In Support for Abortion - Research Paper Example

In Support for Abortion Abstract Abortion entails the control of a woman on her procreativity giving her the sole power of deciding the making of a fetus to a child or not. It remains a critical religious, philosophic and medical dilemma in the society. This paper borrows from various sources to analyze both sides of the abortion debate. Despite the arguments on the negative effects of abortion to the society and individuals, its continued legalization offers significant social, emotional and physical benefits because it would cause economic benefits, reduced crime rates, increased health benefits and career and education benefits to women. As such, abortion should remain legal. Introduction Abortion refers to the intentional procedure undertaken to terminate pregnancy according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC. Medicines or surgical procedure would be used to remove the fetus and placenta or embryo from the uterus with the choice of the procedure to use depending on the age of the pregnancy. Going by this definition, an abortion committed by a licensed clinician would be considered legal and illegal if committed by any other person. According to Pazol et al. (4), unwanted pregnancies make up about 50% of the pregnancies in the US. Of these unintended pregnancies, 40% would be aborted, making up about 1.21 million abortions annually. Every year, about 2% of women in their productive ages of 15 to 44 would procure an abortion, especially at week twelve of the pregnancy. Of these women, 47% would have had an abortion before with a third having never been married before. The US leads the rest of the western world in abortion rates at 19.4 per every 1,000. Inadequate finances and unpreparedness for responsibility stand out as the major reasons for abortion according to Pichler (87). Other reasons include fear of a changed life, immaturity, health problems and pregnancy resulting from incest or rape. The practice of abortion had been in existence in the US since the ancient times using abortifacient herbs, application of abdominal pressure or use of sharp implements. These were conducted illegally as abortion had been banned in most of the states and would only be allowed under specific circumstances like pregnancies out of rape, date drug or incest. Washington, New York, Hawaii and Alaska were the only states that allowed abortion. But in 1973, the decision by the Supreme Court with regard to Roe vs. Wade invalidated these laws, giving birth to guidelines which prohibited the ban on abortion in early pregnancy but increase restrictions later in the pregnancy (Butler and Walbert 1). Following subsequent amendments, abortion remains legal but under restrictions that vary from a state to another. Nonetheless, the debate on the issue never ends, with the major protagonists being pro-life, even though various shades of opinions hold. Arguments against Abortion Abortion legalization encourages abortion practice which has been noted to increase mortality rates due to abortion-related deaths. These deaths result from complications associated with abortions or the chain of events triggered by abortion. But studies by CDC indicate a decline from 193 illegal and 17% of legal abortions in 1965 to 3.4 deaths for every 100,000 abortions in 1973 when the practice was legalized, to 1.3 in 1977. Today, after 63 days of pregnancy, the risk of abortion mortality has decreased to 1 per every 100,000. In fact, the risk of death associated with childbirth has been noted to be times higher than that associated with abortion (Raymond and Grimes 215). Making abortion a legal procedure increases irresponsible sexual behavior. Since irresponsible sexual behavior positively correlates to transmission of STDs, the observation by Klick (8) of increase in syphilis and gonorrhea rates by 25% since the legalization of abortion in 1973 supports the fact that abortion increases irresponsible sexual behaviors. In spite of the validity of this argument, the study fails to consider racial heterogeneity and also the impact of reduction in safe sex. Perhaps, abortion legalization increased the trend towards unsafe sex, as opposed to safe sex. According to Pichler (100), sexual involvement is a personal choice determined by one’s self control. So, with or without the availability of abortion procedure, individuals who do not have the capacity to control themselves would still engage in irresponsible sexual behaviors. In this case, abortion could be viewed as a beneficial procedure because where one’s self control fails, the procedure undoes the unwanted pregnancy and hence should be viewed as insurance against the unwanted pregnancies in the society. This therefore means that legalizing abortion would not necessarily lead to increased sexual irresponsibility. Abortion has negative health effects and as such should be illegalized. This postulate posits that abortion increases the risk associated with breast cancer development. According to Butler and Walbert (53), there would be an increase in estrogen during early pregnancy period which causes the breast to grow as it prepares for lactation. Abortion interrupts this process before realization of full maturity at trimester 3 causing more vulnerable immature cells to be left, more than would have been before the pregnancy. This leads to greater risk of breast cancer developing. But this postulate contradicts the scientific evidence that abortion does not lead to development of breast cancer as documented by Raymond and Grimes (217). Majority of religious beliefs would be contravened with the legalization of abortion. Pro-life Christians guided by scripture references (New King James Version. Luke 1.15; Matt. 1.18) hold the belief of the beginning of human life at conception just as the right to life. Therefore, abortion has been widely considered as immoral and a discrimination against the unborn, denying it the chance to live. The Orthodox Churches consider abortion as a violation of the command of “Thou shall not kill” (Exodus 20:13), so does Islam (Quran 6:151). Hinduism also forbids abortion referring got it as womb-killing, garha-batta and abortionists as greatest sinners, Atharva Veda. In as much as the Church of England also considers abortion as immoral, it permits its practice in situations where the life of the mother has been threatened by the continuance of the pregnancy, same as Buddhism (Butler and Walbert 66). Arguments for Making abortion legal and maintaining that legality would cause gainful results to individuals and the society at large. Legalizing abortion would make the society realize cost savings thus benefit economically as documented by Klick. Making the exercise legal would remove penalties that come with providing or seeking abortion. It makes the cost associated with searching for service providers for the practice and also the cost of seeking for information on the involved procedure lower. Abortion provides women with the option of not bringing forth children into unfavorable environments hence improving on the average living standards of those that would be born. This positive selection of abortion reduces welfare expenditure considerably thus saving the government of an otherwise controllable expense. With continued legalization of abortion, crime rates would reduce. Pazol et al. (33) indicate that legalizing abortion would reduce the number of children who would be born, consequently reducing the population in the late adolescence known to be the greatest perpetrators of crime. As such, there would be a 5% decrease in crime. Additionally, because the decrease in birth would come majorly from the women who do not have the capacity to take care of children, there would be a decrease in the number of women engaging in crime so as to provide to their children. This would reduce crime by a further about 20%. Even so, there has been criticism on this hypothesis noting that the increase in single-parent families could increase crime among the adolescents hence an ambiguous net effect of abortion on crime (Klick 18). However, the probability of this has not been tested hence the postulate of abortion reducing crime still holds. In the same regard, legalizing abortion propagates health benefits to the involved women. The couples that exhibit high risks of fatal genetic disorders have exhibited willingness to conceive due to safe legal abortion being made available to them in case of complications. Furthermore, Raymond and Grimes (216) asserts that illegalizing abortion would cause women with unwanted pregnancies to experience depression which could be replicated in a lower mother-child relationship hence the whole family suffers. Finally, abortion ensures that women enjoy the opportunities in life equally with men, specifically in the labor market and education. Unplanned pregnancies, especially in teenage could to a greater extent disrupt the education of women thus causing adverse consequences in their later years as they seek to join the labor market. Studies by Klick (22) indicate that among the Black women, bearing a child out-of-wedlock reduces the chances of graduating from high school by 25%. A similar observation would be made with the likelihood of joining college and income levels and employment rates. With abortion, every child birth would be planned, even if after conception, which gives women control over their fertility hence saving them from uncontrollable factors that could jeopardize their life opportunities. Conclusion In summary, no argument against the legalization of abortion negates the evidence that families have reaped great mental, physical and social benefits from the historic decision by the Supreme Court in Roe vs. Wade that made abortion legal. Any forces inhibiting women from accessing their right to legal and medically safe abortion jeopardizes their health, that of their families and indeed the nation at large that include national cost savings, reduced crime rates, increased health benefits and opportunities in education and labor markets for women. As such, abortion should remain a legal practice. Works Cited Butler, J. Douglas and David F. Walbert. Abortion, Medicine and the Law. Martinsville, IN: Fideli Publishing, 2011. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Abortion. 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 19 Mar. 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/Data_Stats/Abortion.htm Klick, J. Econometric Analyses of U.S. Abortion Policy: A Critical Review. 2004. Web. 19. Mar. 2013. https://www.law.upenn.edu/fac/jklick/31FordhamULJ751.pdf Pazol, Karen, Andreea A. Creanga, Suzanne B. Zane, Kim D. Burley, and Denise J. Jamieson. “Abortion Surveillance – United States.” 61.8 (2009): 1 – 44. Web. 19. Mar. 2013. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6108a1.htm?s_cid=ss6108a1_w Pichler, S. Medical and Social Health Benefits since Abortion was made Legal in the U.S. New York, NY: Katharine Dexter McCormick, 2009. Raymond, E. G. and D. A. Grimes. “The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced abortion and Childbirth in the United States.” Obstetrics and Gynecology 2.1 (2012): 215 - 219. Read More