Abortion Should be Made Illegal

Keeping abortions legal is treated by many as an aspect of human rights, yet it does not seem possible to secure women’s decisions at the expense of taking their children’s lives. So, abortions should be made illegal due to ethical reasons in the first place, as they violate the right of a person to live before the person is even born.

Secondly, abortions do not solve the initial psychological and social problems, which cause women to get an abortion. Thirdly, abortions put women’s health at risk, both during the abortion and in their future life.

Finally, the practice of abortions has the negative effect on morals of the society: because human life is not respected at its early stage’ it is not respected at further stages either, leading to anti-human crimes.

The ethical argument is probably the crucial one, which the two opposing parties use as their key one. While pro-choice approach focuses on women’s rights; pro-life supporters claim that it is impossible to speak about women’s right to physically kill their future children. This statement is perceived as too harsh by many proponents of abortions and causes a medical discussion about the time when a fetus can actually be considered a human. Yet, leaving medicine aside, it is worth saying that the number of abortions committed per year is shocking and suggestive of the fact that this practice is considered quite normal and acceptable by society, no matter what reasons make a woman make this decision. The most recent statistics available date back to 2005 and demonstrate that 1,206,200 are done annually (WhyProLife). In fact, this means that ethical arguments against abortions do not work in most cases because society does not teach its members that abortion is immoral. The debate about whether abortion is a murder or not is related to the discussion if a fetus is a human being or not. It is remarkable that many pro-choice speakers share the pro-life activists’ point of view in this question. Even the owner of the largest abortion clinic in one of the US states claims: “Of course human life begins at conception” (Alcorn, p.27).

Many proponents of abortions claim that there are cases when a woman is forced to make an abortion by some negative external circumstances. For example, she is in her early teens, or her partner leaves her, or she is sexually abused, or the family is too poor to support a child. However, there are several objections to this approach. First of all, the above statistics of millions abortions per year suggest that the mentioned forced decisions are rather an exception than a rule. Secondly, if one is to believe that all of those millions are caused by the described reasons, this means that society experiences the devastating crisis in ethics, economy, family values, etc. Does it not seem logical that the roots of the issues should be cured rather than continued sponsoring, which do not solve the initial issues? It would be true to claim that if a woman is sexually assaulted, abortion does not solve her true problem. Or, if a woman is left alone by her partner, abortion does not help to solve the issue either. Applying abortion as an attempt to solve such issues is the same as taking drugs, which is more traumatic than the actual decease.

Even opponents of abortions agree that they are unethical as to a future child. Yet, it does not look obvious at the first sight that a woman is also a victim of her own abortion, because she might not suspect about the consequences that she will have afterwards. Very few women are really happy and relieved after the abortion. “Abortion has completely failed as a social policy designed to help women”, social researchers say( Alcorn, p. 68).

Psychologists and consultants would confirm that abortion is a psychological trauma for a woman in the first place. It is not always spoken out loud that if a woman decides positive on abortion, this means that she is left alone with her pain, that none of her family, or friends, or society provides her a support in order for her to take a less painful decision. In many cases, abortion is the last resort of a desperate woman, whose self-esteem is so low and psychological state is so unsecure that she asks for abortion as the only obvious way out. So, when proponents of abortions claim that the talk is about women’s rights, it definitely is. Yet, it is the right not to make an abortion that is not secured for women, because society does not educate or support her, or offer any alternative solution. So, abortion breaks the rights of both a child and a mother, as it makes her a victim of committing violence against her own body and psycho. Besides, the initial problems of sexual violence, poverty, divorce, teenage pregnancy, etc, are not resolved by worsening by abortion. Until the society faces them and offers the alternative solution, the ratio of abortions will remain high.

The immoral aspect of abortion is not about taking the human life; it is about the women’s health. Many women, especially young ones, are not educated enough to realize the health damage that abortion may cause. Thus, one of the most dangerous consequences of abortion is future infertility. Although the proponents of abortions argue that there are no proven facts that there is a direct link between the abortion and inability to give birth to a child in the future, it should be mentioned that these cases are not rare, and that this happens not only due to medical reasons. The point is that a woman who made an abortion in the past is more psychologically vulnerable about an idea of having a baby. She has negative memories of guilt, shame and loss, although the society tries to present the abortion as a casual operation. Even when pregnant, a woman tends to have more stress and anxiety than average. Research demonstrates that there are other risks too: Dr. Elizabeth Shadigan in her report to the Senate committee submitted the result of her research, which proved that “abortion increases rates of breast cancer, placenta previa, preterm birth, and maternal suicide ( Alcorn, p.69).

Finally, it is impossible to mention the role of abortion in the overall pattern of society’s values and communications. It does not always occur as obvious at the beginning that abortion is a mechanism that triggers the processes of destruction at other levels. Thus, abortion as neglect of human life induces this practice and way of thinking into the public mind. This means that the human life is less valued at all levels. In other words, abortion can indirectly influence the situation with crimes against humanity, which include violence and murders. Hence, the society should be treated as a single organism and its issues should be solved as related to one another.

To conclude, it is worth saying that the issue of abortion is a complex one and involves different layers of human existence, such as ethical, family, economic, medical and legal ones. Neither of these aspects can be treated separately, while the focus should be mainly on the reasons and issues that cause abortions. It looks obvious that there are sufficient reasons for making abortions illegal. Among them, there are ethical reasons, which suggest that abortions violate children’s rights and also the rights of women themselves, who undergo physical and psychological violence. Secondly, abortions are just consequences of the certain factors that should be eliminated without curing the reasons. Thirdly, abortions can have the negative medical consequences for a woman, including infertility. Finally, abortions determine the social paradigm that makes violence and neglect of human life acceptable.