Abortion is never an easy decision, but women have been making that choice for thousands of years, for many good reasons. Whenever a society has sought to outlaw abortions, it has only driven them into back alleys where they became dangerous, expensive, and humiliating. Amazingly, this was the case in the United States until 1973, when abortion was legalized nationwide. Thousands of American women died and thousands more were maimed. For this reason and others, women …showed first 75 words of 490 total…

…showed last 75 words of 490 total…when a woman had few choices in controlling her future. They think that the abortion option gives too much freedom; even that contraception is too liberating. Anti-abortion leaders say that women cannot be trusted to make their own decisions. Americans today don't accept that. Women can now select their own paths in society, including when and whether to have children. Family planning, contraception, and, if need be, legal abortion are critical to sustaining women's freedom.