Against Legal Abortion the Legality of Abortion

Against Legal Abortion

The legality of abortion has been a topic of discussion for quite some time now. Pro-life participants and pro-choice participants go head in head debating on what the right thing to do would be. Although giving women the right to choose to do with their bodies whatever it is that they would like to do with them, the health risks and the societal effects and impact that legalizing abortion would do, will outweigh any freedom of choice argument.

Women who get even one abortion in their lifetime have an increased chance of getting physical ailments and illnesses than women who have not gotten an abortion. They are 30% more likely to get an ectopic pregnancy in the future if they have gotten one abortion and four times more likely if they have gotten two or more, which by itself increases the mortality rate of a woman by 12% with an ectopic pregnancy (Masse 2011). Pelvic Inflammatory Disease is also increased by 5% in a woman who has undergone a surgical abortion and they have a 600% more chance of having an abrupted placenta in future pregnancies after having undergone an abortion (Masse 2011). To legalize abortion would be to ignore all of these risks involved in getting an abortion. It is a procedure that can lead to potentially deadly results. Although the effect that an abortion has on a woman's physical health is extreme, the biggest affect that abortion has is on their psychological health. It is estimated that at least 50% of women who have gotten an abortion suffer from psychological health problems lasting months, even years. Some of these emotional problems can include, "acute feeling of grief, depression, anger, fear of disclosure, preoccupation with babies or getting pregnant again, emotional coldness, anxiety, flashbacks of abortion procedures, and suicide" (Masse 2011) among others. If abortions were to be made legal, more services would also be needed in order to properly assist women going through this.

Abortion should not be made legal because this issue does not only affect the individual, such as the woman getting the procedure done, but it will also affect society. Legalizing abortions would give the message that it is okay to have sex without a condom. This could heavily increase the STD and STI rates among young individuals who see the only risk of having sex as getting pregnant (Monahan 2006). Making abortions legal will tell young kids that it is not a bad thing to have sex without proper protection since a "mistake" could easily be taken care of. This implication will also increase promiscuity among individuals who no longer have to worry about getting pregnant as being an issue of concern.