RUNNING HEAD: COMMUNITY PROJECT REPORT

Community Project Report:

Is Abortion really legal?
Yusdi Arambula
The University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

Laws making abortion legal have been in effect since the Supreme Court Case Roe v. Wade in
1973. Although abortion is legal within the first trimester of pregnancy across the nation the
return of illegal abortions had begun due to the lack of safe facilities that provide the abortion
service. With many facilities being closed down in result of new government regulations many
women have been forced to use other alternatives due to the lack of these facilities. Women have
begun to use abortion pills, known as misoprostol and mifepristone (labeled RU-486). Women
are not aware of the damage these pills can cause even leading to death, yet this is becoming the
only alternative. If the government provides women with the right to terminate pregnancies, then
it should also offer women with the accurate and safe facilities where they can be correctly
educated on the matter and medically attended, reducing illegal abortion deaths.

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Community Project Report:

Is Abortion really legal?
Up until today abortion is and will probably continue to be a very controversial and
hushed topic. There are many viewpoints that bring up religion, morals, values, and politics as to
if abortion should be allowed or not. As well as there are various situations as to why a women
would require an abortion for example, the mother being raped, her life being in danger due to a
high risk pregnancy, or the baby being born with a certain medical condition, or her not being
emotionally and financially stable to support a child. The list for as to why or why not a women
should request an abortion would be endless leading into women being pro-choice. In this paper I
will report on the lack of medical facilities providing legal and safe abortions, thus being the
leading cause in women seeking other unsafe alternatives.
When a person is pro-choice they support the right of legalized abortion, which means
that they believe in the women having the right to choose if they terminate a pregnancy with
abortion or not. In the United States abortion was made legal after the supreme court case Roe v.
Wade back in 1973. When the law came into effect it altered many states laws since it was not
legal nationwide. (Oyze, 2016.). According to the Supreme Court case ruling, the passing of this
law gave women the right to terminate a pregnancy before the first trimester (first three months
of pregnancy), states could alter abortions laws after the first trimester or imply restrictions after
the first three months. Before the law came into effect many women would seek illegal abortions
also known as back alley abortions, as to where these abortions were performed
unprofessionally and resulted in various deaths, reproductive system damage, and even including
physiological and emotional trauma as well. Many women were forced to seek illegal measures
to terminate pregnancies before the law came into effect.

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According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (2012), statistics from 2012
showed how recorded legal abortion and the death related to abortions rates dropped. They also
showed how women in their early twenties where the highest rate within that age group to get an
abortion. Most of these women are probably still in school having a part time job and cannot
afford to become mothers at the moment. Parenting should not be something someone is forced
to but it should be something that is implied when a person is ready. If these young women are
still perusing a college career they cannot afford to maintain a child. They should not be
criticized for prioritizing their goals and getting an abortion because to them school is more
important. Instead these women should have all the commodities to these facilities instead of
them running to illegal procedures. If women have a choice as to what can and cannot be allowed
physically to their bodies, then them having a choice as to keep a baby or not and having the
ability to get it terminated if necessary.
Maureen Shaw is a mother of two who wrote an article about being a pro-choice
supporter. Shaw states why she is a pro-choice supporter (2016), But it wasnt until I became a
mother that I really understood their decision. Raising a child is an all-encompassing
phenomenon, something you can never understand until youre in the thick of itand definitely
something you should bypass until youre ready., she explains that being a parent is tuff and it
certainly should occur when a person is ready due to the commitment. Many women are bashed
and ashamed for seeking an abortion because they are pin pointed as foolish irresponsible kids
for their sexual actions or for not keeping their legs closed, yet Shaw uses statistics that prove
most of the women seeking abortions are mature young adults, According to the Guttmacher
Institute, 61 percent of abortions are obtained by women with at least one child, and the majority
of these women (60 percent) are in their 20s. Teenage girls account for less than one-fifth of all

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abortions, proving the point that these women may already have a stable life yet they are not
ready to become parents or support another child.
We could sit here all day and argue as to why abortions are right or not and the argument
could go on for days, yet the main focus is that these women may have the right to terminate a
pregnancy, yet they are losing access as to where they can be attended. Although there are
several abortion clinics around the nation offering legal and safe abortions many of these clinics
are getting shut down by the government by the new stricter laws and regulations on abortion.
According to a Huffington Post article written by Laura Bassett (2014), A Huffington Post
survey last year found that since 2010, at least 54 abortion providers across 27 states had either
closed or stopped performing the procedure., due to these restrictions the government has left
many women unattended. These closures have started to bring back the so called black alley
abortions even though now a days abortion is legal nationwide. Instead of making progress in
helping women have the right medical assistance we are going back in time making women seek
these illegal alternatives just like before abortion was a legal matter.
Basset also confirms that the borderland states are the most recently affected by these
new laws since they not only affect the United States women but also the Mexican women. She
interviews the president of the Lilith Fund, Lindsay Rodriguez, a fund that provides
economically for women seeking abortions in Texas, Texas has always been a place where
people in Mexico came to get safe abortionsNow, she said, traffics going to start going the
other way., women who live in these borderland states can cross the border and find alternatives
to terminate pregnancies at a low cost and can be easily acquired.
In the last couple of years, the demand for abortion pills has risen. Many women have
been using illegal pills known as misoprostol and mifepristone (labeled RU-486) to conduce self-

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induced abortions. Taking these pills without the right dosage and procedure can cause death.
Women can access these pills in the border cities in Mexico, where they have become a high
demand in pharmacies where they can be acquired as over the counter drugs. If women seek this
alternative since it has become one of the fastest and safest method to perform a self-induced
abortion it will soon became some type of drug cartel/ black market smuggling problem. With
the lack of access to an abortion clinics women are forced to give into these drugs to terminate
their abortions. These drugs can be lethal if not prescribed correctly and can soon also start a
chain of deaths due to the lack of medical help.
With women having an easier access to safe abortion care facilities, they would not be
forced to seek these illegal alternatives. With the removal of many clinics that provide the service
the demand for the pills has created a black market for these medications in which in some cases
they have been arrested for the purchase. Also women have to acquire a large number of money
to be able to attend a clinic for the service in case they dont have a clinic near their home. If
laws are passed to make abortion legal yet there no clinics where these women can get attended
the purpose behind them having a choice is useless. If women have the right to choose what
happens to the fetus within the first trimester, then they should also have the facilities available
to perform the procedure.
Women health is the most important concept as to why they should have a say in
termination of pregnancies. There are scenarios as where women who were not ready to become
mothers terminated a pregnancy, with the correct medical help and later have formed a family.
There are also scenarios where women conducted these unsafe abortions and later where not able
to support a life due to the damage of these unsafe abortions. We also have the in between
scenarios like in the short film TRAPPED (2016), where a young teen is determined to obtain an

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abortion yet when she attends an abortion clinic where she is not pressured and is given the
correct information, she changes her mind on continuing with the abortion. Regardless of the
situation women should stop being judged by these advocates and instead of focusing on the
right or wrong picture they should see the bigger picture where many women are facing these
moments alone and without many information on the subject. If women have the right
information and accessibilities to these clinics many illegal abortion related deaths can be
reduced.

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References

Bassett, L. (2014, May 15). The return of the back-alley abortion. The Huffington Post.
Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/03/back-alleyabortions_n_5065301.html
Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Abortion [Data File]. Retrieved from
http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/
Roe v. Wade. (n.d.). Oyez. (2016, October 24). Retrieved from
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-18
Shaw, M. (2016, May 2). Becoming a mother made me even more pro-choice. Rewire. Retrieved
from https://rewire.news/article/2016/05/02/becoming-mother-made-even-pro-choice/
Reed, B. (Producer). (2016, March 15). Short film on teen unplanned pregnancy. TRAPPED.
Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA2JYVxF48Q