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Social Problem with Abortion

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The Social Problem of Abortion

The Social Problem of Abortion
From my sociological imagination I believe that abortion is a social problem. I was raised Catholic. My mother comes from a strong Catholic Hispanic family and my dad was raised with strong white protestant values. I was brought up to believe that abortion was wrong. For the most part my mother believed that all abortion was wrong while my dad probably believed that it was okay if the mother’s life was in danger or possible in case of a rape situation. By the time I was born the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 had already been decided.
Is abortion a social problem? I believe it is according to the definition found in our text. “Social problems- aspects of society that a large number of people are concerned about and would like changed”. (Henslin, 2014, p. 5) Abortion has the two essential components described in our text. “The first is an objective condition, a condition of society that can be measured or experienced”. For abortion, the objective conditions are: the legality of abortion, who obtains them and under what circumstances. “The second essential component is subjective concern, the concern that a significant number of people have about the objective condition”. With the abortion issue the subjective concerns are: women giving birth to unwanted children and on the other hand, women are terminating their pregnancies (Henslin, 2014, p. 5).
This condition and concerns changed through the years. Before Roe v. Wade abortions were illegal and were usually performed under dangerous conditions. The main concerns were that women wanting abortions could not get them and those that did faced dangers from the conditions of underground abortions. Faced with these concerns people worked to change the law. After Roe v. Wade made abortion legal the concern changed. People that consider abortion

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