Law, Religion, and the Metaphysics of Abortion - Essay Example

Women are perceived as subordinates and inferior to their male counterparts, who view them as tools for attaining sexual pleasure. It is on this account that men will use their positions and wealth to influence vulnerable women to have sex with them, only to abandon them later once they have satisfied their lust regardless of the consequences of their actions, which may include unplanned pregnancies.

As such, allowing abortion becomes a key element in protecting poor women from becoming single parents without intent as well as reducing poverty and street crime. A child deserves to have a better life i.e. access to quality education, healthcare, and good nutrition among other necessities such as shelter and clothing. A poor mother, who cannot even sustain herself, has nothing to offer her child and this implies that families built on this sort of foundation eventually have a high probability of becoming a liability to the society and the government at large. These are the people who unfortunately end up in the streets begging for assistance as well as conducting heinous acts such as prostitution and robbery. In this light, abortion enables one to exercise her right to decide on the best time to become a parent when she has accumulated all the necessary courage and economic stability to sustain herself as well as her offspring (Heary 22).

Most societies set considerably high moral standards, which prohibit fornication alongside other irresponsible sexual behaviors such as prostitution and adultery. For example, the church has always advocated for celibacy as a natural method of solving dilemmas such as HIV/AIDS among other sex-related issues (Beckwith 108). This has influenced greatly the way society perceives those unfortunate persons who intentionally or otherwise find themselves in these predicaments such as pregnancies out of wedlock. These people are discriminated against as they are perceived to be immoral and therefore, a shame to the society and the families which they come from. Some societies will even exclude them from their affairs for it will be apparent that they are a bad influence and bad examples to their age mates as well as the generation below them. To avoid all this, it would be of great significance to abort the child to maintain the level of standards expected by society, by concealing sexual involvement.

Abortion is also a way of controlling high population growth. In this case, it would be necessary to point out that I come from China, a country which is categorized as one with the highest population, of approximately 1.3 billion people, and which is expected to rise to approximately 1.6 billion people by the year 2025 (Beckwith 109). Due to this, the country has set up a one-child policy, to slow down the rate of births. However, it has been noticed that some fail to observe this policy and go ahead to have more than one child, especially in the rural areas, where analysts indicate that there is a culture whereby couples prefer the birth of boys as opposed to girls, mainly due to inheritance issues. In this context, if the first child is a girl, the parents cannot rest there for they will definitely have no heirs to their property and therefore, they have to bear more children until that time when a baby boy is born. It has been noted that such couples usually lie during the census to protect themselves from facing the consequences of going against the policy and this eventually leads to poor planning by the government since the data collected does not reflect the actual population figures.

To solve this, abortion should be allowed to allow couples to satisfy their needs in terms of gender preference. However, for this to be achieved, the government has to lift the ban on ultrasounds to allow couples to know beforehand the sex of their unborn. On the other hand, it does not escape the minds of critics that this process may encourage gender-based abortion, in which case female children would be aborted leading to gender imbalance. For example, statistics indicate that there is already a deficit of approximately 40 million females as a result of male-child preference (Rosenbaun 58).

On the other hand, abortion should be considered as the last resort after all possible avenues of birth control are exhausted. This is because the process is bound to have consequences on the patient such as death and disability. It is estimated that approximately 70000 women lose their lives on an annual basis while other 3 million suffer disability after having an abortion (Rosenbaun 25). It is, therefore, necessary to consider popularizing the use of contraceptives such as pills and other equipment such as condoms, before, after, or when having sex to avoid unplanned pregnancies. These instruments should be made affordable and available on demand to avoid inconveniencing the users. Sterilization should also be considered for those who have already completed giving birth to their desired number of children, to avoid accidental conception. Read More