Abortion
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Abortion
Lauren Maclvor Thompson presents an argument for abortion and the right to procure abortion services for women in an opinion article in the New York Times. Thomson is a political science and African American professor and has become an ardent historian and supporter of women’s rights and public health in the twenty-first century. She gives her insight on abortion rights in the open article, and these insights are especially important in light of the recent challenging of Roe v Wade in the Supreme Court in the United States, a ruling that had overreaching implications on the ability of women to access abortion services.
Thomson preludes her argument by positing that historically women have been discriminated against and that women have been accorded less control over their ability to control their lives. Ignoring this fundamental truth makes it impossible for people to develop laws and policies that effectively address the need to access reproductive health for women. Most people who hold anti-abortionist views use myths and misconceptions peddled throughout history that fail to address women’s need for reproductive health. Some forms of abortion were legal in the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries, and women were allowed to decide whether they wanted to keep children before sixteen weeks. Thomson states that abortion during this era was not considered murderous or immoral, and it was thought of as a form of birth control. The author uses excerpts from various newspapers that showed advertisements for various forms of abortion for birth control. This solidifies the argument that abortion was viewed as a form of birth control acceptable in society.
The author states that anti-abortionist views were promoted by various agents, such as politicians and physicians, in the 1850s. Physicians were motivated to stand against abortion as there was a rampant irregularity in the medical space in the United States. By taking a stand against abortion, they could establish various forms of control over the practice, and by extension, improve the societal perception of physicians. One of the most popular arguments against abortion was centered around was the unborn’s rights, a concept that posited that unborn children have a right to life and that abortion is murder. This argument against abortion has been repeated repeatedly as several activists against the practice have stated that abortion is a form of murder and should also be legislated against as such. However, the unborn ideology’s rights did not garner significant legal support. There were several court cases, such as Dietrich v Northampton, that refused the argument that fetuses who died before they could live separate from their mothers were persons recognized by law. Certain arguments for abortion are presented and that are reiterated in society. Forcing a woman t or incest would be an infringement on her rights. The argument against abortion is often a moral one. Would it be ethical to force a woman to continue a pregnancy resulting from rape? It would be unjust to cause such a burden on anyone. Rape victims should be allowed the right to terminate such a pregnancy (McCurdy, 2016).
Legalizing abortion would reduce the disparity in inequality between well to do women and poor women. People who are well off can afford to visit other states where abortion is legal and terminate the pregnancy; they can even convince a medical professional to perform this surgical operation for them. The riskiest abortions—i.e., those performed by untrained providers or self-induced not using misoprostol—are estimated to account for much higher proportions of procedures among poor and rural women (62% and 55%) than among non-poor and urban women (36% and 38%) (Singh, 2018). Abortion is a feasible instrument for population control. Population control is universal for every government. Without abortion, it would be almost impossible to realize this dream. Abortion is helpful in the prevention of the death of the pregnant mother. In some cases, it becomes necessary to induce abortion to save the life of the mother. Certain medical conditions arising from the pregnancy can endanger the mother deeming it necessary to have a therapeutic abortion. The fetus or embryo, in this case, cannot survive without the mother. Here, there is no logical reason not to have an abortion and save the mother’s life (Kung, Darney, Saavedra-Avendano, Lohr, & Gil, 2018).
The author concludes that abortion services should be readily available for women to procure at any time, as long as it is safe for them. Women should be allowed to control their lives, and abortion gives them significant control over their reproductive health. Legalizing abortion also considerably improves access to health and allows these services to be done professionally, thereby decreasing the risk of abortion malpractice and safeguarding the lives of the women involved. In the United States, both state and federal law should allow abortion, and there should be legislation to make it easily accessible.
References
Kung, S. A., Darney, B. G., Saavedra-Avendano, B., Lohr, P. A., & Gil, L. (2018). Access to Abortion Under the Heath Exception: A Comparative Analysis in Three Countries. Reproductive Health.
McCurdy, S. A. (2016). Abortion and Public Health: Time for Another Look. The Linacre Quarterly, 20-25.
Thompson, L. M. (2019, December 13). Women Have Always Had Abortions. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/13/opinion/sunday/abortion-history-women.html