Abortion is the cessation of pregnancy. There are safe medical procedures which result to safe abortions. There are also unsafe abortions. Every year, there are almost 44 million abortion procedures that are done in different hospitals all over the world. Most of these legally done abortions in medical hospitals are successful. With the introduction of contraceptives and education on family planning, abortion cased are on the decrease. Different states have passed laws to legalize abortion. Other institutions mostly the religious ones strongly opposed abortion. United States is one of the countries that has legalized abortion (Bryant 386). In US, the procedure is done through two ways; first by taking of abortion pills and second through clinic abortion where instruments are used to remove the embryo or foetus. Every person over 18 years has a right to choose what to do with her pregnancy. Those who happen to get pregnant while still under 18 years must have one or both of her parents consent to her decision before the procedure is done. There are several reasons why people will decide to have their pregnancies aborted. This paper will discuss the advantages of abortion and look into the reasons why other people strongly oppose abortion.
Pregnant women should have a right to choose what to do with their pregnancies. Every person has a right to choose what he/she would like to do. The constitution of any country gives its citizens rights for instance a right of expression. All these rights come with responsibilities that will ensure a citizens does not temper of interfere with the comfort of others while exercising his/her rights. For instance even though the constitution gives each and every citizen a right of expression, it does not allow them to insult others in the mane of freedom of speech. This should also be the case with abortion. Women should have a right to choose whether to keep their pregnancy or not. It beats logic making abortion illegal yet adoption is legal and no one has a problem with it (Brodzinsky 332). The two procedures are almost the same thing. Adoption is done where a parent or parents legally take in a child who has been abandoned by his parents due to several reasons such as lack of financial ability to sustain him/her or just lack of love to keep him/her. These are the same reasons why a pregnant woman will choose to have an abortion. Therefore there is point in making adoption legal and at the same time making abortion illegal. Finally, contraceptives are like abortion. For instance the morning after pills which are taken by a lady who has had unprotected sex so as to prevent pregnancy destroys the ovum so that no fertilization takes place. This is just like destroying life in its simplest form. Abortion works under the same principle only that it involves destroying a more advanced form of life. There is therefore no point in making abortion illegal yet contraceptives are legal.
Abortion is the only way out in case of unwanted pregnancy (Thomson 47). There are several instances where a woman gets pregnant yet she did not plan for it. Instances such as rape or incest are viewed as socially unethical. In such instances keeping the pregnancy will only harm the mother and the family more. The situation will only be made worse when the child is born as he/she will be like a scar of the predicament that befell the mother. Most of the cases these children do not receive the compassion and love from the family members he/she is born in and sometimes his/her own mother. Such children have a bad childhood and are psychologically affected when they know about their history. When a child is raised in a home that he/she is not loved, he/she is more likely to receive cruel treatment from his/her family members. Also the parents of these children will tend to give them to orphanages and foster homes. These homes are going past their capacity hence increasing their financial burden and space. Some people argue that women who take abortion go through stress after the process. It however makes more sense claiming that taking abortion reduces stress. A woman who has an unwanted pregnancy will be traumatized by his condition because she does not love what grows in her. A decision to abort the foetus will be a relief to this stress since she will both be physically and mentally free of it. Abortion is therefore the best remedy for unwanted pregnancies.
Illegalizing abortion only makes unsafe abortions be done more. Some pregnancies come unplanned for (Faúndes, Aníbal, and José 125). For instance, failure of contraceptives to work properly. Such pregnancies may change the life of a young lady who is yet to finish her studies. She may also not be able to provide for the baby one it is born. Such instances call for abortion. Al legal abortions are done in the safest manner possible. This is to protect the health and life of the woman. In most cases it is done before the first trimester of the pregnancy elapses. Making abortion illegal will force young ladies, who will have their life inconvenienced by keeping the pregnancy, to go for unsafe abortions. These kind of abortions are done at homes or by unregistered doctors. They lead to more than 70000 maternal deaths worldwide every year (Maternal Health 132). Therefore making abortion illegal will only make matters worse. Laws that prohibit abortion do not stop it but rather makes it more unsafe. Therefore, the best way to stop abortion is to educate people on how to use contraceptives or abstain against sex so as to prevent unwanted pregnancy. There are people who are totally against abortion. One of the major arguments they put forward is that no society allows killing of a human being. It is considered a crime which is punishable heavily. Abortion is therefore considered as a form of killing since life starts at conception. This argument does not however explain what should be done in a situation where the pregnancy poses a life threatening risk to the mother carrying it. Should the mother be left to die because abortion is illegal? They also do not explain clearly the difference between contraception and abortion. Both of them seem to serve the same purpose of preventing unwanted pregnancies and births. Another argument put forth against abortion is that it is can result to medical complications later in life and that because it is mostly done by young people who are inexperienced in life, it should be banned. This argument has no strong basis because there are few cases where abortion done through the right procedure leads to future complications. This is because it is professionally done and all measures are taken. It is unsafe abortions, which are mostly done in regions where abortion is illegal, that lead to future complications. Therefore making abortion legal would solve this issue. Also the argument that abortion is mostly done by young people who are inexperienced and should be banned contradicts itself. Pregnancy may change the life of a young lady to the worse by making her drop out of college and having financial constraints and cannot sustain both her child and herself. Abortion therefore allows young people a second chance to plan for their future.
In conclusion, it is clear that making abortion illegal only does more harm than good because it only leads to more unsafe abortions, makes families raise children they do not love hence traumatizing both the parents and the child, and limits women a chance to exercise their right of freedom. Making abortion legal on the other hand gives people a second chance to plan for the future life instead of giving them a lifetime responsibility. Finally abortion makes victims of rape not have to raise children that will forever remind them of their predicament. Those arguments put forth to prevent legalization of abortion have no base since they do not take into account issues such as the impact of unplanned pregnancy to a young girl who is not financially stable yet. It also does not consider pregnancies which are as a result of rape or incest. Abortion should therefore be legalized and the medical practitioners who are to perform the procedure be trained so as avoid unnecessary deaths of women doing it.
Works Cited
Brodzinsky, David M., and Marshall D. Schechter. The psychology of adoption. Oxford
Bryant, Clifton D. Handbook of Death & Dying: 1. Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.: Sage
Publications, 2003. Print.
Faúndes, Aníbal, and José Barzelatto. The Human Drama of Abortion: Seeking a Global
Consensus. Nashville, Tenn: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 2006. Print.
Maternal Health. London: TSO, 2008. Print.
Thomson, Judith Jarvis. "A defense of abortion." Philosophy & Public Affairs 1.1 (1971): 47-
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