My research Paper

Saving Lives of Innocent Children

The Supreme Court had a case called Roe v. Wade that made abortion legal, and be able to terminate the pregnancy for any reason, as long as it was within a certain time period.  This time period is between 20 and 24 weeks, but it varies throughout the United States. Between 20 and 24 weeks you are still in the second trimester. The court decided this because it is the woman's right whether or not she wants an abortion. This also fell within the right to privacy which was protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Of this created controversy, some people didn’t agree that people should be able to have abortions this late in their pregnancy. Henry Wade a District Attorney of Dallas County stated, “Norma McCorvey sued him because he enforced a law that prohibited abortion, except to save a woman's life. (Roe v. Wade Fast Facts)” Many people support abortion because there are some circumstances in which people must get abortions, either to save the woman’s life, or for personal reasons. However, there are problems with 2^nd trimester abortions because it is a human at this point, not just a collection of cells.

Late term abortion is becoming a problem all over the United States. According to Steph Herold, “One out of every ten [thousand] abortions performed in the United States happens during the second trimester.” Becoming aware of this problem can be beneficial to people everywhere. Just knowing the simple facts about being pro-life can go a long way. Abortion should be illegal in the second trimester because the baby is a human at this point, not just a collection of cells, there is enough time for the mother to have an abortion before the second trimester and, it could be harmful to the mother.

The first reason abortion should be illegal is because the baby is starting to be developed. Especially being in your last few week in your second trimester, it is inhumane to kill the baby. If you are at week 27, you have hit 7 months of pregnancy; this would mean you only have two more months left to go. Why would you kill the baby two months before it was born?As you can see the baby is almost fully grown, it has most of his or her body parts intact. At this point the baby can survive outside the womb and even breathe on its own. So from having an abortion you are taking the breath of an innocent child.

In some cases the baby is tortured before it dies. When you get a D&E abortion the fetus is torn about limb by limb. This would be an awful way to die, even though the fetus is small, it can still feel the pain that this would cause. In “Abortions in The Second Trimester”, Dr. David Brewer talks about when he did a D&E abortion, “I won’t describe D&E, other than to say that, as a doctor, you are sitting there tearing and I mean tearing- you need a lot of strength to do it- arms and legs off of babies and putting them in a stack on top of the table” (Brewer). The doctor could barley bare to look at the sight of the poor baby being ripped apart. Even the worst criminals don’t get put to death by getting their body parts ripped off of them. Another way to receive an abortion is through saline or salt abortions. They are not used much anymore because they are dangerous to the mother. First a needle is inserted through her abdomen and about a cup of amniotic fluid is taken out and replaced with the salt concentration. In “Abortions in The Second Trimester” it is explained how the baby dies in this abortion, “The baby breathes and swallows it (salt), is poisoned, struggles, and sometimes convulses”. This process basically burns the baby’s skin off within an hour. Which it an awful way to be put to death, especially if you are in the second trimester the baby can feel it way more than it would if it was in the first.

Although the fetus is starting to be developed more in the second trimester a person is a person no matter how small. The 14^th Amendment was designed to protect classes of people like the unborn.  It was made to give any person their basic rights like life and liberty. If you are having an abortion you are not giving your child the right to life. Also during the second trimester many things are being developed. Such as, eyelashes, hairs and the baby’s fingers and toes are defined well. This is awesome to see, you can watch the growth of your child the most in the second trimester. It is becoming a person and only has a few more months before he or she will be a part of the world.

The second reason abortions should be illegal is there are many different circumstances why people get abortions. But there are many different options out there to help you through the process. Many people see abortions as an easy way out, and if they just get rid of it now it is gone forever. But in many cases there is long term effects that you could get receive from having an abortion.

People may have different reasons for wanting to get abortions, but the parent could have made the decision before the second trimester. Some people get pregnant on accident or they can’t help that they got pregnant. For example, if you were raped and you got pregnant, your first thought would be like “I need to get rid of this child”. Most people wouldn’t want that memory of such a horrific event. But even though you went through a horrible event, that child doesn’t deserve to die. There are many options you have; like you could give up for adoption. This would save the life of an innocent baby and make a family very happy.  In “What Everyone Needs to Know About Second Trimester Abortions” Dryer found, “That women under 18 took longer to identify pregnancy symptoms and poor women had to delay their abortion because they had to make arrangements, such as raising money, getting childcare, or transportation to the clinic.” I don’t think the women should be able to have an abortion just because you didn’t know you were pregnant. It is like saying just because you didn’t know your phone bill was due at the end of the month and it is late, you don’t have to pay it now. Also they are waiting longer because they have to find transportation to the clinic! The women could take public transportation and make it there before the second trimester. These people are just making excuses why it is okay to have an abortion. Last according to Steph Herold, “Other women have abortions in their second trimester because they need more time to make their decision.” This is awful, just because you have to wait and make your decision the poor child inside of you is going to have a more painful death.

Even if the doctors say you need to get an abortion you could always deny it. Doctors might tell you since you are mentally handicapped or have a disability, you should get an abortion. This is because there is a high chance that your child may be born with the disability. But there is also a big possibility that your child will be born completely fine, with no disability. That is the chance people should take. Even if your child has a disability it is still a person, they will live a happy life.  Or some people might have a disability and they didn’t find out they were pregnant until their second trimester, so they think it is okay to still have an abortion. This child has a right to live no matter what disabilities they might have. We would not kill a mentally handicapped adult, so why would we kill a child.

A third reason abortion should be illegal is because it could be harmful to the mother. Why would a mother risk her own life just to get rid of another one? Some people would go through with an abortion even though it can cause extreme pain, physically and mentally. It can put a strain on a person.

Having an abortion can cause physical risks to the mother. According to “Abortions in The Second Trimester”, “Hypertonic saline may initiate a condition in the mother called consumption coagulopathy  (uncontrolled blood clotting throughout the body) with serve hemorrhage as well as other serious side effects on the central nervous system”. Also if the saline gets injected in the woman’s vascular system, this may cause seizures, coma, or even death. Again why would you want to risk your life just to get rid of one? Another physical risk is that you might have is having problems getting pregnant again. This is something to really think about, is getting an abortion worth the risk of not being able to have any more children? That would big something to think about before you go through with it. Last you could get a “Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID), caused by bacteria entering the body during or after an abortion, can spread from the cervix to uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries (Abortion Risks).” This would be very painful to go through.

There are more problems other than physical risks that could happen to the mother, she can also get psychological and emotional risks. In “Abortion Risk” it is disused how “Women who have experienced abortion have a 65% higher risk for developing long-term clinical depression than non-abortive women”. It is sad to think that just because you receive an abortion you can go through many other psychological and emotional risks like substance abuse, eating disorders, and even Post-Abortion Stress Syndrome. According to “Abortion Risks”, “Women who have experienced abortion and who present a specific set of symptoms are diagnosed with Post-Abortion Stress Syndrome (PASS), now widely accepted as a subset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (a condition triggered by a traumatic experience that renders the victim unable to cope)”. A last disorder you may receive is a sleeping disorder; this is because they are up thinking about the abortion.

In some cases people might think that there is no way out other than an abortion. For example if your child was going to have a disability you might think that you need to have an abortion. It will be more difficult and more money to raise a child with disabilities but many people do it. Erika Levi states, “Conditions that might lead to ending a pregnancy to save a woman's life include severe infections, heart failure and severe cases of preeclampsia, a condition in which a woman develops very high blood pressure and is at risk for stroke( Doctors say abortions do sometimes save women's lives).” If you have these conditions during your pregnancy I think it would be okay to have an abortion. It could come down to your life or the baby’s life, and sometimes the baby is too young to survive. Cecily Kellogg shares a situation she faced with when she was nearly six months pregnant with twin boys in 2004 and developed severe preeclampsia. “One fetus had already died and my liver had shut down, my kidneys had shut down and they were expecting me to start seizing at any minute" she says. The doctors said they had to quickly dilate her cervix and perform an abortion to save her. "I fought it," she says. "But they told me I would die — that it was either me and my son or just my son."She says it was a "horrible experience," but the right thing to do. (Doctors say abortions do sometimes save women’s lives)” In this case she was faced with a horrible decision, would she die and let her son grow up without a mother? But then in 2006 she gave birth to health baby girl. This shows that after a horrible incident, you can grow from it and still have children.

After reading all of this doesn’t it make you want to make people aware of the terrible repercussions of second trimester abortions? We need to speak up for people that can’t speak for themselves. People may get abortions for many different reasons but the decision should be made earlier, the baby is starting to be developed into a person, and it could be harmful to the mother. You might not know but the little steps like just speaking up to friend that might be thinking about an abortion can go a long way in making people aware of this problem. Some people don’t know that statics of how many people get abortions a year; this could make them change their mind. Don’t be part of the 1.21 million people that get abortions and kill innocent children.