Toulmin Analysis Blog

Claim:

Making abortion illegal is unconstitutional.

Reasons:

• Undermines the fourteenth amendment 
• Conflicts with religious freedom 
• Takes away a woman's voice

Evidence:

"Undermines the fourteenth amendment"- The fourteenth amendment is a declaration of equal rights for everyone without discrimination of race, sex, or religion. Taking away a woman's voice over her own body is taking away a human right.

"Conflicts with religious freedom"- The bible uses terms that refer to the an unborn child as a living human being and in the bible killing a human being is a sin.

"Takes away a woman's voice"- The government would be taking away the right of a woman to determine whether or not she would like to terminate a pregnancy.

Warrants:

"Undermines the fourteenth amendment"-

1. The fourteenth amendment is an important part of our nation.
2. The Government isn't aloud to undermine the fourteenth amendment. 

"Conflicts with religious freedom"-

1. Religious freedom is an important part of our nation.
2. Not all religions are against abortion.

"Takes away a woman's voice"-

1. A woman's voice needs to be heard.

Backing:

"The fourteenth amendment is an important part of our nation"- It is part of our constitution that makes sure we are all equals.

"The government isn't aloud to undermine the fourteenth amendment"- Because it is part of the constitution the government isn't aloud to make any laws that would take a way someone's right.

"Religious freedom is an important part of our nation"- This too is also in the constitution and is what our nation was built on so it an important value to America.

"Not all religions are against abortion"- Just because one religion disagrees with abortion doesn't mean all religions do so making it illegal would be forcing everyone to abide under one religion's view.

"A woman's voice needs to be heard"- Taking away a woman's right to make the decision her self is taking away her voice that everyone has and is important.

Analysis:

I was heading in the right direction, but I missed the last reason. I just ended up repeating myself from the first one. The first two reasons were affective because they come from the constitution and are each on different issues of making abortion illegal. I need to change "takes away a woman's voice" to something different that would prevent me from this repetition. I don't think the fourteenth amendment would need much backing as it pretty self explanatory and agreeable. I think a point I should have put in there is pointing out that if you don't want to the government telling you you can't have children then why would you want the government telling you you have to have children. 

Abortion

Abortion seems to be a very popular topic when it come to political conversations. It is a hot button issue for many due to the sensitivity of the subject. It is a matter of whether or not we should allow this to happen so casually in our nation. Actually it's even bigger than that, it includes so many pieces to this elaborate puzzle. Some of these pieces include the following: religion, small versus large government, when the baby is considered to be "alive," and human rights. According to the CDC abortion numbers have significantly gone down over the years, but the most recent count was in 2008, approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S.

There are numerous opinions on abortion, but it over all consists of pro life versus pro choice. Pro life supporters believe that it is unjust to abort a baby, that everyone deserves a chance at a life. They, like most people, see this large number of 1.21 million babies as too much. Not only is this looked at as wrong and murder, but most pro life supporters believe this for religious reasons. To sum it up, the bible uses the terms "man, woman, child, son, daughter, baby, etc" for unborn children so many Christians believe that this is evidence that human life is present before birth. Therefore abortion is murder so the government should not allow such a thing. The other stance is pro choice, that this is an issue between the mother and the child and the decision should be left to mother, not the government. The idea of taking this right away from a woman is unjust because it is her voice that is taken away from what she can and can't do to her own body. The government recognizes that a baby's life does not start until birth, so it is not considered murder in their eyes. They also think that by making abortion illegal it would be forcing everyone to abide by a religion, this then conflicts with religious freedom.

I believe that making abortion illegal would be taking away a woman's voice and right to her own body. In fact it would even undermine the fourteenth amendment to the constitution by striping a woman of her right to decide what she can and can't do to her own body. As previously stated, this would also conflict with religious freedom.

Being pro life is making sure America sticks to the constitution. It keeps equal rights to women as well as keeping religion out of government. We should leave the decision making to the people it concerns and other wise let them be. It is someone else's life it will affect and because of that no one else should have a say in it, especially our government. If we stop listening to our constitution, then what else is next?

Sources
Abortion and Pro Life Information and Statistics
Abortion and the Bible
The Fourteenth Amendment