Abortion the Topic of Abortion

¶ … Abortion

The topic of abortion is one of the most controversial and one of the most emotional dilemmas confronted by modern societies. The concept of abortion refers to terminating pregnancy which is intentional with an objective other than to give birth to a live born infant or to remove a dead fetus. (Definitions and associated Formulas) The common public often considers abortion as any non-natural mode to bring about the loss of a pregnancy. The physicians and clinicians indicate such kind of abortion to the 'therapeutic abortion' or 'elective abortion'. Physicians also indicate miscarriages as 'threatened' 'spontaneous' or 'incomplete' abortions. (Abortion: Definition) The issue that matters most is whether it is ethical to allow the termination of a child while it is inside the womb of the mother. There are debates as to at what stage that the fetus in the womb is to be considered as a child. The conflict arises between the view points of strict religious which is called pro-life - that considered abortion is never to be allowed and that of pro-choice that stress upon the mother's discretion to opt as the fundamental concern. (Devanny, 2000)

Thesis Statement: I shall argue that it should be the woman's right to choose on whether or not she shall have an abortion.

Women should not have the right to choose

As per the supporters of the pro-life argument, abortion is ethically not right. Women resort to abortions for their own purposes or according to their likes. They consider that women who opt for abortion should realize that they are killing an unborn child. They think, that human-liberties should be duly regarded, but it is never the fact that the person is in right to make a decision with no regard to the rights and wishes of others. They advocate that all other liberties, inclusive of the right of the mothers to choose, definitely come out from a prior right to life; if you have no right to any life, then what is the way in which one ought to exercise a right to an autonomous one. The woman may normally have a rational right to regulate her own body, but this does not bestow on her the entirely isolated right to make a decision about whether another human being should live or die. (Devanny, 2000)

According to pro-life supporters, abortion is considered to be wrong since it involves murder of a human life. Human life starts at conception. The fetus really cannot be considered an inherent part of the mother, but it is an isolated and different human being. Hence, abortion is equivalent to homicide of a person. With the development of the central nervous system, the baby is able to experience intense pain at the time it is aborted. Abortion is similar to mass murder- genocide - which is another Nazi Holocaust. Six million abortions are equal to the six million Jews being killed; a life is always considered to be a life. In Nazi Germany all the killings were initiated with abortion. Sexual right was the matter of concern, and it is necessary to be acknowledged as to where it led. (Legal Abortion: Arguments Pro & Con)

Moreover, pro-life supporters advocate that since unborn children cannot express their right to life; their lives are quite defenseless and therefore must be safeguarded. They advocate that it is indisputable that the fetus, at whatever stage of development, will inexorably develop the traits to which one indicates. The unborn child is expected to have every capability and every opportunity that a mother has, when sufficient facility is being provided. While these are of varying situations and such medical exigencies are awful, it is in no manner common that abortion is to be conducted. The mother against the child dilemma is one that challenges the available way out, and aborting to preserve one of the lives begins a dangerous model that it is tolerable to kill a person so as to save another. This is considered as a transparent and revolting incident of treating a human being as a means to an end. When an awful crime has been perpetrated, the unborn child cannot be said to be at fault. Depriving some one of life, as a result of the situations of their conception is as unjust an incident that is unimaginable. (Devanny, 2000)

The right of the unborn to live outweighs any right of a woman to regulate her own body. Abortion should, therefore, cannot be allowed even for rape since it is not right to punish a child for the fault of the father. Moreover, pregnancy seldom occurs from rape. Women can receive instant medical care to avoid pregnancy. Like adoption, there are alternatives to abortion and in such cases, abortion is never regarded as the best remedy and also not ethical to be so. There is an absence of adoptable babies as a result of the legalization of the abortion and many willing parents are made to wait for babies. Further many women succumb to death from legal more than ever when they had illegal abortion. Abortion is not considered medically safer as that of natural pregnancy. Abortion largely gave rise to incidences of miscarriage for future pregnancies. Most of the unwanted pregnancies may convert into wanted children in future. Women commit great blunders resorting to abortions and they have to be repentant for it later. Ultimately, the Pro-life is pro-family. Pro-abortionists are considered to be anti-family by them, as the abortion condemns the American family. The legalized abortion is the symbol of the moral degeneration that is devastating America. It is therefore, highly essential to enact laws to forbid this trend. Thus pro-life supporters advocate that abortion should not be legal in the U.S. And it must be condemned and the right to life must be safeguarded. (Legal Abortion: Arguments Pro & Con)

Women should have the right to choose:

do not agree to the above arguments put forth by the pro-life supporters and advocate strongly that women have enough right to choose whether to abort or not. The right of choosing implies regarding and safeguarding the right of every woman to make private, personal selections with respect to pregnancy, child rearing and abortion. (Abortion: It's every Woman's Right to Choose) The conclusion whether or not to adopt abortion is one of the most problematic and complicated decisions a woman will ever resort to. It is not which decision she makes, but instead that she is free to make the decision that is right for her. It is up to the woman to conclude how she should make that decision, not the government. (Choice: Defending a Fundamental American Freedom) Thus women are required to have enough rights over their own bodies, the choice they have to bear the child during pregnancy or give birth to child. (Devanny, 2000)

To plead to the right to life of the child is cyclical-as to whether a fetus has right or not, or can actually be known as a 'child', is exactly what is at concern. It is agreeable to everyone that children have also rights and should not be killed. However, no body thinks the fetuses of two to even twenty weeks as children. (Devanny, 2000) The stage of the embryo in the initial trimester is the basic concern that cannot be set aside. The embryo is really pre-human; only the mystical conceptions of religious dogmas consider this clump of cells to be the constituents of person. The potentiality and actuality should not be confused. An embryo is only a prospective human being. It is in the process of development into an infant provided the women choose for it. However, what it in reality is during the initial trimester is only a cluster of comparatively undifferentiated cells that prevails as a part of the body of woman. If we think a while as to what it is instead of what it will become, we must recognize that the embryo below three months is something far more primordial than a frog or a fish. It is absurd to think of it as an infant. (Peikoff, 2003)

If we are required to agree to the equation of the prospective with the real and consider the embryo as an 'unborn child' with the same analogy we could conveniently call any adult an 'undead corpse' and bury him when he is alive or vivisect him for teaching medical students. That minute development, a simple mass of protoplasm, prevails as a portion of the body of woman. It is not an isolated existence, biologically formed organism, and let alone person. That which is considered to live within another human beings body should not have any right to claim against its host. The right has been bestowed only to the individuals and not to combination or parts of an individual. 'Independent' does not imply self-supporting - a child who relies on its parents for food, shelter, and clothing have right since it is a real, separate human. According to Ayn Rand, rights do not relate to a prospective human being, but only to an actual human being. A child cannot attain any right until it is born. It is only on this criterion that we can safeguard the political right of the women to do what she opts for in this matter. No other person including even her husband has the right to influence as to what she may act in respect of her own body. That is a basic principle of right. (Peikoff, 2003)

While many of the endeavors to further confine the abortion rights are justified on the basis of advances being made in fetal medicine, actually they are motivated by a challenge to the right of women to exert regulation over reproduction. Reproduction is viewed as a primary activity of the family, a crucial structure that forms society. If women can exercise full option over when, if and with whom they have their children, this barrier could be affected. It is similar with divorce as when the divorce laws were liberalized, the divorce rate escalated and it is most women that are starting it. Taking into consideration the available choice, many women will choose to be released out of the bars that many marriages consequently are converted into. (A woman's right to choose: Workers Power 299)

Moreover, not only prohibition of abortion is a theoretical problem, of undermining the right of women to opt, it is also a practical problem. The right of choice implies the right of opting not to have a child or to have a child in the situations, which implies that neither mother not child suffer in material terms or socially for that conclusion being made. Women around the world always have strived to regulate their fertility through abortion disregarding the complexities of going through the abortion and they possibly always will. This is so since it is necessary for them to be capable of regulating their own fertility and is not agreeable to be reduced to the stage of their biological function as child-bearers only if they are to accomplish true equality and liberation. (Abortion: It's every Woman's Right to Choose)

Imposing a prohibition on abortion would necessitate a quite humiliating and inhumane treatment of those women who desired to have their fetus culminated. Declaring abortion illegal will simply lead it to the background and into the environment wherein the health and safety of the woman concerned might be put at risk. There are incidents in which it is essential to culminate pregnancy when it is certain that either the mother and/or the child die. In such circumstances of medical emergency and with the objectives of saving life, definitely it is allowed to abort the fetus. (Devanny, 2000)

The critics of abortion rights talk as if abortion did not prevail in this nation prior to 1967 but nothing could be further away from the fact. The estimates show the total number of cases of abortion up to 1967 is 100,000 per annum that remained constant even after the lapse of four years after legalization. Even when abortion is being made illegal, affluent women, as in the past, have spend money and obtained private doctors to accomplish abortions, while poor women have had to succumb to the burden of bringing an unwanted pregnancy to term or endangering the lives with unsafe or illegal methods of abortions. And when abortion becomes illegal many a number of poor and working class women succumb to death. Such illegal abortions were normally conducted by unskilled people under unhygienic conditions, and a number of women every year died or were left having permanent health difficulties after having to bear hemorrhaging or infection from a 'bodged' abortion. In the fear of legal prosecution many do not seek medical attention. (35 years after the Abortion Act: For A Real Right To Choose)

As per the World Health Organization, 78,000 women throughout the world expire annually due to the use of unsafe methods of abortions. Prior to 1973 when abortion was made legal in 1973, a large numbers of women succumbed to death arising due to complications occurring from abortion. In New York City, Black women accounted for 50% of all women who died after having an illegal abortion, while Puerto Rican women were considered to be 44%. (Abortion is every woman's right) Many women expire due to illegal abortions prior to Roe. (Choice: Defending a Fundamental American Freedom) No verdict of the Supreme Court in the twentieth century has been as contentious as the 1973 Roe v. Wade verdict upholding that women have the right to opt for an abortion during the first two trimesters of a pregnancy. The attorneys for Roe had cited violation of many constitutional provisions by the Texas law dissuading abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother. (Does the Constitution guarantee women the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy by having an abortion?)

However, what we view presently is just the restrictions prevailing on the right of women to choose. When George Bush became President, his first activities were to reintroduce the 'Global Gag' rule which hold back U.S. federal funding for health centers that offer abortion facilities or even supply the information needed for it. This has a tremendous impact on women in over 60 countries where reproductive health services are offered by non-governmental organizations dependent upon the international funding. Within the U.S., itself several states have enacted several stringent limitations on women's legal right to resort to abortion and several abortion clinics have had to close down. (A woman's right to choose: Workers Power 299)