Abortion: Pros and Cons - Research Paper Example

Abortion The Supreme Court confirmed womens right to choose abortion in 1973 and the courts have upheld that finding in subsequent cases. But access to abortion has been severely eroded. The most recent survey found that 88% of all U.S. counties have no identifiable abortion provider. In non-metropolitan areas, the figure rises to 97%. As a result, many women must travel long distances to reach the nearest abortion provider. (Mueller & Dudley) One of the most discussed and controversial topics of current era, is abortion. Abortion is a controversial subject not only in United States, but also in other parts of the world as well. Religions, especially the Christian religion always opposes abortion citing moral reasons whereas sociologists, human right activists and feminists always demand for the legal acceptance of abortion. Critics of abortion argue that the abortion is equivalent to killing of an innocent human being whereas supporters of abortion argue that the life of a woman is more important than the life of a fetus. In short, abortion controversies will continue as long as human kind exists in this world. In my opinion, abortion should be allowed to perform and this paper argues in favour of abortion after analysing various viewpoints about abortion. “The key to the ontological position for opposing abortion is the status of the embryo during pregnancy” (Faundes & Barzelatto, p.76). The first thing we should decide before analysing the advocacies of abortion is whether a fetus is a human or not. If fetus is a human, then it should enjoy all the human rights which other humans enjoy. On the other hand if fetus is not a human, then human life should get preference over all other lives. It is illogical to think fetus as a human since it is only an underdeveloped entity. Until a fetus becomes fully developed and taking birth in this world, it is not wise to give all human rights to fetus. In other words, fetus is just like any other body organs before it taking birth in this world. it should be noted that we normally repair or remove our organs if it causes some kind of problems or discomfort to us. Under such circumstances, fetus should also be considered as another body organ which should be destroyed if it causes any physical or mental trouble to a woman. The terms "pro-life" and "pro-choice" generally boil down to the question of whether the individual wants to see abortion banned, but theres more to the debate than that. The pro-choice movement argues that in cases where human personhood cannot be proven, e.g. in pregnancies prior to the point of viability, the government does not have the right to impede a womans right to decide whether or not to continue a pregnancy (Head). In most of the cases, abortion is being performed when unwanted pregnancies occur. Teenagers are most vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies because of their uncontrolled sexual activities during the adolescent period because of the development of sex hormones. It is illogical to punish a teenager for her entire life span for a momentary lapse of control occurred to her during her teenage period. Supporters of abortion believe that unwanted pregnancies may damage the physical and psychological health of teenagers and therefore they should be legally allowed to abort the fetus. It is an accepted fact that pregnancies will make lot of physical changes in a female body. In other words, pregnancies will destroy the beauty of the female body. Males often attracted towards females after watching the beautiful figure of a girl. In the absence of a good figure, it is difficult for the females to get the company of males they like. Moreover, it is difficult for a teenage girl with a child to get the company of a male. The failure to attract opposite sex will create lot of psychological problems to the teenage girl with a child. Under such circumstances, abortions should be legally permitted to save the teenagers from experiencing psychological trauma. “Thousands of American women died and thousands more were maimed before abortion was legal. For this reason and others, women and men fought for and achieved womens legal right to make their own decisions about abortion” (Nine Reasons Why Abortions are Legal). Proponents of abortion believe that a woman’s right to make decisions concerning her body and her future outweigh the rights of the fetus. In their opinion, since the women who became pregnant should have better knowledge about the consequences of a sexual intercourse prior to the sexual activities and she should have taken preventive measures to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The above argument is also meaningless. Adolescence is a period in rational thinking is almost impossible. The influence of sex hormones will motivate the teenagers to engage in sexual activities quiet regularly. Even if the teenagers succeeded in taking preventive measures, sometimes the preventive measures need not be successful and unwanted pregnancies can take place. It is impossible for a teenager to enjoy her life as she like after giving birth to a child. In other words, it is unwise to put the burden of looking after a child upon the shoulder of a teenager before she realises the meaning of motherhood. Legal abortion not only protects womens lives, it also protects their health. For tens of thousands of women with heart disease, kidney disease, severe hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes and other illnesses that can be life-threatening, the availability of legal abortion has helped avert serious medical complications that could have resulted from childbirth. Before legal abortion, such womens choices were limited to dangerous illegal abortion or dangerous childbirth (Nine Reasons Why Abortions are Legal) There are many cases in which pregnancies raise threats to the lives of the mothers. For example, some women may have hypertension or diabetes and pregnancies will add more woes to them. It should be noted that pregnancy is a period which female body and mind undergoes enormous changes. These changes may affect the physical and mental health of a female. Only a physically and mentally sound woman can withstand the physical and mental pressure exerted by pregnancies, especially the unwanted pregnancies. The article “The Apple Argument Against Abortion” written by Peter Kreeft Ph. D who was a professor of philosophy at Boston College, argues against abortion citing moral and philosophical reasons. Peter Kreeft is making in depth analysis of the abortion issue with the help of answering certain questions like Who human are, what are the rights of human, why abortion is wrong etc and topics such as basis of morality, differences between the rights of all people and the rights of some people, arguments from skepticism etc. He also tries to analyze different cases with respect to abortion by taking different combinations such as; The fetus is a person, and we know that The fetus is a person, but we dont know that The fetus isnt a person, but we dont know that The fetus isnt a person, and we know that (Kreeft) It is a fact that religions, especially the Christian religion argues against abortions, citing moral reasons. Religions are of the view that human life is the most important thing in this world and it should be preserved under any circumstances. However, in my opinion, the life of a woman is more important than the life of a fetus. It is immoral to force a woman to put her life under threats, for saving the life of a fetus. It should be noted that while engaging in sexual activities, nobody will think seriously about the possibility of a pregnancy or the life and future of the fetus or the woman. The question of whether fetus is a human or not is still a controversial one and under such circumstances, it is immoral to ask the woman to take risk to save the life of a controversial human. “The US Supreme Court legalized abortion in the well-known Roe v Wade decision in 1973; currently, there are about 1.2 million abortions are performed each year in the United States” (Trupin). Judiciary or criminal justice system does not have any doubt about the value of life of a woman over the value of life of a fetus. It should be noted that we approach judiciary for justice while we are in doubt about certain incidents. If judiciary or the Supreme Court supports abortion, there is no point in arguing against abortion. Supreme Court will give its verdicts only after analysing both the sides of an issue thoroughly. To conclude, abortion should not be banned under any circumstances. Banning of abortion will create physical and mental problems to women who conceived unintentionally. Teenage girls do not have the maturity to segregate the goods and evils during their adolescent period and it is illogical to punish them throughout their life span by denying the opportunity to perform abortions. The life of a woman is more important than the life of a fetus since woman has human status whereas the human status of the fetus is a controversial subject. Works Cited Faundes Anibal & Barzelatto Jose S. "The Human Drama of Abortion, A Global Search For Consensus". 2006. Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press; 1 edition (July 28, 2006) Head, Tom. “Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice”. 2011. Web. 10 August 2011. Kreeft Peter. “The Apple Argument Against Abortion”. 2000. Web. 10 August 2011. Mueller Stephanie and Dudley Susan, PhD. “Access to Abortion”. 2003. Web. 10 August 2011. “Nine Reasons Why Abortions are Legal”. Web. 10 August 2011. Trupin, Suzzane R, MD. “Abortion”. 2011. Web. 10 August 2011. Outline 1. Introduction Legalization of abortion by Supreme Court and some of the statistics about abortion are introduced in the first paragraph. Religious views, morals views, and the opinions of supporters and critics of abortion are also introduced in the first introduction paragraphs. Thesis statement is given at the end of the introduction paragraph. 2. Body The status of embryo is discussed in the first body paragraph. The controversies surrounding the topic whether the fetus is a human or not, are also discussed deeply in the first body paragraph. Vulnerability of the teenagers towards unwanted pregnancies and various physical and psychological problems unwanted pregnancies can create to the females are discussed in the second body paragraph. The third body paragraph mainly explains a woman’s right to make decisions concerning her body. Woman has the right to think more deeply in terms of her future rather than the future of the fetus. The failure of pregnancy prevention methods and the influence of sex hormones etc are also mentioned in this paragraph. In the fourth paragraph of the body, various physical and mental diseases which may develop as a result of unwanted pregnancies are discussed. In the fifth paragraph, the article “The Apple Argument Against Abortion” written by Peter Kreeft Ph. D is paraphrased and the discussed in detail. Religious views about abortion are also discussed in this paragraph. In the last body paragraph, Supreme Court’s decisions about abortion discussed briefly. 3. Conclusions Major findings of this research are summarised in the last paragraph. It is concluded that the life of a woman is more important than the life of a fetus and therefore abortion should be allowed legally. Read More