Essay, Research Paper: Abortion - Pro-Choice Is Pc

Pro-Choice Is PC
Regardless of anyone s feelings about an embryos or fetuses rights or of women, sex and responsibility or of God, Karma or of the Bible, one cannot over look the fact that women have always used abortion to prevent child birth and always will. No matter what other think, women will turn to abortion as a last resort. If abortion is illegal, it is unsafe and dangerous therefore it must be kept legal and accessible to ensure the safety of the women.
Making abortion illegal has little effect on the number of abortions performed and there is evidence from all over the world that shows this. In the 1930 s there were thousands of criminal abortions in the United States and Canada. The number of births dropped by about half, as women refused to bring children into a depressed economy. These women resorted to dangerous illegal abortions to end their pregnancies. Due to this, about 2500 women died every year from abortion complications, making up for one in four maternal deaths. From 1950 to 1965 in the US alone, there were over 250 abortion related deaths reported each year. At the time illegal abortions were approximately two to three times more dangerous than a legal abortions and simple calculations show the there were at least 500,000 illegal abortions each year. (Sykes) Is a women s life worth less than that of her unborn baby? A women is going to have an abortion whether it is legal or not, if that is her choice. Why not make it as safe as possible for her? Present day changes in the law have produced a mortality rate from legal abortions to be almost zero, and abortion accounts for only 3% of maternal deaths. (Sykes) It is clear that legal abortions yield much less maternal deaths than that of illegal abortions. If saving lives is the issue than allowing women to have a choice in the matter seems to be the only answer.
It is also true that, women whose own health is compromised during pregnancy are more likely to miscarry and to deliver babies who are sick. Their babies are also more likely to die soon after birth. Women who s pregnancies which are unwanted are often less likely to get prenatal care, are statistically more likely to use cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs during their pregnancy, and are more likely to give birth to low birth weight, sick babies, as well as not breast feed. Should a baby be forced to be brought up under these conditions? Like drinking, drug use, prostitution, and sex, abortion is a victimless crime. In 1965, sociologist and lawyer Edwin Schur looked at the existing laws against homosexuality drug use, and abortion and found the laws to be futile. Schur argues the laws against abortion points up some of the major consequences of attempting to legislate against the crimes without victims. (qtd.in Sykes) He also went on to say that abortion is an example of the unenforceability of a statute that attempts to prohibit a private practice where all parties concerned seek to avoid the restriction. (qtd.in Sykes) Unenforceable laws have little affect on people s behaviors, but do lead to crime and corruption. In countries like Canada or the United States, where individual freedoms and liberties are a very high priority, it is hard to picture a complete end to abortion. That is why most are pro-choice even if they dislike abortion.
One of the most debated subjects on abortion is whether an embryo is a human being or something less. Anti-abortionists argue that an embryo is a human and is entitled to the same rights as anyone else, including the women carry it. What they ignore is that allowing an embryo to use a women s body against her will would give it more right than she has, since a women does not have the right to demand the use of other people s bodies to save her own. Anti-abortionists also ignore thousands of years of cultural, religious, social and legal history, which has never held an embryo to be a person. Only abortion opponents have referred to an embryo as a person, and only to oppose abortion. Any law that defines an embryo as a person with equal right to, or greater than, that of a women s is illogical. Subjugating women to the needs of a tablespoon of insentient, unaware tissue is perverse. Equating a human being with a hollow ball of cells trivializes everything we value about humanity. (Sykes) A women is more than an embryo and therefore should have greater rights then an embryo or at least have the right to choose how her body is to be used.
Abortion may not be right or wrong, but this is beside the point. Abortion has simply become a fact of life and must be allowed in order to satisfy the needs of everyone. Pro-choice seems to be the more politically correct view since it does not attempt to impose personal views upon others, but rather suggests a viable solution to one of the many problems the world faces. In a society such as the one in which we live it is necessary to view abortion objectively. One must ask themselves if unwanted, sick, and abandoned babies are needed and if it is just or a good moral decision to bring such babies into the world, human or not.
Work Cited
Sykes, Margaret. Pro-Choice Views. 2001. 28 Feb. 2001