It isn’t as deadly as most people think it is. In truth, I would even go as far as saying it is the safest option. Abortion, arguably one of the most controversial issues, has divided people for decades. Many Americans have strong emotions towards abortions because they consider it to be immoral. In all fairness I would be nervous if they didn’t have strong feelings towards it. Abortion is a very serious, and an extremely delicate topic. At times I even argue with myself on whether it should be allowed are not. However, all of my arguments ended with me leaning towards the pro-choice side. Many experiences in my life has led me to believe that people who are pro-life look at abortion from a very narrow and hypocritical point of view.
Women should have the right to an abortion because it is the safest and most practical solution we have right now. I want to start by clarifying a common misconception that pro-lifers seem to have about people who are prochoice and that is the idea that being pro-choice means you are pro-abortion. I, somebody who is pro-choice, feels as if I speak for the whole pro-choice community when I say that that is completely false. People who are pro-choice do not take abortions lightly what so ever. With that being said, I can still sympathies with women who see it as the only option they have. Another common misconception that people who are pro-life have is this mindset that women who have an abortion see abortion as simply a method of birth control. It is ignorant to think that just because someone is having an abortion they are doing it carelessly.
Women who are faced with the decision of having an abortion see it as one of the most complex and complicated decision they will ever have to make. Despite the more understandable reason for an abortion such as fetal abnormalities, rape, and physical/psychological health dangers, there are numerous reasons why someone would have an abortion. As a result of many experiences in my life, it has come to my attention that the most popular reason women have an abortion is because of financial instability. It is not hard to sympathies with women who can barely take care of themselves financially feeling as if there is no possible way for them to afford to take care of a child.
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You do not have to have a child to know that the cost of raising one is very expensive. In fact, just the price of successfully birthing a child is expensive. For a woman to take on this expense when she is already in a bad economic position stops any chance of growth financially. She will only be furthering herself in a life of economic despair and ultimately forcing the child to experience that as well. This is where many pro-lifers would make the argument, “If she knows she is not ready to have a child, why even have sex?” This type of thinking is almost as ignorant as it is unrealistic. The average age that people lose their virginity is 17 years old.
Sex is a natural human instinct. We also need to understand that condoms don’t always work, people unconsciously miss a day on their birth control, and accidents do happen. Yet, many people who are pro-life believe that females view abortion as a substitute for condoms or birth control. What female in their right mind would say to themselves, “I don’t need to be careful, I can always just get an abortion?” People who think that this is what females are thinking have this mindset because they fail to place themselves in the shoes of a lady who is pregnant and scared. In fact, in most cases the female is more afraid of being pregnant than the man is of getting a female pregnant in the first place.
When people say things like, “she should have been more careful,” and never acknowledge the male’s role in the situation, it is one sided. Where does the male’s responsibility in the equation start to come in to factor? One can make the argument that a female can get pregnant in less than 5 minutes because a man failed to use a condom. Should a man’s mistake for 5 minutes change the rest of a woman’s life when she is not ready for that change? Yet, pro-lifers will make the argument that the female could always place the child in foster care. It is no secret that the foster care system is over packed and has several flaws.
Many cases have occurred where foster children have been mistreated, forgotten, and never adopted. This poor treatment can have long lasting negative effects on a child’s life and mental state. The foster care system needs more funding and many major changes before it will ever be truly ready to take on the responsibility of children. Not to mention, if the foster care system is already over packed while abortions are legal, imagine how overpacked and dysfunctional it would be if abortions were illegal. If abortions were illegal it would cause a number of unforeseen problems. The number of foster children would increase tremendously.
This would cause problems in the foster care system that would be negative to every single child. As a whole, more children would be neglected, overlooked, and not be taken care of properly. The food and living arrangement for the children would become scarce and poorly maintained. Children would grow up with mental and health issues due to abandonment and maltreatment. Also, if abortions were against the law it would only lower the number of legal abortions. Women would resort to unsafe alternatives if abortions were illegal. If you take a look back at history before abortions were legalized this is exactly what occurred.
Women would hire people to stop the pregnancy or try to do it themselves. This would lead to extreme bodily harm and even death. This only goes to show how life changing having a child is. Why would women put their life at risk just because they do not want to have a child? It is because it is not that simple. It is not a matter of want and don’t want but more along the lines of can and can’t. In addition, abortions do help fight against over population. If we look at places like China where they are so over populated that they have to limit the number of children that a couple can have, it becomes easy to assume that if abortions were illegal in the United State laws like that can happen.
The population in the United states would grow tremendously if abortions were illegal. We can only imagine what kind of laws the government would put in place to litigate the effects of that. It is a sad reality but still a reality that we have to face. An increase in population of that size would even have dangerous environmental effects. In the end I understand that I am a male and will never experience what it is like to carry and birth a child. I will never be able to relate to a pregnant woman on a physical or mental level about what carrying and having a child feels like. For these reasons I feel like it is not my place to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her body. That decision is not for me to make. Women are more informed and capable of making that very tough decision on their own.
Instead of making abortions illegal, we should try to better understand why women have abortions and come up with solutions to lower the number of abortions that happen. Let’s try to better our living conditions to the point where we can handle a bigger population. I would love to live in a world where abortions weren’t necessary but right now it is. If abortions were to be illegal today it would lead to a series of unexpected and unforeseen problems. If illegal, the foster care system would be even more unstable than it is right now due to the growing number of foster children. Families everywhere would be faced with financial problems that would be impossible to escape. Some women would resort to unsafe abortions which could lead to numerous health dangers.
Our population would grow tremendously which could cause numerous problems for our environment and women’s rights over their own body would be stripped away from them. If you look at abortion more carefully and take a better look at history it would become apparent that pro-choice is more pro-life than you think. Now that is the sad truth.
