Abortion, despite being safe and even necessary in many cases, is a highly controversial procedure. Abortions include several different techniques, all of which are meant to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. The morality of this procedure is constantly under fire. It is important that these medical necessities remain legal and even increase in accessibility. Abortions should be legal and accessible to everyone; it has been proven that abortions are safe and often imperative to health, surveys show that there are a variety of reasons someone might need one, and denying people access to abortion services is dangerous and ultimately violates human rights.
Both surgical and medical abortions are regarded as some of the safest procedures in the medical field. In fact, statistics show that more people die during pregnancy or childbirth than due to abortions. Of all legal medical abortions performed, only 2.5% of patients need to have follow-up care, and only 0.6 deaths occur per 100,000 procedures. Statistically, that makes abortion much safer than viagra, which results in 1 death per 20 000 prescriptions, but apparently the same 'unsafe' logic used against abortions doesn't apply to a medication used by men for something far less important than possibly saving a life. This double standard is misogynistic and geared towards men's comfort and against women's health. These are the notions that must be destroyed before equality in reproductive health can be reached.
Many anti-abortion protestors claim that there are no viable reasons for an abortion and that all causes for abortion can be solved another way. This, as has been proven numerous times, is simply not true. There are a wide variety of reasons someone might decide an abortion is right for them. In a nationwide survey about the reasons for abortion that included many races, ages, and socio-economic classes, many previously unacknowledged issues were brought up. 74% of people who had abortions said having a child would interfere with work and education. 73% said they would not be able to financially support a family, and a further 48% said they had relationship problems or were single. 22% said they were not mature or old enough to raise a child. Anti-choice ideals often include the claim that people who have abortions are pressured into doing so by friends or family; however, less than 1% of abortion patients say that their #1 reason for getting an abortion was the opinions of others. Other reasons, like rape, incest, age, failed contraception, and medical issues were also listed among the causes for abortions. It is imperative to recognize that everyone has a different set of reasons for receiving an abortion.
Banning abortions has been proven numerous times to cause more problems than it solves. Firstly, the prohibition of abortions directly infringes upon bodily autonomy. Bodily autonomy is the concept that a person has the utmost control over their own body; therefore, no person can use the body of someone else without their consent. This is the idea that makes rape illegal, and why you cannot be forced to donate blood, organs, or tissue, even if it saves lives. Even corpses have bodily autonomy, so you can't take life saving organs from a corpse unless the person gave you permission before they died. Forcing someone to carry a pregnancy they don't want in order to save the life of a fetus violates their autonomy. In effect, this gives people who can become pregnant less rights than a corpse. As well as disregarding basic human freedoms, banning abortion would only make them less safe, not less common. Despite contrary thinking, strict abortion laws or banning abortion altogether has no connection to lower abortion rates, as shown in a recent study done by the Guttmacher institute. The only thing that changed was the safety of the procedures. When abortions are illegal, thousands more deaths a year are the result. Making abortions illegal will not result in less abortions, but it will result in less safe abortions. People often resort to dangerous self-inducement, or rely on 'abortion providers' with little or no experience. The coat hanger has become a well known symbol for the dangers of illegal abortion, as it was and still is often used as a tool to terminate a pregnancy in cases when abortions were illegal or inaccessible. 1 in 8 of all pregnancy-related deaths are the result of illegal abortion. If this number is to be lowered, safe and affordable abortions must become widely attainable.
One word is commonly used in the fight against abortion rights; murder. Many claim that terminating a pregnancy is actually killing a child and ending their chance at life. It is easy to see how you could come to this conclusion; when a fetus is aborted it, in effect, dies. However, killing a fetus or embryo is not the same as killing a child. They are not sentient yet and do not feel pain, as they don't even have a nervous system. Consider the following; many assert that life begins at conception and that death after this point is the death of a human being. However, if you consider that conception is, in effect, planting a seed, then you are asserting that planting a seed in the ground then digging it up immediately afterward is the same as cutting down a tree. It is obvious why this logic does not make sense.
Besides this, more hypocrisy can be found in the anti-choice logic: many people who are strongly opposed to abortion, viewing it as an immoral killing of an innocent child, have gotten abortions. Indeed, in many cases, the patients receiving abortions had picketed outside the same clinics they got their care at. When asked about their rhetoric for making the decision to have an abortion which they so strongly opposed, their answers were mostly the same. These picketers were convinced that their cases were special and they deserved care, even while they tried to deny this care from other people. As well as this obvious double standard, many violent attacks have come upon abortion clinics in the past 30 or so years. About 6550 violent attacks, in fact. These include arson, acid attacks, gunfire, threats, and even bombs. The irony of the phrase 'Pro-life bomber' is overwhelming, and would be humorous if it didn't result in deaths and a need for police assistance to get inside a medical facility.
Through the evident safety and necessity of abortions, a huge range of reasons for the procedure, and the dangers that come with banning it, it is obvious that abortions need to become more accessible and be legalized in places where it is not. The argument that abortions are too dangerous to carry out is null and void; having an abortion is safer than giving birth or even going through pregnancy. The wide array of motives someone might have for getting an abortion far outweighs the reasons any anti-choice believer could give for keeping an unwanted pregnancy. And illegalizing them can't do anything; banning or prohibiting abortions can only cause more deaths and more suffering rather than ending it. Finally, numerous holes in the anti-choice logic reveal that having access to abortions just makes sense, especially when lives are on the line. All in all, it is my belief that safe, legal abortions are an absolute necessity to human rights. My beliefs do not makes me pro-abortion, it makes me pro-choice. That's what an abortion is about, making the choice as to whether or not you are ready for a child in your life. When you can make the choice for yourself, everyone's quality of life is improved. When that choice is taken away, the only result is more pain and more death. Think about that next time you utter the words ¨Pro-life.¨
BINABASA MO ANG
Words To Learn, Learnings To Live By
PoetryOccasional poems, short essays, and other writings varying in length that I think are important enough to share. All of these works belong to me.
