1.3.

22

.School- Pelech Jerusalem

Name- Edya Bas

Name Of Teacher- Amy Leibowitz

Table of Contents:

 Introduction- page 2

 Facts about abortions- page 3

 Laws and rights regarding abortion in the USA- pages 4-5

 Arguments regarding abortions: pages 6-7

 Abortions in TV and Cinemas- page 8

 Creative assignment- page 9

 Conclusion- page 10

 Bibliography- page 11

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Introduction:
I chose to write my Barut project on a topic that is very interesting for me- abortions. I
chose to try and answer my main question about this topic: Why is abortion such a
controversial issue in America? I always wondered why do people feel like it is
normal and legit to interfere other people lives, and in the case of abortions, there is a
lot of interfering against the right of a pregnant woman to decide what she wants to do
with her own body. Abortions is a very loaded topic, since laws about it are mainly
reflecting on people religious beliefs, and for non-religious people, it might seem
ridiculous and out of proportions.

In this research project I will try to dig deeper into the whole topic of abortions, I will
try to learn about the methods used to do it, and I would like to understand what are
the main reasons that women are wanting abortions. My main goal is to try to find an
answer to my research question, by searching what specific arguments people are
holding against abortions, and how those arguments can be refuted.

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Facts about abortions:

Induced abortion is a medical procedure that terminates a pregnancy. There are a few
ways to end a pregnancy. The pregnant woman can either take pills, which will cause
the miscarriage of the fetus, or get a surgical procedure in which the fetus gets
removed out of her body. Deciding what treatment needs to be given to the woman in
order to abort her pregnancy, depends on the stage of the pregnancy she is in. Usually,
if the woman is pregnant for 7 weeks or less, she would get drug induced abortion, and
if she is between 7-24 weeks pregnant she would get one of many surgical treatments
available such as suction-aspiration, vacuum aspiration, Dilation, curettage, or drug
induced abortion followed by surgical abortion. There are also rare cases, in which the
abortion is being carried out when the woman is already in the late second trimester of
the pregnancy. In these cases, (compared to cases when the woman is only in the first
trimester of the pregnancy and does not need anesthesia) in order to get the surgical
procedure done, it needs to be performed using general anesthesia.

Abortions, unlike miscarriages, are done on purpose and can be needed or wanted for a
variety of reasons. The main reasons to get an abortion for most women are: an
unexpected pregnancy due to problems with birth control, a pregnancy caused by rape
or incest, a pregnant woman who lack money and would not be able to financially
support her child, woman who is carrying a fetus that has higher chances of being born
disabled, and many other reasons. There are many people who disapprove of
termination of a pregnancy due to religious reasons. These people can cause women
who ended up pregnant, wanting to end their pregnancy, a lot of suffering trying to
achieve what they want and need, and return to their normal life. Many laws about
abortions are affected by stigmas and religious opinions and rarely rely on actual
medical research. These laws have an enormous impact on women who want to abort,
and can sometimes even force them into doing illegal street abortions.

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Laws and rights regarding abortion in the USA:

In 1970, something very extraordinary happened in the state of Texas. A young lady
named Norma McCorvey, reported that she is pregnant from a man she is not married
to, and complained that she is not allowed by the law to get an abortion. She hired two
lawyers, Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee to be her represent in trial, and they filed
a lawsuit against Henry Wade, the Dallas district attorney, in the argument that the law
forbidding abortions in any case other than when the pregnancy is threatening the life
of the pregnant lady, is unconstitutional. The Constitution of the United States claims
to protect citizen's rights to have full liberty over their bodies, and outlawing abortion
is contrary to those rights. The court decided to adjudicate in McCorvey’s favor,
although the court did not guarantee her that no federal accusations will be turned
against her by the enforcement authorities in Texas for aborting her baby before the
law was changed. This trial became a landmark decision in all of the United States
history, paving the road to all of the laws regarding abortions in the United States
nowadays.

Since that trial, no state in the U.S.A is allowed to completely prohibit abortions, but
can limit and regulate in which cases a woman can go through an abortion. Most of the
states require the abortion to be done by a licensed physician, and some states also
require the abortion to be done in a hospital (and not in a private clinic) after a certain
stage of the pregnancy. In most states, abortion is only legal until a specific stage of the
pregnancy, and the only exception is if the pregnancy endangers the pregnant woman.
some states prohibit the use of some abortion methods such as partial birth. (which is
when the woman is taking pills to speed up her delivery in the second or third trimester
of pregnancy and the baby is dying when he gets delivered.) Some of the states cover
all or some of the medical bills, some are letting private insurance companies fund the
medical bills, and some fund those bills only in cases when the woman had to abort
because the pregnancy endangered her. Most of the states are keeping an open option
for private health institutes to refuse to participate in an abortion. Some of the states
require to have the following information given to the woman who is about to abort:
“the purported link between abortion and breast cancer (5 states), the ability of a fetus
to feel pain (13 states) or long-term mental health consequences for the patient (8
states)” (from “Guttmacher Institute” “An Overview of Abortion Laws”). Most of the
states that require early counseling, also require a time period of at least 24 hours from

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the time the counseling was given, to the abortion itself. And lastly, most of the states
require a parent to be notified or present in the abortion, if the woman is under 18 years
old.

All the laws written above were valid only after the first trimester of the pregnancy (in
this trimester, by the law, women can always abort) and were valid only for some
countries in the last few years, and now everything accomplished in this matter is
starting to move backward. In 2021 some laws started to change, Texas has enacted a
new rule which states that no woman would be allowed to get an abortion after six
weeks of pregnancy. This step led to other Republican-led states changing their rules
and following Texas. The supreme court has the power to allow states to activate
trigger- laws to forbid all or most abortions.

In Israel, compared to the U.S.A, there is far less variety of laws about abortions, and
they are very focused. Israel requires a committee to allow the woman to have an
abortion, the committee is composed of two doctors and one social worker (some are
also composed of a Rabbi). The committee requires the woman to be fully aware of the
decision she is taking. The criteria the woman has to have in order for the committee to
let her have an abortion are the following: if the woman is under 18 or over 40, if the
woman is carrying an out of marriage fetus, if the pregnancy is a result of an illegal
relationship such as rape or incestuous, if the child is liable to be born with a physical
or mental birth defect if the pregnancy endangers the woman physical or mental health.
The committee may only confirm the woman to abort if the pregnancy stage is no more
than 24 weeks. After that stage the woman needs to go through a special committee. An
abortion done to a woman under 19 years will be completely funded by her HMO (the
committee will also be funded), and her parents would not have to be involved.

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Arguments regarding abortions:

There are many different opinions about abortions, and a lot of people have strict and
powerful arguments for and against it. Many people have those opinions because of
their religious beliefs, every religion has its own practice about abortions, and people
who believe in a specific religion, can connect, and agree with some of those practices.
The laws about abortions in different countries, are determined by the most popular
religion in the specific country. The biggest conflict that those believers have, is
whether their belief that any person can have the freedom to decide what he wants to
do with his own body, is greater than their belief that life is above all, and that it should
be sacred. One of the most popular argument against abortion, is that a fetus is
considered as a human being, or at least, a fetus that grew over 14 days. Roman
Catholics even believe that life starts once the conception, and aborting a fetus is
worthy of murder. Another popular argument against abortion is that every human
being, including the fetus, got the right from God to live and reach its full potential,
aborting a fetus before he even had the chance to develop its potential, is a great
violation of this right. A different argument against abortions, is that there is always
another alternative, the woman can give away her baby for adoption. Another
argument mostly brought up in cases when the woman wants to abort because of a
potential birth defect for the embryo, is that even though it probably does not seem like
it to her right now, disabled people can also enjoy a happy and full life. Many people
are also claiming that abortions are invalidating the great value of life. An additional
argument against abortions that is mostly brought up in cases when the woman wants
to abort because she cannot financially support the pregnancy or the future child, is
that there are lots of associations that are helping women to financially support the
future child and the pregnancy itself. A lot of people are also claiming that abortion
can lead the mom to depression and suicide. There are also people who claim that
abortion can lead to severe medical issues, such as: increasing the risk that a woman
will have breast cancer, reducing the woman’s fertility.

As we can all see, there are a lot of arguments against abortions that arise from
different reasons, medical, financial, or religious. Taking A deep look into those
arguments, a person can find many arguments that are refuting those arguments. The

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following arguments are opposed to the arguments written above. The main reason that
all of the arguments against abortion are not even valid through many people's point of
view, is that the pregnant woman is supposed to have the right to decide over her body,
and since she is the one carrying the fetus, she should be able to decide whether she
would like to keep it or not. Abortions mostly occur during the first three months of the
pregnancy, and in those three months, the fetus is attached by the placenta and
umbilical cord to his mother, his health depends fully on her, which makes him a part
of her, and not a separate living human, since he cannot live outside of the womb.
There are not really any satisfying alternatives to abortion, adoption may solve the
problem that the woman would have to raise a child, but she will still need to handle
the pregnancy and the birth, and it might be very difficult for her mentally. Besides,
many people are thinking that if the pregnant woman knows beforehand that the fetus
won't have a good life, caused by many different factors and reasons, then nothing is
worth guaranteeing the fetus a lot of suffering in the future.

Although only 1% of women are requesting to abort because the fetus is a result of a
rape, those few women should not have to fight in order to abort their baby, they have
already been through a lot, and they probably only want to get the abortion done and
move on with their lives. Additionally, many trained, professional doctors claim that
abortions can rarely cause any medical issue, and that the only reason that people are
thinking that abortions have bad medical effects, is because unprofessional pro- live
activists are spreading rumors that might have only been true before a hundred years or
so.

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Abortions in TV and Cinemas:
Today, social media including TV shows and movies, are taking a big part of
everyone's life, and the messages delivered in any kind of media, are absorbing in
people minds, making them believe in these messages. Some movies that are taking the
topic of abortions and turning it into a big role in the movie are: “Dirty Dancing”, “4
Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days “, “Grandma “, “Lingui, the Sacred Bonds “, “ Never
Rarely Sometimes Always”, “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t “, “Roe v. Wade” and
many more. The most interesting thing about those films, is that the film “Roe v.
Wade” which is supposed to display the story of the trial, is actually a movie that
presents a loud and clear argument supporting the pro-life activists. The movie itself is
full of lies and rumors about the case, and is not really a good reflection of reality.

In general, most movies and tv shows, has a very specific point of view about
abortions, where women are not taking birth control, having casual sex, and then being
surprised that they got pregnant, wanting to abort immediately. This point of view is no
reflection of reality, in which 40% of women who seek to abort are doing this because
they are not financially prepared, which means they can even be married!! There are
many stigmas about abortions that reflect on the big screen, and I think more realistic,
non-stigmatic movies should be made about abortions so that people would learn the
truth about it, and they will stop spreading around lies and rumors.

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Creative Assignment:

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Conclusion:
Writing this project, I learned a lot about the whole topic of abortions, and I also
managed to answer the question I wanted to try an answer by my research. After
looking for different arguments against abortions, and arguments that refute them, I
can now understand why people are caring so much for this topic, and why is it such a
controversial issue for many people. The main reason that religious people are having
a hard time dealing with abortions, is since for them, a fetus is considered a human
being, and aborting him is equivalent of murdering. The main reason that non-religious
people are having a hard time dealing with abortions, is since they are being
brainwashed by people telling them that abortions have a bad influence on women's
health, which is an unfounded lie.
I think that the most realistic way to change the situation for woman who wants to
abort, is to work hard preventing lies about abortions to spread around, and the
government should legalize abortions in any case, declaring no one is accountable of
making the decision for the woman if she should abort. Each person, relying on his
religion and general beliefs, should be able to make up his own mind about abortions,
but should not force his opinions on anyone else.

In my research I also compared Israel rules about abortions to the United States rules
about abortions. I think that each can argue about which system of rules (in the US or
in Israel) is more effective, not only talking specifically about abortions. I personally
think that the rules about abortions in Israel are much better and they are much fairer,
since the committee checks every case to a much deeper level than the overloaded
American laws.

I was exposed to this topic because I seen a lot of dialogues and scenes about it in
media, specifically in movies and TV series. I personally think that the fact that there
are so many movies that are presenting the whole idea of abortions as an important part
of the movie, is giving us an idea about how controversial is the whole issue of
abortions.

I learned a lot writing this project, both on the topic of abortions and about how to
write a research project. I expanded my vocabulary and my knowledge, and I enjoyed
learning so much new things. I hope that whoever is reading my project, will get
convinced by my opinion, and change their mind about abortions if he was against it
before.

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Bibliography:

 “Abortions.” NHS Choices, NHS, https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/abortion/.

 “Abortion.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 25 Nov.
2021, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion.
 “Abortion.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 18 Jan.
2022, https://www.britannica.com/science/abortion-pregnancy.
 Stacey, Dawn. “Why Do People Have Abortions?” Verywell Health, Verywell
Health, 20 Dec. 2021, https://www.verywellhealth.com/reasons-for-abortion-
906589.
 “Roe v. Wade.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Roe-v-Wade.
 “An Overview of Abortion Laws.” Guttmacher Institute, 23 Feb. 2022,
https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/overview-abortion-laws.
 Dwyer, Devin. “2021 Was Pivotal Year for Abortion Laws in America.” ABC
News, ABC News Network, 28 Dec. 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/2021-
pivotal-year-abortion-laws-america/story?id=81860784.
 “ ‫זכות‬-‫” כל‬.‫הפסקת היריון‬,
https://www.kolzchut.org.il/he/%D7%94%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7
%AA_%D7%94%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9F.
 “Arguments for and against Abortion - Abortion - GCSE Religious Studies
Revision - BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpts4wx/revision/3.
 “A Scientist Weighs up the Five Main Anti-Abortion Arguments.” The
Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Aug. 2015,
https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2015/aug/12/five-main-anti-
abortion-arguments-examined.
 Fienberg, Daniel. “Abortion in Film: Thr Critics Recommend 12 Movies to
Revisit.” The Hollywood Reporter, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Oct. 2021,
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/12-movies-about-
abortion-1235022140/.
 Israeli, Michal. “‫ הפעם כסרט תעמולה נגד הפלות‬,’‫הסיפור של ‘רו נגד ווייד‬.” Mako,
Mako, 6 Apr. 2021, https://www.mako.co.il/culture-movies/articles/Article-
ab77ad344b6a871026.htm.

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