed, with only five percent of them becoming pregnant among the
ages of 12 to 45. The study also included factors like drugs and
alcohol, and was designed around finding out about actual sexual abuse (the
definitions of rape actually varies per State and may include
voluntary partners who may be a few years apart, and potentially
even adultery which is still considered a sex crime in some
places). The study was done over the course of three years. Based
on this data from the article, it can be proposed that we can safely ban
abortion even in light of potential rape victims as an exception and
thus limit the abortion to the first trimester, or even before week five
potentially depending on how conservative you are with science and
beliefs.
(64,000 women were raped between 2004 and
2005, [3,200 potential pregnancies from rape here]. 13 million in 2010
were either raped or were assaulted with intent to rape, but the
article says that because of the varying definitions of rape,
that 13 million is about half of what it is. As such, taking that
number [including attempted rape] 325,000 women potentially got pregnant from
the assaults)
Conclusion: So it is possible to ban abortion from week five on to
uphold life when the nerves form. It is possible to compromise to get it
bannable on week six because of the heart being formed. Before week five
though is a push, and requires people to know more about their own biology and
thus science to avoid becoming pregnant in the first place.
People should be
given information into ways to prevent becoming pregnant in the
first place to negate the inevitable keeping of first trimester abortions for
at least the first half. However the 2nd trimester is bannable and the
third looks likely to be bannable as well as technology advances to keep both
mother and child alive in instances of potential life endangerment (remember,
only about one percent are done in the third trimester). So whether you
believe through science or through religion, abortion
at certain stages can be potentially banned.
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