To Abort or not to Abort

To Abort or not to Abort

Abortions happen all around the world. It is also one of the lead reasons for deaths in both third world and second world countries. By making it illegal in these countries, it increases the deaths due to unsafe abortions. According to the World Health Organization 68,000 women die and millions have complications due to unsafe abortions. “19-20 million abortions are done by individuals without the proper skills, or in environments below minimum medical standards, or both. Nearly all unsafe abortions (97%) are in developing countries.” This is being called the preventable and silent pandemic. “Access to safe, legal abortion is a fundamental right of women, irrespective of where they live”.

For decades there have been debates on whether abortion is morally acceptable and if it should be legal. The current law is that an abortion is permissible within the first 3 months of pregnancy, the next three months you can also have an abortion but it becomes a sort of grey area and more complicated to receive one, and the last trimester of the pregnancy it is illegal to have an abortion. This ruling was made due to a case Roe vs. Wade. This law started when someone became pregnant and wanted an abortion.  She went to the courts and started fighting them saying that she was raped and that she needed an abortion. Throughout the ruling everyone came to agree that an abortion would be permissible within the first three months of a pregnancy.

            To this day, people still argue on whether abortion should be morally permissible, legal, how much time before you can no longer get an abortion, and other details. There are extremes to both sides; one is that abortion is never permissible no matter the condition. If a girl is raped and becomes pregnant they think that is still not grounds to get an abortion and kill a human. On the other side of the extreme view, they think that abortion is always permissible and that it is up to the pregnant women to decide if she wants to give birth to a child or not. There are some facts and figures that are really surprising that should be mentioned. The number of abortions from 2000 to 2008 has actually decreased. Most Western industrialized countries have lower abortion rates than the United States does. Almost half of all pregnancies are unintended, and four in ten unintended pregnancies end in abortions. Over 50 percent of women who have abortions are in their twenties and 18 percent are teenagers.

            We must not focus too much attention on the extremist views because they are set in their ways and will not reason or listen to other points of views. Some women who become pregnant and want an abortion want it for selfish reasons, whether it be because they simply don’t want it, they can’t afford a baby, they want to have a baby because they have vacation coming up, etc. My personal belief has always been that it is up to the women whether she wants to have an abortion because it is her body and no one else’s. I felt that the government had no right to tell a woman that she had to bear a child and give birth if it was against her will. Especially in cases of rape I thought that no questions asked she had the right to an abortion. Doing more research on the moral obligations towards the human race and discussions about abortion, my view has been slightly altered.

Once a woman is past 9 weeks along, the only option is to terminate the pregnancy is by an in-clinic abortion. This procedure can cost up to $5,000 but will vary with healthcare coverage. Aspiration, often called the vacuum aspiration, and is done up to 16 weeks after the woman’s last period. This procedure can be done in the first trimester. This tends to be chosen over the abortion pill because it has a higher success rate. And is done in a doctors office using local anesthetics. This method is 99.5 percent effective, if the procedure fails then it is repeated.

Rapper Nicki Minaj has brought her abortion public to Rolling Stones Magazine. I think that Nicki Minaj was very brave when she decided to write about her abortion in one of her songs. I not only think that it represented her character, but it also showed that she wants her audience to know the truth and know that she might regret her decision or she might be happy about it, but she shows her fans and that sometimes life is going to be hard but you just have to take it day by day and remember that things will get better. Bringing this information public also bring both negative and positive attention from all over parts of the spectrum. In her song “all things go” with the lyrics “my child with Aaron would’ve been sixteen any minute.” In an interview with Acculturated, she talks about how having an abortion was one of the hardest things she has done and how that decision haunts her everyday. This is sad to hear but unfortunately this happens all around the world. Abortions have become very common throughout the 21^st century.

In response to her coming out with the abortion publicly, these are a few negative comments:

“Just because someone earns millions does not mean they have to share their deep and darkest secrets with the world. I do believe some things are best left private, and then amongst friends and/or family, when the need to share does arrive. Please don't feel you owe us any of this info Nicki, it is extremely personal.”

“Her awful "music" haunts me.....”

“We don't get pregnant every time we have sex....”

“I respect her honesty, but I hate when women say "I didn't have anything to offer the child" um what about life? Giving birth to a human and giving it life is the biggest, greatest, most beautiful thing it will ever receive. Life.”

“No longer a fan....geez...some things should be kept private.”

“Adoption. Adoption. Adoption”

This is where social media can have a huge negative impact on publicly saying something that is so personal. To Nicki, it was just a way to come to peace with that very difficult decision she made when she was 16 years old. But to the social media world, it was a way to instantly judge her by giving negative comments without even knowing what she went through. This is a great example of why pro choice should be accepted. Who am I to tell someone what they can and cannot do without walking a day in their shoes?

And after seeing how common it has become, I worry for our future generations. I am pro choice and believe every woman has the right to choose what she wants to do with her life. Hearing Nicki’s side to the story, and knowing that she is still pro choice even after having an abortion shows her true colors. This is where the question continues, where is the line drawn? We have pro-life groups like the March for Life that is 100 percent against abortion in all cases. They look at it as unnecessarily taking an innocent life. From seeing both sides to the argument, I have been able to stay with the mentality that it is ultimately the woman’s choice in whether or not she wants to keep the baby. These arguments strengthen my belief in empowering women’s decision on this matter especially due to the fact that if a woman did not want to have a baby then she shouldn’t because the fetus was not granted a right to use the mother’s stomach and even though it has a right to life, it does not outweigh all the right’s that the woman has with her own body, and it does not grant the fetus any right’s towards the mother. This topic will forever be a contemporary moral problem and will always be discussed because of how complicated it is but we all have to make a great effort to studying and learning about this especially since it happens so much and is so controversial.

References:

·      "Premature Twins Born One Week Before Legal Abortion Limit Miraculously Survive." LifeNews.com. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

·      "A Matter of Life or Death." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

·      "Plan B One-Step®: Home." Plan B One-Step®: Home. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.