Should Abortions be legal
Rape is one of the most horrible experiences any woman can go through and without proper counseling it can remain in a womans mind for the rest of her life. The matter can however become much more complicated if a woman conceives out of such devastating experience and even worse when compelled by the laws of the land to give birth to the product of such an awful experience. A child born to such a mother would act like a constant reminder of what the mother went through during rape period. Even if the law governing the country does not legalize abortion, they should at least permit it in some circumstances such as conceiving through rape. This would act as a great relief to the women who become victims of rape and conceive through it. Their healing process would be much faster enabling them to overcome the grief and sorrow that accompanies virtually all rape victims (Hershenov, 2001).
Women do not always experience safe pregnancy there are some instances when pregnancy puts the life of both the mother and the unborn baby in danger. In such a case, if the pregnancy is not terminated, then it is possible for both the mother and the unborn baby to die. Law is meant to protect the citizens of the jurisdiction in which it is applicable. If then it cannot be applicable in saving the life of the unborn baby, it should at least be useful in protecting that of the mother. Just like in the previous case, it is completely irrational for the law and policymakers to stipulate and enact laws that illegalize abortion and thus risk the lives of both the mother and her unborn baby if the pregnancy is not a normal one. Women with such pregnancies should be legally allowed to abort and thus at least save their lives since it is not possible to save both lives (Griner, 1991).
The women have their human rights and the laws of a country should not be discriminative and oppressive by forcing women to give birth to children they do not want. Women have the right of giving birth to the number of children they want and compelling them through oppressive laws to give birth to more children would in fact amount to violation of their rights. If for example a woman does not want to give birth to more children because her financial status does not allow her to, then it will imply the children who are born out because the laws compelled their mothers not to abort them will together with their mothers and other family members live on over stretched financial resources. This might mean that they will not be in a position to receive good education, shelter, food and clothing and hence will live a miserable life. This is a scenario that is avoidable by enacting the right laws legalizing abortion (Dormady, 1997).
By making abortion illegal in a country does not mean that women who are determined to do so will not. For those women who can afford to move to countries like the US where abortion is legal, they will go there and have their abortion carried out and thus the law will not have served its purpose of deterring such women from terminating their pregnancies. By making abortion illegal, it can actually compel those women who are determined to terminate their pregnancies but do not have the financial ability to have it done in nations where it is legalized to use crude methods. They can opt to seek such services from unqualified medical practitioners since those who are qualified and are operating in the main stream medical facilities cannot offer them with such services. This therefore implies that these women will become vulnerable to various risks associated with terminating pregnancy through such methods. Some of them might end up dying while others may suffer from several complications, which will eventually have to be treated in the health care facilities and thus increasing the health care financial burden (Kreimer, 1993).
Children who are born out of unintended pregnancies simply because the laws are oppressive and they compelled their mothers to give birth instead of aborting them are likely to lack several essential requirements they need in their lives. Their mothers might have had very good reasons for getting rid of them before they were born. But because the law denied them that chance and were therefore forced to give birth to them, there are very high chances of such children being hated by their mothers. While at the look of it this might appear simple, the truth is that every child needs parental love in order to grow and develop properly. Without the love of the mother, a child will most probably only grow physically, while his or her social and emotional development is greatly hindered and impaired. This might have a lot of consequences not only to the child but also to the society as a whole. Most of such children who are forced by circumstances to grow without their mothers love end being a nuisance to the community as most of them develop criminal behaviors. In order to prevent such scenarios, the law should allow women to get rid of the fetus they do not want to carry since by being forced to continue with such pregnancies will only complicate the life of the child, the mother and the society (Wanderer, 1999).
Anti-thesis
Despite the fact that rape is a traumatizing incident to its victim, by simply terminating the pregnancy does not imply that the mother will get over it. In fact, it would be a double tragedy for the mother who would have to live with both consequences of killing the innocent unborn child as well as the rape experience. Aborting a fetus conceived out of rape is not the best way of assisting a woman who has gone through such an awful experience get over it. Instead of the law giving such a woman the freedom to terminate the pregnancy, it should compel the government to provide facilities to assist such women to undergo the necessary counseling process and thus get the chance of recovering fully from the ordeal of rape (Hershenov, 2001).
When the life of both the mother and the child are at risk if the pregnancy is not terminated, then the law should contain a special clause, whereby in such extreme and extraordinary cases, the mother is allowed to terminate the pregnancy. However, this would be a special clause whose main intention is not to kill either the mother or the unborn baby, but to save the life of the person who among the two that is, the mother and the child has higher chances of surviving (Griner, 1991).
It is irrational to argue that the womens rights are violated when they are denied a chance of carrying out an abortion. In virtually all cases, there is no law that should allow an individual to enjoy his or her rights at the expense of another individual. If women are allowed to terminate pregnancies on the grounds that by denying such rights would amount to violation of their rights, then the rights of the unborn children to life would be even more violated. The law should be fair and equitable to all, it should not be biased against the unborn children simply because they cannot speak for themselves and favor adult women most of who conceived while enjoying themselves. Every individual should take responsibility for his or her actions and pregnant women are no exception (Dormady, 1997).
Law should not be enacted in a manner that it allows termination of pregnancies simply because by denying women that right, they will take off to countries where it is legal and carry out their abortions. It should also not be allowed because women who want to carry out abortion will seek the services of the less qualified medical practitioners. By allowing abortion because of such reasons would be similar to allowing people to commit murders or rob others simply because the law is not well enforced to make it effective in dealing with all crimes of such nature that are taking place in the country. Instead of the law allowing women to terminate pregnancies because they will either seek substandard services or will move to countries where it is legal, the law should be well enforced to ensure that women are deterred as much as possible from taking such steps (Kreimer, 1993).
There is no logic in arguing that by terminating some pregnancies, the society will be saved from the various crimes that are committed by people who are born to parents who did not want them in the first place. It is not in order to commit a crime so as to prevent another crime, which after all might just be an illusion and never founded. Just like we have criminals who were born to mothers who had planned for them and provided them with every thing including love, but later turns to be criminals terrorizing their own families and society, is in the same way in which we can have criminals born to parents who did not want them in the first place. Furthermore, just as it is possible to have good people born to parents who wanted them, it is also possible to have very good people born to parents who given a chance would have aborted them. Abortion should therefore not be legalized on the grounds that the society is being spared from the possible criminals who are likely to be born to parents who did not want them (Wanderer, 1999).
Synthesis
Rape being possibly one of the great ordeals that a woman can ever go through should not be allowed to torment a woman for the rest of her life when there is a way out. Even though there are people who feel that abortion is not the perfect means through which a woman can overcome the horrible experience of rape, the truth is that through abortion, a woman would be in a position to get rid of a substantial burden resulting from the ordeal. Abortion should therefore be legalized so that women who are victims of such an experience can get a great opportunity of getting on with their lives without extra financial and emotional burdens brought about by rape (Hershenov, 2001).
When the pregnancy of a woman puts her own life and the unborn child in danger, then it is only rational to save the life of the mother. In most of such cases, the unborn baby has minimal or no chances at all of surviving. It would therefore not be prudent for any law to force a woman to go on carrying such pregnancy and thus risk her own life for a child with limited chances of surviving. In this case, abortion should be legalized since such a move would greatly relieve women with such pregnancies (Griner, 1991).
In virtually all constitutions, women have a right of getting the number of children they feel they can be able to adequately take care of. By denying them such a right would amount to violating their rights. In most constitutions, life begins at birth and hence such constitutions do not provide any rights to the unborn children. Therefore, by making abortion illegal, the only people whose rights are violated are those of the mothers, while those of the child who does not exist as far as the constitution is concerned are protected. Abortion should thus be made legal so that most constitutions cease contradicting themselves (Dormady, 1997).
In order to prevent pregnant women from moving to countries in which abortion is legalized for them to carry out their intended abortions, then it is only rational to enact laws that will make them to satisfy their needs locally instead of looking for them in other countries and thus make their countries to unnecessarily lose on the balance of payment. Again, it is quite evident that some women in countries where abortion is illegal usually seek for abortion services from unqualified medical practitioners. This has several consequences both to such mothers and to the countrys economy. Such women become more vulnerable to various complications that are associated with carrying out abortion unprofessionally and times they even die from such complications. In such a case, the law which was claiming to protect both the mother and unborn child and thus made illegal for an abortion to be carried out is at the end of the day unable to protect the lives of both the mother and the unborn child. In order to avoid such scenarios, it is only fair to allow women to abort and hence have a chance of aborting in a safe manner (Kreimer, 1993).
Forcing women to give birth to children they do not want will only complicate things for the child, the mother and the entire society. The law can force the mothers to give birth to children against their wishes, but it cannot force them to love them and thus provide them with the much needed love to enable them grow not only physically but to also develop socially and emotionally and thus become important people to their societies instead of becoming liabilities to them (Wanderer, 1999).
Despite the fact that legalizing abortion is one of the hotly debated issues in the world today, it should be legalized as it is a necessary social evil. People who abort do not just do it because it is a hobby to do so. They usually have sufficient reasons for taking such serious decisions and hence they should not be barred by law. By making abortion legal, mothers would be able to get rid of emotional and financial burdens they cannot bear.
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