For the opposing view on this issue, visit Nigel Alcorn’s column, Pro-choice: Abortion assists low-income families.

To murder a child is arguably the most heinous crime to commit. But to kill an unborn child has become a widespread norm across America. This double standard is nothing but an excuse for irresponsibility between two people.

The pro-choice agenda helps justify couples who practice unsafe sex and eliminate the consequences of their bad decision. Pro-life activists hope to make laws that help protect the health of the mothers and ultimately save the lives of innocent babies.

Life begins at conception ? that is when the sperm and egg meet and join their chromosomes together to create a child. By the third week, a fetus has already begun to form a brain, spinal cord and a primitive heart tube.

Between weeks eight through 12, facial features are developed and tooth buds, legs and arms are already in progress. This all occurs within the first trimester, yet abortion laws allow women seeking an abortion to perform the operation up to the second trimester. By then, eyebrows, eyelashes and a heartbeat ? able to be heard with a stethoscope ? have already formed. To come up with excuses on how this is not murder is simply ignorant and irresponsible.

Since the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in 1973, more than 47 million babies have been put to death in the United States. The most popular way to perform a surgical abortion in America is the vacuum method, which sucks the fetus out of the mother. Just like dirt in the carpet, a human life is shredded in a bag and then disposed of by its mother and the doctor.

In contrast, a medical abortion allows the mother to take a pill that kills the fetus without the evasive process of surgery. Medical abortions exist as options for women who are eight weeks pregnant or less. In effect, the abortion pill mimics a miscarriage ? a very tortuous miscarriage for the fetus.

Pro-choice activists argue that if clinics were not open to the public mothers would find alternative ways to perform the act. Although that is a good point, the legalization of abortion places that option in the mother’s head early on without thinking of adoption or other, healthier ways of removing the child from their care.

Pro-life supporters have tried to make laws that force minors to notify their parents and wait a few days before making their final decision. Californian pro-lifers tried and failed to pass this type of proposition in 2008.

It should be mandatory for minors to have parental consent before making such a crucial decision. The physical, emotional and financial responsibilities are hard enough for a grown adult to handle ? no less a minor who was senseless enough to endure an unwanted pregnancy in the first place.

Although recent technology allows for fewer physical health issues from surgical and medical abortions, mental health problems frequently occur. Recent studies show that depression, anxiety and substance abuse often affect women who have abortions. Laws also allow women to have abortions without the father’s consent, making it unfair for men who may want the child.

Since the Roe v. Wade decision, pro-lifers have simply asked the government to make certain restrictions on abortion. Unfortunately, pro-choice activists encourage women to undergo the operation without a space of time to truly consider possible repercussions.

Pro-choice activists voice concern that the government is robbing women of their rights by making abortion illegal. To them, it is the mother’s body and her choice to choose what to do with it. However, they seem to forget that there is another human life involved.

In life, important decisions are usually made after analyzing the pros and cons of an issue. However, pro-choicers wish to lift laws for clinics to mandatorily inform women about the repercussions of the abortion along with alternatives like adoption. They also are against parental and spousal notification and legalizing a time period to make a decision.

These restrictions only hinder women from making informed and wise decisions that will affect their bodies and lives for years to come. For adopting the name “pro-choice,” these activists allow little chance for women to make a choice.