Abortion is a very controversial topic that has been around for decades in the United States of America. There are two sides to this argument, which include people who are pro-choice, who believe that each person is the source of their own moral authority and has the right to choose life or death, and people against abortion (pro-life), who believe that by moral authority, abortion is wrong. For readers who don’t know, abortion means the termination of pregnancy by removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth. Every year, hundreds of thousands of women are raped and are left with a choice on whether to keep the child or terminate it. The article, “The Pro-Choice Movement Cares More about Abortion than Choice” by Alexandra Desanctis, informs the audience on reasons why abortion should be legal and it is backed up with statistical proof. Similarly, the article “The Women the Abortion War Leaves Out” by Michelle Oberman, informs the audience on supporting abortion and unplanned pregnancies. Abortion should be legal because women are entitled to decide what to do with their own bodies, without being shamed, judged, or punished; access to legal, professionally – performed abortions reduces maternal injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions, which prevents maternal deaths; women who receive abortions are less likely to suffer mental health problems than women denied an abortion, which helps reduce lasting health issues such as infertility and mental health.
Women should be entitled to decide what to do with their own bodies. Abortion should be a woman’s choice. Some fetuses have such severe disorders that death is guaranteed before or slightly after birth. Since abortion is such a controversial topic in America, women often times feel ashamed or judged if they plan on having an abortion, which forces them to have the child. In Alexandra Desanctis’s article, she writes “Nearly 75 percent of women surveyed said their decision to abort was subject to at least subtle pressure from others. Even more distressing, more than 58 percent of the women reported aborting their baby to make others happy, and almost 30 percent said they aborted out of fear of losing their partner if they did not” (Desanctis.) Giving away, let alone terminating a baby is very hard on women. Men are allowed to be upset over a situation regarding abortion, but women have to carry the unborn child. The effect takes on females can be very significant. Pro-life supporters do not see the situation, reasons, and benefits of abortions. They are ignorant of the reason why women choose to make the decision they do. With abortion being legal, females would not have to feel ashamed of themselves for making the right decision regarding their situation.
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Maternal injuries and deaths caused by illegal abortions need to be stopped. Thousands of women do not have the resources to get a professional abortion done, so they take it into their own hands. Whether that is constructing a tool to rip the fetus out of the female reproductive part, or just taking pills to terminate the fetus, this causes immense damage to the woman’s body. With abortion being legal, insurance companies will have to cover the cost of getting an abortion. This would prevent females from endangering themselves. In Michelle Oberman’s article, she writes “ I was grateful, if surprised, to be invited to spend a day at Birth Choice of Oklahoma, a so-called crisis pregnancy center. Such centers, some of which are currently the subject of the Supreme Court litigation, typically are faith-based counseling offices working to persuade women not to have abortions” (Oberman 120. ) Coercing a woman with counseling to not have an abortion is morally wrong. Some of these females who go into these counseling facilities have gone through a lot, such as being raped. No one wants to have the child of a rapist. Therefore, maternal injuries and deaths caused by illegal abortions need to be looked at thoroughly.
Abortions are more likely to benefit women rather than traumatize them, such as females who are denied abortions. Hundreds of thousands of women suffer mental health-related problems when they are denied getting an abortion. People think having an abortion is not the worst thing in the world. However, the toll it takes on women is incomparable to anything. In Michelle Oberman’s article, she writes, “One of the largest research studies on the question of why women choose abortion surveyed about 1,200 abortion patients and found 73 percent said they could not afford the baby at the time” (Oberman 121- 122.) As mentioned earlier, if abortion was legal in all states, insurance companies would pay for the termination of the fetus. What stands out the most is that 73 percent is a very large amount of women who can not afford a baby due to their situation. In recent times, many people have not been able to have a child due to the expense of raising a kid.
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Everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their own bodies, most importantly, women. Even though people preach women are treated equally to men, this is false. However, the right women have is to control what happens with their bodies. Men are allowed to voice their opinions, but at the end of the day, a woman is the one who has to carry the baby, and if she does not want to, it is her full-fledged right to get an abortion. The problem is, that many states in The United States of America have introduced banning abortion. For example, some states include; Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Utah. These states have already banned abortion. Thousands of women are affected by this law every day. Whether they are a rape victim, or they just simply can not afford to have a child, women are left with no choice other than to either perform a dangerous self-abortion themselves or to have the child which they can not care for, leaving the child in an unhealthy situation. A scholarly source states “ In 2013, however, the North Dakota legislature passed House Bill 1456, a bill that would have banned abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detected” ( State Abortion Laws 1429.) Clearly, people who voted to pass the law do not see the issue. If a woman is not ready to have a child and can not get an abortion, this only leads them to black-market abortion clinics that charge hefty prices and do not guarantee the proper cleanliness as a normal abortion clinic would. This further endangers women, putting them at risk of disease, infections, and possibly death.
States that are banning abortion, strongly believe abortion is a crime. Killing an innocent fetus is considered murder under these state laws. But, what they fail to understand is that women are being mistreated and abused, often times being sexually harassed, which leads them to become pregnant. This often happens and in most situations, it is against the woman’s will to continue carrying the child in their uterus. An article by Mary Ziegler states, “Before and immediately after Roe v. Wade, like most pro-life activists, pro-life feminists were part of a decentralized, most state-level to block the liberalization of abortion laws” (Ziegler 237.) These activists fail to understand that a woman’s health is most important. Some of these women who are forced to have kids due to their state laws, end up being emotionally unstable. This often leads them to not being able to provide for their newborn, which they did not want in the first place, which reflects on them as being a bad parent. Furthermore, groups of feminists are supporting pro-life, which is understandable, but being a feminist, one would think they would not raise the question of another woman’s authority of wanting to have a child or not. One would think they would support their fellow females, but this is not the case. Everyone woman is in a different situation and only she should be allowed to determine whether or not to have the child.
Women’s rights, most importantly, abortion in America have been a huge issue for decades. With states passing laws to ban abortion, women are left hopeless. This gives women two options, either go to a black-market abortion clinic where a female’s life could be in jeopardy or perform an abortion themselves by constructing tools and pulling the fetus out of their uterus. Either way, maternal health is not important to these states as they continue to pass laws, making getting an abortion even more difficult or impossible. Therefore, abortion should be legal because women are entitled to decide what to do with their own bodies, without being shamed, judged, or punished; access to legal, professionally – performed abortions reduces maternal injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions, which prevents maternal deaths; women who receive abortions are less likely to suffer mental health problems than women denied an abortion, which helps reduce lasting health issues such as infertility and mental health.
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