Abortion is the deliberate
termination of a human pregnancy, and they are getting more and more common as
the years go on (Abortion). From both a
Biblical and scientific standpoint, life begins at fertilization. There is a total of 1.058 million abortions
each year, 2,899 abortions each day, 120 abortions per hour and 1 abortion
every thirty seconds (“Abortion Statistics”).
These statistics only include surgical and medical abortions and does
not include the abortions that are done illegally, which many of them are. In
many situations people do it illegally because they would not want anyone to
find out. (“Abortion Statistics”). There
have been multiple cases where some of the people doing the abortions will
willingly kill a baby after it is born. Just think, 1.058 million babies never
had the chance to grow up and have a life because their “mother” decided she
wasn’t ready to be a mother. These statistics staggeringly high, and people
need to be aware of how prevalent abortions have become just in the United
States.
Abortion has been performed for
thousands of years, and they have been legal since the first settlers arrived
(History of Abortion). In the mid-to-late 1800’s, states started passing laws
that made having an abortion illegal.
There were fears that the population would be dominated by the children
of immigrants that had just arrived.
Most of the surgeries, including abortions, were extremely risky,
because hospitals were uncommon, and antiseptics were unknown. Without today’s technology the deaths of a
mother and an infant during childbirth were staggeringly high. Therefore, women who desperately “needed” an
abortion decided to get them from illegal practitioners, these were known as
“back alley” abortions. In fact, in the
years leading up to Roe v. Wade there was an estimated 1.2 million abortions
per year. Thousands of women were harmed during these illegal abortions, and
some even died after trying to self-induce an abortion (History of Abortion). Between the years 1967 and 1973, many states
repealed their criminal abortion laws but having an abortion was only a right
American woman could have. Then, in
1973, a case was brought to the Supreme Court which made it possible for woman
to have legal and safe abortions. This
case was known as Roe v. Wade (History of Abortion). The Roe case came from a Texas law that
forbid woman from getting an abortion unless it was to save the mother’s life.
Most states had the same law similar to the one from Texas, except this law
brought many women to have abortions illegally.
Jane Roe was a pregnant woman that represented every woman who wanted to
get safe and legal abortions. Henry Wade
was an attorney from Texas who defended the law that would make abortions
illegal. After the Supreme Court heard
this case, they ruled that an American’s privacy also included a women's right
whether to have children or not (History of Abortion). Those who supported making abortions legal,
rejoiced at the verdict, but those who opposed making abortions legal immediately
began working to prevent any federal or state funding for abortions. Some people even started protesting abortions
in front of abortion clinics (History of Abortion). Abortion has come a long way since it was
first made illegal, and in all honesty, it should still be illegal since it is
murder.
Example
Abortion has become a prevalent act
in the United States and many women have shared their stories. A woman, who remains anonymous, shared her
story about her experience with abortion.
This past valentine's day the woman completed her abortion and to say
the least it wasn’t pretty. She had had
two surgical abortions before, but for some reason this time she decided to
have a medicinal abortion. She was in
the worst pain of her entire life; she spent her days in the bathroom throwing
up and couldn’t muster up enough strength to leave ( Today is Valentine’s
Day). Sadly, that wasn’t even the worst
part, about an hour after she took the pill, she noticed she was bleeding and
immediately ran to the bathroom and out came a “lemon sized clot.” She was shocked because she wasn’t expecting
anything to happen after only taking the first pill. The next day she took the second pill, and
almost immediately the gut-wrenching pain in her stomach returned. She felt the
same side effects as the day before and wanted nothing more than the whole
thing to be over. She described the
feeling as nothing more than “feeling like hell” and “excruciating agony.” After passing out, she woke up still bleeding
and having diarrhea, she felt extremely weak and overwhelmed with so many
different emotions. She prayed and
begged God for forgiveness and strength during this time. She finally decided to ignore the nausea and
make herself a sandwich and sit and hope that the worst had passed (today is
valentine’s day...). She had never
regretted anything as much as she had regretted this abortion. She never
regretted her other two abortions, but this one was different this one hurt and
she knew this abortion would scar her for life (Today is Valentine’s
day...). Abortion should be painful, it
should hurt if you purposefully kill your own baby that is growing inside of
you. That human being that people think
is only a lump of cells will never get the chance to live his or her life, and
that is what makes abortion so sickening.
Social Effects
The main reason there has been a drive for reform of the abortion laws
is due to the welfare and rights of women (schwartz). People are always protesting women's rights
and how it’s her body and she can do whatever she wants with it. And that’s true, it is her body, but she
shouldn’t get to decide to destroy the life that’s growing inside her just
because she’s not ready to be a mom. Why
is abortion legal, but if you kill a pregnant woman it’s considered a double
homicide? This contradicts itself! Those
who are in favor of reforming the laws have pointed out that the existing laws
threaten the health of thousands of American women who have “accidentally”
become pregnant. While most of the
attention of abortion reform groups have been focused on how the abortion laws
effect individual women, there has been little to no public discussion of how
the legalization of abortions will affect society as a whole (schwartz). Researchers seem to think that the
legalization of abortion will help solve major social problems. Even students of environmental problems
believe we won’t be able to preserve the quality of the environment unless the
population growth is halted. Preserving
the environment will take more than halting the population growth, but people
are using any excuse necessary to justify the slaughtering of unborn children
(Schwartz). Others say that the main
reason poverty is so high in the U.S. is because of the birth of unwanted children
born into poor families (schwartz).
Abortion has been an accepted part of culture for millennials and this
generation has grown up with legalized abortions and it has become normal for
them. Most teenagers have been affected
by abortions whether it was them who received one or a friend. It has been estimated that between one in
three and one in five of this generation had been aborted. An abortion could even potentially ruin a
mother and child's relationship, and it could even make the woman more hostile
toward men in general (Impact of abortion on society). Everyone has their own opinions about
abortion, but the fact is it is murder no matter what people decide to call it.
People need to start calling it what it is, murder. Why are people sugar-coating this act and
saying it’s good for society? How could this possibly be good for society?
Solutions
Abortion
may be one of those problems that we may never be able to completely stop, but
there are numerous ways we can reduce abortion rates. Those who oppose abortion believe the best
way to reduce abortion rates is to make it illegal (arons and saperstein). They believe that by making abortion
illegal, abortions will cease to exist.
Sadly, even if it is made illegal, women would still get abortions but they
would get them illegally and in unsafe ways.
Almost 70,000 women die each year after having an illegal and unsafe
abortion (arons and saperstein). This
method only hurts women and does nothing to reduce the rates of abortions. Even though anti-abortion advocates have not
been able to make abortions illegal in the United States, they have made them
as inaccessible as possible. They have
barred public funding, mandated rigid parental involvement laws, and decreased
the number of available doctors and clinics.
Many women have been denied Roe’s protection and have been forced to
carry and give birth to children against their will. Some have even been faced with significant
delays in obtaining an abortion, thereby making it more costly, risky, and
emotionally and morally challenging.
Although making abortions illegal may seem logical in trying to
completely eradicate abortions, it does more harm than good (arons and
superstein).
Making abortions less necessary is a better way to try and reduce the
growing rates of abortion(arons and superstein). Making abortions less necessary will not be
easy, the first thing that has to be done would be to reduce the unintended
pregnancy rates. Half of the pregnancies
in the United States are unplanned and half of those are aborted (arons and
superstein). There is a significant
amount of ways that we can reduce unintended pregnancies. First we have to be committed to educating
young adults about abstinence and contraception. Then we have to make emergency contraception
more accessible, which will prevent unplanned pregnancies and abortions (arons
and superstein). Women who are able to
avoid an unplanned pregnancy do not have to make the decision to abort the human
life that is growing inside her. Sadly,
even if we do all these things, there will always be an unplanned pregnancy.
Even when there is an unplanned pregnancy there are other options instead of
going and getting an abortion.
Instead of aborting a baby women can choose to
carry the baby and then give it up for adoption (arons and superstein). This provides loving parents, who may or may
not be able to have kids, for the baby.
Adoption not only lets an innocent baby live but it also gives someone
else a family. Another way to reduce
abortion rates is to make sure that the mother has the means to take care of
her baby and make sure it is healthy.
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, one of the most common
reason why women get an abortion is because she does not have the means to raise
a child and they can not afford it (arons and superstein). We can provide women
with low income, more career opportunities, health care, and child care so that
they can be able to provide for their baby instead of having to kill it. Women would have the resources needed to
fulfill their obligations of being a parent (arons and superstein).
Another way we can help end abortion
is by educating ourselves. We should
have a response and know what we are talking about the next time someone brings
up the topic of abortion. Many Americans
will try and tell us that it’s the mother choice since it is her body, but
that’s not necessarily true because she is making the choice for another human
life. Abortion is growing and if we
don’t do anything about it, it’s just going to get worse and more innocent
lives are going to be lost.
Camus and
Absurdity
Albert Camus is considered to be one
of the greatest novelists and essayists of the 20th century. One of his stories, The Plague, was about a
group of men, defined by their gathering around and against the plague (
vulliamy 1). Camus was an atheist and considered religious faith to be “
philosophical suicide” and even quoted:
“We turn toward God only to obtain
the impossible.”
Some think that Camus’
work indicated that he craved something spiritual because of his use of
religious imagery and symbolism (Albert Camus’ religion and political views)
. Camus beliefs do not relate to
abortion. He believed the black death
was absurd because it didn’t make sense and they did not know the cause of
it. Camus would think abortion was not
absurd at all. Abortion is not random
and it is not a disease that no one knows the cause of.
Conclusion
Most people
believe an abortion is the mother’s choice, which it is, but she’s making a
decision about another life that’s not hers.
There are over a million abortions each year, and they are getting more
and more prevalent. Abortion won’t ever
stop or cease to exist, but we can help reduce the number of yearly
abortions. Reducing the number of
abortions will no be easy, but it will be better than having over a million
babies killed each year. Abortion won’t go away and it is silly for us to think
we can end it, but instead of wasting time wishing for something to happen we
should take charge and make a difference, even if it is a small one.
S “Abortion.” Answers
in Genesis, answersingenesis.org/sanctity-of-life/abortion/.
S
“Albert Camus' Religion and Political Views.” The Hollowverse, hollowverse.com/albert-camus/.
S Arons, Jessica, and Shira Saperstein. “The Right Way to Reduce
Abortion.” Center for American Progress,
23 Oct. 2006, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2006/01/20/1796/the-right-way-to-reduce-abortion/.
S “Five Things You Can Do Right Now to Help End Abortion.” American Life League, 16 Jan. 2019, www.all.org/five-things-you-can-do-right-now-to-help-end-abortion/.
S “History of Abortion.” National Abortion Federation,
prochoice.org/education-and-advocacy/about-abortion/history-of-abortion/.
S “Impact of Abortion on Society.” The Life Resources Charitable Trust, www.life.org.nz/abortion/abortionkeyissues/impact-on-society-abortion/.
S Schwartz, Richard A. "The Social
Effects of Legal Abortion."
ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.62.10.1331. Accessed 25 Mar.
2019.
P “Today Is Valentine's Day...” My Abortion, My Life | Ending the Stigma
Around Abortion, My Abortion, My Life | Ending the Stigma Around Abortion,
21 Feb. 2019, www.myabortionmylife.org/single-post/2019/02/14/Today-is-Valentines-day.
S Vulliamy, Ed. “Albert Camus' The Plague: a Story for Our, and All,
Times | Ed Vulliamy.” The Guardian,
Guardian News and Media, 5 Jan. 2015, www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2015/jan/05/albert-camus-the-plague-fascist-death-ed-vulliamy.
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