The legalization of abortion - Thesis Example

? The Legalization of Abortion PHI 103 Informal Logic Giovanni Colombo submitted The Legalization of Abortion The legalization ofabortion is an issue that has divided opinion in the United States of America and elsewhere over the past few decades, when the issue has been prominent in the consciousness of the public of the world. Many factors contribute to make this a controversial issue. A clash between elements of the state, religion, science and feminist groups ensures that this issue is one that requires a lot of attention. Evolving a consensus through sustained negotiations is a very difficult proposition since the different parties involved often adopt positions that are extremely divergent. The fact that the issue is capable of defining the entire reputation of a particular political party as radical or conservative makes legislation and political involvement in the matter difficult and tricky. The issue, however, involves the rights that women have, to their own bodies, and the rights of an unborn child. A woman deserves the rights to make decisions that would affect her own body and regarding the responsibilities that she has to shoulder in her life, since the presence of the unborn child within her own body makes the child the responsibility of the mother in a way that is entirely different from that of the paternal responsibilities. The unborn child too deserves to be a part of a society that desired its existence, rather than accepts it grudgingly as an imposition. Abortion, as an option, should be legal, with certain restrictions that would ensure that it is not carried out at a point of time when the process could endanger the life of the woman. The rights that a woman has over her body need to be respected. In a society that struggles to provide its women with an equal status, women should be provided the right to make a choice as to whether they want to become mothers or not. The responsibility of becoming a mother involves the requirement of enormous resources, mental, physical and financial. Most women who are likely to seek abortion are single women who are not ready to take up the responsibility of motherhood. Some commentators have remarked as to how the limits on the rights of a woman to her own body are part of patriarchal strategies to oppress women (Francome, 2004). Since there are no methods of contraception that are entirely safe, women should be given the option of an abortion if they are unwilling to shoulder the responsibility of a child at a particular point of time in their lives. The bodily changes that are related to the birth of a child are immense, for a woman. Whether she wants to take such a step should be left entirely to her discretion. These changes are closely linked to the mental changes that take place in a person and the absence of a healthy environment during pregnancy could affect the health of the mother as well as the future child. When the possibility of a healthy environment does not exist, the mother may or may not choose to abort her pregnancy. It is important, however, that the choice to do so remains in the hands of the woman, since an unwanted child could lead to all kinds of complications for the mother. A child, if forced upon a woman, may not get the amount of love that it deserves or the same amount of love that a child that is wanted receives. The process of abortion, thus, does a certain kind of justice even to the unborn child who is saved from the feeling of being unwanted. This feeling, coupled with the other restraints that are imposed on a child that its mother wanted to abort but could not because of legal reasons, can lead to the child growing up into an anti-social element. This was the finding of a research that was conducted by John J. Donohue and Steven D. Levitt. The research concluded that the legalization of abortion that happened a quarter of a century before the research was conducted was the reason for the drop in crime rates during the nineties. This finding was based on the assumption that women who wanted to get an abortion largely belonged to those sections of the society which indulged in crimes. While this assumption may be open to debates, the sharp dip in crime rates points to the abortion of many unborn children who would have had every chance to turn to a life of crime, according to Donohue and Levitt (Donohue and Levitt, 2001). It is thus not only the lives of the baby and the mother that is at risk but that of others too, since the society as a whole is affected and it is because of this that this issue of privacy enlarges itself to become a social issue that attracts opinions from all quarters of the society. The greatest opposition to the legalized status of abortion comes from religious institutions that consider the act of abortion equal to an act of murder. The termination of the life of the unborn baby is considered to be a violation of the principles that are laid down by religious groups like Judaism and Christianity. Man’s duty to procreate is thought to be subverted through a willful act of terminating a pregnancy. Following the ascent of Barack Obama to the post of the American president, there were quite a few apprehensions regarding the expansion of pro-abortion rights. There were many demonstrations that sought to protest against the move and a majority of the demonstrators were from religious organizations that supported ecclesiastical views regarding pregnancy and its termination. The thrust for these demonstrations came from a feeling that unborn babies should be saved from a state that does not recognize its religious functions and duties (Harrison, 2009). The unborn are thought of not in terms of individuals but as souls that may have a chance at salvation. The denial of birth is seen by these groups as a denial of their rights as souls that would be in a state of limbo, not having been baptized, in the case of Christians. The role of these organizations, according to them, thus is not only to save the unborn child from the state but also from their parents who may be putting the soul of the child at risk. The unborn child, according to these groups, requires the assistance of religious institutions like the church which then don the roles of the savior of the child. The child, they feel, would in their absence be inflicted damage upon by parents who do not understand the value of the soul or prioritize their own comfort, and a state that lacks the spiritual understanding to take care of the babies of its people. These arguments of the religious groups that are against abortion, can however, be refuted at many levels. The argument that the soul of a child needs to be saved before it is born leaves the social and political roles of the baby from the larger picture and focuses exclusively upon the spiritual aspect of the matter. The future of a person as a social being is completely ignored in such a setting which privileges the spiritual modes of being. Religion is a social institution and calling for the abolition of abortion without positing an alternative that would be able to take care of the social lives of the babies who would be born as a result of the abolition is an unacceptable political position. The responsibility of the children who are born unwanted would be that of the state and the ultimate right to decide their fate should rest with the state and not with an institution that plays a role only in the initiation of their lives. Barack Obama’s policies that takes neither position but tries to appease both sections will lead only to greater complications (Hentoff, 2008). Another aspect to the argument that is put forward by the church and similar organizations against abortion is the intolerance that such a view is based upon. In a society where everybody believed in similar values and belonged to the same faith, the position of the church would have been a tenable one, had it been based on the consensus of all the parties that were involved in the process. However, this is not the case in the United States of America where all the denominations that are part of the same religion may not believe in the same set of ideas. By imposing a ban on any act of abortion, one takes out the aspect of a choice for the parents out of the equation. While some people may believe in the faith that is propagated by those who profess to be part of the anti-abortion campaigns, there may be several people who belong to the same religion and sect and still want to go ahead with an abortion. Whatever decides the fate of a person in his or her afterlife, the actions of that person would be what decides their fate on earth. If one is to focus on the everyday aspects of life, one would be able to see that they are governed by the society and its characteristics. As a result, decisions that affect the earthly life of a person should be decided according to social theories. People on the other side of the fence may refute this argument by stating the belief that the soul, for everyone is capable of attaining only a single form of salvation, that being the one that their faith offers its believers. They may argue that this form of salvation needs to be offered to everybody and everybody should have a chance to attain it, even the unborn child who would not be able to live if the pregnancy is terminated. The faith of the child does not entirely depend upon the faith of its parents and the unborn child, according to the ‘pro-life activists’, needs to be given a chance to follow the faith of its choice and its soul doesn’t need to be in a state of limbo for eternity without having had a chance to salvage itself and attain communion with god. This view bases itself upon the notion that every soul has a chance to redeem itself and make itself eligible for salvation. This chance needs to be offered to the child and the legalization of abortion makes it possible for the parent to deny this chance to the child. The state, these activists feel, must discourage such a tendency by not granting a legal status to abortion. An unwanted child, if born, is not likely to grow up in the best of environments. This is borne out in part by the study conducted by Donohue and Levitt that was referred to earlier (Donohue and Levitt, 2001). The incidence of crime reduced a great deal a quarter of a century after the legalization of abortion. Since a person who is not required by the very people who would be entrusted with his or her care during the formative years, it is unlikely that that person would be provided with the material comforts that are necessary for a decent quality of life. This would be a prerequisite for a life that does not have enormous inducements to turn towards crime. In spite of all of this, there may be parents who may want to have a child who was not planned and they may be able to provide the child with good care. This is precisely why the issue should be a matter of choice, since people should be able to decide for themselves the path that they choose for themselves and for their unborn child. The essence of the legalization of abortion lies in this- providing citizens with a choice and not an order regarding when they want to have a baby. Since this matter involves the taking up of the responsibility of a life that is entirely helpless and dependent upon its parents for its sustenance, it is necessary that the choice as to whether the parents want to have a baby be left to them. The importance of the matter also requires that negotiations take place that would result in the possibility of a consensus that would lead to an acceptance of the legalization of abortion in all sections of the society. References Donohue, J.J. III. 2001. The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Retrieved January 9th, 2012, from http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/DonohueLevittTheImpactOfLegalized2001. pdf Nat Hentoff. (2008, September 22). A life is a life-not: Obama tries to have it both ways. Washington Times, A.23. Retrieved January 9, 2012 from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1559207031). HARRISON, AND OF THE NEWS STAFF. (2009, January 19). 300 pro-life activists encircle state Capitol Group wary of possible abortion rights expansion. Bangor Daily News, 1. Retrieved January 9, 2012 from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1629096571) Francome, Colin. 2004. Abortion in the USA and the UK. Burlington: Ashgate. Read More