Abortion Should Be Illegal - Essay Example

?Abortion Should Be Illegal The human race considers itself to be living in an era of enlightenment when it comes to issues concerning sex and women's health. As such, our society thrives on the growing rights of women to be empowered to make their own decisions about the results of their protected and unprotected sexual activities. A woman's body is her personal sanctum. Once that sanctum is violated by a brutal act of sexual intercourse, the woman should have every right to “deal” with any problems arising from that encounter. Let's call it what it is, women should have the right to an abortion when she is raped. The modern day woman also fights for her right to control her body, rather than having a cultist sect or government control what she can and cannot do with her body. There are even a greater number of reasons that a sector of women in today's society support a woman's right to have legalized abortion. It is disturbing how all of the attention when it comes to abortion is cast solely upon the rights of women and what they believe to be their rights to their body. But what about the unborn child? The unborn child also has rights of his own. The minute he is conceived, the woman's body becomes his inner sanctum as much as his mother's. Why would a woman, even if she is impregnated by abusive sexual behavior, be willing to kill an innocent child who has yet to see the good that this world has to offer, even though his entry into it would be under less that acceptable circumstances? A child has the right to life and no woman, no mother to an unborn child, has the right to dictate who will and who won't be able to live the life that the universe has offered him. It is therefore my stand that this paper shall present evidence to prove the reasons as to why abortion should remain an illegal and criminal act. Let me start off this paper by immediately presenting the counter argument to my stance. Although there are a number of highly valid reasons to consider leaving the act of abortion an illegal activity, there are still a number of people who would rather have abortion declared legal. One of the reasons that a person would support abortion has to do with the existence of back-alley abortion clinics that do the procedures in a less than sanitized environment. Due to the lack of government supervision, the woman puts her own health and life at risk when she goes to one of these clinics to have the fetus taken out. Government regulation would make the practice of abortion regulated and force the abortion doctors to adhere to a higher standard of practice than they currently have. As such the cost of abortions could also be lowered or, even better, the procedure might even be covered by health insurance under specific situations. If the unborn child is to enter this world under less than acceptable circumstances, as in the case of rape or incest, or any scenario wherein the child would be forced to live a life shunned by his mother and her family, then it would be in the best interest of that child to not be born at all. The abortion supporters say that babies born under violent sex circumstances do not feel the love of a parent growing up and therefore becomes a part of the criminal problem of our society. Rather than creating new state wards or problems for the state, it would be in the child's best interest to never make an entry into our world. The aforementioned arguments are some of the most common that ends up being used by pro-abortionists. However, the most compelling argument that they use asks people to become de-sensitized to the act of abortion and consider the fetus nothing more than a lump of flesh or blood, a cyst if you will, in the body of a woman since there is no heartbeat in the fetus due to an undeveloped heart for a number of weeks. Thus having an abortion within that time frame does not make it murder since there is no heartbeat existing that would change the classification of the child from fetus to unborn child (“Should Abortion Be Banned (Except in Special Circumstances Like Saving the Mother's Life?)”). The pro-abortion side indeed presents quite compelling appeals that would actually have one considering the possibility of supporting a legalized abortion stance. However, there is much more to the discussion than these supporters actually let the people know. For every reason that they give to legalize abortion, there are many reasons readily available and verifiable to prove that abortion should remain illegal and without government support. The abortion of a fetus is normally allowed between a period of 6-16 weeks. According to the Guttmacher Institute that took a survey of abortions covering the 6-16 week period of fetus development in 2011, the rate of abortions per year (“How Many Abortions Are Performed in the United States Each Year?”) are as follows: Gestational Age Percentage Yearly Total Less than 9 weeks 61.80% 749232 9-10 weeks 17.10% 207312 11-12 weeks 9.10% 110324 13-15 weeks 6.60% 80015 16-20 weeks 3.80% 46069 21+ weeks 1.50% 18815 The fact that there are still abortions happening after the 15 week period of fetal development leaves a logical thinking person with a sense of disgust. A fetus has already turned into a child by the 20th week and yet the women that seek to end their lives do not understand that. Nobody understands the serious degree of murder committed by this act than Republican Rep. Michael Burgess of Texas who bore witness to one of the most miraculous events to happen in an unborn child's life via a sonogram viewing of the life of an unborn child since he previously worked as an OB-GYN. He explains: There is no question in my mind that a baby at 20 weeks after conception can feel pain. The fact of the matter is, I argue with the chairman because I thought the date was far too late. We should be setting this at 15 weeks, 16 weeks...Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful. They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain? (Bendery, Jennifer “Michael Burgess: I Oppose Abortion Because Male Fetuses Masturbate (Video)”). What this doctor turned politician rings true. Once the fetus begins to have a heartbeat, that fetus can already feel pain. It has a constantly developing consciousness about its surroundings. Otherwise pregnant mothers would not end up in the emergency room suffering from fetal distress in some cases. These fetuses feel pain. Their innocence protects them from realizing that their life is being put to an end during an abortion procedure but this unborn child certainly experiences a very horrifying death as it experiences pain and the ending of its life, without truly understanding what is going on and why. Women make the conscious decision to put their babies through this life ending process at a rate of 1 child every 20 seconds. This is unacceptable. These women and the doctors performing the abortions are no better than terrorists who take the lives of the truly innocent without having an real meaning or acceptable reason for doing so. As some anti-abortionists have termed it, abortion has become “The Unnoticed War”. In the last 40 years, abortion has claimed at least 52 million lives of unborn children. Think of it this way: "Pregnancy termination" stops the beating heart of a growing human being and is in direct contradiction to this most basic premise of human nature. It forsakes natural law, and has left America as a country unable to repopulate itself without the aid of mass immigration (TFP Student Action, “10 Reasons Abortion is Evil & Not Pro Choice”). There are numerous couples in the United States that are unable to bear children of their own. They often times go about the adoption route in order to complete their sense of family. If a child is unwanted by his mother, why should the mother consider abortion her only option when the child can be given up for adoption, his records sealed, and contact with the child forever terminated? Considering that adoption prevents a person from becoming an unconvinced murderer, adoption should be one of the logical choices that the mother of an unborn, unwanted child can make. It leaves her guilt free while allowing the unborn child a chance to live the life that nature intended him to after his birth, under the care of his adopted parents. Another reason to consider abortion illegal is the fact that our genetic science abilities have already reached a point where we can already determine if a child will be burdened with an illness, abnormality, or less than stellar life through genetic testing. In such a situation, the parents of the child may opt to have the unborn child aborted if the fetus does not prove to be of acceptable material to them (“Should Abortion be Banned (Except in Special Circumstances Like Saving the Mother's Life?”). Children are not like goods bought in a store. There is no such thing as a designer baby. Everyone of us, was born with some sort of genetic shortcoming. It is not acceptable for a 21st century society to advocate the mass killing of fetus just because they do not measure up to certain standards. That is a practice that died out in World War II with Adolf Hitler. The genetic shortcoming is what makes for a unique and often times loving individual. It is not something that should be considered shameful enough to warrant sentencing a child to death. No child could ever be born with such a despicable shortcoming to be given the death penalty even before it has a chance to breath on its own. It is never our place to say that an unborn child will be a menace to society as some pro-abortionists would like us to believe. No one has the ability to predict how a child will turn out to be in the future. His future self is something that the parents, the mother in particular, can help hone. A child born out of love rather than hate tends to be a more productive member of our society. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy and birth of the child, a child is still born into this world as a blank slate. Ready to be influenced and written upon. More importantly, abortion should not be an act that gets support from the tax dollars of the American people since there is no unanimous support backing it up. Federal and state dollars should only go to supporting programs that can benefit a majority of society. It should never be used to enable a criminal act that is abhorred by many. Let us remember that the gift of life is given to people but once. Life is not something that should be given and taken away haphazardly. Abortion tells women that they have the right to take away a life just because it inconveniences them or because the child was not conceived under circumstances the woman is willing to accept. Why should the unborn child be made to pay for the crime or crimes of the father? No child should ever be made to pay for the acts of the father for the child is a different person from him. A woman has always been portrayed as the giver and nurturer of life. The responsibility of caring for the life that she was entrusted with is something that she must take seriously. Having a child is one of the greatest opportunities a woman can have to prove to the world that she is truly a 21st century woman. Capable of raising a child and understanding that, even though the child may not be conceived and born under the best circumstances, that child still has an unquestioning love and trust for his mother. That is a parental trust that must never be broken between a mother and her unborn child. For a mother who aborts an unborn child should never see herself fit to be called a “good” mother to her future children. Taking the life of that one child proves the selfishness that is inherent in her and her future children should never be proud to call her “mother”. Works Cited Bendery, Jennifer. “Michael Burgess: I Oppose Abortion Because Male Fetuses Masturbate (Video)”. Poltiics. huffingtonpost.com. 8 Jun. 2013. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. TFP Student Action. “10 Reasons Why Abortion is Evil & Not “Pro- Choice””. Abortion. tfpstudentaction.org. n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. “How Many Abortions are Performed At Each Stage of Pregnancy?”. Pro-Life Action League. prolifeaction.org. n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2013. “Should Abortions Be Banned (Except in Special Circumstances Like Saving a Mother's Life?”). balancedpolitics.org. balancedpolitics.org. n.d. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. Read More