Introduction
Abortion in the contemporary world is increasingly becoming the most controversial issue. This is based on the fact that most people have been either directly or indirectly affected by the effects of abortion. An abortion operation is an exceedingly dangerous act if not correctly performed and thus might cause death to the mother. In his book, Our Choices, Our Lives, Jacob describes that the entire process of abortion involves the termination of the fetus from the womb of the mother before it matures into a baby (Jacob 83). The embryo or the fetus is usually removed from the mother causing death to the immature baby. Ever since ancient days, the issue of abortion has raised debate dividing the human society into two main sides. These two sides are: the pro-life and pro-choice sides, which have totally different ideas as to why abortion should be illegalized or legalized. I personally support the pro-choice side basing on the fact that abortion is increasingly killing innocent women in the society.
According to Bassco the author of the book, The underground guide to teenage sexuality, the pro-choice side in the debate concerning abortion suggests that the decision to abort depends on the woman. On the other hand, the pro-life supporters suggest that the woman has no right at all to abort. In most abortion cases, the woman is the one that suffers both physical and emotional pain. The pro-choice supporters believe that abortion should be legalized to reduce the growth in the number of deaths all over the world (Basso 97). However, the pro-life supporters contradict with the pro-choice decisions on the account that abortion is equivalent to murder. The pro-life supporters reason that life begins immediately when fertilization of the egg by the sperm takes place. For this fact, the pro-life supporters compare the influence of termination to murder. Therefore, the individuals that participate in the act should be apprehended and fined heavily. The pro-life also argue that life is a God given gift that should be embraced by the human beings. In her book, Abortion: a collective story, MariAnna illustrates that since the human beings receive the gift freely from God, they should learn to preserve and cherish it (MariAnna 102).
Although many people believe that abortion should not be legalized, the fact is that the act is still practiced by many young people all over the world. The main reason that makes abortion be rejected in the society is that it involves taking away the human life. This is to some extent parallel to murder since, in some cases, the mother to the unborn child might also die in the process. For this reason, the pro-life supporters have denied the claims that abortion should be accepted in the community. Furthermore, the value of life is reduced when women performs the act of abortion since it makes life useless. This is because abortion implies that human beings are capable of ending life.
According to the book, Marriages and Families: Making Choices in a Diverse Society, the authors Lamanna and Reidmann argues that human beings get a life and should not abuse it. They discuss that “Human beings should show respect to life, since through life it is when people are able to expose their talents (127). Everyone should be given the right to exist since it is from life that various discoveries are made and people express their individual abilities (Lamanna 127). Since the fetus is unable to defend itself, there should be rights to protect the way it develops in the womb. This will automatically control the cases of abortion since the entire community will be concerned with the growth of children. The fetus depends on the food provided by the mother to develop into a child before birth (Lamanna 135). The nutrients are responsible of making the baby develop into the most normal human beings. This makes the fetus to be among the woman's body parts, since it depends on the mother's nutrients to survive.
The pro-life supporters also argue that women and the child have different lives basing on the fact that they have different DNA materials. In his book, Our Choices, Our Lives: Unapologetic Writings on Abortion, Jacob implies that “The mother only provides the child with the essential nutrients and the favorable conditions for development” (Jacob 159). Therefore, this makes it be possible for the child to grow faster also get the necessary nutrients for survival. Since the women and the fetus might contain different DNA material, this implies that the baby is not part of the woman. For this reason, the women should not terminate the fetus before it develops into a baby. The pro-life supporters also suggest that it is better for women to deliver the child and give out to the children home rather than accepting to abort the fetus.
However, the pro-life in some cases allow abortion to be conducted especially if it affects the life of the mother or in cases where pregnancy was the result of a sexual assault. In some extent, the development of the fetus in the womb of the woman might have some harmful side effects. For this reason, to save the life of the mother, the fetus is normally terminated to ensure that the mother survives. This is to be medically proven to avoid the escalation of counterfeit instances whereby other women pretend so as the fetus is intentionally terminated. In the book, The abortion debate in the world arena, Kulczycki the author explains that, in such a case, the act of abortion should be carried out by a specialized physician qualified in carrying out the process. This is to avoid infectious diseases to the mother and over-bleeding which might also cause the death of the child (Kulczycki 147). In his book, “The Abortion: Before I Formed You, I Knew You”, Durand vividly reveals that “Forty eight percent (48%) of all abortion in the current are carried out by unqualified profession” (Durand 158). This has led to increase in infection of deadly diseases such as HIV/AIDS that cause loss of life. The unqualified personnel that perform abortion should be therefore, discouraged to reduce the number of women infected with diseases.
I personally concur with the pro-choice supporters basing on various facts that make it immensely vivid to support the choice of abortion. The pro-choice supporters argue that abortion is a situation that should be a choice made especially by the women. Although the issue affects the entire society, it is upon the women to agree or deny abortion in the community. Moreover, the act of abortion affects the women; hence they are to give their own judgment. This will reduce the contrivances that are taking place in the entire world. The decision to abort is a personal issue that should be determined by the parties involved. Not all the world should make a common stand about abortion since it might cause discrimination in the society.
According to my decision, likewise the pro-choice, abortion should be allowed in the community since there are numerous aspects in the community that expose women to unwanted pregnancy. Baumgardner, in his book, The underground guide to teenage sexuality reveals that rape is one of the major causes of the unwanted pregnancy in the society. This implies that women should be allowed to abort a fetus obtained in such circumstances (B162). Moreover, children being born with infections are another factor that makes it extremely possible for the act of termination to take part. This is for the main reason that it might have devastating effects on the child at the early period of life.
There are various reasons that make me eager to decide on backing up the pro-choice rather than the pro-life side in the critical argument concerning abortion. The key reason that triggers me to back up the legalizing of abortion is the fact that the number of increase in deaths, in the United States and other nations. In his book, The underground guide to teenage sexuality, Basso the author gives an overview that the number of women that die during or after the process of abortion has drastically increased (Basso 131). This is for the main reason that most of the nations have prohibited abortion thus making it difficult for women to conduct it in publicly. In the current world, today, most of the unwanted pregnancies are usually terminated in secret.
The termination process is usually through the aid of untrained personnel who aim to make money from the woman. For example, in her book, Abortion, Naden the author illustrates that young women in the society prefer to automatically terminate without their parents or relatives concerns. The women undertake private surgery to reduce shame and disgrace from the other members of the community. Such unqualified profession eventually leads to increase of deaths of the women since most will over-bleed or become infected with diseases. The tools used by the untrained personnel are of poor hygiene. In her book, Abortion, Naden the author suggests that unhygienic abortion increases the risk of the women contracting deadly diseases such as HIV (Naden 78). For this reason, it is better if abortion get legalized to reduce the number of people that die because of fear of rejection in the society.
In addition to the increase in death, abortion also has promoted low esteem to the women. This discourages women who want to participate, in various projects in the community. For instance, Lamanna and Reidmann in the year 2008 found out that the number of abortion in the entire world had increased because of the increase in rape cases (136). Rape cases are extremely painful and might cause unwanted pregnancy in the women (Lamanna and Reidmann 159). This is another reason that forces the women to abort the fetus. When raped, a woman might get pregnant in the process since she might not be prepared for sex. This is called unwanted sex that most of the women in this situation will prefer to terminate the fetus. For this reason, most of the women raped will opt to use all the available means to ensure that they remove the pregnancy. According to the statistics recorded in the book, The Abortion Controversy, written by Almond, “ninety three percent (93%) of all abortions occur for social reasons such as the child being unwanted or inconvenient” (Almond 147).This statistics implies that most of the unwanted pregnancies are caused by rape cases. For this reason, the society should be educated about rape cases to cab the increase in abortion.
Therefore, the women who get involved in a rape incident, should be allowed to terminate the fetus in the womb since the existence of the child might keep reminding the mother of how the rape occurred before obtaining the child thus lead to some diseases such as the mental disorders and heart diseases which might lead to the death of the mother. If the mother dies, while still taking care of the child this will make even matters worse. Since the child will endure more suffering, and pain that might also lead to its death. Therefore, the pregnancy obtained from rape should be terminated to reduce the pain that is felt by the mother and erase the dreadful memories that are harmful to the life of the mother.
In his book, The Abortion, Durand the author illustrates that Lack of enough funds to support the pregnancy is another aspect that has promoted the act of abortion in the society (Durand 62). Most of the men in the contemporary society are the ones that are rejecting the act of abortion from getting legalized. However, to some extent they get involved in promoting abortion in the community since they make the women pregnant and deny taking responsibility of both the pregnant women and baby. Immediately the man notices that the woman is pregnant, most of the men will avoid the women and even decide to end the relationship. Abandoning the pregnant woman causes stress and depression to the woman especially if she lacks financial support. In such cases, the women might be forced to terminate the pregnancy so as to reduce the cost of living. In such situations, the women should be allowed to terminate the pregnancy since it is not her making.
In conclusion, the issue of abortion is particularly a critical issue that is affecting the community in various different ways. This implies that it should not be ignored or taken for granted since it affects different families all over the world. The pro-choice supporters in the community suggest that it is the desire of the mother to protect the fetus in her womb. Therefore, this gives her the allocation of undertaking actions that suit her. However, the pro-life on the other side demonstrate that life is a gift that is freely given to the human beings. In his book, The Abortion Controversy, Almond explains that no one has the right to kill the fetus (Almond 161). The child only depends on the mother for nutrients and support. The child has its own DNA data; hence the pro-life suggest that the mother has no control over its existence.
There are various factors that face the women in the community making them perform the act of abortion. One of the key reasons is the increase of rape in the society which leads to unwanted pregnancies. Since the woman involved in the rape might suffer internal bleeding and stress, abortion is usually preferred. Abortion is also allowed especially if the woman raped contracts infectious diseases such as HIV which might affect the maturity of the fetus. Unsupported marriages whereby the men are unable to support the women during pregnancy are also other factors that have promoted abortion in the community. Fear and shame, which is usually, experienced by teenager or immature women in some cases also promotes abortion. For this reasons, I am convinced that abortion should be legalized to reduce the increase in death especially in women.
Works cited
Almond, L. The Abortion Controversy, Chicago: Green-haven Press, 2007. Print.
Basso, M, The Underground Guide To Teenage Sexuality: an essential handbook for today's
teens and parents, New York: Fairview Press, 2003
Baumgardner, J. Abortion & life, London: Akashic Books, 2008
Durand, J. The Abortion: Before I Formed You, I Knew You, Michigan: Author House, 2009
Jacob, K, (2004), Our Choices, Our Lives: Unapologetic Writings on Abortion, London:
iUniverse
Jacob, K. Abortion Under Attack: Women On The Challenges Facing Choice, Politics, Culture
and Society Series, California: Seal Press, 2006
Kulczycki, A, The Abortion Debate In The World Arena, California: Routledge, 2006
Lamanna, M., Reidmann, A. (2008), Marriages And Families: Making Choices In A Diverse
Society, New York: Cengage Learning
Naden, C. Abortion, Volume 1, Open for Debate, Group 4, Cambridge: Marshall Cavendish,
2007
MariAnna, C. Abortion: A Collective Story, New York: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002
