Risky Business.

I read an article about an Ohio man pleading guilty to trying to force his girlfriend at gun point to get abortion. The article says a man named, Dominic Holt-Reid, forced his 3 month pregnant girlfriend, Yolanda Burgess, to get an abortion using a gun. When they reached the clinic Yolanda didn’t go with the procedure and secretly slipped a note to a clinic employee and called the police. Dominic was charged under a 1996 fetal homicide law and faces 20 years in prison and a $40,000 fine.

Every year pro-life and pro-choice advocates vie for the upper hand in this contentious issue.  In recent years, states have expanded this debate to include the issue of fetuses killed by violent acts against pregnant women. In some states, legislation has increased the criminal penalties for crimes involving pregnant women.  These laws have focused on the harm done to a pregnant woman and the subsequent loss of her pregnancy, but not on the rights of the fetus. Ohio’s fetal homicide law is under aggravated murder which states:

No person shall purposely, and with prior calculation and design, cause the death of another or the unlawful termination of another’s pregnancy.

What I don’t understand is why they have such a law for terminating a pregnancy yet they have abortion clinics available. Abortion has always been an issue with many people. Some believe that life begins at conception and that abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life. Others believe that abortion it is a women’s right to decide whether or not she wants to have the procedure done or not.

Pro-choice abortion is the belief that women have the right to choose to abort a baby from their body. They view that a baby does not have human rights inside the mother’s womb and the fetus is not a human life; it’s merely a fertilized egg between a man and a woman. Planned Parenthood supports pro-choice and is being sued for not mentioning the risks with having an abortion to patients. Pro-life believes that not only does life begin at conception but that abortion is taking the life of another human. They see women who demand control of their body should include preventing the risk of unwanted pregnancy responsibly such as, contraception and or abstinence. I personally believe in pro-life but I will not judge another person on their opinions and beliefs.