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Abortion is disputed to be illegal because of life-risking and illicit aspects, but the operation is supported because it is a popular right used in times of unfortunate circumstances. As a matter of fact, these unfortunate circumstances may involve mothers’ current or potential financial or health difficulties. Furthermore, such complications are sometimes caused by the mothers’ pregnancies themselves. On the other hand, this regarded right, abortion, may deliver future health problems, which include death, emotional downturns and suicide, a commonly illegal act. Additionally, homicide is another illicit element that composes the abortion controversy. However, this right is still used in ill-fated situations, such as financial hardships.

Economic Implications

At times, mothers are compelled to have the abortion operation because they possess financial inabilities. In other words, the financial inability is raising a child when mothers already undergo economic sufferings. In addition, these mothers would potentially create more adversity for themselves and their families if a baby, an expensive burden, adds to a household. Thus, individuals then acknowledge that abortion is the key to escape such hopelessness. Married and working, Beena Sawlani underwent abortion in August 2011 because she is one of the former mothers who lacked the economic ability to give birth to and raise a baby in her small home.

In an interview on November 24th, 2012, Sawlani stated, “I had taken a loan for a house…” (Sawlani interview). In short, a woman who was pregnant chose abortion because she and her family would have fiscally suffered if she gave birth to the baby. Thus, mothers’ economic complications comprise a portion of the reasons abortion is regarded as a right. Popularly, this right stems from individuals, which include the youth, who believe abortion is a rightful choice because pregnancy is a mother’s right.

The Moral Argument

Young individuals believe that if the baby is part of the mother, the mother retains an absolute right over the child. Even men believe that women should be responsible for the birth and upbringing of their potential children even though women are the ones who bear the children for nine months. In the questionnaire Legalize Abortion Questionnaire, in a University of St. Martin classroom on November 12, 2012, a male student wrote, “…women should have a right to choose if they would like to keep their child or not…” Even though a third of three female students mentioned that abortion is immoral by her Christian faith, she did specify that she believes the mother has the right to make her decision because it is her life and body. This opinion was answered to a question regarding a mother’s permission to an abortion. In other words, this belief simply implies that since abortion is under a mother’s permission, the operation is her right. All in all, women yield this popular right to abortion because individuals personally believe that women have a right to their babies. However, this right is challenged, as the young female’s Christianity hinted. Along with a logical choice, abortion is occasionally acknowledged as a homicidal act.

Abortions are labeled as illicit operations because they technically kill premature human beings. Even though individuals believe that abortion is not illegal or a homicidal action, theoretical science indirectly voices a contradiction. Notably, anatomy professor emeritus Keith L. Moore theorized, in his textbook Essentials of Human Embryology, “Human development begins after the union of male and female gametes…” (2). Individuals adhere to anti-abortion ideas like this one, predominantly because abortion involves anatomy itself. Moore implies that human life begins as soon as the sperm cell and egg cells unite. In other words, it is theorized that abortion is an act of killing an existing living organism. However, at desperate conditions, mothers are helpless and must choose abortion to save themselves from dangerous health difficulties.

Still Moral?

Mothers who are involved in morbid pregnancies, which involve the mothers’ sufferings of health complications, have been among the pro-abortion movement. These cases situate mothers at dead ends, situations when abortion is used to shun health difficulties. Savita Halappanavar is a woman who, not too long ago, experienced an equal fate, but her circumstance ended unfortunately with death. Halappanavar was an Irish citizen who passed away on October 28, 2012 because she miscarried her baby and was eventually poisoned by it. She sought abortion prior to her demise, but Catholic Ireland denied it because abortion is illegal.

Comparatively to Moore’s context, Ireland believes that abortion should be illegal because the operation is immoral in accordance to the bible. However, in this case, a woman’s life ended in a religious, political effort to save a dead baby. Moreover, Andanappa Yalagi, father of Halappanavar, argued that the physicians would have carried out an abortion for “humanity’s sake” (qtd. in Chamberlain). In short, not only did a woman lose her life because abortion is illegal, but also she lost her life because of the paradoxical dilemma of restricting an abortion to a dead baby. Not only does her death symbolize the abortion right, but also her death was unjustified. Equally, abortions are decisions made to ill babies too, as unhealthy mothers aren’t the only ones that cause the operation’s initiation.

Unfortunate Circumstances

Rarely, unhealthy pregnancies, those that involve unusual baby growth, cause the abortion decision. These circumstances also produce certain dilemmas even though they are less dangerous and painful than pregnancies that deal with unhealthy mothers. Similar to Halappanavar, Varkha Vani, an Indian citizen and housewife, chose abortion in 1999 because her child lacked a spinal cord. In an interview on November 20th, 2012, she commented that the doctor warned her that if the baby is born it would “be a vegetable” (Vani interview).

Moreover, Vani’s doctor recommended the abortion, and she accepted the operation because she did not want to experience raising a half-dead child. In other words, Vani did not want to suffer the emotional pain that such a child comes with. Hence, in the case of a baby’s health difficulties, it is beneficial to have the commonly despised operation because abortions may avoid the existence of abnormal health, which causes more physiological irregularities, especially emotional discomfort. On the contrary, as abortion may be a method of preventing or avoiding health problems, it may cause health difficulties.

Health Complications

Abortions can be so unsafe that women who undergo them may be physically or fatally threatened. Furthermore, the operations can be generally risky when conducted, and the procedures are highly hazardous to women’s future health. In short, mothers are at risk of many health predicaments. A 2010 Livestrong online article garnered such potential health difficulties. The web article designates that abortions may exacerbate the chances of acquiring different cancer variations like breast, ovarian, cervical and liver cancer (Martinez). In addition, the author enlightens that the equipment used during the operation may rupture the uterus, which hinders potential pregnancies. Also, the passage explains that, rarely, even death is caused usually due to complications from anesthesia utilization. Thus, the abortion operations may impose various, different health risks, which includes death, the most extreme health difficulty. This further expands the support for abortion’s absolute illegalization. In addition to these health risks, the mother may undergo emotional downturns that lead to suicide.

Suicide

After mothers undergo abortions, they sometimes emote regretful thoughts and suffer emotional declines that may cause suicidal feelings. They are emotionally agonized by the simple, but hurtful, fact that abortion involved a life’s removal from their bodies. A considerate number of women who did experience suicidal thoughts have most probably attempted the suicide. An online website concerning abortions surveyed two hundred and sixty women who underwent abortion in 1999 (“The Emotional Effects”). Fifty six percent experienced suicidal thoughts, and twenty eight percent attempted suicide. In other words, half of the women emoted suicidal moods, and more than a quarter of those fifty six percent women actually attempted suicide. Once again, the suicide factor also strengthens the anti-abortion side because the act is blatantly fatal. Additionally, this abortion caused act, suicide, is an illicit act in a number of countries.

In many Asian countries, attempted suicide is illegal and should be considered with its relation with abortion. For example, the Indian Penal Code enlists attempted suicide as unlawful in which the criminals may face, at most, a year of imprisonment (“Section 309”). Henceforth, another reason individuals may hate abortion’s suicide aspect is the wrongfulness it encompasses. All in all, individuals scorn abortion and desire its illegalization because the procedure entails negativity, which includes immoral and unhealthy aspects. Although these individuals’ opinions are reasonable, many still use abortion as a logical choice and solution.

In conclusion, abortion should be legally permitted only in times of luckless situations, which avoid abortion’s controversy. In other words, a woman should use abortion as a right to relieve herself from financial or health negativities. However, mothers should be careful, for the operation may be emotionally and fatally challenged. Additionally, the operation may be morally confronted, whether political, scientific or religious elements affect it.

Works Cited

Chamberlain, Gethin. “‘Change Your Abortion Law to save Lives’ Grieving Father Tells Irish        PM.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 17 Nov. 2012. Web. 20 Nov. 2012.             <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/17/ireland-abortion-case-father&gt;.

Interview with Varkha Vani, November 20, 2012, 10:30 P.M

Interview with Beena Sawlani, November 24, 2012, 9:35 P.M

Martinez, Eliza. “What Are the Dangers of Abortion Procedures to Mothers?”        LIVESTRONG.COM. Demand Media, Inc, 14 June 2010. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.          <http://www.livestrong.com/article/148859-what-are-the-dangers-of-abortion-   procedures-to- mothers/>.

Moore, Keith L. Essentials of Human Embryology. Toronto: Decker, 1988. Print.

“Section 309 – Indian Penal Code.” VakilNo1.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2012.             <http://www.vakilno1.com/bareacts/indianpenalcode/S309.htm&gt;.

“The Emotional Effects of Abortion.” After Abortion. Elliot Institute, 23 Dec. 1999. Web. 29        Oct. 2012. <http://afterabortion.org/1999/the-emotional-effects-of-abortion/&gt;.

University of St. Martin Questionnaire: Legalize Abortion, November 12, 2012, 4:40 P.M

© Copyright Nikhil B. Punjabi