The development of the world has made it easier and less complicated to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, either legally or illegally. Marie Stops UK, a website that helps men and women with their reproductive rights, defines abortion as the considered medical termination of an unwanted pregnancy. There are two methods to perform abortion- surgical, which includes anesthetic with an operation to remove the tissue, and medical which involves taking two set of tablets. Legalization of abortion has been a topic that has been disagreed about since laws were established. Religions, politics and health ministries all have their different opinions regarding the subject. Some people believe that abortion is morally wrong, as they consider the fetus to be an individual human being. However, others believe that abortion is a basic human right and women should have the right to make her choice of whether to terminate or continue with a pregnancy. The aspect of health also plays a role, as many people argue that the procedure’s side effects like fertility, bleeding or preterm birth surpass the main point of the procedure.  These different views and arguments have not brought the two sides into one solid ground; the procedure is offered in some clinics in the US and other countries, while other countries ban the procedure and treat it as crime. Many of the opposing sides have their opinions about women who undergo the surgery. Religious people may view them as sinners, pro-life protesters call them murderers, while other people see them to be brave since they overcame judgments and did what they believe is right for them. The idea that abortion gives women the choice of continuing their lives as they planned could be understood by all sides. However, I believe that by governments legalizing abortion, there are many downsides. The easy access Puts more pressure on pregnant women to complete the procedure without thinking about from all the angles. It also has a variety of physical health risks along with psychological long-term side effects. The moral view of the procedure is highly questioned even if all the religious beliefs were to be ignored.

Legalizing abortion misleads women to project the procedure as the easier choice without thinking about the consequences thoroughly before. In my opinion, pregnant women are victims of a set of standards associated with society expectations. Along with this, a lack of education in the subject and the legalization of abortion gives women easy access to the procedure. In high school, students usually start planning for their future jobs and what they want to do with their lives. Indeed, having a baby on the way is not usually a part of the plan, and when that happens girls get the pressure of thinking that their future is ruined, as it is the common belief associated with the situation. They start thinking that it’s not about what they want anymore; it’s about the needs of the upcoming child that scares them. Society looks at girls who get pregnant at a young age to be irresponsible, adding more pressure. In addition, sex education is offered in most schools to teach young teens about the risks of unsafe sex and different methods associated with safe sex. However, teens are never taught about the action they should take if they get pregnant, and the different options they have including abortion. In her article, “Why We Need To Teach Out Kids About Abortion in Sex Eduh n” published in scarymomy.com, Kathi Vallie, writes that abortion must be discussed in schools and that if the topic is not discussed freely, then teenagers will not know where to go for help when they need it. The lack of education teenagers have regarding abortion and the taboo of not being able to talk about it results in rush decisions, especially with the easy access to abortion clinics.

 Laws are made to minimize the number of crimes committed by people, so that people may hopefully think thoroughly about the crime they committed. This means if any action that causes harm was to be legalized, people would not think as much about committing it if it was illegal. This argument does not suggest that abortion should be treated as a crime, but it does teach that abortion should not be easily accessed to everyone, especially not teenagers who lack knowledge of what they are getting themselves into. Placing restrictions on abortion procedures would force women to gain more knowledge about the matter before heading to the clinic next door and terminate the pregnancy. Women are pressured by different factors when they are pregnant, forcing them to think of all the negative options that come along with continuing the pregnancy. Much worst, sometimes the pressure goes as far as families threatening their girls to be kicked out of their house, or their significant other threatening to leave. According to Georgette Forney in her article, “The Reality of Abortion-Reflection of My Journey”, coercion is found in 40-60% of women testimonies. Friends also play a role in coercion, as they may tell their friend that pregnancy would wreck their lives and abortion is simply the answer (Forney). Life may not always work the way we plan, and pregnancy for a young age might not be the ideal situation, yet it could be a dramatic event that creates positive change in the person’s life. It all circulates around the idea that pregnant teens are pressured by the negative atmosphere around them that they do not think of the other possible choices they have by continuing the pregnancy. `The risks associated with abortion procedures can be divided into two categories, physical health risks and psychological risks. Starting with the physical health risks, some of the risks are immediate and the others are long-run impacts, which could affect possible future pregnancies. According to Ramah International website, the procedure might cause infections caused by the bacteria moving from the cervix into the uterus. The procedure could also cause blood clots in the uterus which produces severe cramping as well as a heavy bleeding. In some cases, if the procedure is not completed, the fetus in the placenta may not drain completely from uterus and that requires further medical attention. In the long-run, abortion could cause complications to further pregnancies or cause infertility. Some of these risks are vaginal bleeding during a pregnancy, preterm birth, low birth weight or a retained placenta. 

Abortion procedures also have different psychological affects that are different to each woman in spiritual, emotional and psychological levels. Before the procedure, many women are convinced that they are terminating a group of cells growing inside of them to justify the procedure. However, many times after the procedure is done, the patient realizes that they terminated a baby. In her YouTube titled “My miscarriage story”, Sam Ellen talks about her story with a medical abortion she had done when she was 19 years old. She talks about the whole process starting from discovering the pregnancy until after completion of the abortion. Through the whole video, Ellen never said the words “my baby”, she calls it a heartbeat and a fetus, but after abortion she called the clot that came out of her “my baby.” She said she could recognize the baby in the clots of blood. Through the video, Ellen talks emotionally while crying, but she ends the video saying mistakes happen and she is a stronger person now. Georgette Forney also talks about her own experience with abortion along with other women’s experiences in post-abortion counselling. She says that she had an abortion when she was 16 and it was not a big deal. About six months later after her abortion, Forney says she found her yearbook in the basement, as she scrolled through it, her mind started imagining her pictures with the baby she aborted in her arms. Nineteen years later, as she felt her new baby presence in her arms, she felt the full impact of her abortion and started to cry. This led her later to join the abortion recovery clinic (Forney). A recovery clinic is a place in which people who suffer from abortion long-term psychological side effects gather and share their grief in the hope of forgiving themselves and getting better.   As seen in these stories, the psychological effects of abortion may not be felt at the time, but could extend to many years later. These affects vary in every woman, but most women do experience psychological distress. 

The most common reason that creates an argument of the two polar sides is the moral view of abortion. Many people believe that abortion is not a termination of pregnancy, it is the termination of a living human being. One of these questions in this is why is it considered a crime to kill a baby when it is born but it is considered okay to abort before it is delivered. Most abortion supporters believe that a fetus is not a baby, if it is not brought in the the world yet, then it is okay to get rid of it. The main question is if life begins at conception or at birth. This is a hard question to answer. The moral aspect of the procedure is questioned, as it terminates a future baby for the Convenience of the parents. However, is it not the same when someone kills a person for their own personal gain, and since the question of when life begins has a complicated and debatable answer, would it not be cruel to allow the termination of a living human being that is still growing? If life starts at birth then it means the baby who is born has individual human rights. However, if life starts at conception, then the unborn baby should be treated as person with individual human rights.

The abortion topic has many angles that needs to be discussed to gain full understanding of such a complicated subject. One of the most known arguments from abortion supporters revolves around women’s rights. They believe that it is the woman’s right to decide whether she wants to give birth or not. There are many reasons behind placing abortion as a woman’s right, one of them being motherhood. When a girl becomes a mother, it changes her whole life because it is a responsibility of taking over another human being. It comes with a burden of being selfless and dependable because any mistake could ruin that baby’s life. A mother carries the responsibility of raising another human being, providing all the needs of the child. Moreover, the needs also include a suitable financial situation. According to Brad Tuttle, a senior editor who specifies in personal finance, in a study published on businesstime.com, raising a child until college for a middle-class family could cost more than 1.1 million dollars. The study compared raising a child to the biggest purchase in America, buying a house. It found that raising a child is almost the equivalent of buying six houses. Now, imagine a teenage girl in high school who got pregnant because she was too young to understand the consequence of having unsafe sex. Would it be fair for the child to be raised by an irresponsible young teen, or for a young teenage girl to carry the weight of another human being when she still needs someone to look out for her in financial terms? In such cases, abortion is the exit to these girls. They deserve to continue with their lives and learn and grow until one day they are mature enough to become parents. Another argument is that a life begins at birth after the fetus is able to survive outside the womb. A fetus is not an independent, self-serving human being. This is the opposite of a baby, since it organs can function on their own. Abortion may be considered not the termination of a baby, but the end of a pregnancy. The age of a person is calculated from birth in a hospital, not from conception. Medically, a pregnancy is not considered a part of the baby’s life. Also, abortion supporters claim that the fetus does not feel the pain of the procedure. This says that there is no violent action taken towards another human being. According to a 2010 review conducted by Royal College of Obstetrician and Gynaecologists, a lot of neuroscientists believe that a cortex is necessary for pain sensitivity, and the cortex does function until the twenty-sixth week of a fetus. The study concludes that a fetus does not feel the pain of the procedure if it was done before the twenty-sixth week of pregnancy. 

The arguments presented by the opposing side are solid and understandable. However, I believe that all of their downsides could be looked at, starting with treating abortion as a basic women’s right. In many countries, the freedom of speech is given to everyone if it does not hurt other people. For example, cyberbullying is known as the harassment of an individual by the comments written online by other people. Even though people online write their own opinions, which is a type of freedom, many cases have been known in which users were committed to jail for hurting others by their comments. These incidents prove that the freedom of a person ends where the freedom of another begins. The same concept could be argued in abortion, where the rights of a person ends when the right of another individual begins. People argue about women’s rights all the time, forgetting that they are taking the rights of an innocent unborn human being. In their latest addition of “The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, professor Keith Moor, TVN Persaud, and Mark Torchia make many statements regarding the begging of the human life. According to the authors, human life is a continuous process that starts from fertilization. For every human being alive today, scientifically, they began their journey as a cell. If the first configuration of the cell perishes, the individual dies, taking away the life a human being. In that case, each human being must be protected, since the beginning of their journey starts with living in another person. Abortion supporters also argue that the fetus does not feel the pain of the procedure, which means it is causing no harm to anyone. However, many drugs can be used to numb a person making them pain proof, but that still does not give the right to another person to kill them. The matter is not about the cruelty of the procedure and whether the fetus feels the pain or not, it is about the ending of an innocent human life that deserves to live due to its guaranteed human rights. 

In conclusion, abortion gives women an escape from carrying a responsibility that they may believe they are not ready for. The procedure needs more restrictions from governments to be better for women, as they are usually pressured by the negative atmosphere around them and lack of knowledge regarding the procedure. Women must be educated about all the health risks associated with the procedure and the long-term psychological affects they could have in the long run. Additionally, each human being goes through a journey of growing and the process arguably starts at conception. That means every human being has the right to live and women should be given their rights if it does not interfere with another human’s rights.  
