'What is meant by the word abortion?' Explain what teaching a catholic might use in a discussion on abortion.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Abortion

Ao1: 'What is meant by the word abortion?' Explain what teaching a catholic might use in a discussion on abortion.

Many people have many different views about abortion such as whether it is wrong or right and how the procedure should be carried out. A Catholic should be taught that abortion is wrong as it is the unnatural ending of a life. I am going to attempt to explain why and how the Catholic Church teaches that abortion is wrong, I am also going to explain how an abortion is carried out.

There are several different methods for carrying out abortions. Natural abortion, which is called a miscarriage and is a very traumatic experience for the mother and father to be, but is natures way of ending a pregnancy that’s not to be. The other methods of abortion are all unnatural and one can imagine must cause trauma to the unborn child.

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Vacuum dispiration is when a woman is aneastisied, the neck of the womb is opened and a tube is inserted, the vacuum then sucks the baby down the tube in pieces. 85% of abortions in this country are carried out this way. Another common method is dilation and curettage. Instead of a tube a scraping instrument is used and the baby is scraped away from the womb. If parts are not removed infection may set in and the mothers’ life may be at risk. Dilation and evacuation is when small forceps are inserted into the women and are used to crush the babies head. For late abortions i.e. after 18 weeks labour is induced by drugs, this can take many hours and must be very traumatic for the mother as well as the child. A more modern and popular method of abortion is the RU486, better known as the “the morning after pill”, this pill causes any potential pregnancy to be expelled from the womb within several days.

The abortion act was passed in 1967 due to a large number of back street abortions taking place. It is estimated that 200,000 abortions were performed illegally each year in the UK and up to 60 women died as a result. At the time of the act and upon till some years later the limit for an abortion was up to 28 weeks gestation. This had to be reduced due to the harrowing accounts of aborted babies surviving for prolonged periods after the abortion, where medical staffs were not allowed to intervene. Nowadays abortions are rarely carried out over 22 weeks although the law legislates up to 24 weeks this is because of the viability of the aborted baby which means when a baby can survive outside of the womb. In unique circumstances abortion can be carried out very late in the pregnancy.

The Catholic Church teaches us absolute and relative morality. Absolute morality being that it always has to be a certain way, whereas relative morality can be both right and wrong according to the circumstances. Abortion is always wrong in the eyes of the church. Just because something is legal in the eyes of our secular society it doesn’t mean that it is correct. Our teachings teach us clearly that to terminate a life no matter what the circumstances are wrong. We learn the catholic teachings from various methods, through are schools, we learn by listening to the homily during mass. We also learn through bible reading. The Pope also sends us his perspective on changing laws and how Catholics should receive them. And finally we learn from our Parents.

By Joe Hyland