The law contradicts itself on the status of an unborn child. The Supreme Court declared in its decision that “the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense” (Harrison & Gilbert 117) yet in American courts, an unborn child may benefit under a will or from proceeds of a trust from the date of his father’s death rather than the date of the child’s birth (Butler & Walbert 212). The decision that is most frequently cited to provide a summary of the state of American property law with regard to the unborn child is “In re Holthausen’s Will” which was decided by the New York courts in 1941 (Butler & Walbert 212). As well, child support laws uphold the personhood of an unborn child with Metzger v People (Grisez 374) where the Colorado Supreme Court affirmed an order requiring a man to contribute 30% of his salary to the support of his unborn child. In Kyne v Kyne (Butler & Walbert 212), a California appeals court ruled that an unborn child has the right to bring suit and to receive support from his father. In 1987, an Illinois court allowed an infant to sue its mother for injuries sustained in an automobile accident when it was a five-month-old fetus (Cannold 60). Therefore, it would be correct to conclude that the Court’s view of the status of the unborn child in other areas of the law is inaccurate.
In addition to the psychological problems of abortion, the American Pregnancy Association lists anticipated side effects following abortion. The more common ones, such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and bleeding, may occur up to 4 weeks following the abortion. It goes on to say that serious side-affects occur in approximately 1 out of 100 first-trimester abortions and 1 in 50 late-term abortions. These include infection, damage to the cervix, scarring of the uterine lining, perforation of the uterus, damage to other organs, and death. Studies have alternately linked an increased risk for breast cancer to abortion while others say there is no correlation.
Gendercide, or sex-selective abortion, has become the most effective mean of sexism with people now able to abort their unwanted female fetuses. In 1975, Medical World News reported a study in which ninety-nine American mothers were informed of their child’s sex. Fifty-three of these were boys while forty-six were girls. Of these, only one mother elected to abort her son while twenty-nine elected to abort their daughters. As so many more girls than boys are being killed by the amniocentesis-abortion, outraged feminists have labeled this practice ‘femicide’. Ironically, the very rights women like Margaret Sanger fought for are being used to suppress their gender further. An obstetrician gynecologist was quoted in USAToday as saying “Probably 99% of nonmedical requests for prenatal diagnosis are made by people who want a boy.” (“The Debate Over the Uses of Prenatal Testing”) Sex selective abortion demonstrates the state of society as brought up in the pro-choice, “Abortion Under Attack”: “We need to have a social debate about…a world that not only privileges but ‘chooses’ male babies…research suggests that there is indeed a cross-cultural preference for boys. It is irresponsible to promote sex selection without acknowledging the misogyny still rampant throughout our world and with no thought for what that could mean to future generations.”(“I’m Not Sorry”).
Should abortion be made illegal, the availability for children to adopt would increase. More than 1.5 million American families want to adopt, some so badly that the scarcity of babies available for adoption is a source of major depression. There is even a black market for babies in which a child might be bought for $35,000. People often request babies with Down’s Syndrome, who are aborted 90% of the time. There have been lists of more than 100 people wanting to adopt babies with spina bifida (Alcorn 139). The National Committee for Adoption maintains that if abortion were made illegal, most women would choose to keep their babies while 11% would be put up for adoption (Alcorn 139). Given the abortion rate in America, this is a substantial number.
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