Following the hearing of the Roe versus Wade case a little more than 40 years from now, women finally found the freedom to decide when and under what circumstances to start a family. Even the people of the country mostly support the decision of legalization of abortion according to a post-election poll, because 64 percent of the voters younger than 30 years of age are of the opinion that abortion should be legal in almost all cases. The reason is very clear. We do not want to see history repeat itself. In the year 1965, illegal abortions contributed to one-fifth of all the pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths in the country. Now, however, less than 0.3 percent of the women who opt for legal abortions sustain life-threatening implications. For this reason and also many more, the right to decide whether or not to keep a child should be of the family alone and not the government and not any social activist should have the right to take that decision away from anyone.
For starters, we can only reserve the right to decide on someone else’s family planning decisions in a perfect world where these is no rape or incest. But so long as injustices like that carry on in the world, we cannot enforce another injustice by making abortions illegal.
Another reason that is equally valid in its validity is that pregnancy is an ordeal that is suffered by a woman and going through that ordeal, the woman is not given any support whatsoever. It only seems logical that she take that step only when she is socially and financially capable of making it. This is because restricting abortions would burden our country. It would result in that many more single mothers in the future, and the state would have to bear and education and medical expenses of so many more children that were never wanted. We may even be looking at a future where due to less than ideal living conditions, the youngsters start turning towards a life of crime.
People who stand for the pro-choice are concerned with one very main reason. It is that since life begins at conception, abortion means murder of a child that is not even born yet and it is ethically wrong. But what options becomes available to the women after the child is born. These people who support the pro-choice argue that these children could be given up for adoption, and they could be placed in families that cannot have children. Another argument that these people present is that abortions could also result in health consequences for these women to deal with later.
In reality, however, it is the time that we stop being idealists and accept the facts and brutality of the practices that make up society. We can become advocates for these unborn children but in the process, no-one is there to speak for the rights of the mother who is to go through pregnancy and birth. In addition to that, even after a child is given up for adoption, it doesn’t change the fact that he/she will eventually think of himself as the unwanted child. And quite frankly, our country’s social services are not raising very wholesome children as it is.
So if we do not want women to have abortions, the country’s system needs to become better. We should make conception widely available and protect the rights of the women who go through trauma.
List of References
about news. (2016, February 16). 10 Arguments: For and Against Abortion. Retrieved from About News: http://womensissues.about.com/od/reproductiverights/a/AbortionArgumen.htm
Ferrero, E. (2013, January 22). Access to Safe and Legal Abortions Protect Women. Retrieved from US News: http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-abortion-be-illegal/access-to-safe-and-legal-abortions-protect-women
Valenti, J. (2014, May 06). There is absolutely no reason to restrict women's options for abortion access. Retrieved from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/06/reason-restrict-womens-options-abortion
