Everyone has individual values and beliefs on controversial issues, such as abortion. Throughout society, abortion has been connected to political and personal ethics. Abortion is the termination of a fetus from the mother’s womb during pregnancy. Despite the moral challenges, legalizing abortion worldwide would have massive benefits for women. Not only would it be preventing unsafe procedures and allowing the female to take control of her reproductive rights, but the fetus would not suffer from any trauma.
If abortion becomes illegal, women will find unsafe loopholes that could risk their livelihoods. In the United States, abortion was illegal until the 1973 Roe versus Wade court case. Jane Roe, a pregnant woman, sued her hometown district attorney when the hospital refused to give her an abortion. Roe took her case to the Supreme Court and won, therefore making abortion legal. She was not alone, people all around the nation were openly opposed to the regulations the government had set in place. Amongst them was Gloria Steinem, a spokeswoman for the 1960s feminist movement that strongly supported abortion. According to her, if a mother wished to get an abortion, there were ways to get past the system, “Either you were lucky enough to find a family doctor to help you or have enough money to go to Puerto Rico or some other country where you could get an abortion.” Abortions still occurred when it was illegal in the US, meaning that if abortion were to be banned again in our generation, women would still find solutions. During the 1960s, the laws that restricted abortion were broken up to a million times a year. There were serious consequences that doctors and mothers could face if caught, such as lengthy jail sentences, but many decided that the risk was worth it. 350,000 of those women who got illegal abortions suffered from serious complications and 5,000 died due to the unsafe procedure (Reversing Roe: Netflix). Without the proper medical equipment and medicine that would be provided in a legal abortion, many mothers suffered. This trend has continued in modern society, 13% of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide are related to complications of unsafe abortion (MIT Pro-Choice). The majority of these women live in countries where abortion is illegal. They had to improvise by travelling to developing countries or finding willing abortionists. Even with our modern medicine, we can never fully prevent women from having complications in unsafe and illegal abortions. Having legal abortions means having state of the art equipment and sanitary conditions in which the procedure is performed in. If we legalize abortion, the risk of women having unsanitary and possibly life-threatening procedures will decrease greatly.
Some women aren’t ready for motherhood as a pregnancy might not have been the woman’s choice. Whether it’s an accidental pregnancy, or a pregnancy due to rape, the mother should be enabled to make her own decision. In the United States, over 92% of abortions are the result of unintended pregnancies, which results in about 42 million induced abortions per year worldwide (Guttmacher Institute). Some of these abortions were self-induced, meaning that the woman was financially unstable and could not afford or have access to an abortion. The majority of these cases were teenage girls who were attending school and did not have time to work. The Emergency Medical Department in Colorado received a pregnant 16 year old patient who had attempted an abortion procedure on herself with a coat hanger. Another teenager was admitted to the hospital after repeatedly throwing herself against the wall, punching herself in the abdomen, and taking baths in vinegar in an attempt to kill the fetus (NCBI). In many situations, the woman becomes pregnant even after using contraceptives. By legalizing abortion worldwide, it enables millions of women to have a voice in their reproductive rights. It also prevents frightened and desperate mothers from harming their own bodies. Another point to be made is that no contraceptive can guarantee full protection. They are not always effective, as 18 out of 100 women who use condoms as their only birth control method will get pregnant (TeensHealth). Women who did not plan for a pregnancy and were responsible enough to use protection could still be impregnated. Banning a woman from aborting the fetus she never wanted or asked for would be unethical. Not only that, but the mother could be impregnated without her consent. Victims of rape or incest should not be forced into keeping the fetus. Gabriela was a 27 year old woman living in Ecuador when she was drugged and raped. She did not realize she was pregnant until her bump began to show. However, she decided to terminate the fetus shortly afterwards. When asked to justify the abortion, Gabriela said, “He already used and threw away my body, but I wasn’t going to give him the power to hurt the rest of my life.”(Reuters) Being forced into keeping the baby of your rapist can have a massive effect on your mental health. Abortions would allow women to dictate their own future, instead of the government making their reproductive choices for them.
One common misconception is that abortion is murder. However, the fetus is not alive, therefore it is not subject to human rights. As defined in the Roe versus Wade case, an abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a child (Britannica). The fetus is not a fully developed human being. According to multiple medical professionals, it does not experience pain like we do. Stuart Derbyshire, a psychology professor, says, "Fetuses cannot be held to experience pain. Not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain experience, is also yet to occur.”(ProCon) The pain threshold develops throughout contact with other environments outside the womb. In order for a fetus to feel pain, it’s internal development need to be complete. In the end, the basis on the life of a fetus comes down to biology. Neuroscientists claim that the cortex controls pain perception. However, the cortex is not fully developed and functioning until very late into the pregnancy. Abortion cannot be considered murder if the victim is not a living, breathing, functioning human being like us.
Legalizing abortion will benefit the mother by allowing her to take control of her rights as a woman and dictate her own future. Making abortion illegal will result not put a stop to it, instead, desperate women will undergo unsafe and unsanitary procedures that could permanently damage their body. As Hillary Clinton once said, “Everything I have seen has convinced me that life is freer, fairer, healthier, safer, and far more human when women are empowered to make their own reproductive health decisions.”
“Reversing Roe.” Netflix Official Site, 13 Sept. 2018, www.netflix.com/watch/80192834?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C265dad90b03f99b3994519e5b5e5a37f36d447e1%3A0281badc01d2b34f0b8fbd6970e4469da9e3a318%2C%2C.
MIT Pro-Choice -- Facts, web.mit.edu/pro-choice/www/facts.html.
“Unintended Pregnancy in the United States.” Guttmacher Institute, 9 Jan. 2019, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states.
Honigman, B, et al. “Reemergence of Self-Induced Abortions.” The Journal of Emergency Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1993, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8445179.
“Birth Control Methods: How Well Do They Work? (for Teens).” Edited by Rupal Christine Gupta, KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, Nov. 2016, kidshealth.org/en/teens/bc-chart.html.
Brown, Kimberley. “'Big Step but Not Enough': Ecuador Debates Easing Abortion Law in...” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 5 Mar. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-women-abortion/big-step-but-not-enough-ecuador-debates-easing-abortion-law-in-rape-cases-idUSKCN1QM0J9.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Roe v. Wade.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Roe-v-Wade.
“Pros & Cons - ProCon.org.” Abortion, abortion.procon.org/.
If abortion becomes illegal, women will find unsafe loopholes that could risk their livelihoods. In the United States, abortion was illegal until the 1973 Roe versus Wade court case. Jane Roe, a pregnant woman, sued her hometown district attorney when the hospital refused to give her an abortion. Roe took her case to the Supreme Court and won, therefore making abortion legal. She was not alone, people all around the nation were openly opposed to the regulations the government had set in place. Amongst them was Gloria Steinem, a spokeswoman for the 1960s feminist movement that strongly supported abortion. According to her, if a mother wished to get an abortion, there were ways to get past the system, “Either you were lucky enough to find a family doctor to help you or have enough money to go to Puerto Rico or some other country where you could get an abortion.” Abortions still occurred when it was illegal in the US, meaning that if abortion were to be banned again in our generation, women would still find solutions. During the 1960s, the laws that restricted abortion were broken up to a million times a year. There were serious consequences that doctors and mothers could face if caught, such as lengthy jail sentences, but many decided that the risk was worth it. 350,000 of those women who got illegal abortions suffered from serious complications and 5,000 died due to the unsafe procedure (Reversing Roe: Netflix). Without the proper medical equipment and medicine that would be provided in a legal abortion, many mothers suffered. This trend has continued in modern society, 13% of all pregnancy-related deaths worldwide are related to complications of unsafe abortion (MIT Pro-Choice). The majority of these women live in countries where abortion is illegal. They had to improvise by travelling to developing countries or finding willing abortionists. Even with our modern medicine, we can never fully prevent women from having complications in unsafe and illegal abortions. Having legal abortions means having state of the art equipment and sanitary conditions in which the procedure is performed in. If we legalize abortion, the risk of women having unsanitary and possibly life-threatening procedures will decrease greatly.
Some women aren’t ready for motherhood as a pregnancy might not have been the woman’s choice. Whether it’s an accidental pregnancy, or a pregnancy due to rape, the mother should be enabled to make her own decision. In the United States, over 92% of abortions are the result of unintended pregnancies, which results in about 42 million induced abortions per year worldwide (Guttmacher Institute). Some of these abortions were self-induced, meaning that the woman was financially unstable and could not afford or have access to an abortion. The majority of these cases were teenage girls who were attending school and did not have time to work. The Emergency Medical Department in Colorado received a pregnant 16 year old patient who had attempted an abortion procedure on herself with a coat hanger. Another teenager was admitted to the hospital after repeatedly throwing herself against the wall, punching herself in the abdomen, and taking baths in vinegar in an attempt to kill the fetus (NCBI). In many situations, the woman becomes pregnant even after using contraceptives. By legalizing abortion worldwide, it enables millions of women to have a voice in their reproductive rights. It also prevents frightened and desperate mothers from harming their own bodies. Another point to be made is that no contraceptive can guarantee full protection. They are not always effective, as 18 out of 100 women who use condoms as their only birth control method will get pregnant (TeensHealth). Women who did not plan for a pregnancy and were responsible enough to use protection could still be impregnated. Banning a woman from aborting the fetus she never wanted or asked for would be unethical. Not only that, but the mother could be impregnated without her consent. Victims of rape or incest should not be forced into keeping the fetus. Gabriela was a 27 year old woman living in Ecuador when she was drugged and raped. She did not realize she was pregnant until her bump began to show. However, she decided to terminate the fetus shortly afterwards. When asked to justify the abortion, Gabriela said, “He already used and threw away my body, but I wasn’t going to give him the power to hurt the rest of my life.”(Reuters) Being forced into keeping the baby of your rapist can have a massive effect on your mental health. Abortions would allow women to dictate their own future, instead of the government making their reproductive choices for them.
One common misconception is that abortion is murder. However, the fetus is not alive, therefore it is not subject to human rights. As defined in the Roe versus Wade case, an abortion is the termination of a pregnancy, not a child (Britannica). The fetus is not a fully developed human being. According to multiple medical professionals, it does not experience pain like we do. Stuart Derbyshire, a psychology professor, says, "Fetuses cannot be held to experience pain. Not only has the biological development not yet occurred to support pain experience, but the environment after birth, so necessary to the development of pain experience, is also yet to occur.”(ProCon) The pain threshold develops throughout contact with other environments outside the womb. In order for a fetus to feel pain, it’s internal development need to be complete. In the end, the basis on the life of a fetus comes down to biology. Neuroscientists claim that the cortex controls pain perception. However, the cortex is not fully developed and functioning until very late into the pregnancy. Abortion cannot be considered murder if the victim is not a living, breathing, functioning human being like us.
Legalizing abortion will benefit the mother by allowing her to take control of her rights as a woman and dictate her own future. Making abortion illegal will result not put a stop to it, instead, desperate women will undergo unsafe and unsanitary procedures that could permanently damage their body. As Hillary Clinton once said, “Everything I have seen has convinced me that life is freer, fairer, healthier, safer, and far more human when women are empowered to make their own reproductive health decisions.”
“Reversing Roe.” Netflix Official Site, 13 Sept. 2018, www.netflix.com/watch/80192834?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2C265dad90b03f99b3994519e5b5e5a37f36d447e1%3A0281badc01d2b34f0b8fbd6970e4469da9e3a318%2C%2C.
MIT Pro-Choice -- Facts, web.mit.edu/pro-choice/www/facts.html.
“Unintended Pregnancy in the United States.” Guttmacher Institute, 9 Jan. 2019, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states.
Honigman, B, et al. “Reemergence of Self-Induced Abortions.” The Journal of Emergency Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1993, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8445179.
“Birth Control Methods: How Well Do They Work? (for Teens).” Edited by Rupal Christine Gupta, KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, Nov. 2016, kidshealth.org/en/teens/bc-chart.html.
Brown, Kimberley. “'Big Step but Not Enough': Ecuador Debates Easing Abortion Law in...” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 5 Mar. 2019, www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-women-abortion/big-step-but-not-enough-ecuador-debates-easing-abortion-law-in-rape-cases-idUSKCN1QM0J9.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Roe v. Wade.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 7 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Roe-v-Wade.
“Pros & Cons - ProCon.org.” Abortion, abortion.procon.org/.