Abortion – Research and Analysis
The event issue I choose to analyze is abortion. It claims that abortion is not morally acceptable and should be illegal. Abortion is defined as the ‘termination of a pregnancy resulting in or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus’ (‘Abortion, ‘ n.d.). In truth, it is the conscious act of killing a developing baby inside the womb of a mother. Biologically speaking, a fetus has fingers and toes, lungs are formed and the brain is developing and maturing constantly.
The baby will then starts to take on more human appearance by gestation. Since the fetus is considered as a human developing being from the time of conception to the time of birth, ‘the fetus is morally and metaphysically a person’ who deserves full citizenship rights that should be constitutionally protected’ (Kilgore, 2019).
For this reason, abortion should not be allowed and should be forbidden by the law because it is awfully wrong to kill an innocent baby human for the sake of one’s own interest.
Nonetheless, unsafe abortion affects women’s health negatively as well. According to Guernsey and Janneck (2014), there is over 410 women have been killed in clinical abortions, on average 11.42 every year, since Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion. Generally speaking, women with unintended pregnancies who have an unsafe abortion are exposed to a wide range of health risks such as infection or injury to internal organs that later affect their well-being. Thus, unsafe abortion adds another reason why abortion should be illegal.
On another hand, some support abortion do not see the fetus as a child.
They believe that the personhood of embryos and fetuses begins after birth and not at conception. Consequently, abortion to them is just the termination of pregnancy instead of the termination of a child. They also argue that pregnant women should be able to make choices about what they want to do with their bodies. The right to reproductive choices can be referred to as women’s fundamental rights. Because some pregnancies are results of the female being under rape, incest or facing serious medical condition due to pregnancy, the ‘US Supreme Court decided in favor of abortion declaring it as a fundamental right of every woman” (‘Stance on Abortion — Pro-life or Pro-choice, ‘ n.d.). This decision by the US Supreme Court empowers women by giving them total control of their reproductive choice.
Women who are being allowed to have an abortion are believed to have a better life than women who are being denied. Not having to take care of unwanted babies, women are more likely to work which prevents them from being on public welfare and less likely to suffer mental health. For this reason, abortion has been a very controversial issue.
Some of the people making this claim are a pastor or a priest of a religious organization, a believer and follower of God, an anti-abortion advocate or politician, a healthcare provider who believes abortion is unethical, a leader of an anti-abortion movement, a member of a pro-life organization. Sources making this claim can be an article on the Internet that opposes abortion such as Nation Right to Life (nrlc.org), Democrats for Life of America (democratsforlife.org), and many other pro-life websites. Lastly, other interested parties can be any other people such as secular individuals who want to learn about the anti-abortion movement, students who are researching about this topic, or members of the pro-choice group want to see others’ points of view.
