Abortion is one of the sharpest problems in the modern society. There are numerous debates on this issue: legal and moral. Scientists and researchers try to understand whether abortion should be prohibited or legally allowed. Moreover, there are religious arguments for and against abortion, as well. This essay is aimed at providing arguments for abortion and discussing them. This will help to realize whether they are relevant or not. Besides, in the conclusion I will try to understand whether abortions should be allowed or prohibited.
One of the first reasons that come in mind when speaking about allowing abortion is that a woman should decide on her own whether to give birth to a child or not. (Alcorn, p.3) It is a woman who carries a child and who will raise him or her in the future. On the other hand, a woman should not be responsible for this alone. A child is born in a family, and a family consists of two partners. Obviously, nowadays there are women who prefer to live without a husband. Nevertheless, there are more children born in nuclear families and not in broken homes. I suggest that a man has the same right for deciding whether to abort the pregnancy or not as a woman does.
Another significant reason for abortion is that there are many children left in children’s homes. In my opinion, this argument is rather reasonable. When a woman gets pregnant and realizes that a child will only disturb her career or studies, it is reasonable to abort the pregnancy. Obviously, it is better to think about that beforehand and use contraceptives. However, not all young boys and girls think about consequences of unprotected sex. Besides, there are those, who get pregnant and give birth to a child only to receive money from the government. When the money is received, parents leave the child in an orphanage. When a woman gets pregnant, she should think about whether she is able to carry and raise the child. If the answer is negative, she should abort the pregnancy.
Women who has been raped should abort pregnancy because they did not choose to get a child. On one hand, this statement is correct because in most cases such children are not loved. On the other hand, in some cases those, whom they love, rape women. In such cases, women tend to give birth to a child.
Nowadays there are many technologies, which help find disabilities or diseases in unborn child. Often, when a woman realizes that her child will be unable to live active life, she decides to abort the pregnancy. Moreover, when doctors realize that life long treatment will be too costly, they advise to abort the pregnancy, as well. In my opinion, this is a relevant reason to abort the pregnancy. The point is that not all parents can carry the burden of a child’s illness. Such parent either suffer all life long or try to treat a disease and give up in some time. In most of the cases, such children are left in an orphanage.
One of the pro choice abortion argument is that a fetus is not a child, hence, is not living. (Brown, p.3) A fetus begins to live after the first breath. Before that, the mother is to decide what to do. If the mother decided to abort the pregnancy, she has the right to do so. Moreover, one of the most popular pro choice abortion argument is that a woman has the right to choose whether to give a birth to a child or not. If abortion is illegal, women’s rights are oppressed.
Some women abort pregnancy only because they feel that the family is too poor to have one child more. (Neither pro life nor pro choice can address women’s real life experience, p.1) This happens not only in poor countries or districts, but also in families where there already are several children, as well. In such cases, doctors advise to abort the pregnancy. Besides, doctors may advise to abort the pregnancy when a woman’s health is too weak.
There are many reasons to abort the pregnancy and every woman should decide that on her own. In the essay, I tried to outline the most popular pro choice abortion arguments. Some arguments has a strong background and they are rather reasonable. On the other hand, some arguments are not reasonable and cannot be used to legally allow abortion. In my opinion, every woman should decide that. Obviously, the government should give her an opportunity to abort the pregnancy whenever she wants (within allowed time). However, women and young girls, who have unprotected sex often, will use the opportunity to abort pregnancy legally. There are many ethnic, moral, legal and even religious aspects in this case. There is no single mind about this issue either among doctors, or among lawyers. In my opinion, to avoid illegal abortions and the increasing amount of deaths, government should allow abortions on medical indications. When a woman has been raped, she may abort pregnancy on psychological indications. If a woman does not want to have a child, she may have protected sex. Obviously, there are many aspects in this issue and it is not easy to solve. However, I suggest that in the nearest future the solution will be found.
Resources:
Alcorn R. (n.d) Pro life answers to pro choice arguments. Retrieved from http://www.centraltexascoalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Prolife-Answers-to-Prochoice-Arguments.pdf
Brown J., Evangelisto R. P. (2011) The moral and logical arguments against abortion. American Life League
n.a. (n.d.) Neither pro life nor pro choice can address women’s real life experience. Retrieved from http://www.abortionconversation.com/articles/REAL_LIFE.pdf
