Saint Mother Teresa once said, “The so-called right to abortion has portrayed the greatest of gifts- a child- as a competitor, an intrusion, and an inconvenience.” Beth was seventeen when she figured out she was pregnant. Her boyfriend and mother were both very calm and felt she should do what she wanted. Many peers made her feel pressured to have an abortion by telling her she was too young and unprepared. She had a breakdown shortly after and felt as though it was the wrong decision, but it was too late. She already had anxiety and depression, which worsened following her abortion. Beth shows remorse through the eager decision to keep her upcoming baby. (Abortion Stories) Abortion should be illegal and unethical because the fetus in a mother’s womb is a living human.
In the first place, abortion can often lead to psychological damage. Believe it or not, emotional side effects are more common than physical side effects. The emotional side effects are just as real as the physical. With the belief that it is a baby while in the womb, negative side effects are inevitable. Potential psychological side effects include; anger, regret, shame, guilt, loss of self-awareness, anxiety, depression, and more. These possible symptoms stem from regret. Many things give women a higher probability to have negative emotional side effects like previous emotional or psychological concerns, those that feel pressure to have the abortion, those who have the procedure at a later stage and not having a support system. Women often reported that the abortion procedure affected them more than they expected. The mother and father both feel sadness and shame (Emotional Side Effects of Abortion).
Equally important, we can consider abortion discrimination. We can refer to it as discrimination when a mother kills her baby simply because of a disease or just not wanting it. Those with physical limitations because of their disability do not make them less human. Down syndrome is the most common illness people have an abortion for. Many people believe just because those with Down syndrome do not act or look like them, that they are not as worthy of life. Many kids and adults with Down syndrome are defying the stereotype of not succeeding as well. The National Down Syndrome Society tells us how some have become designers, actors, CEOs, musicians, a barbeque owner, and more (DSWORKS). If the baby is unwanted, abortion is definitely not the only option. They should consider adoption. There are many reasons this is the superior option such as; the urge a mother has to give your child a chance at a happy life, being able to fulfill someone else’s dream of becoming a parent, feeling as though you did the right thing, it costs nothing to prospective birth mothers, contact with the baby can still be an option, and abortion is final and permanent (American Adoptions Inc.).
In addition, scientific facts support that life begins immediately after conception. Human beings develop at a crazy rapid pace. We know a baby in the first stage of conception as a zygote. Human DNA and other human molecules compose a zygote, therefore, the nature of it is undeniably a human. A new human zygote has a genetic composition unique from others and itself, furthermore disproving that abortion is just between a woman and her body. The earliest human embryo qualifies as a living being. It fulfills the four main criteria needed to distinguish biological life: metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction. Scientists define an organism as a complex structure of interdependent elements made up to carry on life through separately functioning, dependent organs. The human zygote clearly meets this definition. The cardiovascular system is the first major system to function in a baby. Approximately twenty-two days after conception is when the child’s heart circulates its own blood and they can detect the heartbeat on an ultrasound. At only six weeks, the baby’s nose, tongue, eyelids, and mouth have formed and we can detect the electrical brain activity. By the end of the eighth week, the child, now known as a fetus, has developed all of their organs and body structures.
Reaching ten weeks, the child can make bodily movements. An ultrasound at around twenty weeks gestation can show the active life of a baby in the womb doing things such as gripping their hands, sucking their thumb, yawning, stretching, smiling and getting the hiccups. Medicine, too, confirms life in the womb. Many times doctors have to give certain medications such as anesthesia before fetal surgery. Doctors are able to give this medication to just the baby and not the mother. Therefore, all this scientific evidence is quite plain in showing that at the moment of fusion of human sperm and egg, a new structure comes into existence and we can very distinctly know this as an individual being. Those who justify abortion by the claim that no one knows when life begins are not arguing science and facts but their own political or philosophical beliefs. They do not argue when life begins, but whether that life deserves legal protection or acknowledgment (Ruse and Schwarzwalder).
Correspondingly, abortion should be illegal because you’re taking the life of a human being, even if it is still in the womb. The killing of an innocent human being is wrong, even if the being has yet to be born. The United States government considers unborn babies to be human beings. At least thirty-eight states have fetal homicide laws. Such laws include the Preborn Victims of Violence Act, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, and the Fetal Protection Act. Those supporting such acts believe that both the life of the fetus and the pregnant mother should have protection constantly (Skinner and Garcia). President George W. Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004 into law and lasted about five years. It recognizes that when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman and kills or injures her and her child, they can charge him against two human victims. This act also states that the unborn child is a member of the species of homo sapiens (Key Facts on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act). The definition of murder is the premeditated destruction of human life. Abortion is nothing short of that.
Whereas the other side of this argument is in denial of most of these facts. They argue that modern abortion procedures are safe and do not cause any form of lasting health damage, such as psychological problems. A study in obstetrics and gynecology found out that childbirth is just as dangerous if not more dangerous than an abortion and the risk of death of the woman is about fourteen times higher than during abortion (Raymond and Grimes). Results from a 2015 study showed that ninety-five percent of women who had an abortion claimed it was the right decision for them. (Wright) This procedure also offers pregnant women the option to choose not to bring fetuses with profound disabilities to full term. Approximately ninety percent of women who receive the diagnosis that their child has down syndrome have an abortion. Some severe disorders can guarantee fetuses death shortly after or even before birth. They may think it is cruel to force a mother to carry the baby to term when they already know of their fatal defects. Even if the case upholds nonfatal conditions, some parents may be unable to care for severely disabled children (Harmon).
The choice over whether to have a child is central to a woman’s independence and control of her future. Banning abortion puts women at risk by forcing them to use illegal abortionists It may also be argued that life does not begin at conception. The organism in the womb is not yet a person. A human depends on the soul and the fetus in the womb is yet to have a soul. Pregnancy does not begin until around a week later when the embryo implants itself in the uterine wall (Ruse and Schwarzwalder). Fetuses cannot live unsupported before twenty-one weeks. We should not consider fertilized eggs humans because a majority of them do not make it to birth. Scientific consensus shows us that until around twenty-four weeks a fetus cannot feel pain; therefore, they do not feel pain during the abortion. If the government or any individual were to force a woman to birth the baby against her will, that is very clearly an unreasonable request (Wright).
In summation, abortion is unethical and should be illegal. It is a sign that society has no value or respect for life. Abortion causes psychological damage to the woman, can be discrimination and is truly murder because life begins at conception. A human is alive from conception to natural death. The biggest concern of this debate is how people who have gone through the same developmental stage are fine with condemning this child to death.
