ALYAZYA

Roughly “60,000 to 70,000 women die annually from complications of unsafe abortion and hundreds of thousands suffer long-term consequences” In Kenya alone, unsafe abortions are a major cause of maternal deaths, affecting a quarter of the total population. Banning abortions does not stop women from having them.Considering this, prioritizing women’s lives is necessary and legalizing abortions does just that. Otherwise, unsafe abortions will continue to take place, and the number of marital deaths will continue to rise.

Some countries that ban the practice set laws that contradict their arguments against it. For instance, in the United Arab Emirates, it was made legal to abort a fetus with “severe genetic disorders.” This law disregards the fetus’s right to live, which conflicts with their argument against abortion. Why does abortion become acceptable when it benefits the community, however, remains improper when it benefits the female?

Flexibility is essential with laws regarding abortion.

Governments overlook the unpleasant possible outcomes that result from keeping a fetus, especially in cases where women suffer from economic difficulties or poor health. For many, it’s challenging to sustain an adequate standard of living even when both parents are involved. In addition, in countries where women generally stay at home, men are not able to feed all members of their family. Just imagine how difficult it is for single mothers who can only rely on themselves.  A child acts as a threat to an economically unstable woman or family.

When women are in poor health conditions, they are more likely to suffer from fatal pregnancies. A 28-year-old woman named Alyne “was six months pregnant with her second child when she died in late 2002” because she was refused an abortion although she suffered from “high-risk pregnancy symptoms, including severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting,” which only worsened with time; however, they were ignored. Ironically, by setting out to protect a human life, the doctors lost two. They did not perform their job to protect the woman’s life, as they should because there aren’t any laws obliging them to. It isn’t yet understood that a women’s health, a fully functioning live human being, is more important than a potential one.

You’d figure that being a victim of rape gives you the right to abort. You’re wrong.

Rape is a sensitive issue that requires a lot more attention than it gets especially since rape itself is underreported and often ignored due to social issues. When rape results in pregnancy, forcing her to keep the child is hell within a hell. In the case of L.C., a young girl was “repeatedly raped by different men in her neighbourhood.” She learned that she was pregnant at the age of 13. After a failed suicide attempt, she was taken to the hospital where the “available surgeon refused to perform the surgery due to her pregnancy.” She was also refused an abortion. Nothing was done in order to improve her health until she had a miscarriage, and as a result, the success of the surgery was heavily impacted.

L.C. is one of many children who suffer from the horrific aftermath of being raped in a place that does not justify performing an abortion on a traumatized and damaged woman, let alone a child. When banning abortion extends to rape victims and children, it’s not only affecting the mothers, but it also affects their offspring. This is because they are more likely grow up in an unfriendly environment due to being unwanted or simply being a reminder of a horrific crime. It’s not uncommon that these children develop psychological disorders themselves either.

Arguments Against Abortion

Despite the fact that the fetus is viable after 24 weeks, some state that life begins at the moment of conception, which suggests that abortion is by nature a crime, wherein a human being is murdered. Abortion is also disproved in most major religions such as Christianity and Hinduism. As a result, there’s a large portion of the theist population that argues against it. In certain places, aborting an ill fetus is banned because it’s possible that it was misdiagnosed, even when it’s not probable.

In order to find a middle ground, some pro-life individuals attempt to offer viable alternatives to aborting a child such as adoption or offering women financial support and access to adequate healthcare.

Arguments against abortion offer alternatives to women who do not want to be pregnant, let alone have children. They neglect the circumstances a female is in, the consequences she may face as well as her mental and physical state because they place far more importance on the fetus’s life rather than its bearer. Governments proceed to implement strict laws against abortion that overlook the numbers of maternal deaths, highlighting the law’s inability to ban abortion. In their pursuit of morality, their laws are causing more deaths than preventing them. Is it really moral to set laws that increase death rates?