From an early age, it is stressed that personal health whether it is physical or mental should be a top priority. If this ideology is so stressed then how come there is a movement in place to take away women’s rights to do what they feel is right for their own health? This organization is called Pro-Life whose goal is to ban abortions within the US and take away the right for a woman to terminate an abortion. Abortion was legalized in 1973 after the Roe vs. Wade court case, however, the topic is still extremely controversial. Donald Trump is an advocate for Pro-Life and is working on limiting and eventually banning abortions throughout the United States, that at the moment are legal. Pro-Choice, the opposing movement, supports women’s choice to have an abortion.
There are several reasons as to why a woman may choose to have an abortion, and if that woman is determined that terminating a pregnancy is the right thing for her or the fetus why shouldn’t she be able to go through with it? There are several cases of pregnancies that have been terminated because the woman does not have enough financial stability to support herself and a baby. Although adoption is an alternative to raising a child, there are 107,918 kids in the foster system, with more kids being entered than being adopted. The decision to have sex is not always the woman’s choice, 14,000 abortions a year are cases of incest or rape where it was never the choice of the woman, and now she is forced to carry the baby which can cause several mental issues or illnesses. In these cases, abortion should be an option to save the health of the woman. There are also 700 cases a year in the United States of the mother dying during pregnancy or because of delivery complications, therefore physical health of the mother is also a consideration when deciding whether to follow through a pregnancy.
There are several political leaders who are Pro-Choice such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. However 80% of senators are male, the same senators trying to pass bills denying women the right to make their own decisions on their body. By banning abortions it causes more unsafe abortions by happening, for example sometimes a woman is forced to have an abortion by the babies father or is strongly against having a baby and in these cases they will find any way to have an abortion even if that means an at home abortion that can cause fatality or extreme physical harm to the mother. Another reason a woman may choose to have an abortion is a product of recent technology that can determine whether the baby will have defects or diseases.
A mother may choose to terminate a pregnancy if the baby will not survive past the early stages of life. Other birth defects such as Cri Du Chat Syndrome makes the child dependant on others for their entire life, along with expensive medical bills that not every mother is financially able to pay for. In cases like these, it should be the mothers choice on whether to continue with the pregnancy. Being an organ donor is a personal choice everyone is entitled to, and an infant is dependent on the mother’s organs at the minimum of twenty weeks of the pregnancy. When it comes to donating organs to another being it is optional, but a mother is forced to by law to keep a fetus, she does not want, living off of her organs. At this stage in a pregnancy where the fetus is still dependent it is proven that the baby does not feel pain, the termination of a pregnancy is harmless on the fetus in the sense on pain or emotion. It is a controversial topic on whether or not a fetus is alive at the point of conception, at the point where it is no longer dependent on the mother’s organs, or when it is born.
However, this can be argued either way and ultimately comes down to personal opinion on what ‘life’ is defined as and that should be based on the mother’s opinion. What recently has changed the views of abortions and why suddenly it should not be the woman’s choice to do with her body? An abortion is only the termination of a fetus before the first 20 weeks of pregnancy when it is dependent on the mother, it is not killing a live child that is capable of living on its own. If you do not agree with abortions, simply do not get one yourself. Personal views should not affect what others should and should not be able to do especially when it concerns something as serious as their health.
