Political History and Moral Debates Surrounding the Issue of Abortion

 

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History and Politics

Abortions are no new thing, they have been going on unrecorded for centuries, but the controversy and political involvement surrounding the issue of abortion is relatively new. Even though a running debate regarding the morality of abortions can be traced back to ancient Greek philosophers and beyond, laws prohibiting abortions were established only in the latter centuries.(4)
In colonial America, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, abortions were not explicitly prohibited by law and were considered both legal and moral if preformed before quickening ("the first perceptions of fetal movement by the mother").(4) Towards the middle of the nineteenth century, individual states began outlawing abortions, so that by 1880 abortion was legally banned in 40 states although most of these laws contained exceptions for therapeutic abortions, to be performed only when the mother's life was at risk.
Towards the middle of the twentieth century attempts were made to legalize abortions in cases in which carrying the pregnancy to term would "gravely impair the physical or mental health of the mother"; where the child would be born "with grave physical or mental defects"; or when "the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest."(4)
Although these laws persisted into the twentieth century so did abortions, only they were performed illegally and usually in unclean and dirty conditions, putting the woman at high risk for infection and fatality.
There were many cases presented attempting to change the abortion laws, but it wasn't until Roe vs. Wade that the Supreme Court ruled laws against abortion unconstitutional, stating that: "The right to privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action or in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of the rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman's decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy." (4)
While Roe vs. Wade formally legalized the practice of abortion nationwide, state governments were given the option to limit abortion access in their individual states. Through these state restrictions and even federal mandates, abortion rights have been challenged and curtailed. Laws of parental consent have been passed, mandating that minors obtain consent from their parents before having an abortion. Twenty-four-hour waiting period mandates have been imposed, regulations required for no other surgical procedures and which have shown to increase the number of second-trimester abortions.(10) The "global gag rule" prohibits doctors in international family planning clinics receiving funding from the United States from even mentioning abortion as an alternative to birth. In 2000, the FDA approved mifepristone (RU-486), but restrictions on its use are continually contested.(10) Since the Roe vs. Wade decision, abortion access has been increasingly restricted, and the decision could easily be overturned.