ABORTION
OLIVIA
CARROLL
Abortion is a terrible thing. Although many people in our
world think that killing an innocent child is an alright thing to do, I am
strongly against it. Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the
removal of an embryo from the uterus. So what is an embryo? By definition, an
embryo is an unborn or unhatched offspring in the process of development. In
the process of development are the words of that definition that stick out to
me. If the embryo is developing, who are we to decide if it’s alive yet or not?
In my opinion, as soon as fertilization takes place, the baby is a living
human. The baby should be receiving the same rights that it will receive
whenever it is actually born. Although it isn’t born yet, why should parents be
granted full right to decide whether or not the baby lives or not? Just like old people, adults, teens, and
small children, a baby, no matter the age, born or not, is still a human and should
not be shorted the chance to live because the parents make the decision to have
an abortion.
There are many reasons that women decide to have an
abortion. Statistics state that 58% of women that have an abortion are in their
20’s, 61% have 1 or more children, 73% do it because of religious affiliations,
69% choose abortion due to being economically disadvantaged, and 56% of
abortions occur with women who are unmarried. Why do these struggles make
abortion necessary though? Oh yeah. They don’t. I could care less what the
situation is, an abortion is completely unnecessary. Some people also say they
choose abortion due to the fact that it interferes with school/work, they
cannot afford a child, or they don’t want to be a single parent. Again, these
answers are irrelevant to my opinion because no matter what, I feel like an
abortion is completely unnecessary.
People sometimes say that their pregnancy was unintended.
In cases like rape, a woman was not willing to get pregnant so they choose to
have an abortion. Others say they had protected sex but still got pregnant. My argument
to this is that there are alternatives to abortions. Sometimes doctors forget
that there are alternatives and instead fill pregnant women’s heads with the
terrible idea of abortion and how it’s going to be such a great idea. They
forget to tell the women about all of the negative side effects that they are
going to face as a result of getting an abortion. Abortion leads to many bad
side affects including depression, frustration, anger, etc. Some alternatives
include foster care, adoption, and in some cases, people can have the baby,
another family can take the baby in, but the family can still see their baby
whenever they want. I don’t see how people could choose abortion when these
alternatives are placed in front of a family who is about to have a baby.
In today’s society, getting an abortion is very easy.
Nationwide, abortion is legal. State by state, the abortion laws vary. One in
every four pregnancies ends in abortion. The abortion rate of women in the overall U.S. population who are poor
increased 25% between 2000 and 2008. People choose abortion because they are
easy to get. In a lot of states, you don’t have to have a parent’s consent. From 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions
have occurred in the U.S. In 2011, the U.S. abortion rate reached its lowest
level since 1973. Although this sounds like a good statistic, the point is, a
lot of abortions are still occurring, but the rate of abortions has slowed down.
Those
people who believe in abortion call themselves “pro-choice”. People like me who
are strongly against it refer to themselves as “pro-life”. Between these two extremes is a range of more moderate
views. Many people who hold moderate views believe that abortion can be
justified, even though there may be ethical concerns. Such concerns involve
three basic issues: The status of the fetus, the rights of both a woman and a
fetus, and whether the harm of restricting abortion outweighs the loss of life
caused by abortions. The opposing view states many different reasons as to why
abortion should be legal. One of those viewpoints states that the
ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights.
Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the
government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy, then can they force a
woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?
In the United States, abortion is
legal. Currently, the Supreme Court is still in favor of abortion being legal.
However this could change as some of the Supreme Court Justices are getting old
and facing retirement. The upcoming 2016 election could play a major role in
whether or not abortion stays legal in the US or not. If the Republicans win
the 2016 election, abortion will finally be abolished after too many years of
murder of unborn babies.
