Abortion

Women are abandoning the abortion mentality because it weakens their greatest strength-creation. They are looking at responsibilities as well as rights, choosing instead of reacting.
             Pro-choice supporters argue that abortion should be viewed as a sometimes necessary choice a woman must make in order to be in charge of her life. Considering pregnancy from a woman's point of view, it can be very dangerous to carry a baby for nine months with accompanying symptoms such as nausea, skin discoloration, extreme bloating and swelling, insomnia, narcolepsy, hair loss, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, indigestion, and irreversible weight gain. Equal rights is an issue the women's movement has fought for many years. Denying women the right to free choice would demolish everything we have fought for and all the respect we have gained as equals to men.
             There are, indeed, several situations in which abortion would seem necessary. Birth defects, although rare, sometimes occur and must be dealt with in a personal manner. If a woman knows she is going to give birth to a mentally retarded baby, she is faced with the option of aborting it. If she is not prepared to give the retarded baby the attention and love it needs or if she cannot afford to treat the babies problems, abortion would be the logical answer. Pro-lifers rebut this argument by stating that "it is only when we love the handicapped that we can truly value every human life."" The anti-abortion movement believes that the fetus, even in its embryonic stage of development, is human life and that any deliberate termination of embryonic or fetal life constitutes an "unjustified- termination of human life. Conversely, proponents of abortion deny that the fetus is human life, particularly during its embryonic stage of development, and therefore believe that the termination of fetal life does not constitute homicide. Further, proponents of abortion justify the termination of fetal life by asserting that the woman has the ultimate right to control her own body and especially if a child cannot be cared for properly, then it should not be brought into this world.