Arguments for making abortion illegal

¶ … abortion being an option to end a pregnancy. The most sterling example of this being true are cases of rape and incest or when the life of the mother is in clear danger. However, abortion on demand for no other reason than delayed birth control is happening entirely too often and either needs to be banned outright or at least limited in some major way. The author of this report will explain the reasons for believing that to be the case and why any reader of this essay should do the same.

Reasons for Making Abortion Illegal

As intimated in the introduction, abortions in the case of the mother's health being in danger as well as pregnancies resulting from rape and incest should be left to the option of the pregnant person or their guardian, as applicable. However, abortions as a delayed form of birth control are completely unnecessarily and are happening entirely too often. To prove that point, one need look no further than New York City where four out of ten of ALL pregnancies end in abortion. With some racial groups, that figure is even higher (Matarese).

The overarching reason why abortion should generally be illegal is because it is treated pervasively as a proverbial "mulligan" for people that apparently cannot be bothered to use protection. While condoms do break and birth control pills do sometimes fail, that is exceedingly uncommon in the vast majority of instances (at least as it relates to unwanted pregnancies) and the amount of unwanted pregnancies that would happen would go down significantly so that the existing social safety nets like mother assistance programs (e.g. WIC, etc.) and adoption programs not to mention the foster child system in general would be much less burdened and would be able to function a lot better and more efficiently. Sexually active people must be made to understand that little forethought is necessary to prevent pregnancy the vast, vast majority of the time but failing to use that forethought can have dire consequences.

One need not get into the "baby killer" line of speech to make the point above. However, the author of this essay would make one point. If a fetus is a life when it's viable outside the womb, then it begs the question why the fetus is not a life just before that not to mention the fact that viability is about probability. It is not a firm line. If the "viability" line is x, there is not much saying that the child will definitely not live outside the womb. They likely will not…but they could. The author of this report will not get into the day after pill or even contraception that can be taken even several days after an accident or unprotected sex. The author of this report would be content to see just actual abortions being outlawed except in the case of incest, rape and health of the mother being in peril.

The people that would argue with this line of thought, and there are many, will say that this will lead to back alley abortions and other illicit behavior. That is a straw man argument and does not hold water. One could make that argument for children smoking, anyone using drugs or illegal activity in general. Justify it however one wishes, but sanctioning illegal or immoral behavior does not make it right and just because it will happen behind closed doors if it's banned does not mean it should be legal. Just as with completely preventable conditions like obesity and type II diabetes, it's all about education and making it clear that there is no second chance beyond a certain point. Abortion being legal on demand is subsidizing and sanctioning idiotic and careless behavior in a lot of people. People that know full well (in theory, anyway) are still having unprotected sex and are spreading STD's and children as a result and they are often ambivalent about their stupidity even after the fact. Using an immoral thing like abortion to give people a way out of a result that was entirely preventable is just silly and it has predictable results.

Conclusion