essay abortion title

241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples

Abortion is a highly controversial issue because it involves a conflict between a woman’s bodily autonomy and a fetus’s right to life. Due to the complicated nature of this problem, one can come up with many research questions on abortion. On this page, you’ll find plenty of interesting and thought-provoking abortion title ideas and essay examples. Read on to get inspired!

📚 Subtopics for Abortion Essays

🏆 best essay topics on abortion, 👍 good abortion research topics & essay examples, ✍️ abortion essay topics for college, 🎓 most interesting abortion research titles, 💡 simple abortion paper topics, 🌶️ hot abortion ideas to write about, 🤔 abortion research questions, 📝 abortion argumentative essay topics, ✏️ abortion questions for essay, 🔎 questions about abortion for research paper.

Do you need to write a paper on pregnancy termination but don’t know where to begin? Here are some general abortion topics to write about. You can use them as a starting point for developing more nuanced research questions about abortion for your assignment.

• Analysis of Advantages and Disadvantages of Abortion
• Ethical Egoist and Social Contract Ethicist: On Abortion
• Why Abortions Should Be Legal?
• Should Abortion Be Banned?
• Abortion in Hanafi and Maliki Schools of Islamic Thought
• The Controversy Around Morality of Abortion
• Should Abortions be Legal?
• Deductive and Inductive Arguments: Granting Abortion Rights
• The Dilemma of Abortions: Consequentialist and Deontological Points of View
• Utilitarianism and Abortion: Mill’s Principle of Utility and Bentham’s Felicific Calculus
• Ethics and the Right to Abortion The paper discusses a case in which a gynecologist must decide to perform an abortion for a woman who is a survivor of abuse in a state that prohibits the practice.
• Social Exchange Theory and Abortion Legalization While the risk of having financial issues influences individuals, they will be more likely to refuse to give birth to a child because of the possible losses in the future.
• Abnormal Fetus, Its Moral Status and Abortion Ethics Abortion is a medical procedure that involves the surgical elimination of the fetus from a female’s womb with the purpose of ending a pregnancy.
• “Why Abortion Is Immoral” the Article by Don Marquis The selected text for analysis relates to the ethical issue of abortion since its title is “Why Abortion is Immoral” by Don Marquis.
• Reproductive Health and Abortion Practices in Fiji The legalization of abortion has always been a difficult and contentious topic of discussion, both in the academic field and in politics.
• Violinist Analogy in Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” This example of Thompson’s article demonstrates what kind of a burden women are obliged to deal with in case they live in a society that prohibits abortions.
• The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion This paper discusses Warren’s work “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion,” which raises a question about the status of any given fetus and whether it made the latter a person.
• The Judith Thomson vs. Don Marquis Abortion Debate Thompson agrees that murder is immoral, as the Marquis believes, but a woman has every right to get rid of the fetus, and outsiders have the right to help her.
• Reflection on “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson In her moral philosophy essay, “A Defense of Abortion,” Judith Jarvis Thomson implements thought experiments to argue in support of abortion based on two core premises
• Legal and Ethical Issues Concerning Abortion in the United Kingdom Samantha can legally have an abortion if she meets the legal requirements stipulated in the United Kingdom abortion Act of 1967.
• Abortions: Pro-Choice vs. Pro-Life The issue of abortions has always been a controversial one leading to multiple clashes between irreconcilable ideologies.
• Abortion: Comparing Advantages and Disadvantages Pro-life and pro-choice have their respective stands regarding the issue of abortion. The question is whether to terminate or keep the pregnancy.
• Abortion: Analysis of the Main Causes The causes of abortion are not universal around the world; they vary depending on the country and region of residence.
• Abortion Nursing Care and Patient’s Rights The U.S. has many abortion laws and limitations; furthermore, the procedure is widely frowned-upon in the American society.
• Is Abortion Beneficial or Harmful To a Teenager? Abortion is the removal of a pregnancy before it is due. It is the elimination of a fetus or embryo from the mother’s uterus before it is due for birth.
• Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma There are many reasons as to why abortion poses an ethical dilemma for most women. Reasons such as religious beliefs, medical concerns are easily resolved by reason and need.
• Abortion: Women’s Health as Their Integral Right This paper will elaborate on the thesis that a woman should have the right to abortion as the best ethical decision to ensure her physical and psychological health.
• The Advantages and the Dangers of Abortion The paper states that the right to abortion allows a woman the freedom to control their body. It also empowers pregnant people to manage their health.
• Abortion Policies: History, Current Issues, and Social Workers’ Roles This discussion is aimed at discussing abortion policies with regard to the Constitution, their history, current issues on abortion, and social workers’ roles.
• Discussion of Legalization of Abortion The paper presents annotated bibliography of sources aims at providing a clear view of various policies and laws around the globe on abortion.
• Pros and Cons of Abortion Undergoing abortion is a very difficult step to take for any woman and it takes a lot of guts to take the decision. This paper will throw light upon the pros and cons of abortion.
• Abortion: Pros and Cons Abortion should be illegal because unborn babies are considered human beings by the US Government, making abortion murder.
• The Issue of Abortion: Ethics Challenges The debate about abortion in terms of ethics has been in place for decades ever since this medical procedure was first legalized by the government.
• Fetal Abnormality and Ethical Dilemms of Abortion In the case study “Fetal Abnormality,” four characters face the same problem: an abnormal condition of a fetus and the necessity to decide if to save a child or consider abortion.
• A Defense on Abortion: Ethical Issues Abortion is considered the intended action to expel a fetus from the womb of a woman. The expulsion of a fetus leads to death, the intentional expulsion of a fetus is murder.
• Abortion: Comparison and Contrast of Arguments Abortion has been a controversial issue for many decades, with both sides of the argument often feeling very strongly about it.
• Abortion Dilemma in Pragmatic Ethics The moral acceptability of abortions has always been a disputable issue. From the perspective of pragmatic ethics, the decision to make an abortion can be acceptable and moral.
• Providing the Argument Against Abortion The paper questions the argument against abortion that is associated with the fact that every aborted child may become a great composer, an artist, or some other prominent person.
• Abortion Issues: Credible and Non-Credible Sources of Information The difference between sources of information lies in the author’s expertise in the field. In case of abortion a credible source provides more details and identifies the problem.
• Abortion: Negative Impacts on Women Abortion is an issue that evokes controversy, with those opposed to it invoking moral and religious ground as to why it should not be allowed.
• Abortion: Arguments for Defense Abortion should be accepted as a way of curbing unnecessary maternal death and showing compassion to rape victims.
• Abortion: Arguments in Support This essay will explore the medical reason for an abortion to be performed. It will ask the pertinent question of why abortion should remain legal with limitations.
• Abortion: The Ethically Appropriate Procedure Based on the available evidence and the considerations of women’s rights, treating abortions as an ethically appropriate procedure seems to be a more reasonable position.
• Social Justice Protests Regarding Abortions This study aims to understand abortion rights and how they were significant in women’s equality. Roe v. Rode was a case that challenged the rule about abortion.
• Abortion in Christian and Non-Christian Ethics The Christian ethical system approaches the issue of abortion through God’s image and character while utilitarianism is concerned with maximizing happiness.
• Abortion Is a Woman’s Right and Should Be Legal Abortion is one of the most controversial topics in our society. Some believe that a woman has the right to choose what happens to her body and believe that abortion is murder.
• The Controversy Around Abortion in the US In the US, the issue of abortion has been facing controversy. The disagreement from society is making it difficult to address the problem.
• Abortion With Limitations: Analysis Since abortion remains a divisive issue due to the presence of divergent opinions, permitting it with specific limitations is a good decision.
• The Abortion Prohibition Issue Analysis The paper analyzes the issue of the irrationality of abortion prohibition due to the ideological, sociological, medical, and legal perspectives.
• Abortion Should Be Available in Modern Society Abortions should be allowed for every woman within the framework of respect for human rights and eliminating undesirable consequences for a woman’s health.
• Ethical Aspects of Abortion: A Moral Dilemma This paper discusses the ethical aspects of abortion, a controversial and highly debated topic that raises religious, moral, and other fundamental issues.
• Justifying Abortion From Utilitarian Position This paper argues that abortion should be justified since a woman’s body, health and future should depend on her own consensual and conscious decisions.
• Abortion Ban and Its Negative Consequences The choice to ban abortion will have a severe impact on women; doctors must engage judges in case a clinical feticide are necessary, causing a delay that might result in death.
• Abortion Abolitionists and Pro-Life Activists While both abortion abolitionists and pro-life activists share a variety of fundamental beliefs, they also vary in their approach and interpretation of women’s rights to abortion.
• American Democrats’ Pro-Abortion Beliefs The US political system consists of liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. The chosen news article elaborates more on the Federal Abortion ban from these two perspectives.
• Sex-Selective Abortions Around the World Sex-selective abortion is a problem that must be addressed if we take into account the place of women in society and the effects of sex choice on interpersonal relationships.
• Decriminalizing Abortion for Women’s Health’s Sake The debate for and against abortion has caused controversies worldwide, with some groups ruling out the act as heinous.
• Ban on Abortions as Current Civil Rights Issue Even if a woman leaves a child for upbringing due to an unplanned pregnancy, it will be difficult to talk about a good emotional climate in a family.
• The Morality of Selective Abortion and Genetic Screening The paper states that the morality of selective abortion and genetic screening is relative. This technology should be made available and legal.
• Right to Abortion and Related Ethical Issues This paper applies the utilitarianism approach to ethics in showing that women that have been raped or have some health complications should be free to terminate their pregnancy.
• “Why Abortion is Immoral” by Don Marquis Don Marquis is an author of an essay that argues that abortions are immoral from a non-religious standpoint. He begins with a general discussion on why killing is wrong.
• Abortion: A Pro-Choice Rally in Charlotte The article discusses the author’s experience at a pro-choice rally in Charlotte, NC, where a Christian preacher attempted to reason with the protestors and spread God’s message.
• Women’s Reasons for Seeking Abortions The cause-effect essay aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion by exploring the reasons why women seek abortions.
• Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling Sets Off New Court Fights The article discusses the Supreme Court’s decision to ban abortions and give states the right to decide on their local level whether they want to prohibit it or not.
• Abortion in Public Opinion and Legislation Supporters of abortion believe that embryos and fetuses cannot have full human rights since the fetus is not yet a human being.
• Right to Abortion: Ethical Issues On the one hand, abortion is the woman’s right to protect her life; on the other hand, abortion touches upon two lives minimum.
• Women’s Right to Abortion: Religious Perspective Some religious people are right to accept the US court decision on limiting women’s right to abortion. They believe that the act is murder because life starts at conception.
• Ethical Issue: Abortion Should Be Legal Abortions should be lawful because morally justifiable activities should be legal: it is an injustice to punish behaviors that are not bad.
• Roe v. Wade: Abortion Rights in the United States Since the beginning of May, the United States has been discussing the possible cancellation of the decision in the Roe v. Wade case.
• “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Thomson and Abortion Discussion “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Thomson tries to bridge the gap between supporters of abortion, and opponents, who believe that a fetus is a person.
• Ethics: Women’s Right to Abortion In the current paradigm of medicine and healthcare, abortion has become a relatively safe operation due to the increased quality of competencies and equipment.
• “Abortion Law and Policy Around the World”: Source Evaluation The paper analyzes article “Abortion law and policy around the world” which was written by Marge Berer and published in June, 2017.
• Abortion: The Lifesaving Procedure Even though abortion is a form of right to life deprivation, the act is not a crime, as some believe hence should be legalized. It can potentially be a lifesaving procedure.
• Should Abortions Be Legal? The paper states that doing an abortion before 20 weeks is permissible and has to be an option for women willing to stop their pregnancy.
• Abortion: Effects and Legalization The social stigma surrounding abortion has a negative impact on people’s mental health and their willingness to seek safe abortion services despite the legal laws.
• The Right to Abortion Must Be Protected Legal abortion means respecting women’s reproductive freedom, ensuring that all children grow up wanted in safe environments, and improving the general conditions of society.
• Abortion Legalization and List of Circumstances In some cases where the expectant mother cannot handle a child, abortion in such a scenario needs legalization.
• Discussion: Legalization of Abortion Aspects The paper argues abortion needs legalization under exceptional grounds, such as when a mother’s life is at risk.
• Abortion Issues and Safe Practices Fathalla’s Safe abortion discusses solutions to preventing unsafe abortions, including sexual education, increased access to contraceptives, provision of safe abortions, etc.
• The Abortion Issue Regarding Human Rights This article raises the question of how people should determine what rights should be guaranteed by the constitution and what rights are core rights from birth.
• The Controversy Over Abortion Rights The paper states that the confrontation between the two movements over the years has led to the fact that abortion has become a controversial topic.
• The Future of Abortions in the United States This paper examines the different ways United States legislators have used their power to politicize abortion and argues about the future of abortion rights.
• The Morality of the Abortion Case Abortion is perceived as a morally incorrect action. This paper investigates the morality of the case and which action is supposed to be right or wrong.
• The Issues Surrounding Abortion This paper aims to find solutions to the issues surrounding abortion and to justify why the proposals need to be considered when implementing abortion laws.
• Disagreeing With Abortion Encouragement This essay argues that abortions should not be publicly encouraged as it represents a serious decision for women that should be undertaken without pressure.
• Abortion: The Indispensable Woman’s Right A woman’s freedom to safe, legal abortion is an integral part of her right to privacy and physical and psychological health.
• Women’s Mental Health after Receiving or Being Denied an Abortion: Summary The results infer women who were refused abortion experienced higher levels of anxiety, lower levels of contentment, and a similar level of depression as those who had an abortion.
• President’s Power to Affect National Policy: The Case of Abortion Probably, none of the important and controversial policies can be implemented without the participation of the country’s chief executive.
• Affordable Abortions as a Reproductive Right of Women This paper examines the issue of abortion affordability as a public health and human right concern from legal and judicial perspectives.
• Women’s Bodies, Women’s Rights: A Case for Abortion If one holds that a woman has the moral right to make decisions about her health and existence, the only reasonable conclusion is to acknowledge the right to abortion.
• Abortion Safety as Topic of Sociological Studies Sociological studies show that about half of all abortions are unsafe, while every third abortion is performed in dangerous circumstances.
• Abortion and Its Permissibility Issue Abortion during pregnancy is one of the discussed topics in the modern world, which sometimes becomes more acute in connection with certain incidents.
• Christianity Views on Abortion Concepts, the Big Bang, and the Evolution Theory The Bible and other Christian articles provide information related to contemporary society, views on abortion concepts, the big bang, and the evolution theory.
• Debates: Abortions Must Be Legal Access to safe and effective abortions is not only a universal human right but also an indicator of social development concerning women.
• A Controversial Topic of Abortion Abortion has been a controversial topic globally for many decades. The side of the argument an individual chooses to support depends on many factors.
• Ethical Issues and Concerns Regarding Abortion The paper is addressing contemporary ethical issues and concerns regarding abortion. The debate over this subject involves ethical arguments.
• Way Forward for Improving Abortion Healthcare The healthcare field should ensure the safety of those who want to terminate the pregnancy, the first step towards changing the situation is training enough personnel.
• Moral Arguments Regarding Abortion The paper describes that abortion laws within the US vary dramatically between states, and to understand the reason for this disparity, it is critical to list the moral arguments.
• “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” Act and the Judeo-Christian Worldview The purpose of this paper is to analyze the H.R. 7 “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” act within the framework of the Judeo-Christian worldview and ethics.
• Ethical, Medical, and Legal Aspects of Abortion Abortion is a medical procedure aimed at termination of pregnancy “before the fetus is able to live independently in the extrauterine environment”.
• Abortions’ Negative Impacts on Modern Society Abortion is an immoral act or rather a crime that has diverse negative implications for individuals and the entire society.
• The Moral Status of a Fetus and the Acceptability of Abortion The case study involves four individuals presenting their views on the moral status of a fetus and the acceptability of abortion.
• Decriminalizing Abortion in Victoria, Australia The issue of abortion had been rampant in Australia, particularly in Victoria, to the point that it was considered a crime until 2007 when the government decriminalized it.
• Abortions. Perspectives, Federalism, Court Cases Abortion has been one of the most provocative topics across the globe. People have different views on whether a woman should be permitted to abort her child or not.
• The Problem of Alabama’s Latest Abortion Bill The problem revolves around Alabama’s latest abortion bill, which punishes abortion, providing doctors with lifetime sentencing.
• The Controversial Issue of Abortion Legal and ethical issues associated with abortion are becoming controversial every day in modern society; some people support the idea of abortion, while others disagree.
• Policy Debate: Argument in Support of Abortion Abortion is a critical issue in the support of women’s rights because usually women are more affected by the debate than men (both as a gender and individuals).
• The Effects of Abortions on the Black Community The paper states that it cannot be confidently stated that the ‘trend’ on abortion among the black community is the result of political conspiracy.
• Why Abortion Should Be Included in the National Healthcare Plan The abortion debate is one of the most controversial and irrational issues that have lacked a concrete solution for a very long time in America.
• Abortions: Is It a Legalized Murder? The views about abortion are often based on the cultural and ethical values of people and on how an individual perceives the status of the fetus.
• Ethics of Smoke-Free Legislation and Abortion Laws There are laws that are clear for the population and their importance is undeniable. A bright example is smoke-free legislation, which is crucial for the health of non-smokers.
• Fetus Abnormality and Morality of Abortion There are various theories that have been used to determine the fetus’s moral status. Each of them has a significant impact on the choices taken by people.
• An Exploration of the Abortion Debate The essay aims to examine whether abortion is immoral and stands against central religious practices, or rather anti-abortion laws symbolize reproductive oppression.
• Mandating Ultrasound Prior to Having an Abortion It is hard to stay unbiased when the issue of abortion and human life is under consideration. Each person can support or oppose mandatory ultrasound as well as abortion.
• Thompson’s ‘A Defense of Abortion’ and Hursthouse’s ‘Virtue Theory and Abortion’ This paper is a reading summary of two articles on the ethics of abortion, such as ‘A defense of abortion’ and ‘Virtue theory and abortion’.
• “Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions” by Finer
• Abortion Should Be Encouraged in the United States
• Should Abortions Be Legal? Arguments For and Against
• The Abortion Debate: The Conservative and Liberal Arguments Against
• Abortion and Catholic Church’s Attitude
• Abortion Topic in “A Defense of Abortion” by Thomson
• The Abortion Dilemma: Islam vs. Christianity
• Judith Jarvis Thomson’s Views on Abortion
• Abortion: The Issue of Legalization and Ethical Considerations
• ‘A Defense of Abortion’ by Judith Jarvis Thomson: Major Arguments for Abortion
• The Legalized of Abortion in the United States
• Summary of the Research Article About Abortion
• The Decision to Seek Abortions
• Pro-choice vs. Pro-life: The Question of Abortion
• Abortion as the Fundamental Right of Women
• Women Have the Right to Decide the Abortion
• The Issue of Abortion Eligibility
• Overview of the Abortion as a Legal Issue
• The Ethics of Abortion and Reproductive Rights
• The Controversy About Abortion Prohibition and Women’s Rights
• Abortions Through the Prism of Christianity
• Women Have the Right to Decide Whether to Have an Abortion
• Legality of Abortion in the USA: Discussion
• Pro-Abortion Ethics Case and Argument
• The Abortion Law in Ireland and Canada
• The Issue Of Abortion in the United States: Arguments For and Against
• Abortion: Arguments for and Against
• Ethics in Society. Abortion Debates: Different Sides
• Abortion as a Legal Women’s Right
• The Problem of Abortion
• Debate of the Dangerous Consequences of Abortion
• Abortion: G. Marino’s Controversial Points of View
• Abortion and Moral Status of Fetus with Abnormality
• Abortion and Moral Theory
• Debate on Abortion Insurance in South Dakota
• Health Insurance Abortion Ban in South Dakota
• Abortion Policy in the United States
• Abortion in the US: Human Behavior and Social Environment
• Abortions in Australia Discussed in Media
• Abortion as a Woman’s Choice and Right
• Abortion: Legal, Medical, Moral, Religious Issues
• Abortion from Legal and Public Health Perspectives
• Abortion in Feminist and Care Ethics
• Abortion in Marquis’, Bentham’s, Biblical Theories
• Abortion and Maternal Health: the Global Health Crisis
• Ethics in Practice: Abortion Choice
• President Obama’s Fallacy in Abortion Arguments
• Abortion in Texas as a Political Issue
• Ethics of Abortion and Over-the-Counter Drugs
• Abortion Clinic Access Policy and Women’s Health
• Abortion in Case of Down Disease in Fetus
• Abortion as a Moral Controversy in the US
• Abortions and Rights of a Fetus in the US
• Florida Abortion Policies and Health Insurance
• The Need for Abortion and the Moral Status of the Fetus
• Abortion and Its Moral Status
• Policy Analysis: Abortion Clinic Access
• “A Defense of Abortion” by Judith Jarvis Thomson
• Abortion: Reasons and Issues
• Debate on Abortion: Ethics and Principals
• Abortion as a Public Issue: The New York Times Views
• Anti-Abortion Advocacy of Pro-Life Movement
• Canadian Abortion Laws and Women’s Rights
• Abortion: Judith Thomson’s Ethical Perspective
• Fetal Abnormality and Abortion: Ideal and Discretionary Theories
• The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights
• Abortion: Legal, Ethical and Professional Evidence
• Moral Argument in Support of Abortion
• Should Abortion be Legal or Illegal?
• Abortion as a Controversy
• Possible Effects After Abortion
• Abortion’s Physical and Psychological Effects
• What Does the Bible Say About Abortion?
• What Kind of Connection Exist Between Abortion and Mental Health?
• Does Abortion Relieve Overpopulation?
• Why Many Christians Oppose Abortion
• What Similar Features Are Seen Between Abortion and Slavery?
• Does Male Age Have an Influence on the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion?
• What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Abortion?
• Why Abortion Should Remain Legal?
• What Are the Reasons for the Choice of Abortion in American Women?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Abortion, Prostitution and Gun Control?
• What Are Opposition and Conflicting Feelings on Abortion?
• Does Rape Justify Abortion?
• What Are the Ethical Issues Raised With Abortion?
• Who Should Decide the Legality of Abortion?
• Does Abortion Have Severe Psychological Effects?
• Why Abortion Attitudes Will Always Be Controversial?
• Does Abortion Affect Subsequent Pregnancy?
• Why the Abortion Controversy Is Often So Bitter Essay
• Why the Government Should Ban Abortion Essay
• Why Has Abortion Become Such a Political Issue? Who Should Have the Final Say?
• Why Doctors Should Not Perform Induced Abortion?
• What Are the Religious Arguments Concerning Contraception and Abortion?
• What Social, Moral and Ethical Dilemma Causes Abortion?
• Why Abortion Laws Should Be Changed for Teens?
• Does abortion promote gender equality?
• Should parental consent be required for minors seeking an abortion?
• Is a fetus’s right to life more important than a woman’s right to choose?
• Is abortion acceptable in case of rape or incest?
• Should waiting periods and pre-abortion counseling be mandatory?
• Abortion: a relief or a toll on a woman’s physical and mental health?
• Is abortion justified in case of failed contraception?
• Should medical professionals be allowed to refuse to perform abortions?
• Should medically unnecessary abortions be criminalized?
• Abortion: a personal choice or a social matter?
• How do religious beliefs affect opinions about the legality of abortions?
• How do restrictive abortion laws influence women’s access to safe healthcare?
• What is the role of informed consent in abortion?
• How do socioeconomic disparities affect women’s decisions regarding abortion?
• What is the impact of sex education programs on the demand for abortions?
• What do women experience before, during, and after abortion?
• How does the media shape public attitudes toward abortion?
• How do societal attitudes toward abortion differ across the world?
• How did abortion laws evolve over time?
• Do the psychological effects of abortion differ from one woman to another?
• How do cultural perceptions of motherhood affect women’s abortion decisions?
• How does abortion accessibility influence the rates of self-induced and unsafe abortions?
• What is the role of grassroots movements in shaping abortion policies?
• What are the long-term health consequences of multiple abortions?
• How do technological advancements shape how the public perceives the fetus?
• How do mandatory waiting periods affect women’s mental well-being?
• Does telemedicine improve rural women’s access to safe abortion?
• What is the emotional impact of mandatory pre-abortion ultrasounds on women?
• How does the availability of abortion affect women’s economic stability?
• How do personal narratives help reduce the stigma surrounding abortion?

Cite this post

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2021, September 9). 241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/

"241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." StudyCorgi , 9 Sept. 2021, studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . (2021) '241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples'. 9 September.

1. StudyCorgi . "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

StudyCorgi . 2021. "241 Abortion Essay Topics & Research Questions + Examples." September 9, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/ideas/abortion-essay-topics/.

These essay examples and topics on Abortion were carefully selected by the StudyCorgi editorial team. They meet our highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, and fact accuracy. Please ensure you properly reference the materials if you’re using them to write your assignment.

This essay topic collection was updated on January 5, 2024 .

245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

📑 aspects to cover in an abortion essay, 🏆 best abortion topic ideas & essay examples, 🥇 most interesting abortion topics to write about, 💡 good essay topics on abortion, 📌 simple & easy abortion essay titles, 📑 good research topics about abortion, 🎓 abortion argumentative essay topics, ❓ questions about abortion for research paper.

If you need to write an abortion essay, you might be worried about the content, arguments, and other components of the paper. Don’t panic – this guide contains the key aspects that will make your essay on abortion outstanding.

Historical Perspectives

First of all, you should think about the historical perspectives on abortion. It is true that unwanted pregnancies were a thing long before any legislation in this area has been enacted. If you want to write on this topic, consider the following:

• Historically, what were the main reasons for women of various titles to abort children?
• What were the methods used for abortion before the development of modern medicine?
• Were there any famous historical examples of women who aborted?
• Is the history of abortion relevant to the contemporary debate? Why or why not?

Religious Arguments

In an abortion essay, pro-life arguments usually stem from religious beliefs. Hence, there are plenty of possibilities for you to explore religious arguments related to the debate on abortion. Here are some things to think about:

• What are the ideas about abortion in different religions?
• Why do various religions have different views on abortion?
• Were there any other factors that affected how different religions saw abortion (e.g., political or social)?
• Would an complete abortion ban be a correct solution from a religious viewpoint? Why or why not?

Moral Arguments

Abortion is probably one of the most popular topics in the study of ethics. Moral arguments exist for both pro-choice and pro-life views on abortion, and you can thus explore both sides of the debate in your paper. These questions will help you to get started:

• Why is abortion considered an ethical dilemma?
• What do different ethical theories show when applied to abortion?
• From a moral viewpoint, should the life of an unborn child be more important than the physical, psychological, and socioeconomic well being of the mother? Why or why not?
• What would be some negative consequences of an abortion ban?

Women’s Rights

Abortion essay topics are often linked to the issue of women’s rights. According to most feminists, abortion is related to women’s bodily autonomy, and thus, legislators should not try to limit access to safe abortions. If you wish to explore the relationship between women’s rights and abortion, focus on the following:

• Why is abortion considered to be a feminist issue?
• Who should be involved in decisions about abortion?
• Considering that most legislators who pass pro-life laws are male, is it correct to understand abortion legislation as reproductive control?
• What are other gender issues associated with abortion?
• From the feminist viewpoint, what would be the best way to approach the problem of high abortion rates?

Essay Structure

The structure of your essay is just as important as its content, so don’t forget about it. Here is what you could do to make your paper stand out:

• Read sample papers on abortion to see how other people structure their work.
• Write a detailed abortion essay outline before you start working.
• Make sure that your points follow in a logical sequence – this will make your paper more compelling!
• For a good abortion essay conclusion, do not introduce any new sources or points in the final paragraph.

By covering the aspects above, you will be able to write an influential paper that will earn you an excellent mark. Before you begin researching, check our website for free abortion essay examples and other useful content to help you get an A*!

• Pros and Cons of Abortion to the Society Argumentative Essay In the case of rape or incest, keeping a pregnancy is very traumatizing to the person raped as no one would wish to keep a child that is a result of this, and the best […]
• Abortions: Causes, Effects, and Solutions The principal causes for the abortion problem are the social cause, which mandates ethical attitudes; the political cause, which affects legislation; and the environmental cause, which illuminates the initial stages of human development.
• Abortion: To Legalize or Not If a mother is denied an abortion due to its illegality, that mother then will be forced to go through the pregnancy, the labor, the birth, and the raising of an unwanted child. Another concern […]
• Abortion and Virtue Ethics Those who support the right of a woman to an abortion even after the final trimester makes the assertion that the Constitution does not provide any legal rights for a child that is still within […]
• Should Abortion Be Legal In addition to the burden of carrying the unborn baby, in most cases research findings have indicated that, majority of individuals who father some babies are unwilling to take the responsibility of contributing to the […]
• Ethics and Abortion In weighing the options concerning whether to perform an abortion and how to care for the patient, a healthcare entity must consider the legal implications, the patient’s and provider’s beliefs as well as the health […]
• Christian Ethics Issues and Abortion As for the rights and interests of the mother, when comparing them with the rights and interests of the child, there is a possibility of an axiological preference for the goods of the latter.
• An Abortion Versus Fetus’s Right Dilemma On the other hand, she is afraid that the child will serve as a reminder of the rapist and she has set a lot of plans for her studies and career path.
• The Mother and the Challenges of Abortion In conclusion, it is clear that despite having procured abortions in the past, she wanted to be a mother to her children.
• Social Problem: Abortion The willingness of the students to partake in the procurement of abortion was significantly correlated with the views that they held regarding the issue of abortion, the extent to which they would be required to […]
• Arguments Against the Abortion The other danger associated with abortion is that it poses a danger to the reproductive system of women in the future.
• Elizabeth Leiter’s The Abortion Divide Review Undeniably, The Abortion Divide film adequately shows the gradual growth in differences between the pro-choice and pro-life supporters but fails to bring a solution to the moral problem of abortion.
• Abortion in Teenagers: Proposal Argument In the overwhelming majority of cases, the teenager who has encountered such problems is inclined to violate the law, which often leads her to illegal and sometimes unsafe abortion. According to WHO, it is the […]
• Abortion: An Unsolvable Dilemma? We know that Christians are composed of three congregations: the Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Those who believe in the Bible, it is clear that the Bible is straightforward on life, that is that God is […]
• Abortion’s Pros and Cons Abortion, if legalized would curb unnecessary maternal deaths, in that, it would be done in the open and mothers would not be afraid of consulting qualified personnel for the same.
• Discussion of Abortions: Advantages and Disadvantages The topic of abortions is, arguably, one of the most controversial and emotionally charged in the medical history, and it continues to cause a divide in healthcare even today.
• Abortion: Why It Should Be Banned Most people are suffering from various pregnancy-related traumas as more and more couples are experiencing conceiving difficulties due to the current unhealthy food intake and environmental conditions; thus, having a baby could change a lot […]
• Abortion and the Aspects of Pro-Abortion There are occasions where somebody can have an untimely pregnancy that might end up enslaving her to the man and this can be sorted out through abortion A foetus is not a baby and there […]
• Conservative and Liberal Arguments on Abortion Governments and health organizations’ move to control access to abortion led to the emergence of groups and movements supporting and opposing abortion.
• Abortion: An Ethical Dilemma and Legal Position The core concerns in the controversy are whether women should have the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy or whether the unborn child has the right to life.
• Abortion: Ethical Dilemma in Pope John Paul II’s View This paper tries to examine the abortion ethical dilemma from the lens of the Pope’s thoughts and proposals. Towards the end of the 20th century, new ideas and thoughts began to emerge in different parts […]
• Abortion Law in Canada For instance, in the report released by the Canada government in 2005, the overall rate of abortion in the country was approximately 14%, which was less than the 20% incidents reported in the United States, […]
• Moral Issues in the Abortion The moral authority termination of life lies in the hands of the mother despite the influence of the society about the issue.
• Debating the Issue of Abortion The psychological price to pay for abortion is irredeemable and not unless anyone wants to live a downtrodden life, she should refrain from abortion.
• Abortion-Related Ethical Considerations As a health practitioner, following the required professional standards and regulations on abortion will enable me to avoid the wrath of the law.
• Texas Abortion Ban as Current Political Topic Furthermore, denying women the right to make decisions regarding their bodies leads to the denial of bodily autonomy, which, in turn, must be regarded as a severe infringement on basic human rights.
• Abortion in Australia: Legal and Ethical Issues A woman’s sexual companion is not needed to be informed of an abortion, and the judicial system does not give orders to stop the termination even when the complainant is the biological father of the […]
• Abortion Law Reform and Maternal Mortality: Global Study Some of the criteria for selecting a credible source include the authors’ reputation, the time elapsed since published, and the legality of the publishing company or database.”Abortion Laws Reform May Reduce Maternal Mortality: An Ecological […]
• The Ethics of Abortion in Nursing The sanctity of human life, non-maleficence, and the right to autonomy and self-determination are some of the fundamental ethical ideas frequently addressed regarding abortion.
• Utilitarian Permissive Concept for Women’s Right to Choose Abortion Utilitarians believe that the right to choose abortion should be protected under the law as a matter of justice since a woman should have the right to make decisions concerning her own body and health.
• Abortion: Positive and Negative Sides To sum up, despite abortion being presented as an illegal intervention against human life, proponents believe that as a safe medical procedure, it protects the lives of mothers.
• Abortion vs. Right to Life Among Evangelical Protestants The issue of abortion is critical to many citizens, especially women. In addition to restricting women’s rights, the issue of abortion affects well-being.
• Abortion and Significant Health Complications Considering the effects of abortion, such as excessive bleeding, infection, and perforation of the uterus, surgical abortion procedures due to incomplete abortion or even death abortion can be fatal to life and one’s health.
• Abortion as an Ethical Issue in Medicine In resolving the conflict between the decision to obtain an abortion from a minor adolescent and the nurse, there may be the following solution.
• Teen Abortion: Legal and Ethical Implications The second legal implication is that the patient has the right to medical privacy and confidentiality, and the doctor may not be able to legally tell the patient’s mother about the pregnancy or abortion without […]
• Abortion as a Medical Necessity Moreover, in case of fetal death, abnormalities, ectopic pregnancy, or harm to the woman’s health, it is obligatory to follow the recommendations of doctors who objectively assess the situation. Hence, individual factors influence the development […]
• Abortion Ban: Ethical Controversies and History of Laws Abortion bans are the attempt to restrict the rights of women to procure an abortion when needed. On the other hand, arguments against the abortion ban focus on the bodily autonomy of women and the […]
• Impact of Abortion Bans on Black Women Black women and other females of color will be disproportionately affected by the United States Supreme Court’s ruling to invalidate the right to an abortion as guaranteed by the Constitution.
• The Problem of Late-Term Abortion Late-term abortion is associated with high-risk complications for the mother and inhumane treatment of the unborn child. There is an immense violation of the child’s rights if abortion is to be done after 20 weeks […]
• Abortion With Limitations: Discussion Such insights support the notion that such a medical practice could be pursued in a professional manner when the life of the mother appears to be at risk.
• Abortion and Mental Health as Controversial Issues There have been issues related to the use of face masks and the number of cases of infected people. The topic of autism is a huge controversy due to denial or a lack of awareness.
• Philosophical Reasoning About Deliberately Induced Abortion The philosophical discussion about the relationship between the right to life and bodily autonomy has become especially aggravated in the modern world.
• The Abortion Theme in Society and Literature The author does not directly mention whether the couple or the parent had opted for abortion but relating to how society handles unwanted pregnancy, the thought must have crossed people’s minds, and that is how […]
• Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Positions Traditionally, those concerned with the abortion dilemma take one of two positions – pro-life, in which it is required to keep the fetus alive, and pro-choice, following which a woman has the right to end […]
• Nursing Ethics Regarding Abortion Currently, several articles exist that highlight different facets of this issue in nursing, including the ability of nurses to object to abortion, their confrontation with the law, and their perception of specific types of abortion.
• The Government Stance on Abortion as an Ethical Issue Throughout the years, the practice has been both legalized and prohibited in the US, with the government’s shift in attitudes being central to the ambiguity of the issue.
• Is Abortion Moral From Kantian Standpoint? The difficulties in using Kantian deontology to discuss the morality of abortion are defining whether the fetus is a human, and the role ethics play in actual decision-making.
• Abortion of a Fetus With Disability It is worth paying attention to the fact that it is precise because of such things that terminations of pregnancy occur so that a person does not come into contact with obvious prejudices still actively […]
• Pro-Abortion Arguments and Justification In general, terminating a pregnancy is the key to a woman’s prosperity, social and moral well-being, and ability to control the future.
• Law of Interest: Abortion Restrictions In the current paper, I will discuss the Texas Senate Bill 8, which is the legislation related to abortion restrictions. Therefore, the bill is interesting from the standpoint of ethical considerations, which are double-natured.
• Researching of Abortion Rights The authors of the three articles support my viewpoint by depicting the health-related and ethical risks that may take place if abortion laws continue to be restrictive.
• Aspects Against Abortion Rights Having reviewed both the supporters and opponents of abortion in the legal and ethical contexts, the writers express their pro-life views, saying that life should be respected while offering their ideas on the aforementioned contexts.
• Religious Beliefs and Medical Ethics: The Dilemma of Abortion in Cuban Society The process of giving birth to a child is considered a holiday for Cubans, and the family supports the woman after giving birth in every possible way.
• Legislative Powers in Texas: Case of Abortions In this particular situation, the Speaker of the House supports my position in the role of trustee, but here the position of the lieutenant governor is much more critical since the bill is heard in […]
• Abortion Backlash and Leadership Issues Although the issue of abortion in the United States remains one of the weightiest issues, with a high possibility of affecting the well-being of the people, it has been entirely politicized.
• Anti-Abortion Laws: The Roe v. Wade Case Therefore, the Roe case is similar to the Griswold case, making the use of the latter as a precedent justifiable. The precedent case in Roe v.
• Majority Opinion on Abortion Legalization vs. Prohibition Abortion is not the result of a nation’s historical or even cultural experience but merely the result of the adoption of restrictions.
• The “Why Abortion Is Immoral” Article by Don Marquis Don Marquis gives a different argument regarding the immorality of abortion from the standard anti-abortion argument in his “Why Abortion Is Immoral” article.
• Judith Jarvis Thomson on Women’s Right to Abortion The most serious objection to Thompson’s argument might be the one addressing abortion as a killing of a child, given that the fetus is considered a human being from the moment of conception.
• The Right to Abortion: Childless Women The issue of inferential statistics in this example is motivated by considering the possibility of extrapolating results from the sample to the general population in the context of the population mean, i.e, no children for […]
• Abortion and Women’s Right to Control Their Bodies However, the decision to ban abortions can be viewed as illegal, unethical, and contradicting the values of the 21st century. In such a way, the prohibition of abortion is a serious health concern leading to […]
• Role of Abortion Policies Discussion The introduction of regulation and informed consent measures in the case of abortion policies is feasible from the perspective of eliminating health risks for the population.
• Abortion-Related Racial Discrimination in the US In spite of being a numerical minority, Black women in the U.S.resort to abortion services rather often compared to the White population.
• Should Abortions Be Illegal as Form of Homicide? When it comes to the difference between my opinion and the status quo, I believe that abortions cannot be considered a form of homicide and cannot be persecuted.
• Abortions: Abortions Stigmatization Another issue regards the unavailability of abortions and the consequences of women being denied in abortions, and the necessity of choice for women to terminate or not terminate a pregnancy.
• Socio-Psychological Factors of Abortion in Women of Different Age Groups It is necessary to conduct a theoretical analysis of the pregnancy termination problem, reflected in psychological research. In addition, it is essential to improve the state of social stability.
• Women in Marriage & Sex, Abortion, and Birth Control The historical period chosen is from the eighteenth to the twentieth century to demonstrate the advancement of social structures for women.
• Constitutional Issues of Abortion Rights Constitution, regulating the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens, laid the legal basis for the practical implementation of the American concept of civil rights. The amendments that were passed later on the base of the […]
• Abortion Trends in the United States The history of the legalization of abortion in the United States has a history of several decades and is still the problem of reproductive rights today is quite acute.
• Texas Abortion Laws for Victims of Sexual Assault A female will have approximately two weeks in the law to evaluate her situation, verify the conception with a test, determine how to handle the pregnancy, and undergo an abortion.
• Discussion of Abortion Accesion for Women Other individuals perceive abortion as a rather reasonable and necessary procedure that should exist as a part of healthcare and be accessible to the women who refuse to give birth to a child due to […]
• A Controversial Process of Abortion Abortion is morally wrong and should not occur at any stage of human life because it only deprives the fetus of a right to life.
• Abortion Politics and Moral Concerns Supporters of the third position think that abortion is a form of killing a person since the embryo is a person with the right to life from the moment of conception.
• “On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion” Article by Warren In the first section of the paper, Mary Ann Warren suggests that it is impossible to establish whether abortion is morally permissible, provided one accepts that the fetus is a being with a full right […]
• Abortion on the Grounds of Disability Removing a fetus from the woman’s womb results in death which is contrary to the morals of the community that is against killing.
• Abortion: The Role of Nursing Staff In addition, the task of the nurse may be to inform the patient about the abortion process and its possible consequences. Medical personnel must respect the decision and rights of a woman who decides to […]
• Abortion and Its Physical and Psychological Effects Physiological and physical disorders that may develop in the long run due to abortion have a wide range of unfavorable consequences.
• Discussion of Abortion Rights Aspects 1, 2017, pp. It would be best used to illustrate the argument in favor of abortion rights based on the [regnant women’s right to health, which is its major strength.
• Do We Need to Legalize Abortions? Therefore, every person should take a moment to research this uncomfortable subject and think about the consequences of unsafe and illegal abortion for women, children, and society.
• Ethical Dilemma of Abortion Triumphalism In this issue and other matters, the affected person’s experience may not be a determining factor for the expression of opinion but is unique.
• The Texas Abortion Law: A Signal of War on Women’s Rights and Bodies The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and implications of the Texas Abortion Law in order to demonstrate its flaws.
• Abortion and Menstrual Health and Society’s Views Limited resources, menstrual materials, and access to facilities are often a result of the lack of policy dedicated to the sexual health of individuals.
• The Problem of Abortion in Today’s World Therefore, the choice of the topic of late abortion is justified because of the importance and need to cover this issue.
• Abortion in the Context of Ethics and Laws The aim of this paper is to analyze abortion in the context of the law, ethics, and human rights and to identify the solution to the issue.
• Societal Approach to Abortion at Various Levels Due to its relevance in society, the issue of abortion has those affirmative, the proposers, and those who think that abortion is a vice against humanity and unethical, the opposers.
• The Problem of Abortion: Key Aspects Abortion should not be permitted because any procedure that results in the termination of pregnancy before viability is contrary to the religious idea.
• The Issue of Prohibitions on Abortions in Texas I want to talk about the indifference to women’s problems on the part of those who have vowed to be the guardians of justice in our country.
• Abortion as a Modern-Day Dilemma for the US Community For this reason, the right for abortion must be seen as the integral part of a system of human rights, specifically, those that must be given solely to women based on the reality of their […]
• Abortion: Ethical and Religious Aspects From the Christian perspective, the miracle of human life is the most valuable gift, as the creation of human beings in imago Dei allows them to experience the blessings of life and exercising the service […]
• The Ethical Dilemma on Abortion From the perspective of the Christian philosophy, a person is a product and manifestation of the love of God, hence the sanctity of any human life.
• “What I Saw at the Abortion” by Richard Selzer This sight made Selzer imagine that the fetus was struggling with the needle in this way, that he was scared and hurt, that he was trying to save itself.
• Abortion: Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Argumentation To convince the States to provide access to abortion services for women legally, the article’s author refers to standards of human rights to health and other fundamental human rights. The article’s author refers to international […]
• The Effects of Age and Other Personal Characteristics on Abortion Attitudes This is tantamount to seeking a face-saving compromise where the core issues are in black and white and is similar to the uncompromising stands of those for and against homosexual marriage; of pederasts, pedophiles and […]
• Supporting the Women Undergoing Abortion One in every five pregnancies in the world results in abortions. The main aim of the paper is to study the perceptions of nurses attending to abortion patients.
• The Politics of Abortion in Modern Day Jamaica In the first part of the dissertation, the influence of the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 was discussed on abortion practices and laws around the world, including Jamaica.
• Abortion as Moral and Ethical Dilemma Despite the conflicting approaches to solving the moral and ethical dilemma of abortion, experts agree that it is possible to reduce the severity of the problem with the help of more excellent sexual education of […]
• Regarding Abortion vs. Adoption In such cases, the couple, or more specifically, the woman is forced to face the reality of her situation and make a decision that will definitely affect the rest of her life.
• Class Action Against the Enforcement of Texas Abortion The specific grounds of inconsistency are that the laws seek to prohibit an attempt to obtain or the actual procurement of an abortion regardless of the circumstances with the exception of the special circumstance of […]
• Ethics in Health Care-Pro-Abortion There has been myriad of reported cases of failure to uphold the integrity of the unborn and the possible health related problems that would affect a mother’s health especially in the event of unsuccessful abortion.
• The Benefits of Declining an Abortion Procedure The women may feel that they do not deserve the love of their children, and a sincere act such s a child refusing to suckle is perceived as the child directing hatred to the mother […]
• Hills Like White Elephants. Abortion or Breakup It is used to demonstrate the stalemate in the couples’ relationships the necessity to choose between an abortion and a breakup.
• Parental Consent in Minors’ Abortions Thus, the parents or guardians of the teenage girl ought to be aware of the planned abortion and explain the possible consequences of abortion to the girl.
• Ethics and Reproduction Health: Surrogacy, Multiple Pregnancies, Abortion When the child is born, the contracting woman becomes the mother of the child, but she is not a biological mother because the child has the genes of the husband and the surrogate mother.
• Applying the Moral Model to Evaluate Abortion Issue The MORAL model could be used to evaluate the issue by following the five components of the model. Upon reviewing the aspects, a nurse may want to know the current health status of the patient.
• Induced and Spontaneous Abortion and Breast Cancer Incidence Among Young Women There is also no question as to whether those who had breast cancer was only as a result of abortion the cohort study does not define the total number of women in population.
• Abortion-Related-Maternal Death in Dominican Republic There is need to focus the effort in pressuring the lawmakers to respect the rights of women. The Dominican law prohibits women from abortion even the life of woman and the child is in danger.
• How Do Abortion Laws and Regulations Affect Anti-Abortion Violence? Moreover, support for anti-abortion violence can also be considered as a political weapon against women’s rights that is linked to the tolerance of violence against women.
• Benefits of Abortion Overview Therefore, although some believe that abortion is equal to murder, many are still for abortion because it allows women to have control over their bodies, achieve full potential, and avoid engaging in hazardous abortion methods.
• Abortion Techniques and Ban in Nicaragua The case of Nicaragua has shown to be particularly challenging as the country’s leaders are adhering to the patriarchal worldview that does not consider the rights and the health of women, and the importance of […]
• How Christians View Abortion There are people who claim that the act of abortion is okay since it does not amount to the death of a live being.
• Abortion and the Theory of Act Utilitarianism One possible philosophical approach to the problem of choice in such sensitive issues as abortion is the theory of Utilitarianism measuring the moral value of the action.
• Teen Pregnancy: Abortion Rates Rise In the spotlight was the matter of teen pregnancy since teen births and abortion are both consequences of the former. That teen pregnancy rates fell in the 1990s and rose in the middle of this […]
• Abortion and Its Side Effects in the United States One of the most dominant restrictions in the 1992 ruling is that parents are supposed to be involved in the decision making platform before an abortion can be carried out.
• Cider House Rules Movie and Abortion However, upon raping her own daughter and making her pregnant, a reason was introduced for Homer to follow the path of his mentor as he becomes an abortionist for the first time.
• Maryland State Bill on Abortion According to the bill, women are supposed to see the ultrasound image in the uterus before an abortion is performed on them.
• Legalizing Abortion in the USA: Pros and Cons Since abortion was legalized in the US in the year 1973, the rates of abortion have gone up to approximately 1.
• Pro-Choice: The Issue of Abortion Abortion has become a highly debatable issue in the United States because of the ethics and morality involved in the act and the possibility of resorting to it in an elective manner.
• The Ethics of Abortion: Discussion The essay first examines the philosophical and religious concept of life and how the decision to abort affects the right to life of the fetus as also the existential dilemma that may arise when a […]
• Is Abortion Right or Wrong: A Dilemma The supporters of abortion feel that a woman should be given the chance to decide on abortion as being pregnant and having a baby involves dealing with many consequences.
• Medical Ethics. Should Abortion Be Banned? However, in the present situation of the world in general and the United States in particular, there is no doubt that abortion is a bad practice that deserves to be banned in all cases except […]
• Legalities of Carrying Out Abortion Discussion This led to the emergence of such groupings as pro-life, who advocate for the consideration of abortion as murder, and pro-choice who are of the view that women should have the right of choice of […]
• Issue of Abortion Abortion in Islam and Christianity This law justifies the humanity of the unborn baby and places the child in the same level of an adult being who has caused the miscarriage.
• Abortion Is Legal but Is It Ethical? It is not difficult to understand how God’s words can be considered open to analysis but the difficulty of the abortion issue is that the breadth of the interpretation is very wide.
• Ethical Problem of Abortion However, the major point of contention has not been whether the mother is the victim or not; but more on where does the fetus really attain the status of a person with rights and the […]
• Abortions and Birth Control As a result the overall mortality of women increases in the countries where legal abortions take place. The general point of view in decreasing the number of abortions is the use of contraceptives as a […]
• Abortion as an Unmerciful and Irresponsible Act Abortion is a very big risk to the health of the woman who opts to undergo an abortion. The biggest risk is to the life of the woman who opts for an abortion.
• Abortion in Islamic View If a woman finds that she is pregnant, and does not want to be, what is the best way out for her, the potential baby that she is carrying, and all the other people concerned […]
• Noonan and Thomson’s View on Abortion A more disarming approach is that of Thomson who maintains that the mother’s right to control her own body overrides the right to life of the fetus unless the mother has a special responsibility to […]
• Factors Contributing to the Decline in Abortion A considerable decline in abortion has been witnessed and I propose to assess the factors that have contributed to the decline in abortion. The next is the reason for the decline in the number of […]
• Bioethics. When Abortion Is Morally Permissible Abortion as we all know is the deliberate removal of a foetus from the womb of a female resulting in the death of the foetus.
• Abortion Debate: Overview of Both Positions Daniel Oliver appears to be the supporter of the pro-life side of the debate, even though he does not impose his opinion on the reader and does not write that abortion is wrong.
• Abortion: Strengths and Limitations They believe that it is the right of a woman to have an abortion when they want to, and they should also not be forced to have an abortion if they want to give birth.
• Importance of Legalizing of Abortions Three of the most common reasons why women choose abortion is that they do not have the financial resources to raise a child, the others feel that they are not ready to have a child, […]
• Ethical Issues of Counseling: Abortion and Divorce Personal values and beliefs, world views, and attitudes of both a counselor and a client have a great impact on the therapeutic relationship and effective treatment.
• Contemporary Argument on Abortion Review Abortion is treated differently as some find it a moral crime, others think that it is a reasonable way out from the unwanted pregnancy situation, and there is also a viewpoint that abortion is the […]
• Abortion: Premeditated Murder or a Reasonable Way Out? Speaking of the second point the supporters of abortion have, we should say that they find abortion as the mother’s attempt to protect the unborn child from the various hardship she will fail to fight.
• Women’s Health Issues: Abortion Reasons and Laws As one can see, the physical, psychological, and social risks of limiting access to abortion or proposing hostile policies are apparent.
• View of Abortion: The Question of Human Life and Death In order to describe the question of abortion it is important to define and explain it.”Abortion’ as a ‘spontaneous or induced termination of pregnancy”, and “miscarriage’ as the ‘the spontaneous loss of an early pregnancy […]
• Unsafe Abortions Concepts Analysis The overall attitudes to abortion were negative, and women who succeeded in aborting pregnancy faced opposition from their partners, social ostracism, and quasi-legal sanctions.
• New Jersey Bill A495 on Abortion This paper aims to review the New Jersey Bill A495, the differences in the legislation process between New Jersey and other states, provide a personal position on the issue of abortion, and discuss the impact […]
• Social Work Framework for the Abortion Seeking Experience In countries that do allow abortion, the law has to be adhered to and I would have to do the abortion or give the needed advice despite my ethical or religious beliefs.
• The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care in the United States What is the association between the appropriateness of specific abortion services and various clinical circumstances? What are the physical and mental health effects of abortion?
• The Abortion Debate: The Moral Status of the Fetus All arguments about abortion do not come down to the question of what is the moral status of the fetus since there are other aspects involved, including the health conditions of the mother, the fetus’s […]
• Abortion in Ireland: Law and Public Opinion Abortion in Ireland is a highly controversial issue despite the May 26, 2018 landslide victory, which saw the repealing of the Eighth Amendment of the constitution to allow women to abort albeit under certain circumstances.
• Anti-Abortion Social Movements and Legislators’ Role In the described cases, the main task for the representatives is to make law as flexible as possible, and this is one of the most complicated things to do.
• The Politics of Abortion The second entry will be on the politics of abortion in the last year. In 2017 the politics of abortion had changed significantly compared to that of 2003.
• Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About In her article “Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About” that appeared in the New York Times, Anna Quindlen attracts the attention of the global community to one of the most controversial […]
• The Last Abortion Clinic Due to this, almost 24% of women are forced to travel across states to seek abortion services because of the lack of such services in the area they reside in.
• Why Abortion Is Immoral?
• Abortion, Its Causes and Psychological Problems
• Abortion Debates of Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Parties
• Abortion as a Constitutional Right of US Women
• Is Abortion Morally Justified?
• Abortion Debate: Immoral Aspect of Pregnancy Termination
• Abortion Counseling and Psychological Support
• Teenage Pregnancy, Abortion, and Sex Education
• Barriers to Access to Abortion Services
• Anti-Abortion Legislation and Services in Texas
• Elective Abortion For and Against
• Should Abortions Be Legal?
• Abortion Rights: Roe vs. Wade Case
• Abortion in Thomas Aquinas’ Religious View
• Abortion as a Crime and the Fight Against It
• Abortion From the Utilitarian Perspective
• Abortion in Marquis’s vs. Thompson’s Arguments
• Canadian vs. American Post-Abortion Care
• Abortion: Quality of Life and Genetic Abnormalities
• Teenage Pregnancy and Abortion: Articles Evaluation
• Abortion in the Middle East
• Abortion Practice in the Middle East
• The Minimum Hourly Wages and the Abortions
• Conflicting Viewpoints: Should Abortion Be Legal?
• “The Last Abortion Clinic”: Documentary Analysis
• Ethical Dilemma: Political Involvement in Abortion
• Legalization of Abortion for Underage Girls
• Legalizing Abortion: Advantages and Justification
• Abortion Incidence in the United State
• Ethics of Abortion: Controversial Issues
• “A Defence of Abortion” by Thomson
• Social Issues: Abortions Prohibition
• Abortion Law Importance in Canada
• Abortion: Theories and Moral Issues
• Anti- and Pro-Abortion Arguments
• A Woman Has A Natural Right To Get An Abortion
• Controversial Question About Abortion
• Abortion: Pro-Choice and Pro-Life Movement
• The Issue of Abortion in the African Continent
• State of Abortion Laws
• Moral Problems of Abortion
• President Reagan’s Thoughts on Abortion
• Abortion and Parental Consent
• Analysis of Abortion as an Ethical Issue
• Ethics in Professional Psychology: Abortion Issue
• Abortion as a Health Ethics Issue
• Abortion as a Current Public Policy Issue
• A Call to Legalize Abortion
• Should Canada Have An Abortion Law?
• Abortion’s Merits and Demerits of in the Global Perspectives
• Freedom of Women to Choose Abortion
• Compare and Contrast Analysis Socio-Political and Moral Agenda of Abortion
• Abortions Legal in the U.S.A.
• Abortion: Analysis of Pro-Abortion Arguments
• The Role of US Government on Abortions
• Exploiting Nazism in Abortion Debate
• Abortion Principles – Case of George and Linda
• Is Self-Defense Abortion Permissible?
• Africa Is Not Ready to Embrace Abortion
• The Ethics of Abortion
• The Debate About Abortion
• Moral Controversies of Abortion
• The Issue of Abortion
• The Case Against Legalization of Abortion
• The Burning Debate on Abortion
• Teen Abortion: Understanding the Risks
• Conflicting Views on Abortion
• Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Sides of Abortion
• No More Abortion: Anti-Abortion Debate
• The Right to Abortion
• The Problem of Legality or Illegality of Terminating Pregnancy (Abortion)
• Abortion and Its Effects
• The True Extremist on Abortion: The Analysis of Tom Trinkon’s Essay
• The Problems of Abortion in Modern Society
• Social Problem of Abortion: Dealing With Media
• Abortion as a Controversial Issue
• How Christians Respond to the Issue of Abortion?
• Did Legalizing Abortion Reduce Crime Rate in the US?
• Does Abortion Have Severe Psychological Effects?
• Does Increased Abortion Lead To Lower Crime?
• Does Natural Law Allow Abortion?
• What Are Economic Incentives for Sex-Selective Abortion in India?
• How Christians Might Put Their Beliefs About Abortion Into Action?
• How Christian Teachings May Be Used in a Discussion About Abortion?
• How Abortion Laws Have Changed Around the World?
• How Are Religious and Ethical Principles Used in the Abortion?
• How Has Abortion and Birth Control Affected the 20th and 21st Century?
• How Roman Catholics Might Put Their Beliefs About Abortion Into Practice?
• How Useful Are Kantian Ethics for Drawing Conclusions About Abortion?
• How Women Are Psychologically Impacted by Abortion?
• What Are the Ethical Issues Raised With Abortion?
• Who Should Decide the Legality of Abortion?
• Why Abortion Should Remain Legal and With Limitations?
• Why Has Abortion Created Serious Debates and Controversies Among the Mainline?
• Why the Government Should Ban Abortion?
• Women Should Have the Right to Have Abortion?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/

"245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "245 Abortion Essay Topic Ideas & Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/abortion-essay-examples/.

• Human Rights Essay Ideas
• Moral Dilemma Paper Topics
• Childbirth Titles
• Motherhood Ideas
• Sex Education Essay Titles
• Humanism Research Ideas
• Birth control Questions
• Human Development Research Ideas
• Parenting Research Topics
• Parent Essay Ideas
• Family Titles
• Affordable Care Act Essay Titles
• Women’s Rights Titles
• Reproductive Health Essay Titles
• Health Promotion Research Topics

Please wait while we process your request

Abortion Argumentative Essay: Definitive Guide

Academic writing

Abortion remains a debatable issue even today, especially in countries like the USA, where a controversial ban was upheld in 13 states at the point this article was written. That’s why an essay on abortion has become one of the most popular tasks in schools, colleges, and universities. When writing this kind of essay, students learn to express their opinion, find and draw arguments and examples, and conduct research.

It’s very easy to speculate on topics like this. However, this makes it harder to find credible and peer-reviewed information on the topic that isn’t merely someone’s opinion. If you were assigned this kind of academic task, do not lose heart. In this article, we will provide you with all the tips and tricks for writing about abortion.

Where to begin?

Conversations about abortion are always emotional. Complex stories, difficult decisions, bitter moments, and terrible diagnoses make this topic hard to cover. Some young people may be shocked by this assignment, while others would be happy to express their opinion on the matter.

One way or another, this topic doesn't leave anyone indifferent. However, it shouldn’t have an effect on the way you approach the research and writing process. What should you remember when working on an argumentative essay about abortion?

• Don’t let your emotions take over. As this is an academic paper, you have to stay impartial and operate with facts. The topic is indeed sore and burning, causing thousands of scandals on the Internet, but you are writing it for school, not a Quora thread.
• Try to balance your opinions. There are always two sides to one story, even if the story is so fragile. You need to present an issue from different angles. This is what your tutors seek to teach you.
• Be tolerant and mind your language. It is very important not to hurt anybody with the choice of words in your essay. So make sure you avoid any possible rough words. It is important to respect people with polar opinions, especially when it comes to academic writing. 
• Use facts, not claims. Your essay cannot be based solely on your personal ideas – your conclusions should be derived from facts. Roe v. Wade case, WHO or Mayo Clinic information, and CDC are some of the sources you can rely on.

Speaking of Outline

An argumentative essay on abortion outline is a must-have even for experienced writers. In general, each essay, irrespective of its kind or topic, has a strict outline. It may be brief or extended, but the major parts are always the same:

• Introduction. This is a relatively short paragraph that starts with a hook and presents the background information on the topic. It should end with a thesis statement telling your reader what your main goal or idea is.
• Body. This section usually consists of 2-4 paragraphs. Each one has its own structure: main argument + facts to support it + small conclusion and transition into the next paragraph.
• Conclusion. In this part, your task is to summarize all your thoughts and come to a general conclusive idea. You may have to restate some info from the body and your thesis statement and add a couple of conclusive statements without introducing new facts.

Why is it important to create an outline?

• You will structure your ideas. We bet you’ve got lots on your mind. Writing them down and seeing how one can flow logically into the other will help you create a consistent paper. Naturally, you will have to abandon some of the ideas if they don’t fit the overall narrative you’re building.
• You can get some inspiration. While creating your outline, which usually consists of some brief ideas, you can come up with many more to research. Some will add to your current ones or replace them with better options.
• You will find the most suitable sources. Argumentative essay writing requires you to use solid facts and trustworthy arguments built on them. When the topic is as controversial as abortion, these arguments should be taken from up-to-date, reliable sources. With an outline, you will see if you have enough to back up your ideas.
• You will write your text as professionals do. Most expert writers start with outlines to write the text faster and make it generally better. As you will have your ideas structured, the general flow of thoughts will be clear. And, of course, it will influence your overall grade positively.

Abortion Essay Introduction

The introduction is perhaps the most important part of the whole essay. In this relatively small part, you will have to present the issue under consideration and state your opinion on it. Here is a typical introduction outline:

• The first sentence is a hook grabbing readers' attention.
• A few sentences that go after elaborate on the hook. They give your readers some background and explain your research.
• The last sentence is a thesis statement showing the key idea you are building your text around.

Before writing an abortion essay intro, first thing first, you will need to define your position. If you are in favor of this procedure, what exactly made you think so? If you are an opponent of abortion, determine how to argue your position. In both cases, you may research the point of view in medicine, history, ethics, and other fields.

When writing an introduction, remember:

• Never repeat your title. First of all, it looks too obvious; secondly, it may be boring for your reader right from the start. Your first sentence should be a well-crafted hook. The topic of abortion worries many people, so it’s your chance to catch your audience’s attention with some facts or shocking figures.
• Do not make it too long. Your task here is to engage your audience and let them know what they are about to learn. The rest of the information will be disclosed in the main part. Nobody likes long introductions, so keep it short but informative.
• Pay due attention to the thesis statement. This is the central sentence of your introduction. A thesis statement in your abortion intro paragraph should show that you have a well-supported position and are ready to argue it. Therefore, it has to be strong and convey your idea as clearly as possible. We advise you to make several options for the thesis statement and choose the strongest one.

Hooks for an Abortion Essay

Writing a hook is a good way to catch the attention of your audience, as this is usually the first sentence in an essay. How to start an essay about abortion? You can begin with some shocking fact, question, statistics, or even a quote. However, always make sure that this piece is taken from a trusted resource.

Here are some examples of hooks you can use in your paper:

• As of July 1, 2022, 13 states banned abortion, depriving millions of women of control of their bodies.
• According to WHO, 125,000 abortions take place every day worldwide.
• Is abortion a woman’s right or a crime?
• Since 1994, more than 40 countries have liberalized their abortion laws.
• Around 48% of all abortions are unsafe, and 8% of them lead to women’s death.
• The right to an abortion is one of the reproductive and basic rights of a woman.
• Abortion is as old as the world itself – women have resorted to this method since ancient times.
• Only 60% of women in the world live in countries where pregnancy termination is allowed.

Body Paragraphs: Pros and Cons of Abortion

The body is the biggest part of your paper. Here, you have a chance to make your voice concerning the abortion issue heard. Not sure where to start? Facts about abortion pros and cons should give you a basic understanding of which direction to move in.

First things first, let’s review some brief tips for you on how to write the best essay body if you have already made up your mind.

Make a draft

It’s always a good idea to have a rough draft of your writing. Follow the outline and don’t bother with the word choice, grammar, or sentence structure much at first. You can polish it all later, as the initial draft will not likely be your final. You may see some omissions in your arguments, lack of factual basis, or repetitiveness that can be eliminated in the next versions.

Trust only reliable sources

This part of an essay includes loads of factual information, and you should be very careful with it. Otherwise, your paper may look unprofessional and cost you precious points. Never rely on sources like Wikipedia or tabloids – they lack veracity and preciseness.

Edit rigorously

It’s best to do it the next day after you finish writing so that you can spot even the smallest mistakes. Remember, this is the most important part of your paper, so it has to be flawless. You can also use editing tools like Grammarly.

Determine your weak points

Since you are writing an argumentative essay, your ideas should be backed up by strong facts so that you sound convincing. Sometimes it happens that one argument looks weaker than the other. Your task is to find it and strengthen it with more or better facts.

Add an opposing view

Sometimes, it’s not enough to present only one side of the discussion. Showing one of the common views from the opposing side might actually help you strengthen your main idea. Besides, making an attempt at refuting it with alternative facts can show your teacher or professor that you’ve researched and analyzed all viewpoints, not just the one you stand by.

If you have chosen a side but are struggling to find the arguments for or against it, we have complied abortion pro and cons list for you. You can use both sets if you are writing an abortion summary essay covering all the stances.

Why Should Abortion Be Legal

If you stick to the opinion that abortion is just a medical procedure, which should be a basic health care need for each woman, you will definitely want to write the pros of abortion essay. Here is some important information and a list of pros about abortion for you to use:

• Since the fetus is a set of cells – not an individual, it’s up to a pregnant woman to make a decision concerning her body. Only she can decide whether she wants to keep the pregnancy or have an abortion. The abortion ban is a violation of a woman’s right to have control over her own body.
• The fact that women and girls do not have access to effective contraception and safe abortion services has serious consequences for their own health and the health of their families.
• The criminalization of abortion usually leads to an increase in the number of clandestine abortions. Many years ago, fetuses were disposed of with improvised means, which included knitting needles and half-straightened metal hangers. 13% of women’s deaths are the result of unsafe abortions.
• Many women live in a difficult financial situation and cannot support their children financially. Having access to safe abortion takes this burden off their shoulders. This will also not decrease their quality of life as the birth and childcare would.
• In countries where abortion is prohibited, there is a phenomenon of abortion tourism to other countries where it can be done without obstacles. Giving access to this procedure can make the lives of women much easier.
• Women should not put their lives or health in danger because of the laws that were adopted by other people.
• Girls and women who do not have proper sex education may not understand pregnancy as a concept or determine that they are pregnant early on. Instead of educating them and giving them a choice, an abortion ban forces them to become mothers and expects them to be fit parents despite not knowing much about reproduction.
• There are women who have genetic disorders or severe mental health issues that will affect their children if they're born. Giving them an option to terminate ensures that there won't be a child with a low quality of life and that the woman will not have to suffer through pregnancy, birth, and raising a child with her condition.
• Being pro-choice is about the freedom to make decisions about your body so that women who are for termination can do it safely, and those who are against it can choose not to do it. It is an inclusive option that caters to everyone.
• Women and girls who were raped or abused by their partner, caregiver, or stranger and chose to terminate the pregnancy can now be imprisoned for longer than their abusers. This implies that the system values the life of a fetus with no or primitive brain function over the life of a living woman.
• People who lived in times when artificial termination of pregnancy was scarcely available remember clandestine abortions and how traumatic they were, not only for the physical but also for the mental health of women. Indeed, traditionally, in many countries, large families were a norm. However, the times have changed, and supervised abortion is a safe and accessible procedure these days. A ban on abortion will simply push humanity away from the achievements of the civilized world.

Types of abortion

There are 2 main types of abortions that can be performed at different pregnancy stages and for different reasons:

• Medical abortion. It is performed by taking a specially prescribed pill. It does not require any special manipulations and can even be done at home (however, after a doctor’s visit and under supervision). It is considered very safe and is usually done during the very first weeks of pregnancy.
• Surgical abortion. This is a medical operation that is done with the help of a suction tube. It then removes the fetus and any related material. Anesthesia is used for this procedure, and therefore, it can only be done in a hospital. The maximum time allowed for surgical abortion is determined in each country specifically.

Cases when abortion is needed

Center for Reproductive Rights singles out the following situations when abortion is required:

• When there is a risk to the life or physical/mental health of a pregnant woman.
• When a pregnant woman has social or economic reasons for it.
• Upon the woman's request.
• If a pregnant woman is mentally or cognitively disabled.
• In case of rape and/or incest.
• If there were congenital anomalies detected in the fetus.

Countries and their abortion laws

• Countries where abortion is legalized in any case: Australia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, etc.
• Countries where abortion is completely prohibited: Angola, Venezuela, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Oman, Paraguay, Palau, Jamaica, Laos, Haiti, Honduras, Andorra, Aruba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Sierra Leone, Senegal, etc.
• Countries where abortion is allowed for medical reasons: Afghanistan, Israel, Argentina, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ghana, Israel, Morocco, Mexico, Bahamas, Central African Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Algeria, Monaco, Pakistan, Poland, etc. 
• Countries where abortion is allowed for both medical and socioeconomic reasons: England, India, Spain, Luxembourg, Japan, Finland, Taiwan, Zambia, Iceland, Fiji, Cyprus, Barbados, Belize, etc.

Why Abortion Should Be Banned

Essays against abortions are popular in educational institutions since we all know that many people – many minds. So if you don’t want to support this procedure in your essay, here are some facts that may help you to argument why abortion is wrong:

• Abortion at an early age is especially dangerous because a young woman with an unstable hormonal system may no longer be able to have children throughout her life. Termination of pregnancy disrupts the hormonal development of the body.
• Health complications caused by abortion can occur many years after the procedure. Even if a woman feels fine in the short run, the situation may change in the future.
• Abortion clearly has a negative effect on reproductive function. Artificial dilation of the cervix during an abortion leads to weak uterus tonus, which can cause a miscarriage during the next pregnancy.
• Evidence shows that surgical termination of pregnancy significantly increases the risk of breast cancer.
• In December 1996, the session of the Council of Europe on bioethics concluded that a fetus is considered a human being on the 14th day after conception.

You are free to use each of these arguments for essays against abortions. Remember that each claim should not be supported by emotions but by facts, figures, and so on.

Health complications after abortion

One way or another, abortion is extremely stressful for a woman’s body. Apart from that, it can even lead to various health problems in the future. You can also cover them in your cons of an abortion essay:

• Continuation of pregnancy. If the dose of the drug is calculated by the doctor in the wrong way, the pregnancy will progress.
• Uterine bleeding, which requires immediate surgical intervention.
• Severe nausea or even vomiting occurs as a result of a sharp change in the hormonal background.
• Severe stomach pain. Medical abortion causes miscarriage and, as a result, strong contractions of the uterus.
• High blood pressure and allergic reactions to medicines.
• Depression or other mental problems after a difficult procedure.

Abortion Essay Conclusion

After you have finished working on the previous sections of your paper, you will have to end it with a strong conclusion. The last impression is no less important than the first one. Here is how you can make it perfect in your conclusion paragraph on abortion:

• It should be concise. The conclusion cannot be as long as your essay body and should not add anything that cannot be derived from the main section. Reiterate the key ideas, combine some of them, and end the paragraph with something for the readers to think about.
• It cannot repeat already stated information. Restate your thesis statement in completely other words and summarize your main points. Do not repeat anything word for word – rephrase and shorten the information instead.
• It should include a call to action or a cliffhanger. Writing experts believe that a rhetorical question works really great for an argumentative essay. Another good strategy is to leave your readers with some curious ideas to ponder upon.

Abortion Facts for Essay

Abortion is a topic that concerns most modern women. Thousands of books, research papers, and articles on abortion are written across the world. Even though pregnancy termination has become much safer and less stigmatized with time, it still worries millions. What can you cover in your paper so that it can really stand out among others? You may want to add some shocking abortion statistics and facts:

• 40-50 million abortions are done in the world every year (approximately 125,000 per day).
• According to UN statistics, women have 25 million unsafe abortions each year. Most of them (97%) are performed in the countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 14% of them are especially unsafe because they are done by people without any medical knowledge.
• Since 2017, the United States has shown the highest abortion rate in the last 30 years.
• The biggest number of abortion procedures happen in the countries where they are officially banned. The lowest rate is demonstrated in the countries with high income and free access to contraception.
• Women in low-income regions are three times more susceptible to unplanned pregnancies than those in developed countries.
• In Argentina, more than 38,000 women face dreadful health consequences after unsafe abortions.
• The highest teen abortion rates in the world are seen in 3 countries: England, Wales, and Sweden.
• Only 31% of teenagers decide to terminate their pregnancy. However, the rate of early pregnancies is getting lower each year.
• Approximately 13 million children are born to mothers under the age of 20 each year.
• 5% of women of reproductive age live in countries where abortions are prohibited.

We hope that this abortion information was useful for you, and you can use some of these facts for your own argumentative essay. If you find some additional facts, make sure that they are not manipulative and are taken from official medical resources.

Abortion Essay Topics

Do you feel like you are lost in the abundance of information? Don’t know what topic to choose among the thousands available online? Check our short list of the best abortion argumentative essay topics:

• Why should abortion be legalized essay
• Abortion: a murder or a basic human right?
• Why we should all support abortion rights
• Is the abortion ban in the US a good initiative?
• The moral aspect of teen abortions
• Can the abortion ban solve birth control problems?
• Should all countries allow abortion?
• What consequences can abortion have in the long run?
• Is denying abortion sexist?
• Why is abortion a human right?
• Are there any ethical implications of abortion?
• Do you consider abortion a crime?
• Should women face charges for terminating a pregnancy?

Want to come up with your own? Here is how to create good titles for abortion essays:

• Write down the first associations. It can be something that swirls around in your head and comes to the surface when you think about the topic. These won’t necessarily be well-written headlines, but each word or phrase can be the first link in the chain of ideas that leads you to the best option.
• Irony and puns are not always a good idea. Especially when it comes to such difficult topics as abortion. Therefore, in your efforts to be original, remain sensitive to the issue you want to discuss.
• Never make a quote as your headline. First, a wordy quote makes the headline long. Secondly, readers do not understand whose words are given in the headline. Therefore, it may confuse them right from the start. If you have found a great quote, you can use it as your hook, but don’t forget to mention its author.
• Try to briefly summarize what is said in the essay. What is the focus of your paper? If the essence of your argumentative essay can be reduced to one sentence, it can be used as a title, paraphrased, or shortened.
• Write your title after you have finished your text. Before you just start writing, you might not yet have a catchy phrase in mind to use as a title. Don’t let it keep you from working on your essay – it might come along as you write.

Abortion Essay Example

We know that it is always easier to learn from a good example. For this reason, our writing experts have complied a detailed abortion essay outline for you. For your convenience, we have created two options with different opinions.

Topic: Why should abortion be legal?

Introduction – hook + thesis statement + short background information

Essay hook: More than 59% of women in the world do not have access to safe abortions, which leads to dreading health consequences or even death.

Thesis statement: Since banning abortions does not decrease their rates but only makes them unsafe, it is not logical to ban abortions.

Body – each paragraph should be devoted to one argument

Argument 1: Woman’s body – women’s rules. + example: basic human rights.

Argument 2: Banning abortion will only lead to more women’s death. + example: cases of Polish women.

Argument 3: Only women should decide on abortion. + example: many abortion laws are made by male politicians who lack knowledge and first-hand experience in pregnancies.

Conclusion – restated thesis statement + generalized conclusive statements + cliffhanger

Restated thesis: The abortion ban makes pregnancy terminations unsafe without decreasing the number of abortions, making it dangerous for women.

Cliffhanger: After all, who are we to decide a woman’s fate?

Topic: Why should abortion be banned?

Essay hook: Each year, over 40 million new babies are never born because their mothers decide to have an abortion.

Thesis statement: Abortions on request should be banned because we cannot decide for the baby whether it should live or die.

Argument 1: A fetus is considered a person almost as soon as it is conceived. Killing it should be regarded as murder. + example: Abortion bans in countries such as Poland, Egypt, etc.

Argument 2: Interrupting a baby’s life is morally wrong. + example: The Bible, the session of the Council of Europe on bioethics decision in 1996, etc.

Argument 3: Abortion may put the reproductive health of a woman at risk. + example: negative consequences of abortion.

Restated thesis: Women should not be allowed to have abortions without serious reason because a baby’s life is as priceless as their own.

Cliffhanger: Why is killing an adult considered a crime while killing an unborn baby is not?

Examples of Essays on Abortion

There are many great abortion essays examples on the Web. You can easily find an argumentative essay on abortion in pdf and save it as an example. Many students and scholars upload their pieces to specialized websites so that others can read them and continue the discussion in their own texts.

In a free argumentative essay on abortion, you can look at the structure of the paper, choice of the arguments, depth of research, and so on. Reading scientific papers on abortion or essays of famous activists is also a good idea. Here are the works of famous authors discussing abortion.

A Defense of Abortion by Judith Jarvis Thomson

Published in 1971, this essay by an American philosopher considers the moral permissibility of abortion. It is considered the most debated and famous essay on this topic, and it’s definitely worth reading no matter what your stance is.

Abortion and Infanticide by Michael Tooley

It was written in 1972 by an American philosopher known for his work in the field of metaphysics. In this essay, the author considers whether fetuses and infants have the same rights. Even though this work is quite complex, it presents some really interesting ideas on the matter.

Some Biological Insights into Abortion by Garret Hardin

This article by American ecologist Garret Hardin, who had focused on the issue of overpopulation during his scholarly activities, presents some insights into abortion from a scientific point of view. He also touches on non-biological issues, such as moral and economic. This essay will be of great interest to those who support the pro-choice stance.

H4 Hidden in Plain View: An Overview of Abortion in Rural Illinois and Around the Globe by Heather McIlvaine-Newsad 

In this study, McIlvaine-Newsad has researched the phenomenon of abortion since prehistoric times. She also finds an obvious link between the rate of abortions and the specifics of each individual country. Overall, this scientific work published in 2014 is extremely interesting and useful for those who want to base their essay on factual information.

H4 Reproduction, Politics, and John Irving’s The Cider House Rules: Women’s Rights or “Fetal Rights”? by Helena Wahlström

In her article of 2013, Wahlström considers John Irving’s novel The Cider House Rules published in 1985 and is regarded as a revolutionary work for that time, as it acknowledges abortion mostly as a political problem. This article will be a great option for those who want to investigate the roots of the abortion debate.

FAQs On Abortion Argumentative Essay

• Is abortion immoral?

This question is impossible to answer correctly because each person independently determines their own moral framework. One group of people will say that abortion is a woman’s right because only she has power over her body and can make decisions about it. Another group will argue that the embryo is also a person and has the right to birth and life.

In general, the attitude towards abortion is determined based on the political and religious views of each person. Religious people generally believe that abortion is immoral because it is murder, while secular people see it as a normal medical procedure. For example, in the US, the ban on abortion was introduced in red states where the vast majority have conservative views, while blue liberal states do not support this law. Overall, it’s up to a person to decide whether they consider abortion immoral based on their own values and beliefs.

• Is abortion legal?

The answer to this question depends on the country in which you live. There are countries in which pregnancy termination is a common medical procedure and is performed at the woman's request. There are also states in which there must be a serious reason for abortion: medical, social, or economic. Finally, there are nations in which abortion is prohibited and criminalized. For example, in Jamaica, a woman can get life imprisonment for abortion, while in Kenya, a medical worker who volunteers to perform an abortion can be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

• Is abortion safe?

In general, modern medicine has reached such a level that abortion has become a common (albeit difficult from various points of view) medical procedure. There are several types of abortion, as well as many medical devices and means that ensure the maximum safety of the pregnancy termination. Like all other medical procedures, abortion can have various consequences and complications.

Abortions – whether safe or not - exist in all countries of the world. The thing is that more than half of them are dangerous because women have them in unsuitable conditions and without professional help. Only universal access to abortion in all parts of the world can make it absolutely safe. In such a case, it will be performed only after a thorough assessment and under the control of a medical professional who can mitigate the potential risks.

• How safe is abortion?

If we do not talk about the ethical side of the issue related to abortion, it still has some risks. In fact, any medical procedure has them to a greater or lesser extent.

The effectiveness of the safe method in a medical setting is 80-99%. An illegal abortion (for example, the one without special indications after 12 weeks) can lead to a patient’s death, and the person who performed it will be criminally liable in this case.

Doctors do not have universal advice for all pregnant women on whether it is worth making this decision or not. However, many of them still tend to believe that any contraception - even one that may have negative side effects - is better than abortion. That’s why spreading awareness on means of contraception and free access to it is vital.

Your email address will not be published / Required fields are marked *

Try it now!

Calculate your price

Number of pages:

Order an essay!

Fill out the order form

Make a secure payment

Receive your order by email

Essay paper writing

What is leadership essay?

Leadership remains one of the most popular topics for essays on business, management, psychology, sociology, and other related subjects. That is why many students are required to write various…

2nd Dec 2019

Report writing

How to Write an Investigation Report

To write a good investigation document, you need to understand how to present information efficiently and clearly. Below, you will find a detailed description of the types and formats of…

23rd Oct 2022

Writing about Alcoholism

Every student understands the importance of writing about the consequences of consuming too much alcohol. Meanwhile, essays on alcoholism might appear quite a sensitive topic for many people. The…

7th Jul 2020

Get your project done perfectly

Professional writing service

Reset password

We’ve sent you an email containing a link that will allow you to reset your password for the next 24 hours.

Please check your spam folder if the email doesn’t appear within a few minutes.

Abortion Essay Example

05 January, 2020

11 minutes read

Author:  Elizabeth Brown

Composing essays is a must during your college studies. Sometimes, you might get a topic that you aren’t fully aware of. Or, you can fail to grasp the idea of what a particular essay topic requires you to reveal in your essay. An abortion essay, for example, has become one of the very on-going issues these days. Professors believe that elaborating an essay on such a topic can help a student learn how to develop appropriate arguments and ideas, even in the most sensitive essays. If you experience any difficulty with the abortion essay writing, you just need to take a few points into account. Regardless of your title, which can be either why abortion should be supported or why abortion should be illegal essay, you can master your writing just by acknowledging several essential facts about it.

Abortion Essay: Definitions, Goals & Topics

An abortion argumentative essay reveals the arguments for or against pregnancy termination. The main peculiarity of such an essay is that one can write it from different points of view. While one may strongly feel like composing an abortion arguments essay and advancing their positioning in terms of healthcare and research, others may think of this essay in terms of psychology and sociology. Regardless of the stance, it is necessary to carry out some preliminary research and make sure you operate on both your arguments and data accurately. 

Abortion essays require the essay writer to stay tolerant and open-minded. The topic, the selection of arguments, vocabulary – all of these indicators should not offend people who are sensitive to the outlined topic. 

All in all, the ultimate goal of an argumentative essay on abortion is to present the topic and provide arguments for and against it. It is likewise essential to give an insight into the subject, reveal its current state, and include most recent findings. 

Abortion Essay Titles 

When composing a title for an abortion essay, the first critical thing to keep in mind is transparency. The title should not create confusion or offend the reader. To select a title you would like to develop in your essay, decide whether you know why abortion is wrong essay, or if you favor supporting the topic. Here are some of the topics that will be easy to elaborate on in your essay about abortion:

• Reasons why women in underdeveloped countries are inclined to abortions
• Potential health hazard as a consequence of abortion
• How different countries approach abortions 
• The reasons why calling abortion murder is inappropriate
• Depriving a woman of the right to make an abortion is equal to depriving a woman of her freedom

Abortion Essay Structure  

As you have already learned, a classical essay comprises three parts: an introduction, several body paragraphs (3-5), and concluding remarks. The abortion essay isn’t an exception. But a structure of an abortion essay should be very specific as it contains several fundamental points that differ from other essay types. 

Introduction 

First, you need to define abortion as soon as you start writing an abortion essay. Even though almost everyone in the world knows what abortion is, it is essential to state its interpretation. Later, you can mention recent findings or events that fairly make an abortion a topic of heated debate. At the end of an introduction, your primary task is to demonstrate your attitude to the topic. Namely, you need to write a short thesis statement that will mention your opinion. For instance, a thesis statement can be: “Should society decide for women what to do with their lives and bodies?”. 

If you decide to support abortion in the essay, you may write the body part in the following way: 2-3 paragraphs supporting abortion + one counter-argument against abortion. Remember to provide arguments and support them, not just admit that abortion is good or bad. 

Conclusion 

When writing a conclusion, briefly summarize everything you mentioned in the text. You should come back to the thesis you mentioned in the introduction while writing it. Don’t forget to mention your own vision and attitude to a problem. 

Best Tips For Writing Abortion Essay 

Research comes first.

First of all, explore what is already said and written on the topic of abortions. Namely, don’t just read what people say and don’t make conclusions based on what image abortion has in the media. Instead, you may refer to recent research, speeches, and scientific papers by people whose findings are objective and not based on their subjective, emotional perception. Afterward, try to figure out what your attitude on the topic of abortions is. Are you an opponent of the topic, or would you rather support it? 

Pay attention to introduction

An introduction is the most fundamental part of the whole paper. If writing an introduction seems to be too complicated, just refer to scientific papers. Find an attention-grabbing statement and feel free to use it in your paper. If possible, try to paraphrase it. 

Think of the implications

Suppose you decided to write an essay as an opponent of abortions. Think of some possible implications that termination of pregnancy may have. Also, consider the hazard of continuing an unwanted pregnancy. Doing so is essential if you want to strengthen your arguments. 

Be flexible

Since such a topic might be extremely sensitive, it is vital not to be critical. It isn’t a good idea to get emotional or, what is worse, judgemental in your paper. Demonstrate that even though you support a particular argument, you don’t exclude that the opposite argument may also hold true. 

Abortion Essay Examples  

Abortion implies a termination of pregnancy by removing the embryo from a woman’s uterus prior to its birth. Uncountable controversies and criticism have increasingly surrounded the topic of abortion. Even though most developed countries officially carry out a lot of abortions annually, this medical procedure is actively discussed in many countries. Today, a lot of people believe that pregnancies are terminated by women who are either underaged, poor, or promiscuous. A woman who terminates her pregnancy can also be mature, having kids already, married, happy, and wealthy. Women make this step due to multiple reasons. Should society take control over a female body and decide her and her kid’s fate, and does the prohibition of abortion indeed decrease the abortion rate?

Official prohibition of abortions isn’t likely to reduce the abortion rate. For example, gambling and prostitution have long ago been prohibited in many countries in the world. However, this doesn’t mean that the people don’t gamble and that particular women don’t make their living by engaging in prostitution. The same concerns abortions. Once abortions are prohibited on a state level, women will be left with nothing but a decision to find a person who will carry out an abortion illegally. Or, what is worse, women might induce a miscarriage on their own if they can’t find a specialist. While a medical abortion procedure is a safe way to terminate  pregnancy, the latter is not. The risk of terminating pregnancy elsewhere or even at home might be incompatible with life. A lot of women die because of an unsuccessful pregnancy termination, which is way worse than a safe abortion in a medical institution.  

A lot of infants in the US die during the first years, months, if not days of their life. This happens as a result of an inborn pathology. Pathology is usually diagnosed during pregnancy screenings. Since such screenings are performed at an early pregnancy phase, a woman can terminate pregnancy once such pathology is identified. The fact of the matter is that many pathologies are incompatible with life too. For each mother, watching her kid dying and knowing that she cannot help, even if she had all the money in the world, is devastating. And that’s even worse for a suffering child. This leads to the conclusion that terminating a pregnancy is the most humane decision in such a situation. 

Prohibiting abortions often equals to forcing a woman to give birth to a child she does not want. The reasons for such an unwillingness are uncountable. First, a woman might not be mature enough, she might have kids already and no money to afford this child. Besides, her pregnancy might be a mistake not because of her fault. Indeed, 2 in 1000 women in the US are raped annually. Why should a woman be judged by her decision to terminate pregnancy which is a result of a sexual assault? Even in cases when no sexual assault took place, it is still irrelevant to shame a woman and criticize her for knowing what will be better for her. It is better to terminate a pregnancy than to give life to a child who will never be loved and secure and be an unsuitable fit for a woman at the same time. 

Terminating pregnancy, on the other hand, is not just depriving an unborn child of a right to live a life he or she deserves. Regardless of the woman’s motives, she imposes risks on her health. First of all, an abortion undermines a woman’s emotional and mental health. Additionally, it might set risks for her physical health. Indeed, she might reduce her chances of getting pregnant again or increase further pregnancy complications. Besides, 7 in every 100 women face a risk of having parts of a fetus remaining in her womb. 

Overall, abortion is solely a woman’s issue. It should not have anything to do with politics, religion, and disgrace. Bringing a child to the world is the responsibility of a woman who has enough grounds for making an appropriate decision. Although terminating a pregnancy might bring severe health risks, it erases the problems that might be even more severe, such as watching a child suffer and not being able  to give them a childhood they deserve. 

Write an Abortion Essay with HandmadeWriting 

Composing an abortion essay might sometimes be a challenging assignment. However, this topic is vast and extensively discussed. The latter allows you to refer to multiple ideas and get access to a multitude of insights to generate your own understanding of a topic. But if you find it problematic to compose an abortion essay – you can get it done with HandmadeWriting . Even if you merely lack inspiration, we will take care of your paper. Just hand in your paper instructions and enjoy your spare time while our writers are crafting your essay. Getting a paper done in such short time frames has never been easier.

A life lesson in Romeo and Juliet taught by death

Due to human nature, we draw conclusions only when life gives us a lesson since the experience of others is not so effective and powerful. Therefore, when analyzing and sorting out common problems we face, we may trace a parallel with well-known book characters or real historical figures. Moreover, we often compare our situations with […]

Ethical Research Paper Topics

Writing a research paper on ethics is not an easy task, especially if you do not possess excellent writing skills and do not like to contemplate controversial questions. But an ethics course is obligatory in all higher education institutions, and students have to look for a way out and be creative. When you find an […]

Art Research Paper Topics

Students obtaining degrees in fine art and art & design programs most commonly need to write a paper on art topics. However, this subject is becoming more popular in educational institutions for expanding students’ horizons. Thus, both groups of receivers of education: those who are into arts and those who only get acquainted with art […]

• Craft and Criticism
• Fiction and Poetry
• News and Culture
• Lit Hub Radio
• Reading Lists

• Literary Criticism
• Craft and Advice
• In Conversation
• On Translation
• Short Story
• From the Novel
• Bookstores and Libraries
• Film and TV
• Art and Photography
• Freeman’s
• The Virtual Book Channel
• Behind the Mic
• Beyond the Page
• The Cosmic Library
• The Critic and Her Publics
• Emergence Magazine
• Fiction/Non/Fiction
• First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
• Future Fables
• The History of Literature
• I’m a Writer But
• Just the Right Book
• Lit Century
• The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
• New Books Network
• Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
• Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
• Write-minded
• The Best of the Decade
• Best Reviewed Books
• BookMarks Daily Giveaway
• The Daily Thrill
• CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

What It Means to Anthologize the Literature of Abortion

Annie finch, editor of choice words: writers on abortion , in conversation with some contributors.

About twenty years ago, I had an abortion and discovered that literary writing exploring the experience was not easy to find. So I began editing an anthology of literature about this major, suppressed literary theme, a physical, psychological, moral, spiritual, political, and cultural reality that navigates questions of life and death.

It turned out to be a daunting job: there was great writing but much of it was forgotten and overlooked, hidden within longer works; other pieces were still unpublished, or even unwritten, to be coaxed from their authors by the anthology itself. I was considering abandoning the project when the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh brought it new urgency. I made it my top priority to complete the book at last, and it was published on the eve of the pandemic under the title Choice Words: Writers on Abortion .

With this week’s news that the Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, and drama gathered in this anthology—the first major collection of literature about abortion—are more urgent and timely than ever. Choice Words spans six centuries and five continents and includes work by Margaret Atwood, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lucille Clifton, Langston Hughes, Ruth Prawar Jhabvala, Ursula LeGuin, Audre Lorde, Joyce Carol Oates, Dorothy Parker, Anne Sexton, Ntozake Shange, Leslie Marmon Silko, Edith Sodergran, Amy Tan, Mo Yan, and many others.

For this discussion, I asked seven contemporary contributors to answer a few key questions: Judith Arcana, Josette Akresh-Gonzales, Desiree Cooper, Camonghne Felix, Kristen Ghodsee, Jenna Le, and Manisha Sharma.

Annie Finch : Please share, if you like, a brief passage from your contribution to the book and tell us about the greatest obstacle, internal or external, that you faced in writing your piece. What was the most important permission that you needed to give yourself?

Judith Arcana: “Every week we went to a meeting, but not like now. No one stood up and said, My name is Jane and I’m an abortionist. No. Because we didn’t want to stop, we weren’t trying not to do it. We sat in apartments, passing the cards.”

Because my work in the pre-Roe abortion underground was done in a group, whenever I write about what we did (as in those opening lines from “Women’s Liberation”—a poem that includes made-up names and fictionalized stories), I think about my responsibility to both the group and the people who came to us for abortions. Though I don’t think of responsibility as an obstacle, it demands conscious, deliberate attention—always—so it slows us down. And that’s a good thing. Such considerations are necessarily part of my process, and require the “permission” you are asking about.

Josette Akresh-Gonzales: The greatest internal obstacle that I faced in writing ”I Am Used to Keeping Secrets About My Body” was giving myself permission to write about another woman’s experience alongside my own. Although I know several women who have had abortions and know that no one could trace back the anecdote in this poem to a particular person, I worried that somehow, someone would recognize themselves in it and accuse me of using their difficult experience for my own gain (for my art).

The specifics were pretty specific but could apply to any number of women I’d worked with over the years: “that guy she’d hooked up with—who she thought she might marry, / who’d profiled on Indian Cupid as square-jawed but smart and steady,” yet I worried that either this very person I had worked with or someone close to her who knew both of us would take offense.

What gave me permission, in the end, to put this piece out into the world was the restrictive laws being passed that would outlaw abortion after x number of weeks—it didn’t seem likely that these lawmakers even understood that the number of weeks began on the first day of the last period a woman had before she got pregnant. There seemed to me to be many other aspects of women’s bodily experience—women’s biology—that people don’t talk about and therefore should not be legislating. I personally had felt secretive about my periods, about my postpartum body, about yeast infections, and so on. Putting that all together in one poem ended up being a revelation both to myself and, it turned out, to readers!

Desiree Cooper: The greatest obstacle for me was trying to communicate the profound breadth of the abortion experience among (American) women. There are so many financial, relational, emotional, physical and spiritual reasons that bring women to the decision to end a pregnancy and there was no way to universalize abortion care without telling all the stories. So, I chose first person plural, “we,” to convey the feeling that women as a group were testifying.

The morning that we read the stick, some of us buckled on the bathroom floor. Having only bled once, we thought it was impossible. Having bled forever, she shook our graying heads and thought, “This is no miracle.”

Camonghne Felix: The greatest obstacle was in finding validity in the context around my abortion and the social and personal events that drove to it, versus the abortion itself. So much of how we discuss abortion, especially those of us who consider themselves abortion activists, concerns the procedure, the politics of the procedure, and the medical barriers that people who need abortions face.

But, as someone who believes fundamentally that I have a right to abortion, that abortions are necessary and critical to reproductive health, it felt less important to write a poem that exemplified that belief, and more important to consider the context of my decision, and the sociopolitical and personal factors that brought me to the decision.

Kristen Ghodsee: This is a weird question in the context of my piece, because my short story reflects on the absolute ordinariness of abortion in Eastern Europe. The story is based on a real experience I had in Bulgaria in the 1990s. I was meeting a woman at a café and when she was late, she explained that among her morning errands and the awful traffic she’d had an abortion. She just dropped in casually in the conversation. And I have often been shocked when my students from the former republics of the Soviet Union talk about going to get their abortions with their grandmothers as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.

There is no trauma and no regret about abortion in that culture, and I think that Western audiences are rarely exposed to this perspective. I think this paragraph captures this view well:

As Svetozara explained that not all of the women in parliament supported the domestic violence legislation because they feared it would make women seem like victims, I wondered what my reproductive life would have been like if I’d been raised in a country where a women’s right to control her own body hadn’t been seriously challenged in decades. Where going to an abortion clinic didn’t mean risking your life to get inside. Maybe having multiple abortions is actually better than pumping yourself full of hormones for decades. I didn’t know, but that day I realized that for women born in most Eastern European countries, the medical removal of a fertilized egg was no more traumatic or shameful than the pharmaceutical prevention of the egg’s fertilization in the first place.

Jenna Le: As I was trying to decide which of my life experiences to draw upon in writing my poem, I was struck by how many facets of a young woman’s life are touched by anxieties about sex, pregnancy, abortion access, and abortion stigma. The issue is omnipresent and influences so many aspects of how we live, think and feel, how we learn to relate to others. It shades our existences so diffusely that seeing the full extent of the impact it has had on my life was challenging at first, an obstacle in itself.

In my poem, I wanted to delve into some of the more remote psychologic consequences of our societal stigma on abortion, to explore how our societal silence around abortion strips young people of their decision-making agency: “So, when it was my turn, I sank into my fear. / I let the boy, my fear, and chance do all the choosing.”

Manisha Sharma:

On my right: white tray on a white table. Foggy forceps, scissors that grow bold and big then shrink like raisins I soak every night for your father. Everything is a blank, an erased memory.

Abortion is not the same everywhere. What I refer to in my poem is called sex-selective abortion, a term that itself adds to ambiguity. It refers to abortion when the fetus is the undesired female sex. Son preference is responsible for 400,000 abortions a year in India alone. Though a broad generalization, there is no doubt that most of these abortions are forced. Forced because of cultural expectations for a male heir. Forced because of economic pressures. Forced because of societal pressures. Forced because of family expectations.

It is through precise, vivid details that the experience becomes real as if it is happening with my own body. I am acutely aware of the paradox of emotions that hit me as I wrote these lines, imagining what millions of women in my country and outside have gone through. I know it’s not me, but I am also aware that I have an objective distance to the experience which only helps me tell it and make it universal.

When sex-selective abortions can shake gender balance to the point of no repair in the second most populous country in the world, it is imperative for the entire world to pay attention to find solutions to this abuse of an innovative technology. Today entire states in India are living with a scarcity of girls, adding to social crimes and much more.

AF: What surprises you the most about the experience of being part of this book?

JA: I was not expecting the breadth of attitudes/opinions/stories represented here. I’m impressed by that range, happy about it—yes, happy—thinking about people who will read this book and learn about the complexity of abortion, the depth of decisions that’re often simplified by the word choice (as if someone were deciding between green and yellow paint for the walls of a hallway, between chocolate and caramel filling for cupcakes).

JAG: For my first publication as part of an anthology, I am amazed and happy to be included with such huge names as Sharon Olds, Amy Tan, Gloria Steinem, and of course Annie Finch (the amazing editor of this book), and so many others. I was impressed with the breadth and depth of the book—its organization (mind, body, heart, will, spirit) was so satisfying a way to approach this topic.

I am excited to meet some of the other writers in the book’s pages as I feel I’ve gotten to know them a bit from reading their pieces, which say a certain something about them I already know I’ll like. I enjoy being in the company of these stories, essays, and poems, as I feel at home in their pages. I admire Annie Finch for engendering the idea for this book and making it happen. I know it took many years and a lot of effort; that persistence should not be overlooked.

DC: I’ve been a feminist and a supporter of reproductive rights for my entire adult life. I had an abortion in college, the shame of which has never quite evaporated. I worked for Planned Parenthood of Michigan for five years. Yet, I am continuously amazed at how the vast majority of people are supportive of reproductive choice (to some degree), many people are quiet advocates, and many, many more have had abortions. Being a part of this book has been a wonderful opportunity to re-engage with the “normality” of something that continues to be relegated to the shadows.

CF: I guess it surprises me just how many poems are distinctly and specifically about abortion.

KG: Since I am an ethnographer, I mostly write either academic books or in the field of what is called “creative nonfiction.” When Annie asked me to write a short story for the collection, it was definitely a little bit out of my comfort zone. Although I have written some ethnographic fiction in the past, this story challenged me because I wanted to convey a lot of information in a very short piece. I guess what surprises me most is being included in a volume with so many amazing poets and fiction writers, since this is not usually where my work appears.

JL: I am ever surprised by how relevant this book continues to be, how this already-centuries-long conversation between foremothers and daughters continues echoing into the present and into the future.

MS: Everything, but most of what I admire about the book is the expansive view of abortion that it takes.

AF: Please discuss another piece from the book besides your own, preferably from a writer of an earlier generation, for which you feel kinship or appreciation.

JA: Reading Mary Wollstonecraft’s piece, an excerpt from Maria: Or, The Wrongs of Women , written in the 18th century, I feel both kinship and appreciation. I admire Wollstonecraft’s willingness to write about abortion within its cultural context, emphasizing class and misogyny. Her determination to tell the truth is a model for those of us who make art with words and want to use that art for what are, essentially, political reasons.

JAG: I appreciate so many pieces in this anthology that it is hard to choose one in particular, but if pressed I would say “The End,” by Sharon Olds. It grips me from start to finish, and as is usual in her work, uses visceral imagery, concrete wording, and an admirable willingness to tell it like it is. In both my poem and hers, in fact, the link between normal women’s bodily experience and abortion is made clear, but there is a sense of judgment, perhaps internalized from the culture at large.

Her ending, appropriately so, shocks the reader to realize how necessary, how wanted this abortion was, with her bringing up of a celebration, a “feast” that, when it’s over, needs to be cleaned up. This metaphorical licking of the lips at the end of the poem should not be shocking, but it is, in our world, such an unspoken thing to actually celebrate an abortion, all the blood and guts of it, that it does shock me that she just said it, put it in a poem, celebrated it.

DC: How to choose between the pieces? I really appreciated pieces like the poem “Haint” by Teri Cross Davis which expresses the common fear that women will be punished/cursed with infertility or miscarriages in the future because they had an abortion in the past. The trauma of the shame can haunt women for a lifetime. Conversely, I remember gasping out loud when I read this passage from “Sorry I’m Late,” by Kristen Ghodsee. It’s about an American woman interviewing a Bulgarian woman about some legislation.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said to me in the perfect English of a young professional who had earned a master’s degree in the UK. “I had an abortion this morning and had to run some errand, and then my tram didn’t show up and I had to take a taxi.”

Oh, to imagine a world where an abortion merely shows up on a normal “to-do” list. It blew my mind.

CF: Grateful to all of these writers and all of these pieces for their continued reflection on abortion and on the evolution of the conversations on abortion. All of their works take us one step further in the conversation towards equity.

KG: I enjoyed Soniah Kamal’s interviews with high school students from Pakistan where pre-marital sex is punishable by a five-year prison term, and so abortion is an absolute necessity for young women. Although I very much enjoyed the fiction and poetry in the collection, I think the power of this contribution, “The Scarlet A,” lies in its veracity. There is so much shame associated with sexuality in this culture, and these compelling first person accounts give the reader a unique window into the politics of abortion in a non-Western society, which I appreciated.

JL: I keep returning to Julie Kane’s sonnet “Tunnel of Light,” how the chilly grace of its formal beauty is counterbalanced by its blazing honesty and vulnerability. Contemplating the possibility of someday reuniting with “My mother wait[ing] there in her spider web” and “My little lost infant wait[ing] in her crib,” the speaker incants, “O holy mother, help us to forgive / those who killed us and those who let us live.” In our lives, there are so many directions in which hurt can flow, but there are just as many directions in which healing and help and forgiveness and permission can flow also.

MS: Amy Tan’s excerpt from her novel The Kitchen God’s Wife affects me in a million ways every time I read it. It gradually weaves in multiple layers of characters and meanings, one by one, and makes this complex thing, a simple one, one that the reader can peel off, the layers of interpretation and be surprised every time they read.

Multiple themes reside in this short excerpt. There’s gender. The superiority of the male against the female. There’s class too. An outward impression that as a rich female you are better off than a poor servant girl. You have more agency, but a fear of the unknown creeps into the wealthy woman and flips what she thought so confidently about. She wanted her husband to pay for impregnating a servant girl at first, but she took a shortcut because she heard voices in her head about what people would say.

Ultimately the servant girl kills herself, and the narrator blames it on her husband, who preys upon their own six-month-old daughter, and the wife must give in. The wife gives in because she wants peace in the family. The wife takes it to keep things going and cuts the husband loose. The story is rich, complex, real, and vivid. I try to do similar things in my work too, to simplify a complex issue and make it a universal experience.

AF: Until this book, literature about abortion was almost invisible as a literary theme/mode (except for the poems by Brooks and Clifton and some rather sensationalist works by white male writers). Now that this book exists, what kind of writing would you like to see as the next wave of abortion literature? What advice would you give to other writers who want to write about abortion?

JA: I have no thoughts about a “kind of writing” I’d like to see, and I’ve long been committed to not giving advice (perhaps even more now, as an elder, because I get asked for advice more often). However, because I’m happy about the thoughtful analyses and engaging narratives offered in Choice Words (in so many different ways, with so many different attitudes), I can suggest that those “other writers” read this book.

JAG: The advice I would give myself—a writer who would like to write more poems about abortion—is to let go of expectations, of worrying about what others might think, and write some heartfelt protest poems about what it might mean to go back to a time where abortion is illegal. It’s a scary thought. I think we need as a society to process that scary thought and really explore it. If a fetus is a person, is my IUD murder? How far back to conception does that ethical line go?

I read a story a few years ago (speculative) that envisioned an America where women had to pay for a funeral for each menstrual period. In my mind, I can imagine a life where I got pregnant accidentally, having already had two kids, and would need to make a decision about what to do. After reading so many amazing pieces in Choice Words, I actually feel way more empowered to write down these thoughts and feelings than I did before. I hope many many other writers feel the same way.

DC: I’d like to see a day come when we are free of “acceptable” moral reasons for abortion, and only personal and medical decisions guide access. Perhaps that will only come when physicians, midwives and abortion doulas tell more of their stories as well.

CF: I want to see work that normalizes abortion; I want to see work that shows an evolved understanding of how gender and abortion rights interact; I want trans people writing about abortion; and I want to decenter femaleness as the identifier for abortion need.

KG: I think more international writing would be wonderful, especially from authors in the Global South. I also think there should be more voices from Eastern Europe and Eurasia as their experiences are very different from those in the West. Abortion was first legalized on demand in the Soviet Union in 1920, and many Soviet women had multiple abortions over the course of their lives.

In terms of my advice, I think there is too often a focus on trauma and regret in a lot of writing about abortion, and while I understand that this is the authentic experience for manypeople, I do worry that it perpetuates the stigma associated with the practice.

JL: I would just like to see more and more and more! There are so many voices in so many diverse communities that have heretofore been silenced and pushed to the margins when it comes to this issue. I would love to see more of these underrepresented voices be widely heard and granted their share of space in our common awareness and community conversation.

MS: I don’t think we can want to see a particular type of abortion writing. Our experiences shape our writing, and it is better kept that way. The element of surprise must never leave the writer. My advice to future writers would be to just keep at it. Keep expressing what you have to go through, and one day you will be surprised by what you unload on that page.

_______________________________

Choice Words: Writers on Abortion , is available now from Haymarket Books *

Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays, and books—including Grace Paley’s Life Stories, a Literary/Political Biography ; Announcements from the Planetarium , a recent poetry collection; and, coming soon, Hello. This Is Jane is a collection of linked fictional stories seeded by Judith’s pre-Roe underground abortion work in Chicago. juditharcana.com

Josette Akresh-Gonzales was a finalist in the 2017 Split Lip Chapbook Con- test and has been Pushcart nominated; her poems are in The Pinch , Breakwater , [PANK] Magazine , and elsewhere. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and two boys and bikes to work at a nonprofit medical publisher. @Vivakresh

Desiree Cooper is a 2015 Kresge Artist Fellow, Pulitzer Prize–nominated journalist, and the award-winning author of the flash-fiction collection Know the Mother . Her short film based upon “The Choice” won awards at the Berlin Flash Film Festival, and the Los Angeles Best Short Film Festival. She resides in coastal Virginia.

Camonghne Felix is a poet, political strategist, media junkie, and cultural worker. Her debut full-length collection of poems, Build Yourself a Boat (Haymarket Books, 2019), is longlisted for the National Book Award.

Annie Finch  is a poet, writer, teacher, and performer. Her books include  Spells: New and Selected Poems ,  Calendars ,  A Poet’s Craft , and a book-length poem about abortion entitled  Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams . Her abortion healing ritual, and subscriptions to Annie’s Spellsletter, are available at  anniefinch.net

Kristen R. Ghodsee is an award-winning author, ethnographer, and professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written nine books, and her articles have been translated into over a dozen languages and published in Foreign Affairs , Dissent , New Republic , Washington Post , and New York Times .

Jenna Le authored Six Rivers (NYQ Books, 2011) and A History of the Cetacean American Diaspora (Indolent Books, 2018), which won second place in the Elgin Awards. She was selected by Marilyn Nelson as winner of Poetry by the Sea’s inaugural sonnet competition. Her poetry appears in Los Angeles Review , Massachusetts Review , and West Branch . jennalewriting.com

Manisha Sharma , an Indian, writes across genres about social issues. Her work is a 2019 semifinalist for the American Short(er) Fiction Contest. An AWP mentee in poetry, she has been a resident at the Vermont Studio Center and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is a lecturer of English and teacher of yoga-meditation at New River Community College in Virginia.

Literary Hub

Previous article, next article.

• RSS - Posts

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

Become a member for as low as $5/month

• Dissertation
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Book Report/Review
• Research Proposal
• Math Problems
• Proofreading
• Movie Review
• Cover Letter Writing
• Personal Statement
• Nursing Paper
• Argumentative Essay
• Research Paper
• Discussion Board Post

How To Write A Persuasive Essay On Abortion?

Table of Contents

Both sides of the discussion provide solid arguments, and both ideas have legs. And this makes the subject matter of abortion one of the best topics for persuasive essay .

The basics of a persuasive essay on abortion

The dictionaries define abortion as the termination of a pregnancy by removing embryo or fetus from the uterus before the end of its term. Miscarriage also falls under this description, however, when we talk about abortion, the first thing that comes to mind is the intended abolition of the unwanted pregnancy.

It is a tough topic for discussion, as the audience, on the whole, has an opinion concerning it already. The main task of the persuasive essay is to argue the audience into your point of view, but how on earth you can persuade a person who has developed an opinion based on personal experience?

Or how you can convince a devout believer of the truth of your words if you write about the necessity of legalization of abortions?

As you can see, the assignment is incredibly challenging, yet, not impossible. Teachers conceive this topic as one of the best ways to evaluate your ability to ram an argument home, so you will have to make every possible effort when writing this paper.

This subject matter deals with philosophical, religious, moral, medical, and ethical points. Thus, in order to create a compelling text, you will have to address all these aspects.

Core aspects of great abortion thesis statements

Abortion thesis statements are the quintessence of the papers so, usually, writers create them after thorough research of the issue and when the direction of the thought is already defined.

You can consider it as a very condensed outline as after reading a single thesis sentence, the reader can clearly see what you discuss in the text.

Thus, sometimes, the best time to write it is when the rough draft of the paper is almost ready.

Several steps should be taken to create a well-rounded thesis statement:

• Profound research of the subject matter.
• Time for crafting the best thesis .
• Search for a sufficient amount of facts that support the main idea.
• Check if your thesis is aligned with the rest of the text .

Here are some examples of thesis statements for a paper on abortion. You can use them as a source of inspiration for your own paper or as an example of how a great thesis should look like.

• The dangers and consequences of the backstreet abortions that can lead to woman’s death make legalization of abortions indispensable to life.
• The religious aspect is the only reason why people conceive abortion as a pro-choice and not a pro-life decision.
• As soon as the consensus on whether a developing embryo is equated with human life is reached, all the debates over the moral and legal aspects of abortion will be over.
• Psychological and physiological disorders that an unwanted pregnancy can cause justify the legalization of abortions.

The arguments for the persuasive essay on abortion is wrong

You can operate these arguments in a persuasive essay on abortion should be illegal:

• The medical procedure is a risky one. The possible immediate and long-term consequences are sterility, heavy bleeding, damage of the cervix or womb.
• Abortion is an irretrievable action so a woman can lament till her dying days. That may result in the clinical depression with gloomy implications up to suicide.
• Abortion increases the chances of contracting breast cancer.
• A woman who does not want to raise a child can give it up for adoption as many couples cannot have children for some reasons.
• For most cases, the unwanted pregnancy is the result of neglect of the contraceptives. Why should unborn children suffer because of the irresponsibility of a woman?
• Baby feels pain during the abortion, especially during the partial-birth abortion.
• There are no religions that justify abortion.
• Each and every life is valuable. But abortion values human’s life next to nothing.

Tip: When you write a persuasive essay on abortion pro-life, try to operate facts, not thoughts. Thus, you will sound more convincing.

How to support a persuasive essay on abortion pro-choice?

• The complications of pregnancy can have the same or even worse consequences rather than abortion.
• Abortion is justified if the fetus is diagnosed with heavy genetic defects.
• If parents are mentally disabled or carry severe heritable diseases, and it is possible to say for sure that the embryo is a carrier of a disease too, abortion has to be legal.
• The pregnancy as the result of a rape.
• There is still no agreement concerning the balance of a fetus and a person, so it is improper to apply laws and ethical standards to a developing life as to a human.

These arguments may help you make a persuasive essay on why abortion should be legal more convincing.

Still, do not forget that it is essential to add an argument with an opposite point of view to your text and then confute it.

How to create a neutral argument for a paper on abortion?

It may seem that such a burning issue can have only two points of view: pro or against. However, it is possible to write a neutral, unbiased, and still persuasive paper that will argue others into your point of view.

Such arguments are based on the facts and logic, they do not plead for sympathy or demand carriage of feminist postulates or the right for private life, etc.

These are the arguments that search for a sound compromise. For example:

• If the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life, abortion is acceptable.
• Abortion is acceptable if a fetus has a terminal sickness.

On balance…

We hope that this article helped you to figure out how such papers should be written so you won’t be scared by persuasive essay topics on abortion anymore. Once you’ve chosen the direction of thoughts, nothing will prevent you from creating a top-notch paper!

Don’t feel like being inspired by the topic of abortion? Luckily, we have trained pro’s here, who can do both, cope with any kind of essay… and fit into the deadline. Hit the button to learn more!

What Is Spatial Order And How To Use It In Essay?

100+ Personal Essay Topics For College And Writing Tips

What To Write In School Uniform Research Paper?

Find anything you save across the site in your account

All products are independently selected by our editors. If you buy something, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Is Abortion Sacred?

By Jia Tolentino

Twenty years ago, when I was thirteen, I wrote an entry in my journal about abortion, which began, “I have this huge thing weighing on me.” That morning, in Bible class, which I’d attended every day since the first grade at an evangelical school, in Houston, my teacher had led us in an exercise called Agree/Disagree. He presented us with moral propositions, and we stood up and physically chose sides. “Abortion is always wrong,” he offered, and there was no disagreement. We all walked to the wall that meant “agree.”

Then I raised my hand and, according to my journal, said, “I think it is always morally wrong and absolutely murder, but if a woman is raped, I respect her right to get an abortion.” Also, I said, if a woman knew the child would face a terrible life, the child might be better off. “Dead?” the teacher asked. My classmates said I needed to go to the other side, and I did. “I felt guilty and guilty and guilty,” I wrote in my journal. “I didn’t feel like a Christian when I was on that side of the room. I felt terrible, actually. . . . But I still have that thought that if a woman was raped, she has her right. But that’s so strange—she has a right to kill what would one day be her child? That issue is irresolved in my mind and it will eat at me until I sort it out.”

I had always thought of abortion as it had been taught to me in school: it was a sin that irresponsible women committed to cover up another sin, having sex in a non-Christian manner. The moral universe was a stark battle of virtue and depravity, in which the only meaningful question about any possible action was whether or not it would be sanctioned in the eyes of God. Men were sinful, and the goodness of women was the essential bulwark against the corruption of the world. There was suffering built into this framework, but suffering was noble; justice would prevail, in the end, because God always provided for the faithful. It was these last tenets, prosperity-gospel principles that neatly erase the material causes of suffering in our history and our social policies—not only regarding abortion but so much else—which toppled for me first. By the time I went to college, I understood that I was pro-choice.

America is, in many ways, a deeply religious country—the only wealthy Western democracy in which more than half of the population claims to pray every day. (In Europe, the figure is twenty-two per cent.) Although seven out of ten American women who get abortions identify as Christian, the fight to make the procedure illegal is an almost entirely Christian phenomenon. Two-thirds of the national population and nearly ninety per cent of Congress affirm a tradition in which a teen-age girl continuing an unplanned pregnancy allowed for the salvation of the world, in which a corrupt government leader who demanded a Massacre of the Innocents almost killed the baby Jesus and damned us all in the process, and in which the Son of God entered the world as what the godless dare to call a “clump of cells.”

For centuries, most Christians believed that human personhood began months into the long course of pregnancy. It was only in the twentieth century that a dogmatic narrative, in which every pregnancy is an iteration of the same static story of creation, began both to shape American public policy and to occlude the reality of pregnancy as volatile and ambiguous—as a process in which creation and destruction run in tandem. This newer narrative helped to erase an instinctive, long-held understanding that pregnancy does not begin with the presence of a child, and only sometimes ends with one. Even within the course of the same pregnancy, a person and the fetus she carries can shift between the roles of lover and beloved, host and parasite, vessel and divinity, victim and murderer; each body is capable of extinguishing the other, although one cannot survive alone. There is no human relationship more complex, more morally unstable than this.

The idea that a fetus is not just a full human but a superior and kinglike one—a being whose survival is so paramount that another person can be legally compelled to accept harm, ruin, or death to insure it—is a recent invention. For most of history, women ended unwanted pregnancies as they needed to, taking herbal or plant-derived preparations on their own or with the help of female healers and midwives, who presided over all forms of treatment and care connected with pregnancy. They were likely enough to think that they were simply restoring their menstruation, treating a blockage of blood. Pregnancy was not confirmed until “quickening,” the point at which the pregnant person could feel fetal movement, a measurement that relied on her testimony. Then as now, there was often nothing that distinguished the result of an abortion—the body expelling fetal tissue—from a miscarriage.

Ancient records of abortifacient medicine are plentiful; ancient attempts to regulate abortion are rare. What regulations existed reflect concern with women’s behavior and marital propriety, not with fetal life. The Code of the Assura, from the eleventh century B.C.E., mandated death for married women who got abortions without consulting their husbands; when husbands beat their wives hard enough to make them miscarry, the punishment was a fine. The first known Roman prohibition on abortion dates to the second century and prescribes exile for a woman who ends her pregnancy, because “it might appear scandalous that she should be able to deny her husband of children without being punished.” Likewise, the early Christian Church opposed abortion not as an act of murder but because of its association with sexual sin. (The Bible offers ambiguous guidance on the question of when life begins: Genesis 2:7 arguably implies that it begins at first breath; Exodus 21:22-24 suggests that, in Old Testament law, a fetus was not considered a person; Jeremiah 1:5 describes God’s hand in creation even “before I formed you in the womb.” Nowhere does the Bible clearly and directly address abortion.) Augustine, in the fourth century, favored the idea that God endowed a fetus with a soul only after its body was formed—a point that Augustine placed, in line with Aristotelian tradition, somewhere between forty and eighty days into its development. “There cannot yet be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation when it is not formed in flesh, and so not yet endowed with sense,” he wrote. This was more or less the Church’s official position; it was affirmed eight centuries later by Thomas Aquinas.

In the early modern era, European attitudes began to change. The Black Death had dramatically lowered the continent’s population, and dealt a blow to most forms of economic activity; the Reformation had weakened the Church’s position as the essential intermediary between the layman and God. The social scientist Silvia Federici has argued, in her book “ Caliban and the Witch ,” that church and state waged deliberate campaigns to force women to give birth, in service of the emerging capitalist economy. “Starting in the mid-16th century, while Portuguese ships were returning from Africa with their first human cargoes, all the European governments began to impose the severest penalties against contraception, abortion, and infanticide,” Federici notes. Midwives and “wise women” were prosecuted for witchcraft, a catchall crime for deviancy from procreative sex. For the first time, male doctors began to control labor and delivery, and, Federici writes, “in the case of a medical emergency” they “prioritized the life of the fetus over that of the mother.” She goes on: “While in the Middle Ages women had been able to use various forms of contraceptives, and had exercised an undisputed control over the birthing process, from now on their wombs became public territory, controlled by men and the state.”

Martin Luther and John Calvin, the most influential figures of the Reformation, did not address abortion at any length. But Catholic doctrine started to shift, albeit slowly. In 1588, Pope Sixtus V labelled both abortion and contraception as homicide. This pronouncement was reversed three years later, by Pope Gregory XIV, who declared that abortion was only homicide if it took place after ensoulment, which he identified as occurring around twenty-four weeks into a pregnancy. Still, theologians continued to push the idea of embryonic humanity; in 1621, the physician Paolo Zacchia, an adviser to the Vatican, proclaimed that the soul was present from the moment of conception. Still, it was not until 1869 that Pope Pius IX affirmed this doctrine, proclaiming abortion at any point in pregnancy to be a sin punishable by excommunication.

When I found out I was pregnant, at the beginning of 2020, I wondered how the experience would change my understanding of life, of fetal personhood, of the morality of reproduction. It’s been years since I traded the echo chamber of evangelical Texas for the echo chamber of progressive Brooklyn, but I can still sometimes feel the old world view flickering, a photographic negative underneath my vision. I have come to believe that abortion should be universally accessible, regulated only by medical codes and ethics, and not by the criminal-justice system. Still, in passing moments, I can imagine upholding the idea that our sole task when it comes to protecting life is to end the practice of abortion; I can imagine that seeming profoundly moral and unbelievably urgent. I would only need to think of the fetus in total isolation—to imagine that it were not formed and contained by another body, and that body not formed and contained by a family, or a society, or a world.

As happens to many women, though, I became, if possible, more militant about the right to an abortion in the process of pregnancy, childbirth, and caregiving. It wasn’t just the difficult things that had this effect—the paralyzing back spasms, the ragged desperation of sleeplessness, the thundering doom that pervaded every cell in my body when I weaned my child. And it wasn’t just my newly visceral understanding of the anguish embedded in the facts of American family life. (A third of parents in one of the richest countries in the world struggle to afford diapers ; in the first few months of the pandemic , as Jeff Bezos’s net worth rose by forty-eight billion dollars, sixteen per cent of households with children did not have enough to eat.) What multiplied my commitment to abortion were the beautiful things about motherhood: in particular, the way I felt able to love my baby fully and singularly because I had chosen to give my body and life over to her. I had not been forced by law to make another person with my flesh, or to tear that flesh open to bring her into the world; I hadn’t been driven by need to give that new person away to a stranger in the hope that she would never go to bed hungry. I had been able to choose this permanent rearrangement of my existence. That volition felt sacred.

Abortion is often talked about as a grave act that requires justification, but bringing a new life into the world felt, to me, like the decision that more clearly risked being a moral mistake. The debate about abortion in America is “rooted in the largely unacknowledged premise that continuing a pregnancy is a prima facie moral good,” the pro-choice Presbyterian minister Rebecca Todd Peters writes . But childbearing, Peters notes, is a morally weighted act, one that takes place in a world of limited and unequally distributed resources. Many people who get abortions—the majority of whom are poor women who already have children—understand this perfectly well. “We ought to take the decision to continue a pregnancy far more seriously than we do,” Peters writes.

I gave birth in the middle of a pandemic that previewed a future of cross-species viral transmission exacerbated by global warming, and during a summer when ten million acres on the West Coast burned . I knew that my child would not only live in this degrading world but contribute to that degradation. (“Every year, the average American emits enough carbon to melt ten thousand tons of ice in the Antarctic ice sheets,” David Wallace-Wells writes in his book “ The Uninhabitable Earth .”) Just before COVID arrived, the science writer Meehan Crist published an essay in the London Review of Books titled “Is it OK to have a child?” (The title alludes to a question that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez once asked in a live stream, on Instagram.) Crist details the environmental damage that we are doing, and the costs for the planet and for us and for those who will come after. Then she turns the question on its head. The idea of choosing whether or not to have a child, she writes, is predicated on a fantasy of control that “quickly begins to dissipate when we acknowledge that the conditions for human flourishing are distributed so unevenly, and that, in an age of ecological catastrophe, we face a range of possible futures in which these conditions no longer reliably exist.”

In late 2021, as Omicron brought New York to another COVID peak, a Gen Z boy in a hoodie uploaded a TikTok , captioned “yall better delete them baby names out ya notes its 60 degrees in december.” By then, my baby had become a toddler. Every night, as I set her in the crib, she chirped good night to the elephants, koalas, and tigers on the wall, and I tried not to think about extinction. My decision to have her risked, or guaranteed, additional human suffering; it opened up new chances for joy and meaning. There is unknowability in every reproductive choice.

As the German historian Barbara Duden writes in her book “ Disembodying Women ,” the early Christians believed that both the bodies that created life and the world that sustained it were proof of the “continual creative activity of God.” Women and nature were aligned, in this view, as the material sources of God’s plan. “The word nature is derived from nascitura , which means ‘birthing,’ and nature is imagined and felt to be like a pregnant womb, a matrix, a mother,” Duden writes. But, in recent decades, she notes, the natural world has begun to show its irreparable damage. The fetus has been left as a singular totem of life and divinity, to be protected, no matter the costs, even if everything else might fall.

The scholar Katie Gentile argues that, in times of cultural crisis and upheaval, the fetus functions as a “site of projected and displaced anxieties,” a “fantasy of wholeness in the face of overwhelming anxiety and an inability to have faith in a progressive, better future.” The more degraded actual life becomes on earth, the more fervently conservatives will fight to protect potential life in utero. We are locked into the destruction of the world that birthed all of us; we turn our attention, now, to the worlds—the wombs—we think we can still control.

By the time that the Catholic Church decided that abortion at any point, for any reason, was a sin, scientists had identified the biological mechanism behind human reproduction, in which a fetus develops from an embryo that develops from a zygote, the single-celled organism created by the union of egg and sperm. With this discovery, in the mid-nineteenth century, women lost the most crucial point of authority over the stories of their pregnancies. Other people would be the ones to tell us, from then on, when life began.

At the time, abortion was largely unregulated in the United States, a country founded and largely populated by Protestants. But American physicians, through the then newly formed American Medical Association, mounted a campaign to criminalize it, led by a gynecologist named Horatio Storer, who once described the typical abortion patient as a “wretch whose account with the Almighty is heaviest with guilt.” (Storer was raised Unitarian but later converted to Catholicism.) The scholars Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon have argued that these doctors, whose profession was not as widely respected as it would later become, used abortion “as a wedge issue,” one that helped them portray their work “as morally and professionally superior to the practice of midwifery.” By 1910, abortion was illegal in every state, with exceptions only to save the life of “the mother.” (The wording of such provisions referred to all pregnant people as mothers, whether or not they had children, thus quietly inserting a presumption of fetal personhood.) A series of acts known as the Comstock laws had rendered contraception, abortifacient medicine, and information about reproductive control widely inaccessible, by criminalizing their distribution via the U.S. Postal Service. People still sought abortions, of course: in the early years of the Great Depression, there were as many as seven hundred thousand abortions annually. These underground procedures were dangerous; several thousand women died from abortions every year.

This is when the contemporary movements for and against the right to abortion took shape. Those who favored legal abortion did not, in these years, emphasize “choice,” Daniel K. Williams notes in his book “ Defenders of the Unborn .” They emphasized protecting the health of women, protecting doctors, and preventing the births of unwanted children. Anti-abortion activists, meanwhile, argued, as their successors do, that they were defending human life and human rights. The horrors of the Second World War gave the movement a lasting analogy: “Logic would lead us from abortion to the gas chamber,” a Catholic clergyman wrote, in October, 1962.

Ultrasound imaging, invented in the nineteen-fifties, completed the transformation of pregnancy into a story that, by default, was narrated to women by other people—doctors, politicians, activists. In 1965, Life magazine published a photo essay by Lennart Nilsson called “ Drama of Life Before Birth ,” and put the image of a fetus at eighteen weeks on its cover. The photos produced an indelible, deceptive image of the fetus as an isolated being—a “spaceman,” as Nilsson wrote, floating in a void, entirely independent from the person whose body creates it. They became totems of the anti-abortion movement; Life had not disclosed that all but one had been taken of aborted fetuses, and that Nilsson had lit and posed their bodies to give the impression that they were alive.

In 1967, Colorado became the first state to allow abortion for reasons other than rape, incest, or medical emergency. A group of Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis began operating an abortion-referral service led by the pastor of Judson Memorial Church, in Manhattan; the resulting network of pro-choice clerics eventually spanned the country, and referred an estimated four hundred and fifty thousand women to safe abortions. The evangelical magazine Christianity Today held a symposium of prominent theologians, in 1968, which resulted in a striking statement: “Whether or not the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed, but about the necessity and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.” Meanwhile, the priest James McHugh became the director of the National Right to Life Committee, and equated fetuses to the other vulnerable people whom faithful Christians were commanded to protect: the old, the sick, the poor. As states began to liberalize their abortion laws, the anti-abortion movement attracted followers—many of them antiwar, pro-welfare Catholics—using the language of civil rights, and adopted the label “pro-life.”

W. A. Criswell, a Dallas pastor who served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1968 to 1970, said, shortly after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade , that “it was only after a child was born and had life separate from his mother that it became an individual person,” and that “it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and the future should be allowed.” But the Court’s decision accelerated a political and theological transformation that was already under way: by 1979, Criswell, like the S.B.C., had endorsed a hard-line anti-abortion stance. Evangelical leadership, represented by such groups as Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority , joined with Catholics to oppose the secularization of popular culture, becoming firmly conservative—and a powerful force in Republican politics. Bible verses that express the idea of divine creation, such as Psalm 139 (“For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb,” in the New International Version’s translation), became policy explanations for prohibiting abortion.

In 1984, scientists used ultrasound to detect fetal cardiac activity at around six weeks’ gestation—a discovery that has been termed a “fetal heartbeat” by the anti-abortion movement, though a six-week-old fetus hasn’t yet formed a heart, and the electrical pulses are coming from cell clusters that can be replicated in a petri dish. At six weeks, in fact, medical associations still call the fetus an embryo; as I found out in 2020, you generally can’t even schedule a doctor’s visit to confirm your condition until you’re eight weeks along.

So many things that now shape the cultural experience of pregnancy in America accept and reinforce the terms of the anti-abortion movement, often with the implicit goal of making pregnant women feel special, or encouraging them to buy things. “Your baby,” every app and article whispered to me sweetly, wrongly, many months before I intuited personhood in the being inside me, or felt that the life I was forming had moved out of a liminal realm.

I tried to learn from that liminality. Hope was always predicated on uncertainty; there would be no guarantees of safety in this or any other part of life. Pregnancy did not feel like soft blankets and stuffed bunnies—it felt cosmic and elemental, like volcanic rocks grinding, or a wild plant straining toward the sun. It was violent even as I loved it. “Even with the help of modern medicine, pregnancy still kills about 800 women every day worldwide,” the evolutionary biologist Suzanne Sadedin points out in an essay titled “War in the womb.” Many of the genes that activate during embryonic development also activate when a body has been invaded by cancer, Sadedin notes; in ectopic pregnancies, which are unviable by definition and make up one to two per cent of all pregnancies, embryos become implanted in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus, and “tunnel ferociously toward the richest nutrient source they can find.” The result, Sadedin writes, “is often a bloodbath.”

The Book of Genesis tells us that the pain of childbearing is part of the punishment women have inherited from Eve. The other part is subjugation to men: “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you,” God tells Eve. Tertullian, a second-century theologian, told women, “You are the devil’s gateway: you are the unsealer of the (forbidden) tree: you are the first deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded him whom the devil was not valiant enough to attack.” The idea that guilt inheres in female identity persists in anti-abortion logic: anything a woman, or a girl, does with her body can justify the punishment of undesired pregnancy, including simply existing.

If I had become pregnant when I was a thirteen-year-old Texan , I would have believed that abortion was wrong, but I am sure that I would have got an abortion. For one thing, my Christian school did not allow students to be pregnant. I was aware of this, and had, even then, a faint sense that the people around me grasped, in some way, the necessity of abortion—that, even if they believed that abortion meant taking a life, they understood that it could preserve a life, too.

One need not reject the idea that life in the womb exists or that fetal life has meaning in order to favor the right to abortion; one must simply allow that everything, not just abortion, has a moral dimension, and that each pregnancy occurs in such an intricate web of systemic and individual circumstances that only the person who is pregnant could hope to evaluate the situation and make a moral decision among the options at hand. A recent survey found that one-third of Americans believe life begins at conception but also that abortion should be legal. This is the position overwhelmingly held by American Buddhists, whose religious tradition casts abortion as the taking of a human life and regards all forms of life as sacred but also warns adherents against absolutism and urges them to consider the complexity of decreasing suffering, compelling them toward compassion and respect.

There is a Buddhist ritual practiced primarily in Japan, where it is called mizuko kuyo : a ceremony of mourning for miscarriages, stillbirths, and aborted fetuses. The ritual is possibly ersatz; critics say that it fosters and preys upon women’s feelings of guilt. But the scholar William LaFleur argues, in his book “ Liquid Life ,” that it is rooted in a medieval Japanese understanding of the way the unseen world interfaces with the world of humans—in which being born and dying are both “processes rather than fixed points.” An infant was believed to have entered the human world from the realm of the gods, and move clockwise around a wheel as she grew older, eventually passing back into the spirit realm on the other side. But some infants were mizuko , or water babies: floating in fluids, ontologically unstable. These were the babies who were never born. A mizuko , whether miscarried or aborted—and the two words were similar: kaeru , to go back, and kaesu , to cause to go back—slipped back, counterclockwise, across the border to the realm of the gods.

There is a loss, I think, entailed in abortion—as there is in miscarriage, whether it occurs at eight or twelve or twenty-nine weeks. I locate this loss in the irreducible complexity of life itself, in the terrible violence and magnificence of reproduction, in the death that shimmered at the edges of my consciousness in the shattering moment that my daughter was born. This understanding might be rooted in my religious upbringing—I am sure that it is. But I wonder, now, how I would square this: that fetuses were the most precious lives in existence, and that God, in His vision, already chooses to end a quarter of them. The fact that a quarter of women, regardless of their beliefs, also decide to end pregnancies at some point in their lifetimes: are they not acting in accordance with God’s plan for them, too? ♦

More on Abortion and Roe v. Wade

In the post-Roe era, letting pregnant patients get sicker— by design .

The study that debunks most anti-abortion arguments .

Of course the Constitution has nothing to say about abortion .

How the real Jane Roe shaped the abortion wars.

Black feminists defined abortion rights as a matter of equality, not just “choice.”

Recent data suggest that taking abortion pills at home is as safe as going to a clinic. 

When abortion is criminalized, women make desperate choices .

Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .

By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

By Kelefa Sanneh

By Stephania Taladrid

By Louis Menand

By Christopher Fiorello

• Newsletters
• Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

SCOTUS Has a Chance to Right the Wrong Its EMTALA Ruling Forced

Will it listen.

This week, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could have devastating and widespread consequences for pregnant patients, their families, and their health care providers—yes, even considering where we currently are with reproductive health care in this country. It involves Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which makes it a crime for the state’s physicians to terminate a pregnancy, even when termination is necessary to protect the mother’s health. As a result of that state’s cramped statutory exceptions for emergency abortion care, a woman showing up to an ER in Idaho could be at imminent risk of losing her reproductive organs, and yet a physician could still not be allowed to end her pregnancy to save them, unless or until she is about to die.

By contrast, right now, a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires that hospitals that participate in Medicare (meaning virtually every private hospital in the country) provide stabilizing care when the health of a patient is in serious jeopardy. As any emergency physician can explain , sometimes an abortion is the stabilizing care necessary to protect a patient’s health: to avoid loss of reproductive organs and fertility, loss of other organs, permanent disability, severe pain, dire mental health results, and a host of other horrible consequences, including—but also short of—risk of imminent death.

​Before Idaho’s law took effect, a federal district court in the state found that EMTALA and the Idaho law conflict: When a pregnant patient needs an abortion to stabilize a health emergency and consents to receive one, federal law requires that her doctors give her an abortion. The Idaho ban therefore criminalizes what federal law requires. Whenever that happens, the Constitution’s supremacy clause says federal law wins: Under what’s known as the preemption doctrine, federal law is the “supreme Law of the Land” and overrides the conflicting state law. The Idaho court thus temporarily ordered an exception to the Idaho law, allowing physicians to terminate a pregnancy when EMTALA requires it.

​In January, however, the Supreme Court disagreed. Leaping into the case before it was conclusively resolved, the high court issued a stay allowing Idaho’s law to take effect again, despite the conflict with EMTALA, ruling on its “ shadow docket ” and offering no opinion explaining its reasoning. On Wednesday, in the final week of the court’s term, the justices will hear oral argument in the case. They have an opportunity to undo the harm their earlier ruling has already caused. Their decision will affect the law not just in Idaho but in every state whose laws clash with EMTALA.

In the weeks since the high court paused EMTALA and allowed Idaho’s more stringent ban to go into effect, health care providers have experienced what can been seen only as a natural experiment in what happens when physicians are barred from delivering the kinds of medical assistance that is widely understood to be the standard of care in emergency rooms. Whereas the justices may have been able to plausibly claim back in January that they had no idea what it would mean to turn away patients who should have received stabilizing care under EMTALA, we now know. In fact, we can measure the harms. And in Idaho, over just a few months, the consequences of the Supreme Court’s stay have been devastating.

St. Luke’s Health System is the largest private employer in the state of Idaho and treats by far the most emergency patients. (Disclosure: Lindsay Harrison is counsel of record for St. Luke’s in the case.) In an amicus brief submitted to the court in this lawsuit, St. Luke’s explains that since the stay was imposed, it has continued to see patients with emergency medical conditions posing severe health risks short of death and that, as a result of the stay, those patients are suffering.

Because of the stay, Idaho physicians have essentially two options: First, because Idaho’s ban still allows for abortions to prevent death, they can certainly wait until the risks to a patient’s health become life-threatening. But the conditions that come with this state can be extremely painful. And if untreated, they can cause serious health complications, including systemic bleeding, liver hemorrhage and failure, kidney failure, stroke, seizure, and pulmonary edema. In these situations, watching a patient suffer and deteriorate until death is imminent is intolerable to most doctors. It is also medically unsound and dangerous.

Their best option is therefore the second and only alternative: Transfer the patient out of state. But this delays critical emergency care while transport is arranged, still forces patients to endure serious physical pain, and still risks potentially grave complications. It also distances patients from their families, homes, and support networks at a time when they most need them. And it is expensive and wholly unnecessary.

Despite the serious downsides of transfer, the numbers show starkly how that option has become the new “standard of care” in Idaho. In the whole of 2023, before Idaho’s law was in effect, only one pregnant patient presenting to St. Luke’s with an emergency was transferred out of state for care. Yet in the few months the new abortion law has been in effect, six pregnant St. Luke’s patients with medical emergencies have been transferred out of state for termination of their pregnancy. This is a dramatic change for a small state like Idaho, and what it shows is that the new crabbed definition of stabilizing care is already harming pregnant women. In an extremely short time, we have seen precisely the uptick in transfers that could have been predicted when SCOTUS allowed Idaho to end-run the federal statute: More patients are harmed, more patients are sent long distances for care, and more providers find themselves unable to offer necessary care.

Congress passed EMTALA decades ago to solve a serious problem—hospitals were dumping patients on other hospitals without considering their medical condition or how the transfer might harm them. The Supreme Court’s stay is now actually undermining the stated goal of the statute by literally forcing Idaho’s hospitals to transfer patients across state lines, instead of providing the emergency care they need.

When they hear arguments in this case, the justices should therefore bear in mind one other piece of data: The patients affected by this decision are still receiving exactly the same number of abortions they received before the stay because, for patients presenting with their particular medical emergencies, termination remains the standard of care. The St. Luke’s data thus proves that abortion care will still happen—but it will happen following costly and time-wasting emergency transfers, helicopter rides, and bleeding and pain for women who are often already experiencing the very worst day of their lives. The St. Luke’s numbers reveal that denying abortion care doesn’t save fetal life or protect maternal health. It just makes emergency care more expensive, higher-risk, and brutally painful.

A few weeks back, we saw the Supreme Court’s justices take it upon themselves to second-guess the practice of medicine and drug regulation in the mifepristone case. The EMTALA case offers a repeat opportunity for justices to publicly practice emergency medicine without a license, a knowledge base, or any solicitude for actual physicians and their real-life patients. Allowing the Idaho abortion statute to go into effect was a consequential legal error that has already demonstrably harmed pregnant people and their families while impeding doctors from offering the kind of health care they have been trained to deliver. This suffering is entirely avoidable. The court has the power to rectify this error. Now the justices also have the data to understand what will happen should they opt not to do so.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

The Teen Trend of Sexual Choking

More from our inbox:, emergency abortions and the supreme court, our father, who led columbia, would be saddened today, hiring discrimination, trump’s own ‘fake news’.

To the Editor:

Re “ Why We Need to Talk About Teen Sex ,” by Peggy Orenstein (Opinion guest essay, April 14):

As a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst who has worked for decades with teens and college-age students, I’m disturbed but not surprised by the trend of choking during sex.

Choking is obviously very dangerous, and unfortunately, social media has made this once uncommon practice more mainstream.

Education is the key with both our youth and parents. Yes, sexual strangulation needs to be part of ongoing conversations about safe sex practices. There clearly needs to be more accountability about this behavior.

There is a line, a boundary, where rough sex, whether it’s consensual or not, crosses into danger, causing devastating long-term effects for participants.

Arden Greenspan Goldberg San Diego

While reading this essay, I was reminded of how feminist writers and activists waved warning flags about the pernicious effects of pornography on women back in the 1970s and ’80s. They published books and essays on the subject, marched in demonstrations and spoke out in the media. They were continually derided as prudes and censors.

Decades later, with violent porn pervasive online and a generation of young women subjected to the sadistic sexual violence normalized by porn, it turns out those prudes and censors were actually Cassandras.

I thank Peggy Orenstein and the researchers in this story for bringing new attention to the issue.

J. Jamakaya Milwaukee

I taught a course on human sexuality to college students during the AIDS epidemic. When I heard about sexual strangulation, I considered briefly: Should I link this practice to arousal and orgasm when speaking to these high-risk young people? I knew that many would then experiment. I chose not to mention it, but I taught them, through role play, how to verbally refuse inappropriate sexual invitations.

Today, I hope instructors in my position will discuss with their students sexual strangulation with a potential partner and help them practice responding to sexual pressure.

Pornography makes partners look willing. Evolution favored a strong sex drive. The planet doesn’t need it anymore.

Elizabeth Powell St. Louis The writer is the author of “Talking Back to Sexual Pressure.”

Re “ 5 Takeaways From the Supreme Court Arguments on Idaho’s Abortion Ban ” (nytimes.com, April 24):

Reading about the hearing at the Supreme Court, I was taken aback at the careful attention some justices paid to ensuring that physicians whose conscience precludes them from performing abortions are excused from violating their beliefs. But some doctors are being forced to violate their conscience by being prevented from performing an abortion on patients whose precarious condition might decline precipitously without such a procedure.

Being forced to refuse medically indicated aid, knowing that the dire consequences violate the Hippocratic oath to do no harm, is an affront to their consciences, which must be considered with the same attention.

Susan Swartz Philadelphia

Re “ On Emergency Abortion Access, Justices Seem Sharply Divided ” (nytimes.com, April 24):

You write that since the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, uncertainty about the parameters for legal abortion in several states has led to complaints about doctors being forced to “think like lawyers.”

I am equally concerned that complex medical decisions are being made by nine lawyers being forced to think like doctors.

Jon D. Morrow New York The writer is an obstetrician-gynecologist.

Our father, Michael I. Sovern , played a leading role in resolving Columbia’s 1968 protests. He served as Columbia’s only Jewish president, from 1980 to 1993, and helped negotiate a peaceful end to weeks of anti-apartheid demonstrations.

We cannot know what our father, who died in 2020, would do if he were still president, but we have no doubt he would be deeply saddened by what is happening at the university that he loved and served for more than 60 years.

We believe that he would not want politicians and outsiders not affiliated with Columbia to exploit sincere student protest for their own gains, and, as in the 1980s, he would want protesters to ensure that they do not keep the university from providing the excellent education from which he and so many others benefited.

Finally, we know he would agree that anyone expressing opposition to the Israeli government or Hamas should not make Jewish or Palestinian students feel attacked or unsafe.

Jeff Sovern Elizabeth Sovern Doug Sovern Julie Sovern

Re “ Study Uses Fake Résumés to Measure Bias in Hiring ” (The Upshot, April 15):

The study on hiring discrimination in large U.S. companies, as reported in your story, highlights the importance of social capital in landing a job, especially for people of color.

The study found that even with equivalent qualifications, applicants with Black-sounding names were contacted by employers nearly 10 percent less often than those with white-sounding names.

In a world where such discriminatory hiring practices persist, the ability to build social capital — the relationships and networks that help open doors and advance someone in their career and life pursuits — is paramount.

Research shows that social capital — and in particular, cross-class relationships — is the greatest predictor of economic mobility. Educational institutions, from high schools to community colleges and trade schools, should prioritize helping students build social capital.

By teaching them how to build relationships, facilitating connections with industry professionals, creating mentorship programs that pair students with successful alumni, and, most important, teaching students how to make meaningful requests of those alumni, we can put more people on the path to successful careers.

Because opportunity should hinge on merit, not a name.

Nitzan Pelman Berkeley, Calif. The writer is C.E.O. of Climb Hire Labs, a national nonprofit teaching students and job seekers the art of building social capital.

Re “ Witness Recalls Burying Stories to Shield Trump ” (front page, April 24):

Finally, we have a rather compelling example of that “fake news” that Donald Trump has been ranting about for years.

He not only sought to bury damaging stories. It turns out that he and his fixer, Michael Cohen, working closely with David Pecker, the publisher of The National Enquirer, also concocted and released wholly untrue stories about his political opponents (for example, “Donald Trump Blasts Ted Cruz’s Dad for Photo With J.F.K. Assassin”). So says Mr. Pecker, under oath, in a Manhattan courtroom.

James P. Pehl Marlborough, Mass.