The word “abortion” by definition means the induced
expulsion of a fetus from the womb before it is able to survive independently (Merrian-webster).
Abortion is an extremely controversial issue because while some people are
completely against it, others believe that a woman should have the right to
choose. Abortion is morally and ethically wrong. How would you feel if someone
took your ability to live? Imagine not having a say in whether or not you will
have the choice to live. The United States has the highest rates of teen
pregnancy and births in the western industrialized world. It’s absurd how teen
abortions costs the United States at least $7 billion annually ("Teen
Pregnancy Troubled Teen Help").
Abortion can be traced back to the mid-1500s, where the
earliest known description of abortion is recorded on Ebers Papyrus, Egyptian
medical book (Head). Since that time people have been killing innocent human
being, and this practice has raised many human rights issues, religion issues, and
economic issues. In the 1920’s Margaret Sanger, a proponent of eugenics, headed
the rise of the birth control movement ("BlackGenocide.org | The Truth About
Margaret Sanger - Page Five"). Eugenics is the science of improving a
human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable
heritable characteristics, it was developed by Frances Galton as method of
improving the human race ("The Definition of Eugenics"). In 1967
Colorado was the first US state to liberalize abortion (“History of Abortion”).
Before 1973, abortion was not legal in the United States (1). Each state had
the right to decide whether abortion was permitted or denied. But all that
changed in 1973, when it was decided that a woman’s right to an abortion was
part of a woman’s right to privacy, this was decided during U.S. Supreme Court's
Roe v. Wade court case (Reuters). Doe vs Bolton then continues to make abortion
legal in all stages of pregnancy by opening up the definition of a woman’s
health.
When we talk about the topic we tend to
overlook how it can hurt the economy. Most people might even get offended when
relating abortion to being an economic issue, but it has to be taken into
consideration. In the United States, the national debt is $16 trillion, which
has surpassed the nation’s annual GDP (Behna). Abortions are the most risky
procedures and are responsible for over 75 thousand maternal deaths and over 5
million disabilities annually. In the United States alone, between 20 and 30
million abortions are conducted annually, and out of this number, between 10
and 20 million abortions are performed in an unsafe manner (Berer, 2004). It’s
horrible enough that these innocent babies are murdered, but can you imagine
what these 50 million lives could have contributed to in our society? Some of
these aborted humans could have found the cure to asthma, cancer or even AIDS. They
could have also contributed to our society by becoming successful business
woman and men, or just by being the next influential teacher.
In
addition, all those contributions to society could have made a higher GDP, and
our country would be in a better standing. Every life counts, we do not know
for certain that those unborn babies were going to be a big contribution to
society, but now we will never know because they were not given the chance to
live. Abortion is not only a problem in the United States but also around the
world. For example, in china with the one-child policy, although they has made
a big improvement in their economy from the past, it is only a matter of time
before the one-child policy has an impact on the Chinese economy, with millions
of babies being killed who could have eventually become productive citizens and
contributed to the Chinese GDP (Head).
If you view abortion through the eyes of religion, most
of them will agree that life starts from conception. From the moment that the
fetus starts developing, that child has the right to live. There have been
ongoing debates since abortion was legalized, on whether religion accepts or rejects
the act of abortion, but in the major religions it seems like it will never be
legal. Recently, the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said, “It is
horrific even to think that there are children, victims of abortion, who will
never see the light of day.” ("US Religious Views on Abortion - Abortion -
ProCon.org"). Many people will argue that the abortion issue is not valid
when being seen through the eyes of religion, because religion does not provide
scientific evidence but I am here to argue other wise. Even if an individual
does not believe in a higher power, the right to life still stands. Let me ask
you a question, what is the scientific definition of a cell, “the cell is the
basic structural functional and biological unit of a living organism. A cell is
the smallest unit of life that can replicate independently, and cells are often
called the building blocks of life” ("The Basic Structural and Functional
Unit of Life: The Cell"). So lets ask, what is conception/fertilization?
It’s the process of one sperm cell and one egg cell coming together to form a
zygote (Merrian-webster). There for we have use defined two of the smallest
unit of life coming together to form a human life.
A
way that this epidemic is hurting our society it’s that it is affecting our
young girls that decided to make a choice to end the life of their child. A 16
year old girl named Jennifer found out she was pregnant by her 19 year old
boyfriend. Her relationship fell apart before she even found out she was
pregnant. Her boyfriend made it clear he was not ready for a child, and wanted
her to have an abortion. Jennifer was put in a hard situation even though she
wanted to keep her unborn baby and be a mother her family was poor. Being
raised in a single parent household, her mother decide that being a young
single mother was not what she wanted for her daughters future. Jennifer was
soon forced to have an abortion. Till this day Jennifer things not fighting for
her unborn child’s right to life and giving him or her a voice was the biggest
mistake she ever made. Jennifer stated the abortion for a 16-year-old girl was
a very physically painful procedure. She also stated that even though the
physical pain did not last, the emotional pain is something she will carry
forever. She has suffered post-traumatic stress since her abortion.
Abortion has also become problematic in the fact that
people have chosen to have this procedure in order to have race and gender
selection abortions, and have also decided to determine the quantity versus
quality of life by targeting individuals with disabilities.
Studies
performed by medical professionals reveal that younger women tend to find
abortion more painful than do older adults. Patients typically found abortion
more painful than their doctors or counselors expected. The use of more
powerful general anesthetics can reduce the pain, but significantly increases
the risk of cervical injury or uterine perforation. Complications such as these
are common, as are bleeding, hemorrhage, laceration of the cervix, menstrual
disturbance, inflammation of the reproductive organs, bladder or bowel
perforation, and serious infection (Creanga). Even more harmful long term
physical complications from abortion may surface later. For example,
overzealous curettage can damage the lining of the uterus and lead to permanent
infertility (Creanga). Overall, women who have abortions face an increased risk
of ectopic tubal pregnancy and a more than doubled risk of future sterility. With
each subsequent abortion the risk of these sorts of complications and the risk
of future miscarriages increases.
There
is strong evidence that abortion increases the risk of breast cancer. A study
of more than 1,800 women appearing in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute in 1994 found that overall, women having abortions increased their
risk of getting breast cancer before age 45 by 50%. For women under 18 with no
previous pregnancies, having an abortion after the 8th week increased the risk of
breast cancer 800% (Creanga). Women with a family history of breast cancer
fared even worse. All 12 women participating in the study who had abortions
before 18 and had a family history of breast cancer themselves got cancer
before age 45 (1).
The first workable solution to abortion would be
providing parents with the alternative options of adoption. There are certain
things biological parent would need to do before placing the child for
adoption. Step 1 is to create an adoption plan, what this means is that you are
in charge of the adoption process. For example you will get to chose the ideal
adoptive family, the type of contact you wish to share with your child, how you
envision the hospital stay, and much more. Step 2 is finding an adoptive
family. There are hundreds of families wanting to adopt a child so you need to
find a family who will provide your baby with the best life possible. You do
this by doing various background checks, phone calls and emails. Create an
adoptive family video of all the families you have talk to. Step 3 is getting
to know the adoptive family. If you are interested in a relationship with the
adoptive family, you may get to know them through a meeting in your hometown,
interaction at the hospital or email exchange. Step 4 preparing for the
hospital stay. Once your baby is born, you usually must wait 48-72 hours before
you can legally consent to the adoption (“American Adoptions -- America's
Adoption Agency”). Step 5 is deciding what type of contact you which to have
with the family after the adoption. Most women are interested in receiving
pictures and letters of their child periodically for up to 18 years after the
adoption (1).
There are 3 types of adoption Closed, Open and Semi-Open
adoption. Closed adoption means that you do not want any contact with your
child. Also the agency selects your baby’s parents for you. Close adoptions are
becoming less requested by birth mothers every year an estimated 1 out of every
10 adoptions are closed compared to larger numbers in the past. Open adoption
refers to any adoption relationship between the adoptive family and birth
parents in which identifiable information as well as contact are shared between
both parties. You also select the parents for your child; you know where your
baby lives. Semi-open means that you decided how much contact you have with
your son or daughter. In semi-open adoptions you get to select the parents of
your child. You have the right to exchange information with the parents and throughout
your child’s lifetime you can send cards, letters, photos and the parents would
be able to send you family updates (“American Adoptions -- America's Adoption
Agency”). This will all take place with a mediator the adoption agency you
picked. This is a workable solution because both of the parties have a say in
the future versus abortion being a final decision can neither be change or
taken back.
Camus absurdity would have stated that abortion is a
meaningless topic. Camus develops this principle by giving examples of the
absurdity of life. He comments on the
absurdity of the day-to-day activity of the average person: “Rising, streetcar,
four hours in the office or the factory, meal, streetcar, four hours of work,
meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday
according to the same rhythm—this path is easily follow most of the time. But one day the “why” arises and everything
begins in that weariness tinged with amazement” (Camus). In this way Camus
seems to be merely pointing out the absurdity of some people’s lives. Camus
would say let the woman do what she wants, her life is meaningless, her babies’
life is meaningless, and aborting an unborn child would only be doing good for
the child because life is meaningless. Camus develops this principle by giving
examples of the absurdity of life. He
comments on the absurdity of the day-to-day activity of the average person:
Works Cited
"American Adoptions -- America's Adoption
Agency." What Is Open Adoption. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
"Abortion-Reasons Women Choose
Abortion." WebMD. WebMD, 2005. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.webmd.com/women/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion>.
"30
December 1994-- John Salvi
Murders Two at Planned Parenthood Clinics in MA." - Democratic
Underground. 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/11388612.
Smothers, Ronald. "DEATH OF A DOCTOR: THE
OVERVIEW -- Abortion Doctor and Bodyguard Slainin Florida; Protester Is Arrested in
Pensacola's 2d Clinic Killing." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29
July 1994. Web. 13 Apr. 2016.
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