Argumentative Synthesis: For Abortions

Before 1967, abortion was illegal in the UK. However, backstreet abortions were done, often ending in permanent injury or death. The 1967 Abortion Act was introduced to provide a safe alternative to backstreet abortions (Abortion). In 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions legalizing abortion in all 50 states during all nine months of pregnancy, for any reason, medical, social, or otherwise. The vast majority of all abortions performed today are done for social, not medical reasons (McGee).

Traditionally, abortion was the point of serious arguments for and against this phenomenon in the majority of societies. As a rule, a significant part of the society is against abortion but on certain conditions even conservatives agree that abortion may be necessary or even inevitable. Anyway, the society must be very careful resolving the problem weather to support or completely reject abortion ideas but at the same time women must have a choice and a chance for abortion (Alex).

A Sep. 2005 survey in the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health asking women why they had an abortion found that 73% of respondents said they could not afford to have a baby. Babies are expensive and we understand that. We know that it may not be easy to provide for a baby that has come at a time in your life when you are not financially ready. Many women who get pregnant or have abortions are single mothers. Despite declines in rates of teen pregnancy in the U. S. , about 820,000 teens become pregnant each year.

That means that 34 percent of teenagers have at least one pregnancy before they turn 20 and seventy-nine percent of teenagers who become pregnant are unmarried (Teen Help). Most young adults who become pregnant are still attending school, have no job, and are still living with their parents and other siblings. How are they supposed to raise a child, when they are still depending on someone else for help? In the economy that we live in today, not only young people are unstable to raise a child, but older adults also due to the lack of job.

If someone knows that they cannot afford a child why bring them into this world to suffer? That is why some women choose to pay that one time cost of an abortion , than to pay the dues to raise a child forever. Now that prenatal testing can so easily detect babies with physical and mental disabilities, more and more women are choosing to abort their children if something is wrong with them. For example, up to 92% of women whose tests show that they are carrying babies with Down syndrome abort (Sarah Terzo).

A baby with severe disabilities may have a very poor quality of life that also brings trauma to the parents who have to watch it suffer, it may be kinder for that child not to be born (Abortion). When a doctor breaks the news to a woman that her child may suffer from a severe disability, the women begins to have so many thoughts run through her mind. Thoughts such as will my child be picked on / laughed at? Will my child ever be able to play sports? Is it my fault for allowing my child to live?

Many mothers suffer the pain of guilt, wishing that they had aborted their child, because their child is not normal like other children. Raped women should not be made to have the baby as they did not choose to get pregnant and would be constantly reminded of their ordeal as the child grows up (Abortion). It is argued that in these tragic cases the great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of rape or incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is also said that a not be obliged to carry the fetus to viability.

This would keep reminding her for nine months of the pregnancy caused by rape or incest is the result of a grave injustice and that the victim should violence committed against her and would just increase her mental anguish. It is reasoned that the value of the woman’s mental health is greater than the value of the fetus. In addition, it is maintained that the fetus is an aggressor against the woman’s integrity and personal life; it is only just and morally defensible to repel an aggressor even by killing him if that is the only way to defend personal and human values.

It is concluded, then, that abortion is justified in these cases (Beckwith). Many people against abortions see the fetus as a distinct human being with its own right. They believe abortion cannot be justified because it is killing an innocent human being (RSrevision). Arguments include: Every child is a precious and unique gift from God, we have no right to destroy this, children with physical or learning disabilities can lead full and rewarding lives, and aborting people because of disability is like telling disabled people that they are worthless.

Christian religions believe that abortions are and have always been wrong. Life begins at conception (or at the very least we cannot be certain that it doesn’t), therefore abortion is murder. The unborn child is a sacred human life; it deserves the same respect as any other human being. Even in the case of rape, the RC Church does not support abortion – the fetus would be paying for someone else’s crime (Abortion). Variations exist in arguments on both sides of the debate.

Some pro-choice proponents believe abortion should only be used as a last resort, while others advocate unrestricted access to abortion services under any circumstance. Proponents, identifying themselves as pro-choice, contend that abortion is a right that should not be limited by governmental or religious authority, and which outweighs any right claimed for an embryo or fetus (Background). “We know that women have abortions for many reasons. Even if we disagree on the issue of abortion, we can agree that these are private personal decisions we all must be able to make based on our own circumstances, beliefs, and values.

We should respect and support a woman and her family as they face the life-altering decision of whether to have a child. It is neither my place nor our government’s place to make such an important life decision for someone else -Louise Melling. (Louise)”. If one is not ready for a child due to whatever the issue may be, why make a child suffer? As we, all know this world isn’t easy to survive in, its hard and it would be even harder with a child that a women cannot bear to take care of.