Lancaster 1

Emily Lancaster
Mr. Geist
HELA 10
16 February 2016
Step Towards Life
It is said that in the end we only regret the chances we didnt take and in the case of
abortion there is no situation in which this phrase is more accurate. There is no one in the world
who could possibly regret letting their child live or wish that they had never been born. On the
other hand if the choice is made to end a childs life, thoughts and regrets over what that child
could have become haunt people until the end of their days. Why not take a chance on life, and,
in the end, not have to regret an abortion that really wasnt a necessity in the first place. There
has been much debate recently on the topic of abortion. The focus of many a presidential
candidate debate, candidates have spent at least a portion of their time discussing the various
stances and actions they plan to take, but which stance is the right one? The many opinions stated
by prominent voices in the media create a blurred, muddy, puddle of information that is difficult
to choose from. The answer is quite simple though. Abortion should be illegal with a few rare
exceptions because killing a child, albeit an unborn one, is not an option that should be readily
available to the public, the child has a right to live, though it is much too young to understand it,
and because, although the mother does have the right to do whatever she chooses with her own
body, she does not have the right to do whatever she wants with the body of her child.

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A key factor to remember when pondering the issue of abortion is that this procedure is
ending the life of a child before it even had the chance to live and in a gruesome fashion none the
less. Some may argue that because the child isnt born yet, abortion is ethically acceptable
because the child is just a fetus and therefore not a real human being. That argument, however,
heavily depends on how early the abortion procedure is performed. In the early stages of
pregnancy the fetus hardly resembles a human at all, and is not developed enough to feel pain
scientists think, but the later the abortion is performed, the closer to life the child gets, the more
painful and inhumane the procedure becomes. Last week in Colombia a women was allowed to
abort her fetus at 32 weeksonly a month before its due date (Goodstein). A child almost 8
months old was legally allowed to be murdered. The longer a woman waits to get an abortion the
more a fetus develops and the closer it becomes to being a living breathing baby. Absolutely no
abortions should be allowed after 24 weeks when a child is developed enough to feel pain and
actually be able to survive outside of its mothers womb. Last week's report suggested that the
nerves of a fetus are not fully connected to its developing brain until 24 weeks, however,
advances in medicine mean that babies can now survive outside their mother's womb at 24
weeks, a point when abortion would still be legal (Better An Abortion that a Mass Grave?).
Abortions before 24 weeks are slightly more justifiable, but still, certainly no one in their right
mind would allow the public execution of 6 or 8 month old babies so why should the public be
allowed to execute 1 or 2 month old fetuses?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness (Jefferson). As our famous founding father said, all people are
endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; is an unborn

Lancaster 3
child an exception? While it obviously cannot comprehend these ideals it does still possess at the
very least the right to live. Abortion essentially sends the message that because a fetus does not
yet possess a voice to argue over its impending death and to fight for its right to live that it is
acceptable to extinguish a life that has yet to begin. It has been said that silence is the most
powerful scream and its time people were aware that because the victim in this situation cannot
stand up for itself does not mean that it is okay to continue murdering innocent souls. Abortion is
quite frankly against the very document that this county is founded upon. It takes away the most
basic rights of the human existence and as the Declaration of Independence states, those rights,
the rights to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, should be absolutely unalienable for every
human being.
Now many in favor of abortion argue that a woman has the right to do whatever she
wants with her body, but you must ask yourself, at what cost? The guilt will stay with the
woman for the rest of her lifeDr. Lenise Garcia (The Ugly Face of Unsafe Abortion). In
certain circumstances an abortion might be the only option in which the mother survives the
pregnancy, which may well be the best reason there is to get an abortion, but is still not a
completely acceptable one. It is feasible that a woman with cancer who desperately needs
treatment or who is carrying a child with severe birth defects that would endanger her and the
child itself could be allowed to get an abortion, but the choice is still not an easy one and it solely
rests upon the woman and how much she is willing to sacrifice for her child. Would she rather
give up her own life or the life of her child without its consent?
In conclusion, abortion is a cruel procedure, ending the life of an unborn child in a way
that violates the treaty our great country was built upon. It is a moral and ethical atrocity and
because the public execution of children is an atrocity, all human beings have the right to live

Lancaster 4
and women do not have control over the rights of their children abortion should be illegal in the
United States. The rare exception would be a woman whose life is put at risk by her pregnancy,
for example if she was in need of chemotherapy or other medical treatment, but even then it
should be frowned upon. These children desperately need a voice to speak up for them so take a
stand and step towards all children being able to have a fair chance at life.

Grading

Criteria
Content
and Ideas

Organization

Description
Clear argument about social issue
Support uses
- ethos
- logos
- pathos
4 or more credible sources used
Antithesis addressed and refuted

Effective introduction and

conclusion include hook, thesis, and
final statement
3 organized paragraphs include
claims, explanations, and transitions
Sequence is logical

Diction/
Syntax/
Convention
s

Writing is all in 3rd person

Quotations are embedded and
properly cited within the essay
0-3 Errors in grammatical structure

Publication

Creative title/rough draft ready on

Points
0 10

20

30

40

40/40 PEER Allie Siegwald- the argument

that she was making was clearing stated
and supported by ethos, logos, and pathos.
Also, the sources were intact
35/40 PEER 2 April - Needs sources an
evidence
37/40 Self grade
0 10 20
30
=
28/30 PEER Allie Siegwald The thesis
was very clearly stated, but I felt like
some of the arguments made were too
similar to one another
30/30 PEER 2 April - good thesis and
intro
30/30 Self grade
0 5 10
15
=
13/15 PEER Allie Siegwald there were a
few grammatical errors, usually with
commas, and I felt like there could have
been more quotes embedded within the
essay
13/15 PEER 2 April - needed work on
grammar
12/15 Self grade
0

10

15

Lancaster 5
/
Appearanc
e

editing day 2/16-17

Proper MLA formatting; heading
that includes student name,
instructors name, class, and date
Works cited page is appended.

15/15PEER Allie Siegwald MLA format

is all the way it should be
12/15 PEER 2 April - Good title, needed a
works cited
12/15 Self grade

Works Cited
Goodstein, Laurie. "Despite Zika risk, church firm on contraception ban." International New
York Times 15 Feb. 2016. Global Issues In Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2016
"Better an abortion than a mass grave?" Independent on Sunday [London, England] 27 June
2010: 44. Global Issues In Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
"The Ugly Face of Unsafe Abortion." Africa News Service 16 Feb. 2016. Global Issues In
Context. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.
Declaration of Independence http://www.archives.gov WebMD. WebMD, 4 July 1776.
Web. 25 June 2009.