A Look at the Supporters of the Pro-Choice Movement in the Abortion Debate

Abortion has been called one of America's longest-running arguments, the issue that won't go away. I chose to write on abortion because I firmly support the pro-choice movement. While I haven't been through it, I have helped finance some of my friends. I believe in a woman's right to freedom of choice. I am firmly against the brutal acts that the pro-life activists have taken against doctors and associates of abortion clinics. I also see no purpose in repealing the anti-partial-birth abortion bill that President Clinton previously vetoed. Many states, such as Texas, which first enacted their anti-abortion laws in 1854, have repeatedly denied abortions to pregnant women unless there are health risks involved.

However, exceptions have been made, such as the Roe v. Wade trial. The case was instituted in 1970 by Jane Roe, who sought judgment on her lawsuit against the District Attorney. She claimed that the abortion statutes were unconstitutional and they abridged her rights to personal privacy. She sued for infringement on those rights promised to her by the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. And why shouldn't the rights of this woman be protected? Most judges have said that the court will only cover a person's privacy rights to a certain extent.

Eventually, the state's interest in protecting prenatal life became dominant. Others have argued that the word person, defined in Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment, doesn't include the unborn. There are many supporters of the pro-choice movement. The NCAP (National Coalition for Abortion Providers) is just one group of abortion promoters that have banded together for American women's rights. This organization was created by people who felt they needed a lobbyist in Washington, DC, to communicate the ideas of the pro-choice members.

The NCAP was also outraged at the violence imposed on clinics and other places associated with abortion. Some of the more recent acts of violence occurred in New York last week. Doctor Barnett Slepian was murdered in his home in Amherst, New York. At Slepian's funeral, which was held last Monday, the President issued a statement saying. This nation cannot tolerate violence directed at those providing a constitutionally protected service. While this is true, it hasn't stopped many other activists from committing hate crimes like these. Seven doctors were shot around the same time last year. The occasion is Veterans Day or Remembrance Day, to all anti-abortionists. It is a day when all the pro-life members rally against abortion. Why must people take innocent lives to prove a point? These radical acts have only caused people like myself to strengthen our beliefs in the pro-choice movement.

The current abortion issue facing Capitol Hill is repealing the veto; Clinton put on a law prohibiting the use of partial-birth abortions. The Senate passed the bill in May 1997, but Clinton vetoed it in October of the same year. The Senate took a vote to override Clinton's veto this past September. The ending voice was sixty-three to thirty-six, which left it three votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for the override. CNN says the veto will continue until the end of January, when a new Congress will convene. Those who opposed the bill said that it was unconstitutional because it makes no exceptions for when a woman's health is jeopardized. I believe it was told best by Planned Parenthood, which stated that the lack of health exceptions stands as a stark reminder that anti-choice sponsors of the bill would sacrifice the well-being of this nation's women to accomplish their political agenda.

If ever I am in the position to need an abortion, I'd like to hope that my rights as an American citizen will be protected. I once again reiterate my disapproval of the actions taken by pro-life groups to prove their point. Every person should be entitled to those rights given to them by the Constitution, and no state, in my opinion, should be able to take those.

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