Argumentative essay
Erosion of women’s rights to abortion in the United States
Introduction
What comes in your mind when you hear that your best friend has aborted? What do you think of when your girlfriend ends her pregnancy without your consent? These are some of the questions that determines how the society has for a long time viewed the act of abortion. There is a very huge controversy between the ideas of legalizing abortion or making it illegal. The different cultural and religious beliefs all have their own preferences on this topic. Views against abortion has for a long time led to violent and non-violent riots in many states. The belief against this act is that people are abusing the main purpose of abortion and using it as a method of birth control. Some cultural backgrounds in many countries including the United States of America believe that abortion should be abolished completely since it is a form, of murder. Many others also believe in the phrase, “your body, your choice”. This phrase in United states means that if you wish to get an abortion within the legal three months period after conception then it is not considered a murder but out of the mother’s choice. After the three months then the baby is considered a new being and must be taken care of. Abortion therefore refers to the deliberate or undeliberate removal of the fetus from the mother’s womb before read to survive in the outside environment. It is not advisable to judge women harshly when they decide to abort. There are many reasons why a mother would decide to end her pregnancy. Making abortion illegal is harmful and unfair to women who have genuine reasons for this act.
Reasons for abortion
Before you judge your best friend it is good to know the reasons behind abortion. You should try to research the reasons why women in the United States abort before you chase your girlfriend away. Research conducted among various women indicated that women had similar reasons for terminating the lives of their unborn children. first, most women argued that having a baby would interfere with their career and education, ability to care for their younger siblings and the inability to take care of the baby at the time of pregnancy.it was therefore concluded that women who had abortion had a feeling that they were not ready for pregnancy and financial issue becoming a major reason.is this not a valid reason? Why should you bring an innocent child on this cruel world and later leave him/her suffer? Various states have mended the laws to exempt the cases where abortion is considered illegal or legal.
Abortion in United States
When the United States first got their independence, most of the states applied for the English common Law which meant that it was not allowed after fetal movements which is at fifteen to twenty weeks after the period of conception. The statistics of abortion in United States always vary by source because reporting of the cases is not mandatory. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher institute are the bodies that report the statistics of abortion using different methodology.
The abortion statistics are usually presented as the number of abortion cases, the rate of abortions which are commonly in one thousand women in the age range of fifteen to forty four and the abortion ratio. The CDC report indicated that 638,169 abortions was reported in the 49 out of 52 reporting areas. The abortion rate therefore 11.8 abortions per 1000 women in the age range of 15 to 44 years. The abortion ratio was 188 abortions per 1000 per the live births. Between the years of 1970 and 2015, about 45 million legal induced abortions were reported in the United States.
Why we should not make abortion illegal.
Most people think of elective abortion which involves the purposeful killing of an unborn child for the need of termination of unwanted pregnancy when hear cases of abortion. A very small percentage of people in the society view abortion as a morally acceptable act. However I may not consider it as a bad act for woman to accept the treatment that may be necessary to save her life and at the same time may be the reason of ending the life of the unborn child. Let me explain my point.
It is true that this are one of the rare and agonizing situation in a woman’s life where there are no easy or simple answers. Think of what a woman should do when her physician advises her that the pregnancy she is holding will place her own life in danger. The first reaction would be to advise the woman to find another opinion from a different doctor, probably one who has more experience in nursing and pregnancies. If the diagnosis remains the same then we would have to accept though unhappy that this maybe be an example of a case where abortion may be morally acceptable for the mother to opt for the treatment that may see the end of life of the unborn child. We say this because we accept that this is a dilemma situation which involves two precious lives. If the mother lives, the baby dies and vice vasa.in some situations if the pregnancy is carried on the both may lose their lives. This woman may be another person’s mother, wife or daughter and must she die in this case? Crucial secondary factors and circumstances are the guidelines in making this decision. But at the end, everything is done to conserve the life of the mother who may be the dependent of the family though in a sad and regrettable way.
Raising of a new born child is not an easy task and involves both emotional, social and financial commitments to see that this child grows up in a proper manner. The high rising economy in the United States has seen many people struggle to make ends meet.as such if the mother may feel she is not ready for the child then the pregnancy should be terminated since allowing the fetus to develop is even worse since the resultant baby will grow in harsh environment without love, care and support every child should have.
Abortion is also the time to give women the opportunity to make their own decisions on when to have children in relation to their financial stability, age and relationship status.it is not the time for the government to show their might in executing commands on women. The government should not be in a place to legislate against the choices women make.
Prohibiting abortions does not necessarily mean that it will stop abortions. Many women will seek other illegal options of doing the act. These alternative procedures may be unsafe and could expose the mother to more fatal injuries that they may see he lose her life.it is therefore better to give the women the opportunity and provide them with the best safe and legal procedures of doing this act.
Abortion should also be legalized especially when the child of the pregnancy would have an unacceptable quality of life such as in the cases where the child may be have serious mental effects, genetic disorders and severe physical problems. Every person longs to have a complete child with proper brain and physical development to give him the opportunity to study well and compete effectively with his or her peers.it is therefore morally wrong to keep pregnancy of a child with the above cases which will see him or her suffer in this world.
Some of the effects of abortion
Abortions are generally safe and a few women experience other complications after the act. Most women would walk out strong and healthy again after correct procedures. But like any other medical condition and treatments, something may go wrong during the process. Some of the main risks associated with abortion include the infection of the womb which according to statistics occurs in one out of ten abortions. This effects is however treated by antibiotics easily when detected early. Excessive bleeding may also be experienced especially when the procedures was carried out in an appropriate manner. This may requires blood transfusion to restore the mother’s health. Other effects of abortions on the mother includes damage of the womb which occurs in one out of two fifty abortions carried out. The possibility of having a continued pregnancy after abortion also occurs though in rare cases and when it happens then the mother is usually referred for further treatments.
After abortion, the mothers probably may experience some period type pains and vaginal bleeding which may last up to two weeks. This is a normal process and does not need to raise an alarm and therefore would heal after a short while. But in the cases where a person may be experiencing symptoms such as excessive bleeding, high fever and severe pain that cannot be controlled by with painkillers such as Paracetamol or ibrufen, then it is advisable to seek further medical attention.
Abortion in Canada
Abortion in Canada is legal at all stages and is usually controlled and funded by the Act of Canada health. This country is one of the few nations with no specific legal restrictions to abortion. Before 1969, abortion was illegal in Canada and in 1969 the Criminal law Act was amended which legalized abortion. This was however in condition that a government certify that continuing the pregnancy would put the life of the woman in danger. Most abortions were however recommended that they should be done at early stages of pregnancy.
In 2017,about ninety four thousand abortions were reported in Canada.it was however approximated that this number only reflected about ninety percent of all the abortions done countrywide as not all the cases were reported. The number however decreased from the year two thousand and eleven when about one hundred and eight thousand cases of abortions were reported.
The abortions are always provided and funded by the Medicare upon request to all the citizens and permanent residents of Canada.one thirds of the hospitals at the provincial levels perform abortions. Private clinics also perform abortions after recommendation from the Medicare.
The abortion rights movement focuses on making abortion as a major factor in most provincial hospitals to ensure it is always available and affordable to those who could otherwise afford it. Dr. Henry Morgantelar is one of the pioneers of this movement and was later joined by other organizations such as Canadians for choice and the Pro Choice Action Network. These organizations have contributed significantly to ensure that abortion rights are properly approached.
There is also an anti-abortion movement that disapproves that there is proper legal restrictions to abortions in Canada. They also disagrees with the fact that abortion is funded by the Medicare despite it being for therapeutic reasons. A medical reason for performing this act is no longer required in Canada except in Prince Edward Island since 1988 when the abortion was removed from the criminal code.
Conclusion
Having an abortion does not mean that you will never get pregnant or have normal pregnancy again. Most of the women gets pregnant immediately they are comfortable in giving birth.it is therefore advisable that you seek contraceptives when you still feel you are not ready to keep pregnancy. The society should change their minds about abortions and not a single woman should be wrongly judged because of abortion. In most cases it is not the wish of the mother to terminate the life of her unborn baby but due to circumstances this may happen and it is the duty of those close to her to give the moral support the mother may require especially during such hard times.
The states should come up with laws that clearly indicates the abortion regulations and procedures to avoid any cases of criminal or health complications that may arise due to this act. As I conclude my essay, abortion should not be viewed as a criminal activity and an in depth analysis of the circumstances that led to the act should be the sole tool to be used in the judgment of cases that may involve abortions. Abortion should not be abolished because at times keeping the pregnancy might be harmful to the women.
