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<title> Abortion - woman's right to decide over her own body </title>
It is my strong belief that every woman should be entitled to legal abortions. In some countries, like Sweden for instance, the procedure has been legal without severe regulations for quite some time and is accepted as an option for unintended pregnancies by most people. In other parts of the world abortion is still prohibited or difficult to carry out in reality. The United States of America is an example of the latter, which I will further examine in this essay.
	In 1973 the Supreme Court made a ruling that marked an important turning point in public health policy. The ruling established that Americans' right to privacy should include the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference, at least in the first trimester (about the first 13 weeks) of pregnancy. However, in recent years, the Supreme Court and Congress have begun to allow new restrictions on abortion. States can now limit pre-viability abortions (when the foetus couldn't survive outside the womb), even in the first trimester. In addition other restrictions, such as the requirement to involve parents or a judge in the decision, are now common. These obstacles are designed to frighten and discourage women from terminating their pregnancies.
An unplanned pregnancy is an issue, which many American women face. Each year, more than 50% of all pregnancies are unintended. About half of these, 1.5 million, are ended by abortion. Quite contrary to what you might think, the women who have abortions come from all racial, ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds. This illustrates that the right to abortion is something that many American women benefit from in spite of background and present situation. Illegal abortions put the health and life of quite a few 
women at risk, as well as it favoured wealthy women who could afford to raise money in order to pay for more skilled doctors who were willing to take a chance, rather than getting a "back-alley" abortion. 
There are several other reasons to be pro-choice, i e for women's rights to choose abortion. One of them is that under certain circumstances it is highly understandable to want to end the pregnancy. These circumstances include rape, incest, a very young mother or immediate danger to the mother's health. The problem is that people who are pro-life, i e against abortion, tend to value the life and rights of the foetus higher than the mother's. They talk about the baby's right to be born and argue that the unborn should not be held responsible for its mother's actions or any harm done to its mother. First of all I think that it's incorrect to call the foetus a "baby" and refer to it as "life", when most abortions are actually done within the first 8 weeks. At that time the "baby" consists of a cluster of cells, which still could be considered a part of the female body. Consequently there is no reason, other than to upset the mother, for referring to abortion as murder. Secondly I don't think it's fair of them to totally disregard the mother's mental and physical health along side her right to choose, since it's her body and her life. 
I find it rather appalling that certain anti-abortion zealots, who are so concerned about the well being of some (the foetus), engage in harassment of pro-choice doctors as well as vandalism of abortion clinics. In recent years pro-life violence has even escalated to clinic bombings, physical attacks on doctors and patients and even murders. Although far from all pro-lifers support the murder of doctors, this somewhat proves that the anti-abortionist movement is somewhat hypocritical with a "holier-than-thou" attitude. 
Another aspect to take into consideration is the quality of life, both the mother's and the future baby's. Statistics show that teenage mothers are more likely than other women to drop out of school, develop health problems, receive inadequate prenatal care, rely on public assistance to raise her child and have her marriage end in divorce. Also, if the risk of the baby being gravely disabled, dying in infancy or being born still is high, you have to ask yourself if that is something you are ready to cope with - there are all ready enough unwanted children in the world. 
What it all comes down to in the end are women's fundamental rights to decide over their own bodies and futures. It should be up to every woman to decide on an abortion or not without having other people interfere. Everybody's naturally entitled to his or her own opinion. I only have objections to people trying to force their views on others.
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