Global Perspective on Health Policy

The controversy over abortion in America has been a key social health issue that first arose as a problem in many nations over two centuries ago. However, according to the civil rights movement and women’s rights movement in the early 1960s, abortion became a new national matter that remains topical even today. There are two contrasting ideologies, grouped into two sides created as pro-life and pro-choice. It is these scuffles over whose deep rooted ethics and beliefs are acceptable for the community that make the abortion concern such a contentious and discordant one. This paper discusses abortion as a health policy issue, how it has become a policy issue, and how it has resulted in creation and implementation of the healthcare policy.Global Perspective on Health Policy

How Abortion Has Resulted in the Policy’s Creation

In the early 1800s, abortion was allowed before a mother could feel fetal movement. Abortion was, for the most part, ethically acknowledged at the period, but a number of government acts regulating abortion were soon passed owing to the fact that many illegal doctors were in the business without any formal training, risking the life of a mother. By contrasting abortions on ethical and scientific grounds, recognized doctors lacked what the unqualified doctors provided and, therefore, official doctors had an inducement to attempt to ban abortion. In the year 1847, the American Medical Association was established and through this assembly medics were able to conduct a hard-hitting movement against abortion (United Nations Population Division, 2007). The presence of the aid of the anti-obscenity program and the Comstock Laws, which forbade circulation of birth control-associated materials, as well as the dread of declination of white inhabitants and improved birth rate of migrants, the anti-abortion movement was effective. All countries passed complete criminal abortion laws by the end of the 19th century (World Health Organization, 2012).

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How Abortion Has Become a Policy Issue

Of all intense controversies in the today’s hyper-politicized culture, abortion is conceivably at the top of the list (United Nations Population Division, 2007). The pro-life forces assert that fetuses have all rights that can be correctly attributed to human beings, while pro-choice folks argue fervently that the federal government should not allow ladies to have abortion on grounds of managing their own bodies.Global Perspective on Health Policy

The Pro-Life Arguments

Many persons believe that abortion is a wicked action. They point to what they contemplate as irrefutable realities. Christian religion teaches that life starts at the moment of conception. According to spiritual ethics, fetuses deserve to be treated with self-worth and respect. Although they are still in the mother’s womb, they have been given the great spark of life. To heartlessly snuff out this life is cold, unsympathetic, and hard-hearted (Graber, 2010). Abortion antagonists also point out a huge number of Americans who are inept of attaining a baby. Ladies who have ovarian anomalies may still want to raise children. Unwanted babies can thus be placed in the childcare system and can be raised by loving parents. In many states, couples are looking for a kid to adopt because of childlessness, thus making abortion not only wicked, but also completely pointless. People who take pro-life believes are also worried about the emotional harm inflicted upon young women who resort to abortion. Since abortion rates are uppermost among teenagers and young adults, these ladies may not fully know the costs of their actions. Many of them experience deep regret in their later years (Sanbonmatsu, 2002).

The Pro-Choice Arguments

Pro-choice persons do not essentially actively encourage abortion. They do however back a woman’s right to plan her own progress when it comes to her body. Illegalizing abortion processes would fundamentally make women slaves of the federal government. Policymakers in distant national capitals would get to decide which processes are permitted and which are unlawful. In an age when radicalism has made such brilliant steps, such government interference would be a return to the remote past (Sanbonmatsu, 2002).Global Perspective on Health Policy

The pro-choice members also designate that there are certain circumstances when abortion must be permitted. In cases when rape has happened, for instance, axing the pregnancy will be exclusively essential. Likewise, if a full-term prenatal period puts the life of the mother at danger, then abortion will be the only worthwhile choice. Since almost all abortions take place in the first trimester, supporters also have medical science on their side. During initial stages of pregnancy, the fetus is a small form of cells without any tangible figure or form (United Nations Population Division, 2007). Most medical scientists trust that abortions done in the first few months are unproblematic for the fetus.

Policy Development

A policy development is a system to guide resolutions and attain balanced outcomes.Global Perspective on Health Policy Essay A policy is an account of committed ideas and is applied as a process or rules. Due to the two contrasting views on abortion, the federal government and stakeholders had to sit down and create a long lasting solution on the matter. They had to elaborate over the two aspects to come up with a clear conclusion. According to the argument of pro-life supporters, even though a mother has a right to govern her own body, the law should not allow her kill the fetus through abortion (Graber, 2010).  Pro-lifers claim that there are many other ways a pregnant woman can handle a problematic situation, which do not essentially lead to abortion. Though pro-life proponents are speedy to point out several options available to a woman in a difficult condition other than abortion, they often overlook nine months of psychological and bodily burden necessary to bring a child to term. Principally, the pro-life argument is based on ethical claims since they offer no significant substantiation on why women’s right to govern their own bodies does not comprise the right to choose whether to have an abortion or not.

The bottom line to all pro-choice establishments and proponents is not only the notion that it is statutory to have a “right to privacy”, but also the dispute that abortion is primarily a contest for a woman’s right to manage her own self. Pro-choice believers emphasize the right to privacy and freedom from unjustified government imposition into their individual and private matters. They see it not as a philosophical fight rooted in spiritual beliefs, but as a civil rights pursuit supporting the women’s “right to choose”. The researches show that abortion is one of the harmless medical processes that occur today (World Health Organization, 2012). The next issue considered in the policy development is the controversy of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest, which are illegal as well. Pro-life advocates claim it is physically cruel to turn these tragic and awful offenses into one more crime, i.e. murder of the fetus.  They also cite circumstances of mothers who have decided to keep a baby after the crime (Blas & Kurup, 2010). Besides, 1 percent of abortions occurs as a result of rape or incest. This cannot justify the other 99 percent.Global Perspective on Health Policy

Finally, social insinuations and motives behind abortions make another significant point of divergence in the policy development between pro-life and pro-choice sides.  Prior to examining these social matters, it is significant to note that views of people are usually closely related with community markers such as race, time, spiritual relationship, and gender.  Social concerns that result in the abortion argument often include the following: deficiency, overpopulation, mistreatment, unwelcomed kids, and risks of unlawful abortions (World Health Organization, 2012).

Pro-life supporters have justifications concerning each of the above challenges. In terms of poverty, they claim that a poor mother currently is just as poor tomorrow irrespective of whether she will undergo abortion or maintain the pregnancy to a full term. Difficulties like paucity and job safety are not solved by murdering a fetus (Sanbonmatsu, 2002). Concerning overpopulation and undesirable children, pro-life advocates argue that the problem is the lack of growth rather than overpopulation. They, however, offer no substitute resolution to the problem they introduce.  Unwanted kids can always be put up for adoption or in foster care hospitals, but killing fetuses is not the answer. All these issues have been incorporated to develop a policy that regulates the issue of abortion (Blas & Kurup, 2010). With the help of the WHO, the policy has been developed in cooperation with various state organizations, according to which abortion is to be considered as an illegal act, except for a case when life of a mother is at threat.Global Perspective on Health Policy

Policy Implementation

Implementation is the procedure of turning a policy into exercise. However, it is essential to note a gap between a strategy and what has essentially happened as an effect of the policy. While implementing the policy that would resolve the controversial issue of abortion that seems to be highly perverse, it is vital to put in place rules that would reduce tension over the subject in the public. Based on the cautious scrutiny of the history of the issue, its collective and political insinuations, data examination, and rudiments that make it such a contentious problem, the following policy has been set for implementation by the federal government (Sanbonmatsu, 2002).

Founded on the public polls and sexual and productive health research, it has been recommended that abortion remains lawful only under certain conditions (Blas & Kurup, 2010). One constraint for abortion is maternal notification and permission for minorities below the puberty stage. The federal state government has also suggested that a woman opting for abortion and a father of the fetus should join private classes where they would obtain information about contraceptive approaches and how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Concerning sexual learning, it has been proposed to implement age-appropriate lessons in the civic educational system in hopes that a knowledgeable upcoming generation will cut down the number of unwanted pregnancies as a whole (Blas & Kurup, 2010).Global Perspective on Health Policy

Existing laws authorizing contraceptive methods should remain in force while the law that permits pharmacies to refuse access to these contraceptives should be canceled to allow their availability, thus possibly dropping the overall number of abortions. While some citizens may differ in terms certain features in the above policy, it is believed that the majority of the American community is in support of abortion being permitted in most cases, while concurrently increasing pressure on the government to lessen the necessity for abortion by executing approaches indicated in the above-mentioned policy approval (Sanbonmatsu, 2002).

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Stakeholders Involvement in the Process

In America the most significant stakeholders are Care Net which is a pro-life group that provides assistance and care to ladies who are expectant or thinking about becoming pregnant. They trust that abortion is wicked, and provide diverse choices to ladies other than abortion. They also trust that assisting ladies openly will make a bigger influence on the problem of abortion than battling in the legitimate world. Since Care Net is religiously grounded, they trust that abortion is murdering another person and therefore is not ensuing to the 6th biblical commandment which forbids killing. In the year 2009, Care Net pregnancy hubs assisted more than 550,000 ladies in need. Eight out of nine Care Net customers who were pregnant selected to not do an abortion and protected their kid’s life.  More than 25,000 ladies made fresh or transformed obligations of belief in Jesus Christ. Care Net also assisted more than 25,700 ladies contributed in a post-abortion reclamation group. They still adore ladies who have had an abortion and they assist them recuperate from the ‘disaster’ that has happened.Global Perspective on Health Policy

Conclusion

As the Middle for Public Integrity Recommendation on Human Life debates in agreement with its primary accountability of supporting the public justice, the government shall guard life and defend family as the main life-giving element of the society. The government should also provide helpful conditions for the household, recognizing that the family endures primary obligation for the development of children. Even in uncommon or emergency conditions when pregnancy is unintended or out of matrimony, the state’s duty lies in that course rather than in encouraging attainability of abortion on grounds of individual self-government. When the Supreme Court allowed abortion, it interfered with the right of confidentiality as the government’s primary concern and discharged the government’s obligation to deliver help to the family. Such aid can take a form of the procedure, among other things, of prenatal counseling, health care for a pregnant woman and her child, and adoption facilities. All of these issues would subsidize to a sympathetic environment in which a woman can consider her choices.Global Perspective on Health Policy