Abortion Essay, Research Paper

Abortion”, the very sound of the word conjures up horrible images and is, in fact, a very controversial and emotional issue. Abortion has been going on all over the world for centuries. In the dictionary, the word abortion means, “A premature birth occurring before the fetus can survive.” In other words, an abortion is when the fetus is “killed” and then removed from the womb. Abortions are not very safe and could cause serious emotional and health problems. The endless oppositions usually go nowhere, leaving the opponents even more committed to their stance.

There are two opposing sides dealing with abortion, Pro-Life and Pro-Choice. People who are in the Pro-Life group believe that a woman should not have the right to get an abortion, no matter what. They believe the fetus should have the right to life and that abortion is murder. Pro-Life feel the fetus is a living, feeling being from the instant of conception. People in the Pro-Choice group mostly believe that it is the woman’s choice to get an abortion, depending on their reason. They believe it is the woman’s body and she has the right to choose what happens to it. Some people may even be in between both of the sides. This is a very emotional topic and a lot of factors are involved in what people believe. Some factors that might influence whether a person are Pro-Life or Pro-Choice is the individuals up-bringing, personal experiences and religion.

I am one of the people who agree, to a certain extent, with both sides. I am mainly on the Pro-Choice point of view, but there are some types of abortion that I do not agree with. I believe people should have a right to choose what happens with their bodies, but I also believe people should be responsible for their actions and not go out and get pregnant or get someone pregnant thinking it is okay to take the child’s life. I believe that I was a living, feeling person from the time of my conception and that it would have been murder to abort me. I do not believe in late term abortions at all. I believe a life is created at the time of conception, but if the mother will have a health risk by having the baby or the baby will be born in a negative state, abortion should be allowed. The mother should not risk dying, especially if she has other children and she should not risk becoming infertile by having a baby too early in her life. I don’t believe abortion should have to be performed in back allies or in unsafe conditions. I do not feel abortions should be a convenience to the expected mother or a means of preventing embarrassment for an unwanted child or unwed mother. I fear a lot of babies have been aborted that could have grown up and made a difference in the world.

A lot of people that are in the Pro-Life group try to make their point by the use of vandalism, protests, and riots. There are a great number of abortion clinics around the world that have been vandalized, and even destroyed without regard for the people inside. There have even been cases where employees were harassed, maimed, and murdered. As far as they are concerned, even if a woman was to become pregnant due to being raped, they would still feel that the woman should have the baby. A lot of women would not want to keep a baby that was conceived from the violent act of rape. The people that are in this group probably do not think about whether the baby is going to get the attention and care that it needs to survive anyway. If the woman does not want to have a baby, but cannot get an abortion, it will result in the child having problems in later years feeling it is not loved, wanted, or that it has a place in the world. The only thing that the Pro-Life people care about is people not getting abortions, even if they are not ready to take care of the child. The way I have always believed is that an unwanted child is a pitiful thing. Making someone keep a child that they do not want will not only ruin the woman’s life, but it will also ruin the child’s too. If the woman does not want the child, she will not care for it the way she should, which will result in the baby having problems in the future.

As explained in The Abortion Decision, I know people believe the unwanted child could be given up for adoption and I believe adoption is a good thing, but there are also problems with that. There are a lot of children waiting to be adopted. Everyone who looks to adopt a child wants a perfect child. Not all babies are perfect and hardly anyone is going to want a mentally or physically challenged baby, or even a multicultural baby. I also think in most cases, adoption, you are actually buying a child and not everyone can afford it, so children go without homes. There are a lot of qualifications that a couple has to meet to be able to adopt. A lot of agencies want the couple to be under a certain age or make a certain amount of money. You can, naturally, have a child no matter what your age or income so I think the restrictions should be revised to give more potential parents a chance to adopt and give more children, whether they are babies or not, a home. I believe adoption is better than abortion.

The Pro-Choice group does not usually use any kind of violence to get their point across to others as far as I know. They just don’t think there is any problem what so ever to get an abortion. They probably would not care if the woman was twenty-four weeks pregnant and wanted an abortion. After reading how a baby that is twenty-four weeks old thinks and dreams as we do and even looks like a formed, identifiable child in The Ethics of Abortion: Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice, it made me feel that late term abortion is like murder.

Abortion has both good and bad characteristics. If someone was to get pregnant after being raped, they always have the choice to abort the baby, which would be good for the woman. There is also the fact that there is no kind of protection that is 100% effective on keeping someone from getting pregnant. If someone accidentally got pregnant, they also have the choice to get an abortion. Most people take advantage of abortion though. Some people probably don’t care about being safe when having sex because they know they can always get an abortion if it were to happen, which is very irresponsible.

There are also many side effects that a lot of people are not told about. When women get abortions, they have a high probability of getting negative physical side effects, and almost certain negative psychological side effects. Abortion is an unnatural process that interrupts one of the primary functions of the human body. A woman’s body will naturally resist the abortion, causing physical and even emotional problems. The most disturbing thing about this is that many women are not informed about the side effects of abortion. It is not a law to inform the women of these risks before the abortion. The most common abortion side effects are, infertility, cervical laceration, uncontrollable blood clotting, severe hemorrhage, seizures, coma, cancer, and even death. The most probable side effects include intense bleeding, placental, uteral, or cervical infection or rupture, reduced fertility, or breast cancer.

After reading Thinking About Abortion, I saw that a lot of times, young girls get abortions and find out later that it haunts them forever. They will always wonder what the child would have been like and a lot of times cannot forgive themselves. If a young girl is forced to have an abortion because she is unwed and pregnant, she may always resent and hate the people that forced her to have the abortion. In some cases, after an abortion, the woman is not capable of having children again.

The privacy for women getting abortions is not as good as what it should be. The anti-abortionists sometimes get the names of women who are considering an abortion and they can harass them and try to get them to change their minds about getting the abortion. I think whether an individual has an abortion or not is a very private matter. Names of individuals who may have an abortion should never be sold or revealed. No one has the right to tell you what to do. In some cases if the individual were left alone and given time to think the situation through she would be able to make a wise decision. People have to search their conscience and be able to live with their decision not worry about whether some one else can live with their decision.

There are, as I mentioned earlier, medical concerns that should be carefully weighed out before a final decision is made about having an abortion. As in any medical procedure, there may be complications. Some medical problems could result in the woman not being able to ever have children again and that could be emotionally devastating.

For me, being so young, and not yet experiencing life to the fullest degree, I think my views would still be guided by the views of my parents. It would be one of the most difficult decisions to make in life. I really do believe that you are a person from conception and that it is a form of murder to take a life, but I also see that there are circumstances that might allow abortion to take place. I would hope that, as in other situations in my life, there would always be options. I like to take the time to weigh out all factors and try to find ways to solve problems. It is also difficult for me to imagine any thing to do with pregnancy or abortion since I am not a female and should never have to make the final decision. I know that if I get someone pregnant, it is as much my responsible as it would be hers but the final decision would be the woman’s. I only hope that if it ever comes to this decision for me, or anyone in my family, that I would be able to draw the courage and strength from my family and God to make a decision that I could live with. I think this is one of those situations that you don’t know if you have done the right thing for you until it is done and over with and then you just have to live with it. I feel everyone has to make their own decisions but think all options should be explored before the tiniest life is taken. An unborn child is not able to make the decision whether to live or die, to be loved or a burden. Adults need to think of everything before making this decision.