
Abortions are a widely used medical procedure to terminate a human fetus. There are many reasons for a woman to want or need an abortion: a baby may affect the mother’s health, the mother may not be financially stable, or the baby could have a chance of a life threatening illness. Abortions provide another option to a mother or a family, and it may be the safest choice. A woman also has the right to do what she wants to her body. Whether abortion is legal or illegal, women will find a way to have one, so making abortions accessible would be the best option to end so many fatalities. Allowing people to make their own decisions about their bodies is an important aspect in human life. Not allowing women to choose to have an abortion is demoralizing because it is granting others the allowance to choose what to do for women. Medical abortions are important to the health of women and families and if these become unavailable in the country’s near future, we may be at risk for complications. Republicans push to defund Planned Parenthood because they provide abortions (Goldschmidt and Strickland). This does not only risk women’s health but it risks the health of the country. Because medical abortions are safe and can improve the lives of women by reducing risky and unwanted pregnancies, they provide an optimal option for women by fostering both mental and physical health. When women have the choice to take over their own bodies and are legally able to pursue a physically safer option, this outweighs the moral stigma that’s associated with abortions. 

Medical abortions are safe because they have proven to show few complications. Medical abortions are a combination of two drugs: mifepristone and misoprostol. Mifepristone is usually taken at a clinic and it blocks the body’s progesterone. Progesterone is a vital role in maintaining pregnancy. Then, misoprostol is taken, usually at home, to empty the uterus, like a period (The Abortion Pill). Planned Parenthood is one of the largest providers of information and services for reproductive health. In 2014, Planned Parenthood provided 323,999 abortions but they also provide 1.5 million people with sex education (Goldschmidt and Strickland). Planned Parenthood provides resources and information to educate and provide options for people so they gain knowledge to make informed decisions. According to Planned Parenthood, only .3 percent of women undergoing legal abortion at all ages sustain a serious complication requiring hospitalization (Medical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion Was Made Legal). Most of these complications are either heavy bleeding, incomplete abortion, or infection which are easily treatable. This is a widely used procedure and have been practiced and studied for years. 

Non-surgical abortions, or medical abortions, are a necessity to a woman’s life because they provide a safe option to women who are looking to terminate the fetus. Medical abortions have been researched and proven to be safe and effective for 15 years now (Berer). The importance of this drug is crucial to women around the world. During the 1950s and 1960s in the United States, the estimated number of illegal abortions was 200,000 to 1.2 million a year. And in 1965, illegal abortion accounted for 17% of deaths that were attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year (Benson Gold). Before abortion was legalized, many women were sent to the hospital due to their fear of having a baby and having to perform an unsafe and harmful abortion. The risk of death from medication abortion through 63 days’ gestation is about one per 100,000 procedures. And the risk of death associated with childbirth is about 14 times as high as that associated with abortion (Medical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion Was Made Legal). It is a necessity that medical abortions are practiced because they are safe and effective. Without access to medical abortions, there will be a rise in fatalities around the country due to women practicing unsafe and harmful abortions. 

Opposing views of legalized abortions are pro-life supporters. Pro-life supporters are people who do not support abortion or euthanasia, while pro-choice believe that women should have the freedom to do what they want with their bodies. Many believe that it is morally wrong, that abortion is murder, or that it is against their religious beliefs. Paul Stark, the Communications Associate for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) says, “Pro-lifers oppose abortion because it takes the life of a human being before he or she is born. The scientific facts of embryology and developmental biology make clear that the unborn is a distinct and living human organism.” This is a very common belief on abortion, that it is equivalent to murder. Stark also states that people are pro-life because, “human life is good, that it is worth living, that it deserves respect and protection. We are for the proposition that every human being has an equal worth and dignity-that every human being has a right to live.” Pro-life supporters are not only people who are against abortion because of their religious beliefs, but those who think that abortion is morally wrong. Others think that it’s, “A commitment to nonviolence … towards those who are incapable of defending themselves,” or “Recognizing each person’s potential for life,” (Hallowell). Many people have very different definitions of what it means to be pro-life but being pro-life is a choice just like being pro-choice. 

Many women that receive medical abortions are given advice from a doctor. Taking away someone’s right to have a medical abortion allows for fatalities and unsafe abortions to occur. People that do not support abortions because they think they are morally wrong should not stop other people from practicing that right. A doctor also has to put the health of the patient before anything else. This needs to be seen as a doctor making a decision for the mother’s safety, whether it’s just or not. In October 2012, Republican Representative Joe Walsh said that, “abortions are absolutely never necessary to save the lives of pregnant women.” Walsh also said, “health of the mother has become a tool for abortions anytime, for any reason,” (Painter). But abortions are needed for the possibility of it risking a woman’s life. The country cannot allow this belief to arise again due to politicians. Erika Levi explains that, “conditions that might lead to ending a pregnancy to save a woman’s life include severe infections, heart failure and severe cases of preeclampsia, a condition in which a woman develops very high blood pressure and is at risk for stroke,” (Painter). There are cases where an abortion is safer than childbirth and in these cases medical abortion needs to be available. 

Medical abortions need to be available to women because they are mentally and physically better for women than the absence of that option. With the technology and medicines we have access to today, they should be used to benefit people that need them. They would benefit women physically because they would no longer have to resort to self-harm or illegal practices that are unsafe and could end fatally. They would also benefit women mentally because being able to make choices individually allows a person to grow and have personal freedom to act on rights given to us. According to Planned Parenthood, “the states that have the strongest laws against safe and legal abortion are also the states in which women suffer from lower levels of education and higher levels of poverty, as well as from a lower ratio of female-to-male earnings,” (Medical and Social Health Benefits Since Abortion Was Made Legal). Access to abortions could raise education levels and income for women. Having medical abortion accessible to women everywhere is important because it provides them a sense of safety and security. In the case Karen Noelie Llantoy Huaman v. Peru, Huaman was pregnant with a baby diagnosed with anencephaly, which is when a baby is born with an underdeveloped brain and incomplete skull. According to a law in Peru, Huaman would have been sent to prison for no longer than three months because she received an abortion (Solari- Yrigoyen). She continued with the pregnancy and the baby died four days later, and the mother also required medical treatment from giving birth. The U.N. Human Rights Committee describes the psychological effect on women as a violation of her human right to be free of cruel, unhuman and degrading treatment- and freedom of mental suffering is included (Access to Abortion for Reasons of Mental Health). Continuing with an unwanted pregnancy is detrimental to a woman’s health. If the right of abortion was taken away from women, physical and mental health would be jeopardized. 

Medical abortion is practiced around the world, and in a lot of countries, it is a common practice available to women. Countries determine whether an abortion is legal or not based on the reason why a woman receives it. Medical abortion in some countries is used to preserve health, for socioeconomic health (considers a woman’s age, economic status, or marital status), some do not require a reason to receive abortions, and some only allow access to abortions to save the woman’s life or it’s prohibited altogether (The World’s Abortion Laws Map). These factors determine whether a woman can receive an abortion or not. An issue that America faces is that woman may not be able to receive an abortion due to defunding or a law that may prohibit abortions all together. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, 26% of the world prohibits abortions or a woman’s life has to be in danger to receive an abortion. The extent to which these women have to go to to receive abortion medication is unreasonable. This could be a major issue to women in America because countries that completely restrict or forbid abortions, have to resort to unsafe methods. 

Countries where abortion is illegal have many more complications and deaths. One country where abortion is illegal is Haiti. Michel Martin from NPR interviews Jacqueline Charles, the Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herold who has been looking into this. Post abortion complications now account for as much as 30 percent of maternal deaths (Martin). That is almost double to the United States. Martin asks Charles stories she has heard from women and doctors in Haiti about their treatment and she said, “They turn to this pill that's actually an anti-ulcer drug, but it's readily available on the streets of Haiti or at any pharmacy without a prescription. But because they don't know how to use it properly, they suffer from hemorrhaging, infection and just other complications. And often it leads to death because they are so afraid to turn to help because abortion is illegal.” We cannot allow our country to go to this extent. The health of women in America is at risk. The extent to which women from other countries have to go through to receive abortion medication is show in The Abortion Pill. Dr. Rebecca Gompers is recognized in this video and she founded Women on Waves. She picks up women on a boat, from countries that do not have access to abortions and gives them the medication on international waters (The Abortion Pill, Broadly). To go through this much trouble to receive abortion medication is unjust and unfair. The world has access to safe treatment for medical abortions, to go unused would be unethical. 

Making the decision of whether to receive an abortion or not is very common. Allowing women to make this decision is important. Taking this right away would be detrimental to their health. The stigma that comes along with receiving an abortion is never ideal. Brogan Driscoll, an editor for The Huffington Post, interviewed women that have received abortions. Many women do not want to get an abortion because they are afraid of the stereotypes they get, but some women also do not want to go through all the trouble to receive one. A woman told Huffington Post, “What kind of astounded me, and made me feel scared about the entire thing, from finding out I was pregnant to actually having the abortion, was the amount of hoops a woman has to jump through to get an abortion,” (Driscoll). Abortion is of course the woman’s decision, but because they make that decision, they should not be judged and ridiculed. Driscoll interviewed another woman who said, “People need to realize it’s all subjective, and until you’re unhappily pregnant in whatever situation, you have no right to say abortion is wrong.” Many women that Driscoll interviewed said that they did not want to get an abortion but sometimes that may be the only option. A lot of the reasons women need to get an abortion is not their fault or they cannot control the situation they are in. Having this option available to women will outweigh the moral stigma that comes along with getting an abortion because women should be able to make their own decisions.  

Access to medical abortions is a necessity. They are important to women’s health and safety. Ushma Upadhyay does current research on understanding the impact of state-level abortion restrictions on women’s lives. She recently wrote a paper, We Need Abortion Laws Based on Science, to explain the impact of women’s health if abortions were unavailable to them. Upadhyay explains that state legislatures want to eliminate abortion access, to safeguard women’s health and safety. This would limit the health care providers who can give women the medicine and self- administration, and she estimates that more laws will be aimed towards medical abortions because women’s health is no longer a reason for access to them. This can be bad for women because abortions need to be available based on women’s health. Soon, medical abortions may not be available at all. Upadhyay explains that research needs to prove that medical abortions negatively affect women’s health because then that is just a claim that politicians are using. It is actually proven that women’s mental and physical health is in danger if abortions are unavailable. We need laws to protect women’s access to these drugs. Medical abortions are important to women’s health and we cannot allow others to say women’s health is negatively impacted from abortions. 

Mifepristone and misoprostol are drugs taken for a medical abortion. They are very safe and effective, as they have been used and researched for years now. There are many reasons for a woman to want an abortion: the mother’s health may be in danger, the mother may not be financially stable, or the baby could have a life threatening illness. They may be the safest option for a woman, because women will find a way to get one either way. The alternative methods of abortions are often dangerous and could even end fatally. Also, allowing people to make their own decisions about their bodies is very important. People cannot allow others to make decisions about their bodies, especially if they do not know the circumstances of the situation. Medical abortions are important to the health of women and families and if they become unavailable, the country could be at risk. Complications that could occur are: more children in foster care, women’s health (mentally and physically), and human rights. Many Republicans push to defund Planned Parenthood and create laws that make it more difficult to receive an abortion. In other countries, women face prison time if they receive one. This is avoidable and we cannot allow our country to get to this extent. Not only would women’s health be at risk, so would the country’s.  Because medical abortions are safe and can improve the lives of women by reducing risky and unwanted pregnancies, they provide an optimal option for women by fostering both mental and physical health. When women have the choice to take over their own bodies and are legally able to pursue a physically safer option, this outweighs the moral stigma that’s associated with abortions. 
