Morality to me is the distinction between good and bad and right or wrong concerning principles of one's character. We are taught at a young age the difference between good and bad behavior and right or wrong choices, and we are taught about the consequences that follow. As we get older the choices we make get harder and the consequences have a greater effect. If you get yourself into debt you have to work harder to pay it off. If one has sex they may get pregnant. Which leads to the question: is it morally correct to terminate the pregnancy? Abortion has been one of the most divisive moral issues among Americans for many years. I personally feel it is unethical and morally wrong to abort a healthy pregnancy. .
Since the early 1800s abortion was considered illegal: "felony manslaughter " (Gorney, 20). Many women died during or after illegally performing abortions. For many years "Ministers who had volunteered to defy their states' abortion laws set up clandestine alliances " (Gorney, 31) referring pregnant women to doctors and midwives who would execute the illegal surgery to abort their pregnancy. While I do not condone abortion, I do appreciate the laws in effect today protecting the safety of the women if she chooses to abort a pregnancy. The Roe v. Wade case made a historic Supreme Court ruling January 22, 1973. The decision by the courts made it legal to abort during the first trimester of pregnancy. Pro- choice activists profess that the procedure is the termination of a pregnancy not a baby. They believe that because the embryo or fetuses are not yet viable and that they do not feel pain they are not considered a human being. Viable means capable of living according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. However, according to Dr. Mauree Condic, scientific studies show that "a new cell, the human zygote, comes into existence at the moment of sperm egg fusion. Upon formation, the zygote immediately initiates a complex sequence of events that the molecular conditions required for continued embryonic development.