Civil Disobedience in Abortion

Civil Disobedience in Abortion

Current laws pertaining to abortion are diverse. Religious, moral, and cultural feelings continue to influence abortion laws throughout the world. The right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to security of person are major issues of human rights that are sometimes used as justification for the existence or the absence of laws controlling abortion. In many countries abortion is legal but only under certain circumstances. When talking about Civil Disobedience in abortion and when is it okay to break the law? Abortion has been a very touchy topic for a long time. The abortion debate has a great place in political campaigning in many countries. In the United States, the Democratic Party tends to campaign in support of the legal right to an abortion, while the Republican Party tends to campaign against this right. Abortion can fall in all types of categories concerning the law, and the law is different around the world concerning abortion.

There is also controversy over the rights of individuals other than the pregnant woman and the embryo or fetus. Debate focuses on whether a pregnant woman should have to notify and/or have the consent of others in the following cases: a minor notifying her parents; a legally married or common-law wife having consent of her husband; or a pregnant woman notify the biological father.

There is two types of groups on abortion, pro-life and pro-choice. When it comes to Civil Disobedience and when it is okay to break the law, pro-life will fall in that subject, a lot more then pro-choice. Abortion has been around for many decades. Most people try not to think about it. They wish to avoid the overwhelming horrible reality. Abortion is an intentional violent act that kills an unborn baby. Without any anesthesia, the baby is dismembered, torn apart, and vacuumed out of the mother. In the case of a near-term or partial-birth abortion, the baby is turned around and pulled partially out with its head still inside the mother. The doctor that is doing the abortion then plunges a sharp object into the back of its neck and vacuums out the brain. This is not a pleasant subject. It hurts to just imagine the horror. Pro-life protesters try to let everyone know the process and all the sickness that comes with abortion, and remember they are not just simply trying to save the life of a baby, they are trying to convince and, in some cases, change the ideas some people have about abortion.

In the United States, abortion laws began to appear in the 1820s, forbidding abortion after the fourth month of pregnancy. By 1965, all fifty states banned abortion. Then in 1973 United States Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade legalized abortion on demand in this country, as a matter of constitutional law. The Court held that the United States Constitution implies a "right to privacy" which gives every pregnant woman in America the freedom, in consultation with her doctor, to choose to destroy her pre-born infant. Several state legislatures passed restrictive abortion laws in hope that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, but in 1992 the court reaffirmed the basic principles of the 1973 decision.

Then from 1995 to 2000 the U.S. Congress repeatedly passed, but President Bill Clinton vetoed, a bill that would ban a rare late-term method of abortion called by its critics "partial-birth abortion." Subsequent attempts by many U.S. states to ban this method were contested in the courts, and in 2000 the Supreme Court voided such laws that do not include an exception when the health of the mother is endangered. A federal bill banning the procedure was passed again in 2003 and signed into law by President George W. Bush. The law was quickly challenged in the courts, and a federal judge declared it unconstitutional in 2004 in part because of its lack of a health exception.

So when we talk about Civil Disobedience and when it is okay to break the law there is many cases and one case is pro-life activists