Essay Sample about Abortion

Introduction

"denying women access to legal abortion does not prevent them from having abortions, but just increases the likelihood that they will resort to an illegal abortion carried out under unsafe conditions" (Abortion Before and After Legalization). Self-inflicted abortions on average account for 8-11% of maternal deaths; this number is unacceptable. These deaths are primarily in countries where abortion is illegal. Had there been a safe and affordable way for mothers to get abortions when needed, this number could fall tremendously. 45% of abortions in the world are performed in unsafe conditions; this directly correlates where the rule of law and democracy are not the basic foundation of society. A country where people are excluded from having their voices heard, especially when it is a whole gender, is a country that will have a hard time progressing in the future and evolving throughout the years. The prominent opposers of abortion believe that if we were to make abortion illegal, it would eliminate abortion as a whole; what we have learned in the past is that making something illegal does not get rid of it. Drugs are illegal, and underage drinking is illegal. Does that stop it from happening? No, it proves that making something illegal does not get rid of it; it adds to the ways people will do it in unsafe practices.  

History of abortion

Abortion was commonly practiced in New England during the early 1600s, so common that it even had some medical records. Abortion was legal during this time, and there were very few against it; religious groups were not even against it until 1860 when it became illegal. Individuals against abortion often say that it is not constitutional or that the founding fathers would disagree with abortion if they lived in the present times. Still, they often seem to forget that abortion was legal when the constitution was being written. Foreshadowing is viewed from the past to now. Both legalized abortion and did not alienate females who had one. It was not until the early 1900s that abortion indeed became looked down on. It was utterly illegal except if it was to save the mother's life. A common theme was that men in power were forcing laws on women to show how much power they had and how they were in control. They would also find women who were going into the abortion clinics and publicly embarrass them. During the 1900s, the belittlement and embarrassment led to Roe v Wade, the most important thing to happen to abortion. 

Roe V Wade

The Roe V Wade hearing was one of our generation's most significant court hearings, and it revolutionized how the country would speak about abortion for the future. The supreme court ruled that a state law that banned abortions was unconstitutional. The reason that this court case was so controversial and is talked about so much now is that at the time, there were indeed only two sides, there were pro-choice, who thought abortion should be legal and the opposition pro-life, who thought it should be illegal, there was no in-between. There are parallels to today, but there are many more opinions nowadays; it is pretty interesting to think about how there used only to be two sides of the story, but nowadays, there are hundreds of standpoints. Pro-life believers during Roe V Wade thought of it as only a way for people to kill babies, and that was it. We came to learn that when abortion became legal in the U.S., the rates of illegal abortion dropped from 130,000 to 17,000 within two years. Thus proving that the legalization of abortion made it more accessible and saved the lives of women who would have just done it in an unsafe way.  A topic widely spoken about is what would have happened if the U.S. never legalized abortion, would there be underground abortion clinics? or would people secretly learn how to do it?

Self-induced Injuries

Seven million women and girls are injured during an unsafe abortion every year; 22,000 die yearly. 97% of these injuries are in developing countries. In most countries, women cannot vote and are alienated from fundamental human rights. In countries where the female sex is viewed as baby-makers, where these issues continue to be prevalent, most problems would not exist if they were treated like they are in the U.S. These are vital statistics to help the world figure out what needs to be done for these rates to go down, and it is pretty straightforward on how to do this, legalize abortion and make it affordable. The U.S. proved that when it becomes legal, people will resort to safer ways extremely fast. An analogy I often come back to is that drugs are illegal, so why are they still being done? Pro-lifers make it seem as though if abortion became illegal, then the rate of abortion would drop to 0, but the fact is that no matter what it is, it will be done; no matter how it is done, it will be done. Rather than trying to illegalize abortion, there should be a drive to legalize it around the world so that people in these developing countries would stop harming themselves. The main argument with this is religion. 

Counter argument 

The religious standpoint on abortion is that mostly it is murder and should not be allowed. Most religions believe this and find it morally wrong to murder a future human, and abortion is simply killing babies no matter how someone looks at it. If an individual can have a baby and take care of it, there is no reason for sed person to have an abortion. The definition of murder is "the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. "I believe anyone who is having an abortion should sit down and think about what they are doing. They should consider if their only option is to have an abortion, and if they can raise and take care of a child, then there is no true reason even to consider having one. One of the biggest death rates in certain races and communities is abortion, "the abortion rate for black women is almost five times that for white women" (Cohen,2008). The murder of African American fetus, being one of the main points of pro-life, one of the main reasons this is the case is that people believe that the creator of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, was a racist. In writing, Sanger states, "We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members." Celebrities started pointing this out, such as Kanye West. West stated his father tried to have an abortion when he was in the womb and that his mom "saved him," and that his dad wanted to have the abortion done because he was "too busy." He also spoke about how abortion rates are affecting the African American community more than homicide rates are. Nonetheless, there is a reason to have one for most women, so if they feel that they need one, there should be a safe and affordable way.

Sexual assault 

When a woman is in a relationship where she feels like she has no opinion, she will often try to get an abortion or get rid of the child. In most of these scenarios, the male in this relationship will not let her get one, or he will threaten her if she tries to get one. These types of systems are what lead to self abortions or abuse of the female. Had abortion not been legal, toxic relationships would rise, and in most of these situations, the child is raised into abuse. The rare case of a female becoming pregnant because of rape is one of the few scenarios where even pro-life believe that they should have an abortion, or they will explain how the chance of that happening is near impossible. However, even for the rare case that it happens, there should be an option for the affected women.  That could seriously mess someone's mental health up and their outlook on life. For most people, the typical stance on the topic is that the woman should be able to get an abortion if she were ever in the situation. While the percentage of women who were raped and are getting an abortion is low, that does not mean that it is 0. The small number of people who have been through that should have options on what she wants to do with her body. 

Conclusion

Individuals should be able to make choices throughout life based on their bodies; there is no reason for someone to worry about whether someone will choose what is best for them and their body. It is hard to talk about a women's body when I, myself, am not female, and when I can't have a baby, that being said, I can say that if I were in the scenario of something with such high importance, then I'd like to have a choice on my body and not be controlled. Men often forget that making choices for the body of the opposite gender is hard to do without proper female representation. States' failure to ban abortion proves that we, the people are the ones who should be making these choices and not men who cannot go through what mothers have to go through. #MybodyMychoice was a trending hashtag for a long time and still is. People who could not or did not have an abortion would use the hashtag to show that they stand up for women or people who will have an abortion. Abortion being legal for this long truly stands out in our country because it proves that we are free and that even though people have been trying to make it illegal for 70+ years, the people win, and the higher-ups cannot tell us what to do with our bodies.