Having previously hit the topics of gun control, the death penalty, budget cuts, and immigration laws, why not cover yet another controversial topic? Abortion. First of all, I’ll start off by stating my personal beliefs before discussing both sides. I believe abortion is wrong. It is something I will never consider in my lifetime. For me, there is no choice; it’s something I could never do. Also I would not feel comfortable being friends with someone who has had an abortion. Morally, I cannot justify it in my own head except in cases of rape. With that said, for everyone else in the population I believe they should be given the choice of whether to abort a pregnancy or not.
There are instances when women get pregnant because of their own stupidity or “by accident” as some would say. The end result is, they are pregnant and they do not want the baby for a plethora of reasons. I believe abortion is a good thing in cases like this. These women clearly do not want to be parents. If they keep and raise the baby they would most likely become neglecting parents and their children would be the ones to suffer in the end. Of course some would argue that adoption is the best solution. I agree that adoption is great. I know many people who were saved by their adoptive families. But there are also other cases of children being rejected by families. This causes lasting emotional scars that affect the person throughout their lives. Sometimes it may be in the best interest of the child if they never existed. As awful as that sounds, maybe there is a small granule of truth there.
Then in horrible inexcusable circumstances, women get pregnant from being raped. No woman should HAVE to keep a baby that was conceived in an act of violence. Most women would resent the baby if forced to keep it. The child would be an everyday reminder of a terrible, violent act. There is more that can be said here but is it necessary? I think most of society would agree that abortion is acceptable in the cases of legitimate rape.
On the other hand there are people who believe that abortion is wrong one hundred percent of the time. The arguments here revolve mostly around the accusation of murder. Many people see abortion as murder. They think that life begins upon fertilization. For arguments like these I say that late term abortions should be illegal. If the abortion is performed early on, the fetus cannot feel anything because it isn’t formed yet, it lacks some types of cells such as nerves in the blastula stage. Once the fetus has been allowed to grow enough to be a functioning baby outside of the womb, the fetus can feel the pain and shock that comes with abortion. This is an unnecessary evil. Cases like these would be murder in my mind. But to far right people, there is no excuse for abortion, not early on, not rape, not sickness.
The thing to understand is that both sides have reasonable arguments. There is a lot of gray area in controversial topics like this. I think if the government allows woman the right to choose it will be serving everyone. Here is how I reason that. If the government in Texas outlawed abortions, people would be outraged. But they could go to another state to have the procedure done. If the government says that abortions are legal this will upset the far right. Being the government of a very conservative state, no politicians would make such a law. There best decision is to say it is legal for women to choose. Each individual woman should have the right to decide for herself. After all, in Roe v Wade, the court declared this a matter of privacy. So under the “Pro-Choice” laws, some woman will still think abortion wrong, they will not engage in it. Others will be ok with the issue and they will engage in it if it is needed. But in the end, it is up to the individuals to choose. This is why the government should pass laws in favor of choice. Yes, right now it is legal to get abortions in Texas. I predict many more arguments will commence about this topic. But the government should stay in the “choice” line of thinking. In this sense, they are not really picking a side; they are trying to please everyone. That is essentially the job of the government, to pass laws that do not evoke a strong reaction from certain groups.
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ReplyDeleteAbortion has always been a hot button topic. From those who think that forbidding life to come into the world is in all cases wrong to those who think that abortion is right in some circumstances, one might become confused about their own personal stance on the topic, as both sides hold reasonable arguments. Austin Community College student, Caitlin Huber, very well describes some scenarios in which abortion might be considered right or wrong in her blog post "Yet Another Controversy".
ReplyDeleteThe legalization of abortion has had many positive economic effects. The most dramatic effect of legalized abortion, as suggested by economist Steven Levitt, was its impact on crime. In December of 1989, crime was almost at its peak in the United States. In the fifteen years prior, violent crime had risen 80 percent. In the early 1990's, due to legalized abortion, crime rate began falling quite unexpectedly, despite the fact that many experts had predicted its certain rise in the next decade. Just as the first group of children born after Roe v. Wade were entering their late teen years, the years during which it is shown young men enter their criminal prime, the rate of crime began to fall. This direct correlation between abortion and crime rates can be seen when looking at crime data of the 5 states where abortion was made legal before the Supreme Court extended abortion rights to the rest of the country. These 5 states began to see crime fall earlier than the other 46.
The fact is, women who are caught in situations of rape or just "accidental" situations, need to have the option of abortion; ergo, I agree with Caitlin and think that it should be legal for women to choose. As she said in her post, doing so would prevent an everyday reminder of an atrocious act, and prevent children from coming into this world in unprepared households and poverty where their usually young mothers are neither emotionally nor financially capable of raising them.
What should a woman do? Abortion is still an issue that can not be easily resolved. I personally believe life begins at conception. As my fellow classmate , Caitlin Huber has written about the diverse options that can be considered when making such a hard decision.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was just out of high school entering college I never thought about what abortions really mean nor what the effects could be on a woman. I have been married for 17 years and tried to have children of my own for 8yrs. I also had the priviledge to deliver babies before I had my own children. With that being said, I have a few thoughts about this issue that I feel should be considered.
First, if you have no conception how will the baby grow? Caitlin mentioned that during the early stages of pregnancy that the cells during the blastula stage have no nerves so there is no feeling. But in my srtuggle with Fertility we had the priviledge to see my son develop during every stage of IVF. I actually saw my husband's sperm injected into my eggs and watched the beautiful sight of the blastula cell division. We prayed for this to happen, you see those cells that supposedly have no nerves and can't feel turned into my babies fingers, hands, nerves, heart, eyes etc.
Every stage of the process is needed and beneficial to life. I believe we are all wonderfully created for a purpose, and my creator knows every hair on my head. I look babies and children differently. I wanted to have a baby so much that I was prepared to spend money and adopt a child.
So, while I agree with Caitlin that I would never abort. On the other end of the spectrum I would have to disagree on her views regarding when the baby can feel during the development process. I also would have to disagree on the issue that some women should choose abortion because they can not raise the baby. You may ask why? Well, I am living proof that my mother's decision not to abort me was a wise choice because she was a teenager. She had no money. My grandmother talked her into keeping me! I am grateful! She calls me her guardian angel. I was adopted when I was 10 mos.old. and raised by her sister.Yes, which would be my aunt, but she really is Mama to me. She was 20 yrs old when I went to live with her. It is not always a pretty nor easy, but it is so much more to this issue than a broken relationships or violence. There is a better way. Some couples would love the opportunity to hold and raise a baby due to fertility, or any medical challenge like cancer or severe car wrecks. I appreciate your thoughts about this delicate issue.
In “Yet Another Controversy”, Caitlin Huber talks about the controversial issue of abortion. Caitlin, a self-defined moderate leaned to the right, provides an opinion inconsistent opinion about abortion. She starts by stating her opinion “I believe abortion is wrong. It is something I will never consider in my lifetime. For me, there is no choice; it’s something I could never do. Also I would not feel comfortable being friends with someone who has had an abortion. Morally, I cannot justify it in my own head except in cases of rape” then, on the following passage she starts to say that is OK for women to have an abortion if they got pregnant by mistake. Honestly, I am confused. Can she justify this option in her own head?
ReplyDeleteI am a product of an accident. My mother had a two months old toddler when she got pregnant of myself. As soon as my father found out that another baby was on its way, left her without any means and one infant in the stomach and another in her arms. In face of a frighting situation, her first thought was to have an abortion. As she likes to say nowadays “god did let me kill you”, If she has had one I would not be here today. Caitlin does not know me, and I know she did not have this intention, but she put a thought in my head "if it is OK for women to abort an unwanted child, it was OK for my mother to kill myself as I would not suffer.” Something to think about it.
I am not a big fan of moderates, yet I am a huge believer in compromises – conflicting, I know. I believe that you should stand with what you believe no matter if you are a far right or left. I believe in debates as ways to persuade opponents and the public opinion. With Caitlin's piece, I do not feel persuade or against it. I feel dizzy. She has opinions all over the place, some of them contradictory. She needs to evolve her opinion that right now is more like an early stage idea. Like the fetus example she uses. However, different from her opinion of killing the fetus only if it is early stage, I say keep on growing this idea and let an opinion be born.
Although it is not required, I feel a response to this comment is appropriate. I'm sorry you feel confused as to my beliefs. The purpose of this post was not to share my feelings on life, it was to discuss a controversial issue that the government has to face with a few of my ideas thrown in. As stated, I would never have an abortion. That does not mean that I think it is wrong for ALL people, just for me, it is wrong. My mother was going to abort me to avoid health issues but my father got her to change her mind. I am happy she did decide to keep me, naturally. But if I never existed, I could not have any feeling on the matter. Anyway, my purpose was not to cause confusion. I talked about what I feel is right for myself and the arguments for both sides of the issue. I'm not trying to get anyone to agree with me. I simply completed the assignment given to me while raising a few questions. Controversial issues are not called "controversial" because they are black and white.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input.