persuassive essay

Practiced legally, adoption can be said to be a safe procedure. Statistics show that the safest abortions among women are conducted during their first trimester. 88% of the women who have an abortion during this time have safely undergone the procedure. However, in instances where abortion is considered illegal, there are chances that a good percentage of women would opt for procedures that are not clinically safe. This is mainly because out of all the pregnancies, approximately 49% are unwanted pregnancies. This number would consider having choices such as back alley abortion, which may further risk their lives. As a result, it is not sound for one to base their reasons of illegalizing abortion on mere statements that it is not a safe procedure.

Even though some would argue that adoption is one of the options after child birth, statistics show a different picture. It will remain the woman’s choice whether or not to give her child up for adoption after birth. However, of the women that opt not to abort, statistics show that for the unmarried white women, less than 3% actually give up their children for abortion. On the other hand, for the unmarried black women, less than 2% give their children up (Harris et al., 2016). With such statistics, it, therefore, makes the option of adoption void. Making the choice of having the baby, therefore, has the consequence of having to take care of the responsibilities of parenthood. However, a large number of the women are not ready for this due to their financial status. This place financial and economic strains on the mothers, limiting their capability to adequately take care of the children. Parenthood is a choice, and when one is not ready (financially, mentally or psychologically) to take up the responsibilities that accompany it, it may present greater challenges when it comes to raising the baby.

According to Hornell (2016), life threatening health complications are another reason as to why abortion should remain a legal option for women within the society. With this, examples of teenagers who become mothers are a reason as to such. Such teenagers normally have grim prospects of their future life. They would have no options but to drop school and be subjected to inadequate prenatal care. More often than not they would depend on the public to help raise their children. This poses health problems to both them and the children.

Mentally, emotionally and psychologically, there are instances when it is wrong for a woman to be denied the option of abortion. Examples of such instances are in cases of rape or incest. This is because in such cases, there is already psychological harm that has been caused to the woman. Forcing her to keep the pregnancy after this would only be adding to the trauma that she has already gone through.

One of the basic units of a society is the family, and this needs to be preserved. Families are formed of couples who have sat down and agreed to start up a family. However, there are several cases in which families begin from unwanted pregnancies, between couples who were not ready to take up any of such responsibilities. The financial base of the family may also not be adequate to take care of the couple and the babies. Families that start up in this way normally end up in divorce. In such instances, to minimize further financial constraints, abortion needs to be made one of the choices that the couple can take up. In cases of rape and incest, keeping pregnancies acquired through such violent or unjust means may simply tear the family apart. Incest for one is not socially acceptable.

It is also possible to take a legal stance when giving out reasons as to why abortion should be made a legal option to women. This is because civil rights give a woman the ability to have control over her body (Evans et al., 2016). As a result of this, taking away her choice of productiveness is already a step onto a slippery slope. Driving a lady to keep a pregnancy is comparable to forcing her to undergo sterilization or to use contraceptives. This would be an infringement of the individual civil rights.

Conclusively, it is, therefore, right to make abortion a legal option for women, as a means of protecting them against the effects, this may have on them. Such effects in many cases are caused by pregnancies sourced from rape or incest. Additionally, abortion should be a legal choice as it may cause negative impacts on the individuals i.e. mentally, financially, health-wise, emotionally or on the family. These form the major reasons as to why abortion should be legalized and left to be of choice for the women in the society.

References

Evans, M. W., Hamm, M., Miller, E., & Borrero, S. (2016). “It’s her pain. it’s her body”: perceived low reproductive control among participants in the men's fertility attitudes and behaviors study. Contraception, 94(4), 422.

Harris, L. F., Halpern, J., Prata, N., Chavkin, W., & Gerdts, C. (2016). Conscientious objection to abortion provision: Why context matters. Global Public Health, 1-11.

Hörnell, L. (2016). Abortion–Knowledge and attitudes in Amp Pipal, Nepal.