ISSUE OF ABORTION- LEGAL OR ETHICAL?

The abortion debate deals with the rights and wrongs of deliberately ending a pregnancy before normal childbirth, killing the foetus in the process. Abortion is a very painful topic for women and men who find themselves facing the moral dilemma of whether or not to terminate a pregnancy.
Worldwide, it is estimated that 46 million women seek abortion every year and the World Health Organisation estimates that close to half of these happen in unsafe conditions. In India, around 20 million women seek to terminate an unwanted pregnancy every year. Even today, due to the stigma around women’s sexuality and abortion itself, a woman dies every two hours of an unsafe abortion.

Arguments against Abortion

• Since life begins at conception, abortion is akin to murder as it is the act of taking human life. Abortion is in direct defiance of the commonly accepted idea of the sanctity of human life.
• No civilized society permits one human to intentionally harm or take the life of another human without punishment, and abortion is no different.
• Adoption is a viable alternative to abortion and accomplishes the same result.
• An abortion can result in medical complications later in life; the risk of ectopic pregnancies doubles, and the chance of a miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease also increases.
• In the instance of rape and incest, proper medical care can ensure that a woman will not get pregnant.
• Abortion punishes the unborn child who committed no crime; instead, it is the perpetrator who should be punished.
• Abortion should not be used as another form of contraception.
• For women who demand complete control of their body, control should include preventing the risk of unwanted pregnancy through the responsible use of contraception or, if that is not possible, through abstinence.
• It's morally wrong to use tax money to fund abortion.
• Those who choose abortions are often minors or young women with insufficient life experience to understand fully what they are doing. Many have lifelong regrets afterwards.
• Abortion frequently causes intense psychological pain and stress.

Arguments for Abortion

• Nearly all abortions take place in the first trimester, when a foetus cannot exist independent of the mother.
• As it is attached by the placenta and umbilical cord, its health is dependent on her health, and cannot be regarded as a separate entity as it cannot exist outside her womb.
• The concept of personhood is different from the concept of human life. Human life occurs at conception, but fertilized eggs used for in vitro fertilization are also human lives and those not implanted are routinely thrown away. Is this murder, and if not, then how is abortion murder?
• Adoption is not an alternative to abortion, because it remains the woman's choice whether or not to give her child up for adoption.
• Abortion is a safe medical procedure. The vast majority of women - 88% - who have an abortion do so in their first trimester.
• In the case of rape or incest, forcing a woman made pregnant by this violent act would cause further psychological harm to the victim. Often a woman is too afraid to speak up or is unaware she is pregnant, thus the morning after pill is ineffective in these situations.
• Abortion is not used as a form of contraception. Pregnancy can occur even with responsible contraceptive use. The ability of a woman to have control of her body is critical to civil rights. Take away her reproductive choice and you step onto a slippery slope. If the government can force a woman to continue a pregnancy,
• what about forcing a woman to use contraception or undergo sterilization?
• Taxpayer money is used to enable poor women to access the same medical services as rich women, and abortion is one of these services. Funding abortion is no different from funding a war in the Mideast. For those who are opposed, the place to express outrage is in the voting booth.
• Teenagers who become mothers have grim prospects for the future. They are much more likely to leave of school; receive inadequate prenatal care; rely on public assistance to raise a child; develop health problems; or end up divorced.
• Like any other difficult situation, abortion creates stress. Psychologists found that stress was greatest prior to an abortion, and that there was no evidence of post-abortion syndrome.

Way forward

The ethical issues here are not just of the rights of the foetus. The foetus is not an independent entity and depends completely on the welfare of the woman. So it’s a matter of rights of foetus vs rights of mother. • The abortion dilemma has overlapping issues from different realms like legal, medical, ethical, philosophical, religious and human rights. It should be analysed from different perspectives. There cannot be any hard and fast rule over abortion. It must be discussed and deliberated to evolve a common consensus.

By: Mona Kaushal