Nobody should be able to take away your right to make decisions about your own body.
My right and the right of other women is an issue that I care very deeply about, not being able to have full control or decision over what is happening to my body is a very terrifying thought. Outlawing abortion restricts a lot of women into being forced to have a child, and for some this means carrying a pregnancy full term and having a child at a very young age. I could never imagine the difficulties of pregnancy and child care at my age.
The right to an abortion is a very important law that needs to be kept in place. Being able to make decisions about your body is important and should be honored, taking away someone’s right to choose is a cruel thing to do. Trying to make abortions illegal ends up doing more harm than good.
Abortion should remain legal as it is the decision of a woman to decide what she was to do with her body, the government has no place in telling someone what they can or cannot do with their own body.
The practice of abortion has been around since the 19th century, while it originated as drinking teas made from a combination of herbs in order to “bring on the menses”, this was a practice then banned and criminalized throughout the country. Since then, abortion has been legalized nationaly although some states have set in restictions or bans on the practice. Roughly 42 million abortions take place globaly every year, and because of some factors such as cost, availability and social, religions or political pressures, 20 million of these abortions have been unsafe. In a quote from the US National Library of Medecine it states that,“ Some 68,000 women die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality (13%). Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications.” (Haddad) In places where such pressures are much more strict, unsafe abortion rates are higher as opposed to areas where less restrictions are put in place., in places like this contraceptives are also less likely to be available. Outlawing abortion only increses the danger and death toll as many women will still get them, the only abortions that are being stopped are safe ones. Since Roe v. Wade, the court case of 1973 that made abortion legal, the number of deaths by abortion has gone down and pose fewer health risks because abortion procedures were able to be preformed earlier in a pregnancy and by a licensed professional.
Life where abortion is banned not only poses a great threat to those who may be in need of one, but it is also inhumane to deny someone their right to an abortion. Bodily autonomy, the right that you get to govern your own body and bodily integrity, the right that since you own your body any unconsentual physical intrusion violates your rights, outlawing abortion actually goes against these right because you’re not allowed to make the decision you see fit best for yourself. “Access to safe abortion services is a human right. Under international human rights law, everyone has a right to life, a right to health, and a right to be free from violence, discrimination, and torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Human rights law clearly spells out that decisions about your body are yours alone — this is what is known as bodily autonomy.Forcing someone to carry on an unwanted pregnancy, or forcing them to seek out an unsafe abortion, is a violation of their human rights, including the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy.” (Amnesty International). This is another reason why abortions are nessicary, pregnancy can take a huge toll on the body and health problems may get worse or possibly deadly.
When the morality of abortion comes into question it is certinly a much more opinionated answer. Morality is defined as the principles concerning the distinction between right or wrong or good or bad behavior. When talking about abortion often times people think of the fetuses heath first instead of the mother, more concerd with the mother carrying the pregnancy full term rather than making sure both her mental and physical health is in tact. In Alabama, conservative officials made new laws on abortion calling it a “near-ban”, the law states that you cannot get an abortion unless the pregnant woman will die if they continue to carry this pregnancy full term, but this does not take into account anything other than the immediate physical health of a pregnant woman. Laws like this put the possibility of a fetus becoming a person at a higher standard than a woman who may be suffering and are currently a human being. In an article from the New York Magazine, wirtten by Sarah Jones, there is a quote that states,”There is only one just and moral response to the anti-abortion movement, and that is to strike down its arguments in their entirety. A fetus is a possibility, not a person. While abortion can be the tragic end to a wanted pregnancy, it’s never murder. The opposite position is extreme, and a threat to the health and safety of women. There is no compromise, not on the personhood of women.” (Jones) While you can get an abortion when it is absolutely nessicary and life threatening, a woman may not be able to support a preganancy or the eventual outcome of a preganacy mentally or financially.
One argument that many people make if that abortion is murder, this point is simply untrue. Fetuses cannot live unsupported for 21 weeks or more, fetuses cannot feel pain for at least 24 and a fetus has no cognitive function or brain activity until about 34 weeks, and by this point abortions are usually restricted from happenig unless it is an emergency. Murder is classified as the intentional death of another human person, a fetus is a human being, but rather the possibility of one.
In the end it is important to understand that your body is your own, and nobody should be allowed to tell you what you cannot do with it. In the case of abortion, a women should be able to decide to do what she sees fit for her body and her life, as she is the one carrying a pregnancy. It is important to understand that decisions to get an abortion do not come lightly, not only does it take a physical toll on the body but it also takes a big mental toll on the woman as well. A womans reason to get an abortion could be health risks for her or the fetus in question, not enough money, too young or too old, the pregnancy could be caused my unconsentual intercourse or not being in position in life where it is deemed fit to raise a child, there are many more reasons that someone could want to get an abortion. Abortion should reamin legal because it is safer, helpful and respects a womans right to choose.
Bibliography
“Abortion.” Abortion — MU School of Medicine, medicine.missouri.edu/centers-institutes-labs/health-ethics/faq/abortion.
Haddad, Lisa B, and Nawal M Nour. “Unsafe Abortion: Unnecessary Maternal Mortality.” Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology, MedReviews, LLC, 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2709326/.
“Here Are the Basic Facts about Abortion That You Should Know.” Amnesty International, www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/abortion-facts/.
Jones, Sarah. “Abortion Is Morally Good.” Intelligencer, Intelligencer, 17 May 2019, nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/theres-nothing-wrong-with-abortion.html.
Pilpel, Harriet. “The Right of Abortion.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 16 Aug. 2018, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1969/06/the-right-of-abortion/303366/.
Pollitt, Katha. “Abortion in American History.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 22 Jan. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/05/abortion-in-american-history/376851/.
Mishra-Newbery, Uma, and Jaime Todd-Gher. “Abortion Bans Strip People of Their Human Rights. Here’s Why We Must Stand In Solidarity Against Them.” Time, Time, 27 Sept. 2019, time.com/5684858/international-safe-abortion-day/.
Press, Associated. “California Will Require Public Colleges to Stock Abortion Medication.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 12 Oct. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-will-require-public-colleges-stock-abortion-medication-n1065321.
“South Korea Must End Abortion Ban by 2020, Says Court.” BBC News, BBC, 11 Apr. 2019, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47890065.
