Abortion Policy (Essay Sample)

Abortion Policy Student Name Institutional Affiliation Course Code: Course Title Professor Name May 20th, 2024 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) was a landmark ruling that declared that the Constitution protected the rights of the people to have an abortion. Abortion generally affects women directly and men to a limited extent. The right to abortion allowed women to terminate abortion on medical, financial, and social grounds. It allowed women the privacy to initiate an abortion process with their medical consultants quickly. The landmark ruling was overturned in 2022, with the Supreme Court noting that there is no constitutional right for women to carry out abortion. Since the overturning of the ruling, several states have enacted abortion bans at different levels, while more are expected (Glenza et al., 2022). The policy ruling will significantly impact births, state policies, and the future of several women and families. The debates around abortion policy are concerned with the women's privacy versus the life of the fetus. Some issues that arise include the policy argument over pregnancies conceived as a result of rape, from low socio-economic status families, and incest. The concept of unwanted children arising from various situations may need analysis to determine the eligibility of the argument. Ban on abortion will protect social beliefs and traditions and prevent women from ending embryo lives. Indirectly, it will protect men from an inability to make decisions about their unborn children. The policy recognizes the life and rights of an embryo as separate from the mother's rights. According to Nita and Goga (2020), the conflict is between the rights of a woman and the life of the fetus. The struggle between who has more rights for religious faction tends to overlook the fetus's life as an alienable right. This research determined that abortion has served a long-term impact of reducing children in low-income families, hence reducing social problems such as crime and dependency. Wholistically, abortion reduces a country's strain on resources, manages crime, and reduces expenditure on social and legal enforcement budgets. The abortion ban, on the other hand, upholds conservative beliefs and religious doctrines and protects women from health issues development due to abortion. The abortion ban takes place in different ways and levels. Some states ban abortion right at conception, while others ban it until 12 weeks later. All states have policies over how the process is carried out. These directions help the state to guide the abortion process. According to Nita and Goga (2020), prohibitive abortion policies ban abortion in totality except for when the life of the mother is in danger and, in some cases, when the fetus has health complications. Restrictive laws are abortion laws that only allow the procedure under certain conditions. Some restrictions allow abortion to take place only under socio-economic motivations like rape, incest, and socio-economic status. Some states do not impose any restrictions on abortion or allow abortion until 12 weeks for any reason. Abortion laws are implemented in various ways, majorly through regulation of the healthcare industry, specifically maternity care and gynecology. While other social policy issues have different motivations, including financial impact, protection of the rights of minor groups, etc. Abortion is more about the interpretation and protection of the core values of Americans and the plight of the fetus. States that agree that life starts at conception have enacted prohibitive policies on abortion that recognize and protect the life of the fetus from the first day of fertilization. States that recognize that the fetus gains a life at 12 weeks have banned abortion from 12 weeks, allowing it to happen when the fetus supposedly does not have a life. Abortion is also a moral dilemma about the right to privacy for women. While social -economic status, rape, incest, and the age of a mother have been used to limit or allow abortion, it all depends on the weight of the factor in that state or jurisdiction (Sherman & Witherspoon, 2024). While different states have different policies on abortion, women in more restrictive environments will face more difficulty in accessing abortion. Medical services in a prohibitive environment will be more regulated, and access to the prohibited services will be more difficult. Women seeking abortion will have to travel to states with accommodative policies to carry out the procedures (Patel, 2021). Many states, though, still allow abortion on medical grounds, especial...