Abortion is an exceptionally contentious issue that has been frequently argued over for the past few decades and will most likely continue to be debated for many years to come. Pro-choice advocates have a different view on this whole abortion controversy. They believe that it is a person’s right to have an abortion if they choose to do so and that no one should interfere with that right.
They base their arguments on the premise that no human embryo is a being with a brain capable of conscious awareness. Kantian philosophy provides an intellectual and philosophical basis for abortion. The Kantian mode states that a human being is someone who has the ability to think for oneself. Kantian philosophy believes that even a baby is not a human being until sometime after birth. This ability is believed to develop sometime after birth. Therefore, a fetus is not a person with full moral rights. Furthermore, there are researchers who believe that in order to have the ‘status of a human being,’ it is mandatory to be accepted into society at large (Gillon, 2001). From a legal perspective, one of the most important debates is regarding the ‘humanization’ of the fetus; that is, the time at which the unborn ceases to be a fetus and becomes a legal human being (Davies, 1996).
There are many other reasons that validate the viewpoint that abortion is not a social ill. For example, the most frequent motive for abortions is when contraception fails to impede the way of unwanted pregnancy. The question arises: what should be the next step of an individual when the birth control method fails? Statistics show that malfunctioning of different contraceptive measures led to 1.6 to 2 million of the 3.3 million unwanted pregnancies in the United States in 1987. These pregnancies account for about half of the 1.5 million abortions performed every year.
Bonin (2003) states in his book, A Defense of Abortion, that abortion prevents the unwanted financial burden for poor parents. Additionally, it helps to avoid disturbances in the career and/or education of parents, especially in cases where the parents are very young. Abortion also prevents an unwed mother from societal disgrace and unwanted births, such as when a pregnancy occurs due to the failure of contraceptive methods. Furthermore, advocates of the ethical nature of abortion believe that it prevents a child from leading a life of utter desolation, in which the parents may have one or any of the above-mentioned issues.
Another positive impact is maturity. How might a person mature because of their abortion experience? Well, the most obvious example of maturity is that after an abortion, the person usually changes their bad habits. Pro-Choice also believes that it is the moral right for a person to be able to control their own body, whether it is having a baby or destroying it.
In 1973 (Roe v. Wade), the US Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman has a constitutional right, under the Fourteenth Amendment, to choose to terminate her pregnancy before viability as part of her freedom of personal choice in family matters. Abortion became legal across the US, and abortions are permitted during the first six months of pregnancy. [1]
Medical research further confirms that a foetus of a certain age does not even have physical awareness. Professor Vivette Glover from Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London says she believes that foetuses over 17 weeks old may feel pain, whereas the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG) states that there is no possibility of foetal awareness before 26 weeks. Therefore, embryos cannot be termed as babies with full or partial self-awareness. Therefore, abortions cannot be termed as an assassination of humanity.
In another decision, STENBERG et al. v. CARHART, the Supreme Court reinforces its ideas of freedom of choice with careful consideration of moral and scientific issues. It states that:
The Constitution offers basic protection to a woman’s right to choose whether to have an abortion. This right was established in the landmark cases of Roe v. Wade (410 U.S. 113) and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey (505 U.S. 833). According to these cases, before fetal viability, a woman has the right to terminate her pregnancy (Casey, 505 U.S. at 870, joint opinion). Additionally, a state law is unconstitutional if it imposes an undue burden” on a woman’s decision, meaning it has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in her path (Stenberg et al. v. Carhart).
Although the above-mentioned arguments clearly manifest that embryos are not human beings in any way, they further suggest that abortions have many other benefits. Therefore, court decisions should not be repealed as they are based on logic.
References.
Boonin, David (2002) – A Defense of Abortion, University of Cambridge.
Gillon R. (2001). Is there a ‘new ethics of abortion’?” Journal of Medical Ethics, 27(Suppl. II), 5-9.
Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113.
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0410_0113_ZS.html
Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska, et al. (2000)
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-830.ZS.html
This line of battle in the controversy over abortion has long been clearly discerned by the Supreme Court in 1973 when the court ruled in the Roe v. Wade” decision, establishing abortion as a fundamental right. It declared that most laws against abortion violate a constitutional right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment. It is one of the most controversial cases in U.S. Supreme Court history, generating much hue and cry in the media and social circles.
