Essay on Abortion

Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. If a woman falls pregnant and she does not wish to go through with the pregnancy then she may choose to have an abortion. Abortion is a controversial issue, some people say it is ok to abort a baby but others are strongly against it. Sometimes people are against it because they believe it is wrong but some are against it because of their religion, their background and their up-bringing. People who are for abortion may have had one and therefore think it is ok or they may know someone who has had one. In this essay I will discuss the arguments for and the arguments against abortion. An argument in favour of abortion is if the woman was raped. If a woman was raped then she would often not want to keep a rapist’s child. Also she would probably be scarred for life, even without the baby. If she had the baby she would be reminded of the rape every single day of her life. When the baby gets older he/she would want to know who his/her dad was when he/she saw that every other child at school had a dad and he/she never, unless the mother has another partner. Secondly, the mother should be able to terminate the pregnancy if she is told that her unborn baby is going to have a disability. If your baby was born with a disability then you would struggle to cope, as would your family. When the baby grows older he/she may have difficulties in school and may even get bullied because of his/her disabilities. It would be possible to abort this baby as every parent wishes for a good, happy, normal life for their children. Lastly, a reason for a woman to have an abortion is if she is under the legal age of consent, sixteen. A young woman under sixteen may not be able to cope on her own and may not be able to provide the maternal and emotional support the baby needs. The girl also may have to leave school for a little while to take care of the baby which would make her fall behind on a lot of school work. She may have the pregnancy terminated because she may have wanted to go to college or university to study further. I feel that she should have the chance to live her life and be free without having any major responsibilities, like having to look after a baby. However, even though a woman may have a perfectly good reason to have an abortion she would still be killing a human life. Some women think they are doing the right thing at the time but when it comes to a later stage in life, many of them can regret their decisions. It would probably be at the back of their mind- they would think about it when they got the chance to. They would probably think how their lives would be different if they had had the baby. Furthermore, there are many people in the world that cannot conceive for many different reasons and would do anything for a child, therefore they would adopt. Instead of a woman having a termination because she think she is unable to cope then she could have the baby and then put it up for adoption. Sometimes in these situations women have the baby and they often change their mind about having the baby put up for adoption and they keep their baby. Of course if the woman still does not want the baby she may have him/her put up for adoption for another family to take care of. Lastly, if the woman is old enough and responsible enough to have sex then she should have to take responsibility of a pregnancy that results in her actions, even if this does mean having to leave school or to leave a brilliant job to raise a child. Any woman should have to take care of a baby because she knew what she was doing and knew what could be the consequences of her actions. Therefore she should not be allowed to terminate her pregnancy. Having researched the topic fully presented three arguments for abortion and three arguments against abortion, my opinion is that it should be legal but for one reason only – if the baby is going to have any sort of disability. In every other circumstance, it should be illegal because, as I said in one of my points, many couples are unable to have children of their own and this would give them a good chance to have a baby of their own.