Research Assignment on Should Abortion be Legalized? (Essay Sample)

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Should Abortion be legalized?
The issue about abortion has been debated over decades with people having varied argument about it. While some consider abortion unethical, immoral, and against human right, others hold that abortion is necessary as it helps curb crime, minimize unwanted pregnancies, and promote family planning as well as reduces poverty levels especially in developing countries. Those that strongly oppose the move to legalize abortion are mainly religious leaders while those that support abortion are mainly women who are the risk of getting unwanted pregnancies. Whether abortion should be allowed is subject to debate. Matters to consider on the issue should address elements such as the health of the mother including fertility factors, potential effect on psychological well being of the mother, economic issues, cultural issues, and ethical and moral issues. State law-makers should consider these issues before embarking on what laws to make about abortion. Therefore, whether the state laws should legalize abortion depends should depends on circumstances of the mother at that given point.
According to Grimes et al, (1908), “unsafe abortion is an agent public health and human rights imperative.” The issue of unsafe abortion threatens the life of women throughout the world. According Grime et al, about 19 to 20 millions of abortions are done by individuals who possess no prerequisite skills to conduct the act. In his article, Grime et al indentifies that most cases of unsafe abortions are from developing countries. Accordingly, more than 68,000 deaths are reported in developing countries due to unsafe abortion (Grimes et al, 1908). Therefore, Grime concludes that legalizing abortion is necessary but an “insufficient step towards improving women’s health.” In other words, Grimes says that unsafe abortion should not be allowed as it puts the life of the mother at risk. In some countries such as India, abortion has remained legal for some many years. However, access to competent care is much enhanced and only few cases of unsafe abortion are reported. According to Grime et al, whether legal or illegal, induced abortion is usually censured by political, religious and other leaders. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which decision is effective due to wrong statistics given out. However, one thing remains clear, that unsafe abortion case are commonly reported in developing countries and very few in developed countries. In that regard, abortion in developing countries should be illegalized so as to reduce the number of unsafe abortion that leads to death.
Those that support abortion have various reasons. First, they hold that there are many reported cases of unwanted pregnancies. According to Donohue and Levitt, (25) unwanted pregnancies not only are connected to increased crime, but also lead to increased poverty level. Parents of unwanted babies may not have the capacity to raise the child and hence prefer to abort. One way of fighting poverty is through family planning and this cannot be achieved through unwanted pregnancies. In that regard, the only workable solution is to allow and legalize abortion especially in developing countries. Considering this situation where the parent cannot provide for her baby, legalization of abortion is deemed necessary. The impact of legalizing abortion at those circumstances is that there will be less suffering for children as well as parents, and a slow birth rate for an already overpopulated world. According to Donohue and Levitt, (30), legalization of abortion in 1970s led to decreased crime rates in the United States in 1990s. The increased rate of unwanted pregnancies before 1970 was connected to crime increase due to high number of street children. In the same period, the level of poverty was much higher compare to that of 1990. In that regard, there is a correlation between high number of unwanted pregnancies and increased crime rates as well as higher level of poverty. This means that legalization of abortion lower the rate of crimes as well as poverty levels.
Few months ago, news about the Texas omnibus abortion law by Wendy Davis (the State Senator), were received with mixed reaction. A group of women and civil liberties belonging to “Planned Parenthood” organization (The Center for Reproductive Rights) filed a lawsuit against the law. The law provided restrictions to medication abortion and was enacted to illegalize abortion. The law also provided regulations with an intention to close down clinics that offered abortion in Texas. Whereas some supported the illegalization of abortion, a section of Texas residents were very annoyed. This move forced some residents to take the matter to the streets opposing the illegalization of abortion. Those that supported the law condemn the demonstrations arguing that abortion is unethical and immoral (Irin, NBC News). The situation brings about ethical issue about abortions. Whether abortion is unethical or not is subject to discussion. Some treat abortion as an act of murder which is against the live of the unborn. In the first instance, the choice to abort lies in the hands of the mother since she is the one who carries the pregnancy. However, some will argue that even though the mother carries the pregnancy she has no authority over the life of the unborn and thus not entitled to harm it. However, it difficult to state or determine when the fetus becomes a person with rights. It is not clear as to when life of the fetus begins and that creates speculations. Considering the life of the mother, abortion should be legalized for reasons of bodily autonomy. This would much be ethical considering the life of an already existing mother over the life of the unborn. Furthermore, no one can be forced to abort and thus abortion allows the women to make choices when to and when not to have abortion depending on their convenience. In that regard, it would be ethical to consider the needs of an already existing person (Irin, NBC News).
According to keown (86), it is argued that a woman is held responsible for her actions. For this reason, whether a fetus is a person or not, or whether a State advocate for abortion or not, a woman has an ethical obligation to the fetus. Any attempt to kill anything that looks or is expected to develop into a human being is unethical. Bodily anatomy creates a question as to whether it is ethical and moral to save the life of the fetus, and at the same period risk the mother's life (Keown John, 69). Therefore, if abortion is totally illegalized, a woman will have to carry a pregnancy to term. This may cause her life. In a free, justice and democratic state, it would be unethical to allow a woman to carry on pregnancy in a bodily anatomy circumstances, despite abortion being unethical (Melanie, 820). Despite abortion being considered unethical, it should not be prevented through unethical means.
Effects of abortion are well known. They range from infertility t...