Under what circumstances, if any, is it acceptable for a woman to undergo an abortion? Defend your answer, and be sure to discuss any arguments from class or the readings that are relevant to the circumstances you decide to discuss.Warning: The internet contains mountains of completely false information on abortion. In particular, beware of any claims about medical consequences of abortion. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• “Abortion causes cancer, or leads to increased risk of breast cancer.” FALSE 
• “A woman who has an abortion is more likely to have miscarriages later in life.” FALSE
• “Abortion is a high-risk procedure; it often leads to infections and/or death.” FALSE

None of the quoted statements above is true. These are not philosophical issues to be debated in our class, but matters of scientific consensus. And medical scientists are in agreement that they are false, despite their popularity on the internet. (Incidentally, it should be pretty obvious, even to a non-scientist, if you know the slightest bit about giving birth, that abortion wouldn’t involve more risk than the alternative.) I’m warning you about these kinds of claims now, so it will be a big point deduction if you use them in your paper. Be very careful where you get information about the medical aspects of abortion. Stick to highly reputable, medical sources, like major hospitals, politically bipartisan medical organizations like the World Health Organization, and similar.

Guidelines and Standards

Write tersely. (Make each point as quickly and efficiently as possible.) However, your draft will almost certainly need to be about 1500-2000 in order to be complete. If it is shorter, then consider whether you have sufficiently covered all the relevant issues. The accepted file formats are listed below. Use a legible, reasonable sized font, and double space. You must write grammatically, produce solid reasoning, discuss potential objections to your view, and demonstrate competence with class materials. The rubric attached below describes these criteria in more detail. Use it to check your work before submitting.

Use the provided assessment criteria -the same as in the rubric- to “grade” your classmate’s draft. In addition, provide comments within the essay and suggest ways to improve it. Your classmate will use your feedback to create a revised version to be submitted as their final project. You don’t determine their official grade for the assignment, so there is no reason to go easy on them. In fact being extra critical will help them get a better grade on the revised version. Your review will be graded on effort and helpfulness.  

Be aware that plagiarized essays will receive a failing grade. Plagiarism is presenting the words or ideas of another as if they were your own. It includes, but is not limited to:

• Copying something from the internet or a written source without proper citation.
• Changing a few words in a sentence that is otherwise copied.
• Paraphrasing material from the internet or a written source without proper citation.