Abortion is a highly debatable and controversial subject. Abortion can be defined as that process where a developing child in the mother’s womb is terminated. Keeping all instances and situations in mind, abortion has always and still is always seen as an act of violence done against the new unborn child and also to the woman carrying the baby. To my own opinion, abortion is also a moral crime itself. Currently, abortion is a big issue which has raised a heated debate on its legalization. For years, abortion has remained legal in different many countries. However, as times goes by, some countries are legalizing abortion while others are yet to debate if to legalize it or not.
Death and life are very much closely related, and so therefore are the arguments concerning both. Abortion brings to an end (death) of a life. Many people are against it and feel that besides it being a crime, abortion is illegal and aborting an un-wanted child is basically killing it and should be against law for murder. Some people do not always know what abortion entails, who can do it, and why people choose to have it. However, there are various reasons which make women choose to have an abortion. Despite the fact that it’s argued that a woman has the right to do whatever she pleases with her body and abortion should therefore be legalized, I am completely against abortion.
One important reason against abortion is that, since life is said to start at conception, abortion can therefore be attributed akin to murder since it entails the act of taking away a human’s life. However old the fetus is, the life of a human being has already started. Some people think and argue that during the first few trimesters, the child has no life since the fetus is not developed and is independent of the mother’s life and hence abortion should be legalized. However, this is not the case since as said earlier, is said to start at conception. If the child (ren) has been brought on this earth, no one has the right to remove his/her life; the child should be given the chance to live since God has his plans for the same child. However, this argument may not find favor in many modern generations who are now considering the life of a human being as an easy scientific process. Abortion is therefore the deviance of the generally acknowledged idea concerning human life’s sanctity.
Another fundamental against abortion is the capital punishment argument. It’s argued that since after conception the child has not developed it’s just a fertilized egg, abortion should be legalized since it’s not murder but termination of a fertilized egg (Kolbert 1). However, what great rights does a human being have in curtailing the life of another being that providence has so created? Till some years ago, abortion had been considered a great sin in many religions. Although the bible does not say anything directly about abortion, it critically disallows such actions. The bible does not talk about it clearly because abortion was an act so unthinkable to the Israel woman and couldn’t therefore be mentioned in the criminal code (Anderson 1). The act was so unthinkable because children were seen as God’s gift or Lords heritage and also the Jews followed the scriptures which stated that it was God who had the responsibility of opening and closing the womb.
In addition, abortion may results into different medical complications in the woman later in her life. Also, abortion increases the risks of a woman’s miscarriages, hysterectomies, stillbirths, premature births, ectopic pregnancy and diseases such as pelvic inflammatory. Abortion can also results into blocked fallopian tube, uterine scarring weakened cervix and the damaging of a woman’s reproductive system making her not to produce in future.
Abortion and especially illegal abortion is also interrelated to the increased chance of cervical cancer, breast cancer, and uterine cancer. Most illegal abortions do not deliver quality and top of the rack results. They however increase the health risk of the child’s mother. They may also not be fully hygienic and may therefore build other lee-ways for hundreds of other different forms of infections as well as other medical malpractices to the mother’s situation (D’silva 1).
Every human being has the right to his/her life. This is an argument that has led several people to support abortion saying that a woman has the right to do whatever she pleases with her body and even having an abortion. However, according to many anti-abortionists, a woman is solely entitled to all the rights of her life and not the rights of the child who is another life all together.
The child and although in her womb is another different life from hers. She is therefore not entitled to the child’s life and an abortion therefore is a form of murder. There is no civilized society which allows human being to take away another person’s life without punishment, and so therefore is abortion (Lowel 1). If a woman needs to have control over her life, she should therefore control herself from getting unwanted pregnancy by either abstaining or using contraceptives.
In incest and rape cases, some argue that this will cause psychological harm to the victim and the reason for legalizing abortion. However, there are proper and appropriate medical cares for individual to undertake to prevent pregnancies. Individuals should not wait to get pregnant so as to abort and punish a child who did not commit any crime. Instead, the perpetrator should be the one to receive the punishment. Also, in case this failed to be done in due time, adoption is also a very viable way and alternatively to abortion. There are very many barren people who wish to have that kid the other is aborting, but since this is not possible, they end up adopting children from adoption homes. There is and will therefore never exist such thing as un-wanted children- never. Every child deserves love and care, and there will always be that one person who can provide that. However, some argue that adoption cannot be termed as an alternative to abortion since the woman has the right if to give up her child for adoption or not and hence should be legalized.
Another moral and fundamental argument/reason put across against abortion is a phrase which is instilled into the mind of human beings since time incarnate; abortion often causes severe psychological stress and pain (Lowel 1) although abortion cannot really be said whether it is unforgivable or not, it is obviously an unforgettable thing. An abortion is one thing that causes havoc in the psychological life of an individual and some times in the entire life of the family. At many times, a woman who has had an abortion is never the same as she was before. However those in favor of legalizing abortion argue that individuals can go for psychological therapy thereafter.
The emotional and mental state of such an individual is triggered and disturbed. The woman knows she did not do the right thing, having to terminate the child. Most of the time the woman is envisioning her life with the child and most especially if her friends has kids or get children. This woman will always be thinking of “what if” she did not had the abortion, how would the child looks like, the sex of the baby and what a life she would life among other things. It becomes worse if the women got some medical heath problems later after the abortion.
Human life has an intrinsic value. Although some would prefer the child to be terminated just to save burdening others, I however believe that a human life should not be taken away as it is intrinsically worth and valuable protecting and preserving for. We should therefore protect human life in the beginning, end and even in between the two. Overall, there various reasons I can give in this paper against abortion and which can show that it cannot only bring forth various medical health problems but it is also a sin. Pregnancy cannot be referred as an extreme perilous thing of the past. I rarely have heard people die from giving birth (very few people die). However, very many people die as a result of complications after having an abortion. However, the bottom line is, children are innocents and aborting them is a crime.
Work cited
Anderson, Kerby. Arguments Against Abortion. 2003. Web. 30th March.
< http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/arg-abor.html>
D’silva, Roy. Anti-Abortion Arguments - Reasons Against Abortion. 2000. Web. 30th March. 2011
Lowel, Linda. 10 Arguments For Abortion and 10 Arguments Against Abortion. 2007. Web. 30th March. 2011
< http://womensissues.about.com/od/reproductiverights/a/AbortionArgumen.htm>
Kolbert, Kathryn. Arguments in Favour of Abortion. 1992. Web. 30th March.
< http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/abortion/mother/for_1.shtml>
