Abortion remains as one of the most controversial topics in modern day society. It is a debate that stems from the beliefs that people hold about killing off an unborn fetus. The most important thing to keep in mind though is that if abortion is made illegal across the US, that will not change and eliminate the need for them. Rather, making it illegal will push people to find ways of doing it on their own, without proper medical assistance and tools.
Background & Historical Context
Abortion was widely practiced across all different countries and cultures up to the late 19th century until restrictive laws began to come about. These laws had been largely influenced by societal norms and medical practices of that time. But, despite all of these laws, evidence has shown that making abortion a crime can lead to dangerous procedures that put women's lives at risk. For example, in parts of Latin America, women have often resorted to many unsafe procedures that have led to complications such as death. But why is it that people choose to get abortions? Is it because they don’t want the baby? In most cases, the answer to that is yes, but there is so much more to it than women not wanting to have kids. Many experience life threatening complications when carrying children and being able to exterminate the pregnancy can save their lives. Sadly, when abortion is made illegal, health professionals cannot help these women to prevent their own deaths. This demonstrates one of many reasons why abortion should not be labeled as a crime.
A Shift in Women’s Rights
Having control over one’s body is one of the biggest principles of human rights. Since the beginning of time, people have argued over what rights women and men should have over their body. It has taken years upon years for women to actually earn the right to their own body and for them to gain full independence from men. And now, legal rulings from cases such as Roe vs. Wade has helped to establish that the government is not able to interfere in the personal medical decisions that the citizens make. Not only that, but restricting access to abortion throws off the balance of gender equality. When women, who, in the past, have had to fight so hard for their equality, are denied the right to make choices about their own reproductive health, it reflects badly on the rest of the country. Being pregnant creates a lot of restrictions on the person who it falls on such as their ability to get any work done or to pursue other activities which would not be safe for their baby. For those who have a lot of expectations for their lives, this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. The ability to choose is connected to personal freedom which many women in the modern day world are working towards after so many decades of being constricted into one bubble. Ensuring access to safe and legal abortion is essential for creating a society where women can thrive on equal footing with men.
In addition to women’s freedom, babies are extremely expensive, as shown by an article by New York Life Insurance which shows some of the possible expenses that parents may be investing in for their child in the first twelve months of their lives. And in the US, there are little to no programs that can actually help parents pay for their children. The expectation is that all parents should be able to afford the children that they want and aside from the fact that that should never have been an expectation in the first place, that is just physically not possible for most families in today’s economy. So, either the economy, society, or the law has to change to accommodate for uprising mothers, and by the looks of the former two, changing the law seems like the best course of action.
Proper Healthcare & Treatment Matters
Research indicates that legal abortions are significantly safer than illegal ones. Even without research, it should be easy to tell which one would be, statistically, much safer. With legal abortions, there are medical professionals who are able to properly exterminate the pregnancy and care for the mother afterwards, ensuring that they are nursed back to full health. With illegal abortions, girls are left to try all the home remedies that they find online in hopes of getting rid of their fetus. The World Health Organization estimates that 25 million unsafe abortions occur each year, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths of the women in which they happen to. Additionally, the mental health impacts of being denied an abortion are extreme. Studies show that women who are forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Access to abortion allows women to make choices that are best for their mental and emotional well-being, leading to more positive outcomes.
There is not only an effect on childbearing women, but the rest of the nation as well. Many doctors have voiced that they are not interested in working in states or countries that do not allow them to perform abortions, even if they do not specialize in that field. This is because a lot of procedures, while they may not directly be abortions, can lead to women getting or having to get abortions and therefore, those procedures get banned as well. Doctors wish to freely practice and do what they believe is best for their patients, so if the best of them are moving away to other areas, then what is left in our country for those who need actual healthcare?
A Change in Focus
Instead of putting all of one’s time and energy into criminalizing abortion, society should focus on other things such as proper sex education so that people would not have to result to abortions. Proper sex education does not mean teaching the people what sex is and what it leads to, but rather explaining to them why knowing and learning about your body is important. Teaching people that knowing their bodies helps them to understand if they are well equipped enough to be having children and this can also teach them what an abortion exactly entails. Another way in which the focus can be moved is towards the access of contraceptives. While unprotected and excessive sex is never encouraged, many people will still choose to do it. This is why it’s important to provide contraceptives that actually work and will be accessible to all females, this includes teens. Teens make bad decisions and while allowing them access to contraceptives can encourage these bad decisions, not allowing them to have it, can result in much worse. This also helps to prove why proper sex education is important because, if people were actually educated, then the horrid choices that they made would be much less common. By investing in these other things which can prevent pregnancies from ever even coming to be, it helps us to ensure that our country remains as equal to all women as it does to men.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it’s vital that we continue to work towards keeping abortion legal. This not only applies for the US, but countries all around the world as well. These are just a handful of the many reasons as to why criminalizing abortion is wrong. A society that claims to value human rights must make sure that females are able to make these choices, even if they do not believe them to be the right ones. Creating a future where everyone has the support they need and advocating for the right to safe abortion is essential for building a better society and country.
Resources
Amnesty International. “Abortion Rights.” Amnesty International, n/a, https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/abortion-facts/. Accessed 29 October 2024.
Chmielewski, Kenny. “Pro and Con: Abortion.” Britannica, 24 June 2022, https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-abortion. Accessed 29 October 2024.
New York Life. “How Much Does A Baby Cost? | New York Life.” New York Life Insurance, n/a, https://www.newyorklife.com/articles/breakdown-of-biggest-expenses-for-your-child. Accessed 29 October 2024.
Thomson, Amelia, and Gus Wezerek. “Here's Why The Anti-Abortion Movement Is Escalating.” 538 — Election Polls, Politics, and Analysis - ABC News, 21 May 2019, https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-categorized-hundreds-of-abortion-restrictions-heres-why-the-anti-abortion-movement-is-escalating/. Accessed 29 October 2024.
WHO. “Abortion.” World Health Organization (WHO), n/a, https://www.who.int/health-topics/abortion#tab=tab_1. Accessed 29 October 2024.