Abortion in Guyana Essay Example

The legalization of abortion in Guyana is a travesty. In 1995, after Guyana passed what was then considered some of the most liberal abortion laws in South America with the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act abortion has affected Guyanese in a significant way. The reason why I say this is because Guyana being an under populated country with a large land mass, enormous natural resources, and fertile agricultural land can adequately provide for all citizens. Apart from those facts the legalization of abortion in Guyana which in my opinion stem from the Roe v. Wade (1973) court case in the United States of America should have never been used as a consensus to influence the decision to legalize abortion in Guyana. Guyanese people traditionally held high moral standing and the decision by the legislator to adopt the United States stance and legalize abortion in Guyana, was tantamount and an assault on most segments of society; the unborn, women’s health, and population growth are mostly affected by this unpopular decision.

It has been a constant debate whether or not the unborn child possesses personhood. Most philosophers agree that the fetus either has personhood from the point of conception or it acquires it at some point during the process of gestation. In my opinion the unborn constitutes personhood and even though, a small minority of thinkers hold that not even the newborn baby possesses personhood, thus making infanticide theoretically justifiable in some cases, most thinkers agree that once the fetus emerges from the womb as a newborn child, and it is a person with full human rights. Thus, the question under debate is, at what point in the process of gestation does the fetus possess personhood? A wide variety of different points has been suggested. These are called “decisive moments,” referring to a “moment” at which the fetus can be said to be a person. Thus, to apply this to the unborn involves a further argument that the embryo/fetus in the womb constitutes a person who possesses the right to life.

Women’s health is not all taken seriously when abortion is encouraged, and while the Court ruled that woman does have a constitutional right to an abortion, the state also should have an interest in protecting the woman’s health and the potential life of the fetus. Notably, in many, cases a blind eye is turned to risk factors, and, the emotional and psychological trauma a woman endures during and after an abortion and this is disappointing and unsatisfactory. In addition, abortion affects the woman’s health in virtually many ways, and the encouragement of abortion at any stage of the pregnancy should always be discouraged. Notably, research has shown that abortion also affects the emotional health of a woman and her family and as such should never be justified.

Finally, population growth is significantly affected by this unpopular decision of legalizing abortion in Guyana. With a population of under a million and a land mass of 83,000 square miles, population growth has been adversely affected by the introduction and legalization of abortion over the many decades. If you take a close look at the report on abortion statistics and other data--Johnston`s Archive Sep 2001, from the year 1995 when abortion was legalized to 2019 some 72,746 legal abortions were done. This figure is staggering notwithstanding the current figure to date. Evidently, a growing population can generate economic growth. - The birth of more people means there will be a greater number of parents investing in their youth; increased purchases in products such as food, clothing, education-related expenses, sporting goods, and toys feed the economy. These are just some of the benefits that Guyana and its citizens are losing out on as we continue to lose this invaluable asset called human resource.

As a pro-life supporter, the decision by legislators to legalize abortion in Guyana was tantamount to an assault on the most vulnerable segment of society, the unborn, women’s health, and produced a negative population growth countrywide is just some of the negative outcomes. Moreso, since that decision was made some 27 years ago there has been a significant moral decline coupled with a stagnant growth which has not benefitted the economy’ talent pool, and has affected the scale of greater specialization.