Abortion, for me, is a non issue, but other people? Well, they get rather heated about it, and it has in fact been known for doctors who perform abortions to be abused, tormented and even killed by, ironically, 'pro-lifers'.
There are two sides to this argument, pro-life, and pro-choice (often mistaken for pro-abortion) and both sides, for the most part, have understandable concerns.
The pro-lifers generally believe that abortion is wrong, immoral, and essentially murder, although some believe that in certain circumstances it is acceptable, if undesirable.
There are plenty of people though (even if they may still be a minority) who think the practice should be illegal regardless of the situation. Whether the birth of the child may be a threat to the Mothers life, or if it was conceived through rape, it's wrong and shouldn't be allowed. Adoption is often given as a viable alternative, but I can only presume by those people who don't have any idea about the emotional aspect of carrying a baby and giving birth to a child that is unwanted, especially if that child was conceived through rape.
People who are Pro-choice, well, it speaks for itself really! They believe in a womans right to choose for herself whether she keeps a baby.
Most believe the fetus before a certain point of time in the pregnancy is nothing more than a bundle of cells and cannot be considered a living thing, quite the opposite of most pro-lifers who usually have religious or spiritual tendancies and believe the fetus can be considered as a person as soon as it is conceived and the soul is the babies body.
Personally I consider myself Pro-choice. I think that as history has shown if a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy she will do it, whether legal or not. I don't see the fetus as a baby in anyway, and although I like to think abortion would never be something I would opt for, I cannot speak unless I had been in every situation possible, nor do I think it is my place to decide for anyone else what is and isn't appropriate, and I don't understand how any else can consider their opinions important enough to be able to affect anybody else in such a difficult situation.
I do have concerns about the fact that using abortion seems to be coming a fairly popular replacement of contraception, in that many young people don't have too much concern for practising safe sex because they know they can have a abortion. Unfortunately, we can't make abortion allowed for some people and not for others dependent on the circumstances, because that would only bring arguments about where to draw the line, which in reality is an impossible decision.