Restrictive Abortion Policies (Essay Sample)

Abortion has been at the center of a controversy that stretches many years back. On the one hand, most women have always wanted to be granted the leeway to manage their reproductive health without restrictions. On the other hand, opponents of abortion have maintained that it is a harmful and immoral practice that should be. According to Singh et al., as of 2017, about 42% of women in the reproductive bracket lived in countries, mainly in the developing world, where abortion is highly regulated (4). It is crucial to add that even in the developed world, where abortion laws are generally liberal, there has been a tendency to introduce policies that restrict access to legal abortion (Singh et al. 4). In the U.S., for instance, 2021 witnessed a record number of anti-abortion laws ever enacted in a single year (Spitzer and Ellmann 1). Similar patterns have unfolded in the former soviet region of Eastern Europe, albeit at a lower intensity (Singh et al. 4). Since most of the developing world is anti-abortion and the growing opposition to the practice in some developed countries, especially the U.S., portends danger to women’s reproductive rights and health because too many restrictions push women to unsafe abortions, which worsen the situation instead of improving it.
The logic behind restrictive abortion policy is to reduce or perhaps even eliminate the practice so that any woman who conceives carries their pregnancy to term. The idea appeals to some demographics in the developed world, considering its apparent decline in younger populations. However, the most robust case against abortion often revolves around religion and morality. Unfortunately, rigid anti-abortion laws have not been proven to grow populations or lower the incidence of feticides. Instead, such policies increase the number of illegal abortions, which place women’s lives in unnecessary danger (Bain and Kongnyuy 2). In particular, with the advent of effective contraceptives, banning or restricting abortion cannot facilitate population growth. Therefore, the focus should be on the danger of strict anti-abortion laws to women’s health and well-being.
Globally, roughly 8-11% of maternal deaths occur due to abortion (Singh et al. 33). These percentages translate to between 22,800 and 31,000 women dying each year from a cause that could be prevented (Singh et al. 33). It is encouraging to note that the figures dropped notably between the early to mid-1990s and the early to mid-2010s (Singh et al. 33). Nevertheless, they remain unacceptably high since they can be entirely prevented by legalizing abortion without restrictions. Besides deaths, many women suffer numerous complications courtesy of unsafe abortions, encouraged by stringent abortion regulations. Overall, the severity of complications has reportedly reduced, but they still affect the well-being of numerous women adversely. According to Singh et al., when abortion-related complications occur, affected women tend not to seek care until their situation becomes life-threatening (30). In which case, post-abortion care costs become a significant burden to them and their families. Essentially, restricting access to legal abortion places women of reproductive age at a vast and unnecessary disadvantage.
Having lost a loved one due to abortion-related complications, the tendency to restrict abortion in the United States is worrying, given the country’s global influence. I find it disturbing to imagine that the U.S. could even consider such a possibility, given its widely publicized support for freedom and the pursuit of happiness. I believe this issue should be conclusively addressed so that abortion ceases to be a controversial topic. The first and most effective method of dealing with abortion-related challenges is to legalize the practice without restrictions (Singh et al. 33). In other words, allowing women to have an abortion on any grounds is the best approach to curbing deaths and complications that derive from unsafe abortions. Existing evidence suggests that lifting abortion bans reduces maternal mortality substantially and, in addition, lowers the cost of post-abortion care. Moreover, it allows women or families to have children only when financially and socially prepared to care adequately for them.
The alternative is to widely avail and publicize effective contraceptives to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies or eliminate them. Abortion predominantly occurs because a woman feels unprepared for a baby at a particular time. Later, when circumstances change, the same woman can carry a pregnancy to term without any qualms. Therefore, having access to contraceptives whenever needed is another way of minimizing abortion and its related complications. However, a combination of these contraceptives and widely