In a deeply divided society, abortion remains one of the most divisive issues. Debates over abortion have moral and legal aspects. Ultimately, every pregnancy will end. The question is whether our society should aim for every pregnancy to end in the birth of a living baby.
Approximately 25% of women will have had an abortion by the age of 45.
When a woman’s life or health is in danger, abortion is believed by many to be a lifesaving remedy. This is why supporters of abortion say it is an essential form of women’s healthcare. Another reason for keeping abortion legal is that no woman should be forced to carry a pregnancy to term that was the product of incest or rape. Most fundamentally, abortion proponents argue that banning it denies a woman bodily autonomy, creating a precedent for the government to take more control of women.
There are arguments in favor of the moral worth of preborn human life and restricting violence against the innocent.
First, just because something is common does not make it okay. Slavery had been around for nearly all recorded history, so the idea that abortion is common resolves nothing. Second, many understandably ask, “What if the mother’s life is in danger?” My response is that abortion, rightly understood, is not a necessary medical procedure. Some interventions on behalf of pregnant women facing extreme symptoms may end in the foreseeable death of the preborn child, but such an outcome must never be the goal of the intervention. Doctors should do their best to save the lives of both the baby and mother, and in every state, even those that restrict abortion, they are allowed to do so.
Most people seek abortion for reasons that have nothing to do with medical complications. Planned Parenthood revealed that many of the reasons for abortion do not, in fact, involve pregnancy horror stories. Victoria, from California, explained that she “simply wasn’t ready to have a child”. Sally, from Texas, revealed that she “was taking birth control pills, but was not careful enough”.
Abortion should most definitely not be an option to get rid of the “nuisance” that is interfering in the life of the mother. Intentionally killing innocent human life is wrong.
Abortion shouldn’t be used carelessly due to the irresponsibility of the parents. After the child has been conceived, a new life has already begun. Some may argue that in the case of a human embryo, the child is about the same as that of an amoeba. My response to this is, no, it is not. To use an analogy, a sapling is a baby tree. Even though it is not fully grown, it is never questioned whether the sapling is a tree. The same applies with an embryo. The preborn life has not fully grown yet, nor is it able to live on its own outside of the mother, but there is never a point in time when that life was not a person. Pope Francis stated that “abortion is murder. Those who carry out abortions kill. After the third week after conception, often even before the mother is aware, all the organs are already starting to develop. It is human life. Period.”
Regarding rape or incest, in no other circumstance is the child of the parents ever punished for a crime that the parents did, so why would abortion be any different?
There are also people that believe that abortion aligns with their religious beliefs. In Indiana, the Court of Appeals decided that abortion can be a free exercise of religion and there have been lawsuits regarding the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. They argued that if a corporation can take away the exercise of abortion due to religion, then they can give the right to abortion due to religion. “A religious teaching permitting an activity is not the same as requiring that activity” (Bayer). This means that just because a tenet doesn’t prohibit something does not mean that it is necessarily okay to do it.
I am about saving both the mother’s and child’s life, yet you are only for saving the mother. In almost every scenario, the mother is the only one spoken of, and the child is ignored. Doesn’t everyone want to help new life thrive and not be diminished? I would like to emphasize again how important it is that our society should aim for every pregnancy to end in the birth of a living baby.
This blog post was written by a local high school student for a class assignment.