Freedom of Women to Choose the Right of Abortion - Term Paper Example

Freedom of Women to choose the right of Abortion Decades ago, abortion was considered as a taboo when talked about openly in the society, creating an air of awareness among many. Even though the practice of carrying out an abortion was already adopted by several women, it was, and is still, regarded as a menace to many religious bodies, beliefs and treated as political matter. The term abortion can be defined in many ways and using the medical terms, it will be as the premature interruption of pregnancy till the 28th week, thus bringing to term the life of the fetus. Under normal circumstances, it is a voluntary action and carried out by the consent of both the mother and the father for several justified or unjustified causes. The United States law had legalized the practice of legal abortion since the year 1973. “Abortion was legalized in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that during the first trimester, a woman has the right to decide what happens to her body. This landmark decision rested on the "right to privacy" which was introduced in 1965. In addition, the Court ruled that the state could intervene in the second trimester and could ban abortions in the third trimester. However, a central issue, which the Court declined to address, is whether human life begins at conception, at birth, or at some point in between” (Kathy Gill). From the Bible, there are no such terminology referred to as abortion, but there are many verses related to the concept of giving birth and the growth of the fetus in the womb of the woman. God is the sole creator and we admit it. But still the choice of giving birth or not remain the sole decision of the mother even if it is a rebellion against the superior power. From an Islamic point of view, there is belief that killing a child might bring poverty to the family as well as a lack of trust in God and as a failure to raise up a child and providing him with education and all satisfying his basic needs. Again there is no term abortion mentioned in the Holy Quran. In the past, women who needed to have an abortion always had to think harder and ask herself several questions. Is it legal and moral? Will she be punished religiously or legally for such an act? Will the society condemn her for doing it? Are her causes for performing an abortion right and rationalized? In this era, the women are gaining much more rights and now even their ideas have evolved and the answers they give are very challenging. Under the statement of Roe V. Wade in 1973, any woman has the right to abort a fetus, taking control of their body rights yet it can be observed that in 1976, the Hyde Amendment had neglected a population of 12 million fertile women without any notice or any assistance for taking part in having resources to an abortion. In many context, a tree can be compared to a woman as they both bear the fruit, have to wait for the perfect time to be delivered. But the difference remains that the woman has emotions, feelings and would definitely care for her progeny even if it is a case of an unwanted child. She is not so hard to understand that there is a life growing in her and once out, he too will have demands that the parents have to provide to him. There are several things to which a woman is exposed to when she seeks help to an abortion she is exposed to death due to the complications which might follow afterwards. The rate of death among women due to illegal and non-safe practice raise up to a number of 70, 000 while the others may bear some slight injuries which could be totally prevented under the adequate medical help. In a year, the amount of incidence of such happenings among the age group of 15- 44 is indicated in the graph below only in the US. The globe also comprise of the huge continents like China, Africa and Asia, whereby the practice of abortion is very risky due to some traditional methods that the midwives and elders practice! Number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, by year When practicing an abortion, the risks that the woman has to endure are unlimited and some of them consist of psychologically instability, infections, pulmonary embolism and sometimes are jeopardized by not being able to get pregnant in future. So the whole package of risk is always being told to the woman before she resolves whether she should abort or not. By any means, she has only three options which are to accept and give birth to the child, to give away the child for an adoption or to abort. And for either 3 of these options, she should be prepared mentally so that the ordeals she would have to face in the post- stage do not traumatize her. There are several contributing factors that push a woman in alluding to an end in her pregnancy and some of them are unplanned pregnancy, teenagers are the ones involved, it was the fruit of a rape or bad event, the family have no resources to feed an extra mouth and mostly because as a measure of birth control or at times anatomical defect of the fetus. No particular age group, race or religious-belief or geographical locations that has been spared from an abortion attempt. Following statistics for U.S. show the same. 72 76 80 85 90 91 92 93 94 Age (years) =25 34.9 34.6 35.3 39.0 44.4 44.6 45.4 45.6 46.3 Race White 77.0 66.6 69.9 66.6 64.8 63.8 61.5 60.9 60.5 Black 23.0 33.4 30.1 29.8 31.8 32.5 33.9 34.9 34.7 Other 3.5 3.4 3.7 4.6 4.2 4.8 There is a pattern that has been noticed recently and deducted that the practice of such an intervention is more prone to the age group of people who are 19-24 years of age and at the same time are still in college. For them, their main aim is to focus on their education and then later have a kid without having to ask for help from their parents or friends. And thus they need to be informed more about the preventive measures that are now available. There exists an extensive variety of the method that a person wants to use as means of preventive measures against falling pregnant and resorting to an abortion. The list consists of: the use of condoms, contraceptive pills, plan B/ morning pills, intra- uterine device insertion among so many others. All the same, none of those mentioned ways guarantee that they are 100% safe and secure. And the most common one being marketed by diverse pharmaceutical companies are Mifepristone pills which induces a substitute approach instead of surgical techniques. ‘Pro choice’ activists argue that women should have access to safe abortions, that ‘a nation founded on and dedicated to civil liberties could allow its citizens to resort to dangerous self-abortion procedures.’ That too is a false promise. Ninety-seven percent of women who have had abortions describe intense pain experienced during the procedure despite the use of local anesthetics. “Compared to other pains, researchers have rated the pain from abortion as more painful than a bone fracture, about the same as cancer pain, though not as painful as an amputation.” (Bulanger, Melzak & Lauzon, 1989). “Complications are common such as bleeding, hemorrhage, laceration of the cervix, menstrual disturbance, inflammation of the reproductive organs, bladder or bowel perforation, and serious infection” (Danforth, 1986). Overall, women who have abortions increase their risk of future miscarriages and sterility. Humiliated, scared and ashamed, a mother to be must, generally, go to a clinic, not a familiar doctor for the most traumatic experience of her young life. Women can suffer long term physical as well as psychological complications from an abortion procedure. Feminism, a principle that is based on fighting for the rights of women and bringing an equality between men and women, have shown that women have inborn talents, undeniable rights and values which is applied to both sexes. Therefore, an abortion can be viewed upon from a woman’s shoe as well as from a man. The discussion about this topic should not be based on moral values or the integrity of the person but it should focus more about the right of that woman irrespective to the traditions and cultures that makes everything complicated and binds the woman to follow something that she does not wish to. Since the law of abortion has been voted and approved, motherhood cannot be imposed on any woman unless if she desires it, as she has the birthright. Moreover, she should not be looked upon as a secondary citizen unlike the earlier times as time has evolved and the women of long ago and those of today have also adjusted to the new advancing world. It is true that once she has reached the motherhood stage, she is being deprived from many things including education and healthcare and thus she seeks refuge in having an abortion. The view point of the anti feminists concluded that women should not even reach to the level of men as women should submit to their cultures and to men above all since they do not have the peculiarity features of men. They further stated that the female sex should play their role in a reproductive way and thereby acclimatizing to the society. In order to escape any sort of discriminations, confront harsh words from this society, many women seek refuge in abortion and likewise they do not have to provide any justifications to any organizations, funds and society. The pro life and pro choice organizations mentioned some important lines which says part of the truth about men also. The men who are in favor of abortion are those who are not ready to accept their responsibility to cater to the needs of either the woman or the child or both of them. "What women won was the right to undergo invasive procedures in order to terminate unwanted pregnancies, unwanted not just by them but by their parents, their sexual partners, the governments who would not support mothers, the employers who would not employ mothers, the landlords who would not accept tenants with children, the schools that would not accept students with children. Historically the only thing pro-abortion agitation achieve was to make an illiberal establishment [patriarchal culture] look far more feminist than it was" (Greer, 92).   Several years have elapsed since the legalization of this law and still it seems that before accessing for such an intervention, many women have been disappointed in the long run since the services were harder to obtain, the right was not approved on time or the medical papers were not signed on time. Women should not be treated as a material object that is used only for the kitchen and as reproducing machine. She also has an identity of her own and she needs to know that she has the power to take at least a decision by herself. Making an abortion should not be the only right that she should be entrusted , she should also be given the right to many more decisions in her family and even compete with the opposite gender. Unlike males, they have to bear the kid and raise them and face all the consequences of a pregnancy including putting their life at risk. This duty normally should be shared among two parents as they have both contributed in conceiving it. So why should they shirk from their responsibilities? Why should the society pin point only to the woman? The man should not be blamed for anything? Does he know the pre-existing notion about the psycho-emotional state that a pregnant woman undergoes? The answer remains vague to these questions.   As a conclusion to this never-ending debate, there are many points that can be highlighted and they include that women reserve the right to decide whether they should keep their child or not. The situation of falling pregnant is nothing to be an apology for as there are various ways of preventing it and an abortion remains the last but not the least option that they should consider. Those who opt this method of prevention should know that there are laws that exist in order to protect their rights. But aborting after the 28th week is normally considered as a political issue or pathological defect and anomaly in the child. More often than not, those women are psycho-emotionally touched. Women, even if they are judged to be the weakest gender, need to have more rights in their favor and make sure that they are being defended as well as protected. Men should share their responsibility and should also endure the same hurdles which women do or at least should have an idea as to the pain they go through. There are huge panoramas of methods of prevention that exist and for sure none of the methods guarantee a total safety but responsibilities should be shared. The feminists group which is comprised of the pro- life and pro- choice both say that it is not only a matter of moral values but mostly of rights that favor women as a whole so that they are not taken for granted.         Facts on Induced Abortion in the United States www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html Abortion 101. (n.d.) Retrieved ( 2008) http://www.mdivs.edu/Abortion_101.rtf. Rice, B. (2006). Abortion: Ethical Analysis - Associated Content. (2008) http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/25347/abortion_ethical_analysis.html. Kathy Gill Issue Summary: Abortion Retrieved on 25/11/08 http://uspolitics.about.com/od/electionissues/i/abortion.htm Marquis, Don. “An Argument that Abortion is Wrong.” (1989). Northern Arizona University. March 3, 2009 http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/03/womens_day.html http://socialistworker.org/2007-1/629/629_03_abortion.shtml http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1845 Read More