The paper is partially an argumentative essay and partially a project proposal. The piece argues whether or not abortion should be legal. Ultimately, the paper concludes that it should be legal, but it should also be regulated. The paper explores other legal options for unwanted pregnancy, and address cultural issues that are relevant to abortion, such as rape culture and sexual education.
¶ … Legality of Abortion
Abortion
In a number of modern societies, irresponsible women choose abortion as a form of birth control instead of practices such as abstinence or the use of prophylactics, even with spouses. There are a number of publicly available forms of birth control that do not compare with abortion. The opinions on abortion vary widely and it is an issue that is often vigorously debated. Often the reasoning behind a person's opinion about abortion comes from his/her moral compass. Some people's morality guides them to believe that abortion is wrong and some people's morality guides them to believe that applying laws to women's bodies (and not men's) is the morally upsetting aspect the issue. Abortion is a topic that might begin as a moral issues, then turns into a political issue, and then turns into a legal issue. Morals influence politics, and politics (and political views) influence laws. Abortion has returned to the forefront of critical issues of the 21st century. From state to state, and country to country, people are talking about and making laws about abortion. The paper engages the abortion debate as part of the project proposal, so as to question or determine the legality of abortion, ultimately advocating in favor for it.
Though the project will argue to make abortion legal, it will not ignore that there are other legal options besides abortion. Some changes can be made at the personal and cultural levels to render abortion moot, or at least less appealing. If practices such as reckless promiscuity and responsible family planning were increased, abortion would seem a less and less savory option for women. If more women and men were educated regarding rape and rape culture in environments such as work and school, abortions would reduce in number, as some women become pregnant by their rapists, and choose to not bring the product of rape to term. It is also the responsibility of parents of young women and teenagers who become pregnant to make them aware of legal abortion, but include advice to avoid the use of abortion as a primary means of contraception.
The rationale of the project state that abortion is a reality and there are women who want the have the choice for this service. The audience of the project consists of opponents of abortion, male and female. The audience also consists of those women who would or do abuse abortion instead of using condoms, birth control, and proactive thinking. For responsible women who want abortions, it would be safer for those women to get abortions if they were legal. On the other hand, abortion is not the only option for unwanted pregnancies. Making abortion legal or illegal does not engage greater issues that make women want to seek abortions, such as rape culture, reckless promiscuity/sexuality, and lack of education or access to other options.
There are many women who are not ready to be mothers, yet they do not choose abortion. They carry the babies to full term and put them into the custody of reputable adoption agencies. There is also the reality that some women sell their children on the black market. There are countless couples in the country and in the world that are not able to have their own children. Most of the time, couples who adopt do so because they cannot on their own because of medical conditions. Other couples adopt because they themselves may have been adopted and want to provide a stable, loving home for another adopted child. The point is, whatever the reasons, there are a great deal of loving couples and existing families that are literally fighting for the opportunities to love and care for a child. Therefore, adoption is another choice, and a legal choice, for undesired pregnancies instead of abortion.
In a world where abortion is universally legal, the penalty for abuse of abortion must depend on the women who do it. Just because a service such as abortion may be made legal, it does not mean that access to abortion is given without consideration. For example, if there is no physical or severe/extreme psychological reason that the child cannot be carried to term, then it should be and they should be denied access to the procedure. Legal abortion clinics could work in conjunction with the state or nation, as well as with local agencies so that healthy pregnant women receive some kind of minimal health assistance and coordination with local adoption agencies.
Legal abortion would require some kind of basic regulation. Without some kind of safety net or basic regulation of hypothetically legal abortion, if irresponsible and reckless women are getting repeated abortions because of bad choices instead of better and healthier living, then hysterectomies may be an additional provision provided by legal abortion clinics. Then, for those women there will never again be a need for an abortion or birth control in any form. That kind of excessive recklessness is a clue that those kind of women would be poor mothers anyway. Furthermore, universally legal abortions would diminish a number of extreme health problems due to excessive or poorly performed abortions. There are often medical traumas that result because of poorly, quickly, or otherwise ill-performed abortions. Legal abortions reduce traumas post-procedure.
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