Cover Letter

When I was assigned this paper I was scared at first. What scared me
was that we had to pick a topic that we felt strongly about. Not only did we
have to pick a topic, we had to take a side on a topic and argue our beliefs or
thoughts. Research was necessary for MWA 2 and that is what made this
paper difficult. I have never been a good researcher, let alone able to put my
research into words that I feel make my point sound efficient. Even though
this paper was difficult, I focused on my writing ability and also the SLOs I
needed to focus on .
SLO D: Improve your fluency in the dialect of Standardized Written
American English at the level of sentence, paragraph, and document. This
SLO was one of the more difficult ones. I am not very good at flowing with a
sentence sometimes. Especially if I am not confident in what I am saying and
I feel like that happens a lot. Throughout this assignment I had to change
words and phrases around to make my paper sound more informative and
make more sense. I know what I am asked to by the English department but I
am still practicing and working at it. I feel that as the semester progresses I
will start doing better with SLO D.
SLO H: Integrate others positions and perspectives into your writing
ethically, appropriately, and effectively in various mediums and technologies.
I feel like I did pretty well with this SLO. I understood that I needed to be
careful how I came across my argument, especially with it being about

abortion, and how there are different beliefs on it. I knew I needed to be
respective towards that other side of the argument and come across mine in
an ethical and appropriate manner. I will continue to be respectful in future
papers I write for this class.
SLO I: Compose research-based academic argument in one of various
mediums and technologies by identifying, analyzing, evaluating, and
synthesizing sources, which much include secondary sources. This slow is
probably my biggest problem. I have always been good about arguing about
certain things but the topic I picked was fairly hard. I wasnt aware of how
many different opinions went into abortion and how many different cases
there have been to make it legal or illegal. I did research on abortion on
multiple websites but still had trouble trying to support my belief strongly. I
will need to work on this and develop this craft of writing because I feel like it
will be a necessity in my future papers and classes.

Austen Mckeithen
Abortion
Eng.120
3/21/2015
Abortion, Why it Needs to be Realized as Not a Problem
Pro-life or Pro-choice? Those are the choices of opinion for abortion in
America. There are many factors and court cases that have contributed to
the legalization of abortion in the United States to this day. Being educated
on both sides arguing abortion is key to being able to properly take a stance
on the issue. In this paper I will not only argue my belief of Pro-choice but I
will also inform the reader about Pro-life.
Pro-life is defined as, Advocating the legal protection of human
embryos and fetuses, especially by favoring the outlawing of abortion on the
ground that it is the taking of a human life. (thefreedictionary.com) I
specifically choose this definition because it goes deeper than just simply
saying anti-abortion. It describes how Pro-life is a decision to fight for the

outlawing of killing a human in the early stages of pregnancy. 46% of adults

in America are said to be Pro-life (Saad, 2014). There are many reasons why
that 46% of Americans believe that and when I take a step back and put
myself in their shoes I can empathize with many of their reasons.
Pro-choice is the belief that pregnant women should have the right
to choose to have an abortion (merriam-webster.com). The definition I
choose for Pro-choice was short and to the point. Being Pro-choice should
not be confused with allowing a woman to get away with murder. With that in
mind, 47% of American adults claimed being Pro-choice (Saad, 2014). This
statistic shows that America has remained fairly evenly divided since 2010.
There are many pros and cons of Abortion but more people have more
beliefs towards one or the other. I believe there are equal amount of pros and
cons. The pros are that abortion rights give women control over the right of
their own bodies, reproductive choice protects women from financial
disadvantage, they are safe and do no cause health issues, and many
believe that fetuses do not feel pain when an abortion is performed. The
cons of abortion are that it is considered murder, it may lead to future
problems for a women, it conflicts with the unalienable right to life
recognized by the Founding Fathers of the U.S, some people believe that life
begins at conception, and women should also accept the responsibility that
they are having a child.

I did research on churches that support abortion and are pro-choice

and I found that there were quite a few. These churches consisted of the
Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, United
Methodist Church, and the United Church of Christ. These churches are all
pro-choice and believe that women have the right to do what she wants with
her body. Especially if the women is unhealthy or got pregnant withouth
consent and without choice.
I myself am Pro-choice, and strongly believe that a woman should
have her right to do so how she pleases when becoming pregnant. In the
court case Roe v. Wade in 1973, Norma McCorvey fought to protect womens
right to privacy. She was a pregnant single woman who had already had two
children but sought out to abort the third due to being raped. But later on
admitted to not being raped. She was refused under the Texas law to have an
abortion. This case started out in Texas, which outlawed any type of abortion
unless a Doctor determined that a mothers life was in danger. The case
ended up making its way to the highest court in the Nation. The Supreme
Court. The outcome of the Roe V. Wade case was similar in the court case
Griswold v. Connecticut, in that it was decided that abortions could not be
denied as long as the pregnancy was no further than the first trimester or
the first three months. But in accordance to second trimester, (ushistory.org,
2015), it was looked at as inhumane.

I believe a women should have the right to an abortion because it is

her body. Especially, if the fetus is only in the first trimester. The reason
being is because I believe that some women do not have a choice if they get
pregnant. We hear on the news all the time about women getting raped and
sexually assaulted. Why would a women want to keep a baby from a man
who she doesnt even know? Let alone who raped her. I also believe that a lot
of times people do not plan on getting pregnant. It just happens. Yes, there
are such things as condoms and other sorts of birth controls that help
prevent pregnancy, but at the same time everyone has sex and everyone
experiences a pregnant scare. Maybe one of those pregnant scares is the
real deal and that girl is to young to be able to take care of the baby. Or she
is not financially stable or even in bad health. Why would you want to bring a
baby into that sort of environment?

Source Cited

Abortion Pros and Cons: Should Abortion Be Legal? Santa Monica, CA Web.
17 March.2015
<http://abortion.procon.org>
U.S. Still Split on Abortion: 47% Pro-Choice, 46% Pro-Life. Gallup. Web. 24
Feb.2015 <http://www.gallup.com/poll/170249/split-abortion-pro-choice-prolife.aspx>
57d. Roe v. Wade and Its Impact. U.S History. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

<http://www.ushistory.org/us/57d.asp>