Abortion As A Form Of Birth Control Essay
Abortion as a Form of Birth Control
When looking at abortion as an ethical issue, the argument is usually whether the fetus has moral status or not. Pro-choice supporters believe a fetus does not have moral status until it is viable outside of the mother’s womb. Pro-life supporters believe the fetus has moral status at conception. If the fetus has moral status, then it is immoral to kill the fetus (Jones & Chaloner, 2007). Some believe when the heart beats, that signifies life. Therefore, when a fetus’ heart starts to beat at eight weeks gestation (Parker, 2007), it has life. If the fetus has life at eight weeks gestation, it should be considered to have moral status as well. Therefore, it would be immoral to have an abortion after the eighth week. With all the options available to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, there should be no need to use abortion as a form of birth control.
Various abortion procedures are available depending on how far along the pregnancy is. In the first trimester, there are four procedures available. Methotrexate and Misoprostol (MTX) is a procedure used within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. MTX is a two-part medication combination taken within five to seven days of each other and it is over 90% effective with the effectiveness rate going to 96% if done within the first seven weeks. …show more content…
Mifepristone and Misoprostol is commonly known as the abortion pill and works the same way as MTX, but the pills are taken in a shorter time of each other, within 48 hours. Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) is a procedure used between five to 12 weeks from the last menstrual cycle. A thin tube is passed through the cervix and into the uterus. A handheld syringe creates the suction to remove the fetal tissue from the uterus. Aspiration is a surgical abortion procedure used within the first 16 weeks from the last menstrual cycle. It is commonly known as dilation and curettage (D & C) (American Pregnancy Association, 2011).
In the second trimester, there are three procedures available. Dilation & Curettage (D & C) as described above in the first trimester procedures. Dilation & Evacuation (D & E) is another surgical procedure performed in the second 12 weeks and usually includes a combination of vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage and the use of forceps or other surgical instruments to terminate the pregnancy. Induction Abortion is a procedure where labor is started with a combination of medications (American Pregnancy Association, 2011).
The procedures in third trimester pregnancies are Induction Abortion and Dilation and Extraction (D & E). Induction Abortion is the procedure explained in the second trimester section above. Dilation and Extraction is a surgical procedure that entails dilating the cervix, and the death of the fetus is caused after it has been removed partially from the birth canal (Merriam-Webster.com, 2013).
Deontology states that one should do what they are obligated to do as rational moral agents in addition, to living by the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mosser, 2010). As a rational moral agent, one should not have an abortion because it is immoral to kill another living human being. An expectant mother’s duty is to grow the fetus and give birth to it, not have it vacuumed from her womb as if it is dust needing cleaned out of a corner in a room. Abortion does not pass the Golden Rule, given the option of being aborted or born; people will pick to be born. Therefore, when a woman has an abortion, she is not doing unto the fetus as she would want done unto her. There are other options to abortion, like adoption. It is not immoral to give the baby up for adoption to a loving couple who may not be able to have children of their own and will love and care for the baby as if it were their own. Deontology would solve the issue by making abortion illegal again. Then women would not be able to have an abortion regardless of how she were impregnated. They would have to carry the child, give birth, and if the child was still unwanted, they could give it up for adoption. When it comes to birth defects, babies would be born the way they were intended to be, whether they are normal or have birth defects.
Pro-choice supporters will argue that this will create more problems for women, as they will revert to having illegal abortions by people unqualified to perform them. This will put women in jeopardy of being injured or even killed having the abortions done by unqualified individuals. Before abortion was legal in the UK, it was estimated that 100,000-150,000 illegal abortions were performed and an estimated 40 deaths and other injuries were occurring each year (Jones & Chaloner, 2007). There are several reasons women and teenage girls have abortions. One of the main reasons is it is simply an unwanted pregnancy. Abortion should never be used as a form of birth control when there are so many options available for birth control. There is abstinence, the monthly pill, Intrauterine devices like Mirena, The patch, condoms for both men and women, hormonal shots, emergency contraceptives commonly known as the “morning after pill, ”and permanent birth control like sterilization implants and surgical sterilization (U.S Federal Government for Women’s Health, 2012). With all the options for preventing pregnancy, especially the “morning after pill,” there should not be a reason to have an abortion if you are diligent in preventing pregnancy. Ethical egoism states that one should do what one desires to reach their goals.
If something is keeping you from your goals, then it is wrong. If it is helping with your desires and goals, it is right (Mosser, 2010). The ethical egoist would argue against the fact that abortion is wrong and say it is okay to have the abortion if it is keeping the woman from doing what she wants to do in life. An unwanted pregnancy would certainly keep a woman from her goals. Maybe she is not done with school or is not financially stable enough to raise a child. Therefore, the ethical egoist would say it is in her best interest to abort the
child. The laws for physicians need to be changed. As it is right now in Great Britain, a doctor can decline to perform an abortion because they feel it goes against their conscience, except in cases where the woman’s mental health or life are at stake if the pregnancy continues. Doctors cannot refuse to refer the woman to a doctor who has no objections to abortion, despite their feelings of abortion in general. Hill argues with this because he feels if a doctor who does not want to perform an abortion when it goes against their conscience, will not want to aide in the woman finding a doctor who will perform the abortion because that puts them in the position of participating, in a sense, with the abortion. Hill’s argument is about the rights of the doctors, not for the fetuses (Whiting, 2011).
There can be extenuating circumstances, like rape, incest, and the health of the mother/unborn child. These can both be argued against as well, after all, a child born of rape or incest can also be adopted out. The Pro-choice supporters will say that it is not mentally healthy for a woman to carry a child that is created from rape or incest. The pro-life supporters will say that she can carry it just like any other fetus, and then give it up for adoption. Not all doctors are right when they say the mother/unborn child is too unhealthy to continue the pregnancy. The female body will sometimes miscarry a fetus that is not healthy (WebMD.com, 2011). Where is the line drawn when an abortion is okay? If pro-choice supporters are pushing for legal abortions of healthy babies that are unwanted, what happens when abortion is used for sex selection? Feminist groups who support pro-choice groups have to think about that. Are they willing to support something that could diminish their gender? Will they still support pro-choice when it becomes a serious problem? England and India are already dealing with this problem. In England, a couple of activists from Christian Concern, a social justice organization, are filing a suit against doctors who are performing gender-based abortions. In response to the lawsuit, Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service says, “You can’t be pro-choice except when you don’t like the choice, because that’s not pro-choice at all” (Scribner, 2013, para. 6).
This proves that some believe that if you are going to be pro-choice, you have to support abortion without putting other rules in place. If it is okay for a woman to have an abortion because she is too young, not married, not financially capable of dealing with a child, among other reasons, then gender-based abortions should be legal as well. Ann Furedi is afraid that if the law is passed to prevent sex-based abortion with the argument that it is discriminatory towards females, then the advocates for the disabled will argue that abortion of handicapped fetus’s is discriminatory towards the disabled (Furedi, 2013).
In India, a group of women is putting on demonstration plays about the gender-selection abortion issue there. Instead of targeting the abortion issue and risking changing the abortion laws, they are targeting the issue of finding out what gender the fetus is. They believe if they can stop the ability to find out what the gender will be, then women will not have the option of having an abortion based solely on the fetus’s gender. They do not want to change the abortion law, where it has been legal to have an abortion since 1971 (Garlough, 2008).
Is it okay to abort babies if they are severely deformed and could not live normal lives? Is it considered discrimination towards the handicapped to abort a fetus that has a handicap? The ethical egoist would say it would benefit the mother and or father to abort the child because the medical responsibilities of a handicapped child could keep them from their goals. The deontologist would say it is not okay to abort the handicapped child because it would not follow the Golden Rule of doing unto others, as one would have done unto them. If it is not ethical to abort a handicapped baby because it is discriminatory towards the handicapped, then why have the pre-natal testing to find out if the baby is going to have disorders in the first place.
In a case where it is a serious and untreatable congenital condition, and the child will not live long after birth or be still born, it should be okay. Two serious congenital conditions are Tay Sachs disease and Anencephaly. Tay Sachs is an inherited disease that damages the tissues and nerves in the brain. The infant affected eventually becomes blind, deaf, and unable to swallow. They do not live long after birth and it is an untreatable disease. Anencephaly is also untreatable, but is not an inherited disease. Anencephaly is caused by a defect in the neural tube during gestation of the fetus and results are that a major part of the brain is not developed. Babies with anencephaly are still born or do not live long after birth (Ballantyne, Newson, Luna & Ashcroft, 2009).
One of my best friends would not be here today had her mother listened to her doctor. They advised her that her health was in jeopardy (she has ITP, which means she bleeds easily) and she should terminate her pregnancy because they could both die during childbirth. She did not feel right about having an abortion; she is Catholic and has strong pro-life feelings, so she did not abort her pregnancy. My best friend is 37 years old now and her mother is still alive and doing well. Her doctor was obviously wrong about her needing to terminate her pregnancy to save her own health. I have had an unwanted pregnancy myself. My boyfriend (he is now my husband) asked what I thought about abortion when I told him I was pregnant. I told him it was not an option for me when he asked about getting an abortion. It is wrong and I never have thought it was an appropriate way to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. For me, it is not about religion, but about a living human being. I would not kill a person because I did not want them in my life, it is wrong to kill another human being, therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong to have an abortion. We now have a 12-year-old daughter and I would not trade her for anything else in the world. We have our problems, like all mother-daughter relationships, but I am very glad to have her and be her mom. I do not resent her or wish I had had an abortion when I had the chance. My niece was born with a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, it is an extra gene in the 18th pair of chromosomes, and sends a message to the cells to make 1.5 of everything internally. My niece’s heart was too large, her kidneys were different sizes, with one being the size of a toddler’s and the other being infant size. She had to be tube fed, her airway was too small and any size of bottle nipple would block her airway. My niece’s case was extremely severe and terminal. She lived for six weeks and was in a great amount of pain during her life. My sister did not get the appropriate testing to find out the problems that her unborn child was suffering from. Her doctor believed that the miscarriage rate was higher with having the testing done than with not having it done. He was trying to prevent a miscarriage because my sister was having symptoms and he put her on bed rest, which eventually stopped the symptoms. My sister had it stated in her medical record that her unborn children from then on would need genetic testing to determine if the fetus had genetic disorders and that she wanted the fetus terminated and her tubes tied if it did. She now has two healthy sons and never had to make an actual choice to have an abortion. Now that it has been 22 years since my niece passed away and she has had the two healthy sons, my sister does not believe she would have it in her to abort a genetically disordered fetus. She has stated that it would not be for her own pain and suffering that she terminated a genetically disordered fetus, but for the fetus’s pain and suffering. Pro-choice supporters think that Roe vs. Wade was a bad decision because of the way it was decided, not the actual decision itself. The decision was that the fetus did not have personhood before viability; therefore, it was determined to be lawful to have an abortion before 24 weeks gestation. This is giving pro-life advocates the ability to argue Roe vs. Wade and possibly be able to overturn it if they can successfully prove that a fetus has personhood at the time of conception. It has been attempted many times in recent years to overturn Roe vs. Wade because the fetus has personhood at conception; therefore, it is unlawful to abort the fetus. Manninen (2010) believes that pro-choice advocates need to move away from this kind of defense and focus more on the rights of the woman and her right to choose in regards to her body. Manninen believes that “no one is morally required (and cannot be legally compelled) to submit to unwanted bodily intrusion in order to render aid to another person, even for life itself” (Manninen, 2010, pg. 36). Better sex education for the young teenage girls could help reduce the amount of unwanted pregnancies and subsequent abortions. If young girls are educated on how to prevent pregnancy and how to obtain contraceptives like the “morning after pill,” they will be more diligent in preventing pregnancy. “The countries with the lowest abortion rates are those where, on the other hand, pregnancy termination is legal and, on the other, sex education and contraceptive knowledge are widely spread” (Benagiano & Pera, 2000, Abstract). Another way to help prevent abortions is to arrange the means a woman would need to raise the child in a safe and healthy way. One of the most common reasons for a woman to have an abortion is because she cannot afford a child, or another child. Helping low-income women to further their education and have better career opportunities will also help them have better health care, be able to afford childcare, housing, and better services for disabled children. Then women would not feel the need to have an abortion. Having these resources would help women to have the means to fulfill the obligations that parenthood/motherhood bring (Arons & Saperstein, 2006). In conclusion, there really should be no need for abortion as used for a form of birth control because there are many methods that can be used that do not kill the fetus, they prevent the fetus from forming. There is also the option of adopting out an unwanted child to a loving couple who may not be able to have their own children and can love an unwanted child as their own.
References
American Pregnancy Association (2011). Abortion Procedures. Retrieved from http://americanpregnancy.org/unplannedpregnancy/abortionprocedures.html
Arons, J. & Saperstein, S. (2006). The Right Way to Reduce Abortion. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2006/01/20/1796/the-right-way-to-reduce-abortion/
Ballantyne, A., Newson, A., Luna, F., & Ashcroft, R. (2009). Prenatal diagnosis and abortion for congenital abnormalities: is it ethical to provide one without the other? American Journal Of Bioethics, 9(8), 48-56. doi:10.1080/15265160903032266
Benagiano, G. & Pera, A. (2000). Decreasing the need for abortion: challenges and constraints. Int J Gynaecol Obstet, 70(1), 35-48. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10884532
“Birth control methods fact sheet.” (2012). Womenshealth.gov. Retrieved from http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/birth-control-methods.html#b
Furedi, A. (2013, November). You Can’t Be Pro-Choice Only When You Like the Choice. Spiked. Retrieved from http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/14032#.UoDtZvlwp8F
Garlough, C. (2008). The Risks of Acknowledgment: Performing the Sex-Selection Identification and Abortion Debate. Women 's Studies In Communication, 31(3), 368-394.
Jones, K. & Chaloner, C. (2007). Ethics of abortion: the arguments for and against. (Cover story). Nursing Standard, 21(37), 45-48.
Manninen, B. (2010). Rethinking Roe v. Wade: Defending the Abortion Right in the Face of Contemporary Opposition. American Journal Of Bioethics, 10(12), 33-46. doi:10.1080/15265161.2010.528508
Merriam-Webster. (2013). Dilation and extraction. Retreived from http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/dilation%20and%20extraction
Mosser, K., (2010). Ethics & Social Responsibility. San Diego, CA., Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Parker, S. (2007). The Human Body Book. New York, NY: DK Publishing
Scribner, H. (2013). Gender-based abortions raise controversy in England, Australia. Deseret News. Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588246/Gender-based-abortions-raise-controversy-in-England-Australia.html?pg=all
WebMD. (2011). Reasons Women Choose Abortions. Retrieved from http://women.webmd.com/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion
Whiting, D. (2011). Abortion and referrals for abortion: is the law in need of change? Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, 17(5), 1006-1008. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01738.x
When looking at abortion as an ethical issue, the argument is usually whether the fetus has moral status or not. Pro-choice supporters believe a fetus does not have moral status until it is viable outside of the mother’s womb. Pro-life supporters believe the fetus has moral status at conception. If the fetus has moral status, then it is immoral to kill the fetus (Jones & Chaloner, 2007). Some believe when the heart beats, that signifies life. Therefore, when a fetus’ heart starts to beat at eight weeks gestation (Parker, 2007), it has life. If the fetus has life at eight weeks gestation, it should be considered to have moral status as well. Therefore, it would be immoral to have an abortion after the eighth week. With all the options available to prevent an unwanted pregnancy, there should be no need to use abortion as a form of birth control.
Various abortion procedures are available depending on how far along the pregnancy is. In the first trimester, there are four procedures available. Methotrexate and Misoprostol (MTX) is a procedure used within the first seven weeks of pregnancy. MTX is a two-part medication combination taken within five to seven days of each other and it is over 90% effective with the effectiveness rate going to 96% if done within the first seven weeks. …show more content…
Mifepristone and Misoprostol is commonly known as the abortion pill and works the same way as MTX, but the pills are taken in a shorter time of each other, within 48 hours. Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) is a procedure used between five to 12 weeks from the last menstrual cycle. A thin tube is passed through the cervix and into the uterus. A handheld syringe creates the suction to remove the fetal tissue from the uterus. Aspiration is a surgical abortion procedure used within the first 16 weeks from the last menstrual cycle. It is commonly known as dilation and curettage (D & C) (American Pregnancy Association, 2011).
In the second trimester, there are three procedures available. Dilation & Curettage (D & C) as described above in the first trimester procedures. Dilation & Evacuation (D & E) is another surgical procedure performed in the second 12 weeks and usually includes a combination of vacuum aspiration, dilation and curettage and the use of forceps or other surgical instruments to terminate the pregnancy. Induction Abortion is a procedure where labor is started with a combination of medications (American Pregnancy Association, 2011).
The procedures in third trimester pregnancies are Induction Abortion and Dilation and Extraction (D & E). Induction Abortion is the procedure explained in the second trimester section above. Dilation and Extraction is a surgical procedure that entails dilating the cervix, and the death of the fetus is caused after it has been removed partially from the birth canal (Merriam-Webster.com, 2013).
Deontology states that one should do what they are obligated to do as rational moral agents in addition, to living by the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mosser, 2010). As a rational moral agent, one should not have an abortion because it is immoral to kill another living human being. An expectant mother’s duty is to grow the fetus and give birth to it, not have it vacuumed from her womb as if it is dust needing cleaned out of a corner in a room. Abortion does not pass the Golden Rule, given the option of being aborted or born; people will pick to be born. Therefore, when a woman has an abortion, she is not doing unto the fetus as she would want done unto her. There are other options to abortion, like adoption. It is not immoral to give the baby up for adoption to a loving couple who may not be able to have children of their own and will love and care for the baby as if it were their own. Deontology would solve the issue by making abortion illegal again. Then women would not be able to have an abortion regardless of how she were impregnated. They would have to carry the child, give birth, and if the child was still unwanted, they could give it up for adoption. When it comes to birth defects, babies would be born the way they were intended to be, whether they are normal or have birth defects.
Pro-choice supporters will argue that this will create more problems for women, as they will revert to having illegal abortions by people unqualified to perform them. This will put women in jeopardy of being injured or even killed having the abortions done by unqualified individuals. Before abortion was legal in the UK, it was estimated that 100,000-150,000 illegal abortions were performed and an estimated 40 deaths and other injuries were occurring each year (Jones & Chaloner, 2007). There are several reasons women and teenage girls have abortions. One of the main reasons is it is simply an unwanted pregnancy. Abortion should never be used as a form of birth control when there are so many options available for birth control. There is abstinence, the monthly pill, Intrauterine devices like Mirena, The patch, condoms for both men and women, hormonal shots, emergency contraceptives commonly known as the “morning after pill, ”and permanent birth control like sterilization implants and surgical sterilization (U.S Federal Government for Women’s Health, 2012). With all the options for preventing pregnancy, especially the “morning after pill,” there should not be a reason to have an abortion if you are diligent in preventing pregnancy. Ethical egoism states that one should do what one desires to reach their goals.
If something is keeping you from your goals, then it is wrong. If it is helping with your desires and goals, it is right (Mosser, 2010). The ethical egoist would argue against the fact that abortion is wrong and say it is okay to have the abortion if it is keeping the woman from doing what she wants to do in life. An unwanted pregnancy would certainly keep a woman from her goals. Maybe she is not done with school or is not financially stable enough to raise a child. Therefore, the ethical egoist would say it is in her best interest to abort the
child. The laws for physicians need to be changed. As it is right now in Great Britain, a doctor can decline to perform an abortion because they feel it goes against their conscience, except in cases where the woman’s mental health or life are at stake if the pregnancy continues. Doctors cannot refuse to refer the woman to a doctor who has no objections to abortion, despite their feelings of abortion in general. Hill argues with this because he feels if a doctor who does not want to perform an abortion when it goes against their conscience, will not want to aide in the woman finding a doctor who will perform the abortion because that puts them in the position of participating, in a sense, with the abortion. Hill’s argument is about the rights of the doctors, not for the fetuses (Whiting, 2011).
There can be extenuating circumstances, like rape, incest, and the health of the mother/unborn child. These can both be argued against as well, after all, a child born of rape or incest can also be adopted out. The Pro-choice supporters will say that it is not mentally healthy for a woman to carry a child that is created from rape or incest. The pro-life supporters will say that she can carry it just like any other fetus, and then give it up for adoption. Not all doctors are right when they say the mother/unborn child is too unhealthy to continue the pregnancy. The female body will sometimes miscarry a fetus that is not healthy (WebMD.com, 2011). Where is the line drawn when an abortion is okay? If pro-choice supporters are pushing for legal abortions of healthy babies that are unwanted, what happens when abortion is used for sex selection? Feminist groups who support pro-choice groups have to think about that. Are they willing to support something that could diminish their gender? Will they still support pro-choice when it becomes a serious problem? England and India are already dealing with this problem. In England, a couple of activists from Christian Concern, a social justice organization, are filing a suit against doctors who are performing gender-based abortions. In response to the lawsuit, Ann Furedi, the chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service says, “You can’t be pro-choice except when you don’t like the choice, because that’s not pro-choice at all” (Scribner, 2013, para. 6).
This proves that some believe that if you are going to be pro-choice, you have to support abortion without putting other rules in place. If it is okay for a woman to have an abortion because she is too young, not married, not financially capable of dealing with a child, among other reasons, then gender-based abortions should be legal as well. Ann Furedi is afraid that if the law is passed to prevent sex-based abortion with the argument that it is discriminatory towards females, then the advocates for the disabled will argue that abortion of handicapped fetus’s is discriminatory towards the disabled (Furedi, 2013).
In India, a group of women is putting on demonstration plays about the gender-selection abortion issue there. Instead of targeting the abortion issue and risking changing the abortion laws, they are targeting the issue of finding out what gender the fetus is. They believe if they can stop the ability to find out what the gender will be, then women will not have the option of having an abortion based solely on the fetus’s gender. They do not want to change the abortion law, where it has been legal to have an abortion since 1971 (Garlough, 2008).
Is it okay to abort babies if they are severely deformed and could not live normal lives? Is it considered discrimination towards the handicapped to abort a fetus that has a handicap? The ethical egoist would say it would benefit the mother and or father to abort the child because the medical responsibilities of a handicapped child could keep them from their goals. The deontologist would say it is not okay to abort the handicapped child because it would not follow the Golden Rule of doing unto others, as one would have done unto them. If it is not ethical to abort a handicapped baby because it is discriminatory towards the handicapped, then why have the pre-natal testing to find out if the baby is going to have disorders in the first place.
In a case where it is a serious and untreatable congenital condition, and the child will not live long after birth or be still born, it should be okay. Two serious congenital conditions are Tay Sachs disease and Anencephaly. Tay Sachs is an inherited disease that damages the tissues and nerves in the brain. The infant affected eventually becomes blind, deaf, and unable to swallow. They do not live long after birth and it is an untreatable disease. Anencephaly is also untreatable, but is not an inherited disease. Anencephaly is caused by a defect in the neural tube during gestation of the fetus and results are that a major part of the brain is not developed. Babies with anencephaly are still born or do not live long after birth (Ballantyne, Newson, Luna & Ashcroft, 2009).
One of my best friends would not be here today had her mother listened to her doctor. They advised her that her health was in jeopardy (she has ITP, which means she bleeds easily) and she should terminate her pregnancy because they could both die during childbirth. She did not feel right about having an abortion; she is Catholic and has strong pro-life feelings, so she did not abort her pregnancy. My best friend is 37 years old now and her mother is still alive and doing well. Her doctor was obviously wrong about her needing to terminate her pregnancy to save her own health. I have had an unwanted pregnancy myself. My boyfriend (he is now my husband) asked what I thought about abortion when I told him I was pregnant. I told him it was not an option for me when he asked about getting an abortion. It is wrong and I never have thought it was an appropriate way to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. For me, it is not about religion, but about a living human being. I would not kill a person because I did not want them in my life, it is wrong to kill another human being, therefore, in my opinion, it is wrong to have an abortion. We now have a 12-year-old daughter and I would not trade her for anything else in the world. We have our problems, like all mother-daughter relationships, but I am very glad to have her and be her mom. I do not resent her or wish I had had an abortion when I had the chance. My niece was born with a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18, it is an extra gene in the 18th pair of chromosomes, and sends a message to the cells to make 1.5 of everything internally. My niece’s heart was too large, her kidneys were different sizes, with one being the size of a toddler’s and the other being infant size. She had to be tube fed, her airway was too small and any size of bottle nipple would block her airway. My niece’s case was extremely severe and terminal. She lived for six weeks and was in a great amount of pain during her life. My sister did not get the appropriate testing to find out the problems that her unborn child was suffering from. Her doctor believed that the miscarriage rate was higher with having the testing done than with not having it done. He was trying to prevent a miscarriage because my sister was having symptoms and he put her on bed rest, which eventually stopped the symptoms. My sister had it stated in her medical record that her unborn children from then on would need genetic testing to determine if the fetus had genetic disorders and that she wanted the fetus terminated and her tubes tied if it did. She now has two healthy sons and never had to make an actual choice to have an abortion. Now that it has been 22 years since my niece passed away and she has had the two healthy sons, my sister does not believe she would have it in her to abort a genetically disordered fetus. She has stated that it would not be for her own pain and suffering that she terminated a genetically disordered fetus, but for the fetus’s pain and suffering. Pro-choice supporters think that Roe vs. Wade was a bad decision because of the way it was decided, not the actual decision itself. The decision was that the fetus did not have personhood before viability; therefore, it was determined to be lawful to have an abortion before 24 weeks gestation. This is giving pro-life advocates the ability to argue Roe vs. Wade and possibly be able to overturn it if they can successfully prove that a fetus has personhood at the time of conception. It has been attempted many times in recent years to overturn Roe vs. Wade because the fetus has personhood at conception; therefore, it is unlawful to abort the fetus. Manninen (2010) believes that pro-choice advocates need to move away from this kind of defense and focus more on the rights of the woman and her right to choose in regards to her body. Manninen believes that “no one is morally required (and cannot be legally compelled) to submit to unwanted bodily intrusion in order to render aid to another person, even for life itself” (Manninen, 2010, pg. 36). Better sex education for the young teenage girls could help reduce the amount of unwanted pregnancies and subsequent abortions. If young girls are educated on how to prevent pregnancy and how to obtain contraceptives like the “morning after pill,” they will be more diligent in preventing pregnancy. “The countries with the lowest abortion rates are those where, on the other hand, pregnancy termination is legal and, on the other, sex education and contraceptive knowledge are widely spread” (Benagiano & Pera, 2000, Abstract). Another way to help prevent abortions is to arrange the means a woman would need to raise the child in a safe and healthy way. One of the most common reasons for a woman to have an abortion is because she cannot afford a child, or another child. Helping low-income women to further their education and have better career opportunities will also help them have better health care, be able to afford childcare, housing, and better services for disabled children. Then women would not feel the need to have an abortion. Having these resources would help women to have the means to fulfill the obligations that parenthood/motherhood bring (Arons & Saperstein, 2006). In conclusion, there really should be no need for abortion as used for a form of birth control because there are many methods that can be used that do not kill the fetus, they prevent the fetus from forming. There is also the option of adopting out an unwanted child to a loving couple who may not be able to have their own children and can love an unwanted child as their own.
References
American Pregnancy Association (2011). Abortion Procedures. Retrieved from http://americanpregnancy.org/unplannedpregnancy/abortionprocedures.html
Arons, J. & Saperstein, S. (2006). The Right Way to Reduce Abortion. Center for American Progress. Retrieved from http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2006/01/20/1796/the-right-way-to-reduce-abortion/
Ballantyne, A., Newson, A., Luna, F., & Ashcroft, R. (2009). Prenatal diagnosis and abortion for congenital abnormalities: is it ethical to provide one without the other? American Journal Of Bioethics, 9(8), 48-56. doi:10.1080/15265160903032266
Benagiano, G. & Pera, A. (2000). Decreasing the need for abortion: challenges and constraints. Int J Gynaecol Obstet, 70(1), 35-48. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10884532
“Birth control methods fact sheet.” (2012). Womenshealth.gov. Retrieved from http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/birth-control-methods.html#b
Furedi, A. (2013, November). You Can’t Be Pro-Choice Only When You Like the Choice. Spiked. Retrieved from http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/14032#.UoDtZvlwp8F
Garlough, C. (2008). The Risks of Acknowledgment: Performing the Sex-Selection Identification and Abortion Debate. Women 's Studies In Communication, 31(3), 368-394.
Jones, K. & Chaloner, C. (2007). Ethics of abortion: the arguments for and against. (Cover story). Nursing Standard, 21(37), 45-48.
Manninen, B. (2010). Rethinking Roe v. Wade: Defending the Abortion Right in the Face of Contemporary Opposition. American Journal Of Bioethics, 10(12), 33-46. doi:10.1080/15265161.2010.528508
Merriam-Webster. (2013). Dilation and extraction. Retreived from http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/dilation%20and%20extraction
Mosser, K., (2010). Ethics & Social Responsibility. San Diego, CA., Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Parker, S. (2007). The Human Body Book. New York, NY: DK Publishing
Scribner, H. (2013). Gender-based abortions raise controversy in England, Australia. Deseret News. Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865588246/Gender-based-abortions-raise-controversy-in-England-Australia.html?pg=all
WebMD. (2011). Reasons Women Choose Abortions. Retrieved from http://women.webmd.com/tc/abortion-reasons-women-choose-abortion
Whiting, D. (2011). Abortion and referrals for abortion: is the law in need of change? Journal Of Evaluation In Clinical Practice, 17(5), 1006-1008. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2011.01738.x