Theoretical perspectives relating to abortion Essay

Custom Student Mr. Teacher ENG 1001-04 19 April 2016

Theoretical perspectives relating to abortion

Abortion has been growing as a social problem for years now. The act of pursuing an abortion is not a real issue today. Individuals who decide to seek an abortion may be unaware of how they get the abortion; that is whether they are having the procedure performed safely or unsafely. Private issues of fear of discovery, regret and guilt would add to future relationships of the person. Being the general public, we have observed abortion rates decrease then significantly increase right after the introduction of abstinence programs in public schools. Generally, Abortion has had an antagonistic effect upon the American society. Abortion is the termination of an undeveloped embryo or fetus. An abortion can happen spontaneously, in which case it usually appears to be a miscarriage, or it can be intentionally encouraged. In many parts of the world there is a conspicuous and conflict-ridden public quarrel over the ethical and legal issues of abortion. Roughly 205 million pregnancies occur each year worldwide. Most abortions result from unplanned pregnancies.

Statistics display that almost 14,000 women get abortions following incest or rape and it is projected that 43% of women worldwide will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. It is also estimated that there are 43 million abortions a year. Nearly all of American society argues that Abortion should not be accepted. Conversely, some people believe that Abortion is a good choice to make, and shouldn’t be considered negative. Some the reasons why people are against abortion include how adoption is a better alternative, as millions of American families are ready to adopt a child. No cultured and educated society allows any one individual to deliberately harm or execute another individual without punishment, and abortion is not at all different. It’s ethically incorrect to use tax dollars to account for abortion, as many Americans are against it. People believe if a woman undergoes rape or incest, proper medical care can ensure that she will not get pregnant. Abortion chastises the unborn child who didn’t compel any crime; in its place, should be the culprit who ought to be punished.

Various individuals support abortion due to a number of different reasons. For instance, the general public believe adoption is not a substitute to abortion. This is because it is the woman’s right to decide whether she should give up her child or not for abortion. Statistics reveal that very few women often choose to give up their child; less than 2% of black unmarried women and less than 3% of white unmarried women. A woman has a right over their body. If the government enforces that women use contraception or undergo sterilization, why not allow them to decide whether to continue with their pregnancy or not? People say tax dollars should not be wasted on abortion.

However, it is used to allow poor women of society to access the same medical services as accessed by rich women, and abortion is one of these services. Abortion should be funded and should not be treated any differently to other problems faced in society (e.g. same-sex marriage). Abortion is a safe medical procedure. It is said that women who have an abortion do so in the first trimester; about 88%. Medical abortions do not have a risk of serious complications (less than 0.5%) and don’t affect a women’s health or future ability to become pregnant or give birth. The functionalist theory centers on how the parts of society add in expected and unexpected ways to social order and stability and to social disorder and instability. Some functionalists may view abortion as a constant social change, and the other parts of society would try to help with this change. For example, one way society is accomplishing for this change is by trying to legalize abortion. Abortion is a very common procedure, being extremely debatable and the peoples of society determining whether it should be legal or illegal. Most abortions are performed in an unsafe and illegal manner, and society recognizes this as a threat. They therefore work on making abortion legal in limited or all circumstances in order to make abortion safer.

Another view is that a functionalist could also see abortion as sham. This is because to the functionalist, a family is everything; an expected norm and value in society. Abortion would be frowned upon, and societies and communities would need to control promiscuous behavior to a large degree. The conflict theory perspective concentrates on conflict over uncommon and appreciated resources and the tactics dominant groups use to create and protect social measures that give them a benefit over subordinate groups. Abortion is regarded as a source of conflict in society. There is a big debate over abortion dealing with the pro-choice and pro-life perspective. The pro-choice perspective suggests that women have the absolute right over their bodies and fetus. The pro-life position is where women feel the fetus has a complete right. Before the 1970’s, abortion was illegal. There was a long struggle of women’s rights when it came to abortion, because at least 50% of the whole population of America believed that Abortion was unjust and should be declared a crime. Conflict theorists would generally believe that society is not doing enough to solve the issue of abortion, but rather create intense conflict in society. There are societal values and norms in which a society functions to, and if a particular subordinate group (in this case women) are at conflict, the individuals of society would need to find the source of conflict and resolve it. Symbolic interactionists focus on social communication and related concepts of self-awareness/ reflexive thinking, symbols, and negotiated order.

Symbolic interactionists view abortion in several ways. This can range from the different ways that people would interpret ‘abortion’ within different cultures to the influence of the ‘significant others’ in terms of peoples’ development of morals and their own assessment of their ‘self’ in this situation. As abortion is a never-ending continuous debate, a symbolic interactionist may observe the way people signify abortion. How abortion serves as a situation to them; whether it is personal or simply to achieve rights and freedom. Although abortion functions as a controversial issue in our society, there seems to be no end to whether it will be legal or illegal, and whether women will be able to voice their rights. The three social perspectives: the functionalist perspective, the conflict perspective and the symbolic interactionist perspective all serve as essentials in describing the issue of abortion.

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