ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYABORTION’Our world today is full of unsolved, devisive and controversial issues. Mostof them relate to our morals, ethics and religion, thus creating a very strong yes’and no’, or good’ and bad’ side.
Like the Chinese Yin and Yang sign, abortionhas a very prominent black’ and white’ side but also contains traces of each in thealternating colour. This shows that if you were to come to any kind of conclusionon abortion, there would still be a downside to it, and that is primarily why theworld cannot agree on this sensitive and emotional issue. Being female myself, I can understand why a woman would want to have anabortion. Being pregnant and wishing you weren’t is probably the worst feeling awoman can have.
Knowing that if you brought a child into the world and youdidn’t want it, or you would have to give it up for adoption is such a dishearteningway to start off, and you and the un-born child would be so much better off ifyou were to terminate the pregnancy and wait for a more appropriate time, or inthe case of rape, put the past behind you and move on. Society has attached a stigma to abortion. When we hear of women havingabortions, we seem to automatically think that she wasn’t careful enough, or shedidn’t use contraception. We forget to stop and think about the other possiblereasons she may have accidentally become pregnant. Just forgetting to take onepill per packet can reduce it’s effectiveness and also taking anti-biotics, or being illcan also undermine the way the pill works. Condoms can tear or be forgotten,and emergency contraceptives like the morning after’ pill are underprescribed andnot readily available.
Would it surprise you that over 50% of women getting anabortion in Britain used some form of contraception when they got pregnant?This obviously shows that women are having huge problems with usingcontraception, and something needs to be done about it now. Starting byeducating women more on the pill and the way it works, the after effects ofabortion, and the risks of having an abortion. We don’t want abortion to becomethe easy way out though. People just need to know more about it and have tosatisfy specific criteria before having the pregnancy terminated, for instance byinterviews with doctor’s, given unbiased advice, and consultations with people oftheir specific religion. “It is hugely important to reduce the number of unwantedpregnancies but we have to accept that abortion is a fact of life for many women,”- Ann Furedi of the British pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS).
In the United States doctor’s who administer abortions are being targetedby anti-abortion activists and some have actually been murdered. The doctor’s arenow having to take many precautions including wearing bullet-proof vests andpulling blinds and shades down in their homes. One obstetrician-gynecologist hadto shut down his medical practice after he was terrorized by protesters who haddistributed wanted’ posters with his photograph, mailed threats to his home andlisted his name on a baby butcher’s web site. What makes a person think thatjust because they feel strongly about an issue it gives them the right to go and killsomeone, or harass them till they fear for the safety of their family?In Scotland the Roman Catholic Church offered a 12yr old pregnant girlmoney in the attempt to prevent her from having an abortion.
She was advised byher teachers and a social worker to terminate the pregnancy mainly because of herage and her family’s financial position. But her parents were more convinced withthe advice given to them by the Scottish church’s Pro-Life Initiative, a programthat offers alternatives to abortion. A writer of the Tabloid Daily Mirror arguesthat “offering 12yr olds cash for babies is tantamount to bribery. . .
. . and it stinks tohigh heaven”. But Monsignor Tom Conelly a spokeperson for the Catholic Churchin Scotland said that the church’s offer gives the girl “real choice, so the child in thewomb does not suffer at all, irrespective of age or race or creed”. If the girl choseto go through with the abortion, it would able her to continue on with her lifenormally and go on with her schooling.
Unfortunately though, if she did have anabortion there would be the risk that she may not be able to conceive in lateryears. This is a high price to pay, but maybe she should have thought about someof the consequences of having sex at such an early age. It all comes back to sexeducation and informing children about the consequences and responsibilities thatcome with having sex. Pap smears, contraception, STD’s and abortion should all beaddressed at school and this should all be re-inforced by the parents at home.
We have to consider ourselves very lucky here in Australia. At least we aregiven the choice to choose abortion, unlike in some countries like the Philippineswhere most of the population are predominantly Roman Catholic. It was in 1969that Justice Menhennit ruled that abortion was legal in Australia, to protect thelife or health of the woman. This has made abortion available to all who need it,and women can go to Family Planning Centres all over Australia and receive theadvice and support that they need. So far about 20,000 Victorian women havean abortion in a year, but that doesn’t compare to the statistics in Britain where 1in every 4 women will have an abortion at some stage. Lets just keep abortion asthe very last option and not travel down the path in which Britain and the USA areheading.
We don’t want babies getting thrown out in bins like vegetable wastenow do we??BIBLIOGRAPHY1) “Doctor quits, cites anti-abortion threats”http://www.washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic2) “Half UK Women seeking abortion used contraception”http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/999013/sc/health_contraception_2.html3) Abortion Informationhttp://www.medico.abort.jk24/ss_health.com4) “Scotland Church Chided on Abortion”http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/19991011/wl/scotland_pregnancy_4.html5) Abortion at Family Planning Centres171 Berkeley Street, Carlton, 3053Melbourne, Australia
