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Who has control over your body? When, if ever, is it right to terminate a pregnancy? There are so many laws and regulations that impede one to have total control over his or her own body. The most popular moral dilemma women face is dealing with the issue of abortion. Abortion is viewed in many different ways, but most women are fighting to gain more rights. Pro-life verses pro-choice is the general separation with this issue. Those who support abortion believe that the fetus is nothing more than tissue; those who oppose abortion believe that the fetus has the right to life. In “A Defense of Abortion”, Judith Jarvis Thomson, a female philosopher, tries to prove that abortion can exist within a moral code, providing numerous analogies; the environment she was surrounded by geared her on the individualistic path. Judith Jarvis Thomson believes in individual rights. She wrote “A Defense of Abortion” in 1970. In this article Thomson discusses a woman’s rights. In her book, The Realm of Rights, she discusses the importance and idea of having rights, and which ones we have. Another article, "Self-Defense", discussed how everyone can and should defense themselves. Personal defense is important to Thomson. Abortion has been a controversial topic, it is even discussed in the Bible and it is against certain religions. Around the 1960s and 1970s many court cases that included abortion were developed. Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, that made abortion legal in the United States, became well-known court cases. In 1977 the Supreme Court “allowed states to limit the use of Medicaid funds (government assistance for health care) for payment of elective abortions—that is, those abortions not medically required”(Encarta 2001) There are many different types of abortion. There are various pills that can be used as a drug-based abortion. There tubes and medical supplies that can be used to perform abortion; a last resort is to perform a caesarian section. As more techniques developed, more people grow frustrated. Pro-life activists are not supportive of the techniques used in abortion and the timing of the pregnancies. In Adsen v. Women’s Health Center people were granted the right to protest in front of clinics. Women have always been inferior to men and Thomson was around during a crucial time for women.
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