Health Reasons for Abortion, Research Paper Example

Abortion remains one of the most controversial subjects in the world, as some people support that it should be freedom while others believe it is morally wrong. Despite the US Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade (1973) stating that women had a right to get an abortion, it is still considered a crime in some states. There are many reasons why pregnant women consider doing an abortion, and medical reasons, including the welfare of the pregnant women, remain the leading reason for the same. Overall, abortion should be seen as a medical asset, and thus restricting and outlawing them would negatively impact women’s health.

First, outlawing abortion may increase women’s chances of survival. One of the major reasons why people conduct abortions is when pregnancy has a high chance of leading to the mother’s death during delivery or in the process (Bertini, 2022). Critically, the mother’s life is considered a priority when pregnancy threatens the mother’s loss of life, and thus most women consider doing an abortion. The fact that the woman can always give birth later safely justifies the importance of abortion for this reason.

Second, psychological health is a highly important factor that should be considered for abortion. In most instances, unwanted pregnancies are more likely to contribute to mental disturbances, which can easily lead to depression and suicidal thoughts (Rahimparvar et al., 2018). For example, women who become pregnant after rape are more likely to become depressed and have a high chance of committing suicide (Rahimparvar et al., 2018). Likewise, when the father is unsupportive, the woman would experience difficulties in bringing up the child, which would impact their psychological welfare and maybe for their entire life, but through abortion, the same medical issues can be avoided (Rahimparvar et al., 2018). Outlawing abortion could potentially increase these occurrences and vice versa, and thus it is recommendable for people who do not want to keep pregnancy for such purposes to have the right to abort.

Third, outlawing abortion can hardly prevent individuals with the intent to avoid doing it, and thus they seek any possible means to do it. As a result, pregnant women seek help from quack doctors or physicians, which risks their lives (Bhalla et al., 2018). Critically, legalizing abortion means that medical tools and procedures are used to terminate pregnancies, but on the other hand, when it is done outside clinical settings, there is a high likelihood of being done wrongly (Bhalla et al., 2018). For instance, bleeding is a common problem associated with abortion, and when the act is illegalized, it becomes difficult for victims to seek urgent medical attention because it could attract legal punishment.

Lastly, poverty, educational continuity or unemployment are major reasons for terminating pregnancies. These issues highly lead to financial problems, which negatively impact a child’s development and consequently impact both the physical and mental issues of the parents (Bhalla et al., 2018) negatively. For instance, when a student has to quit school to keep a pregnancy without a job and any support, it leads to a huge struggle, often leading to psychological problems. However, abortion rights make it easy to avoid such problems and ensure that an individual keeps pregnancy when ready for parenthood.

Medical factors remain the commonly cited reasons for abortions. When pregnancies risk the mother losing her life, there is no need to keep it because their life is more important. Furthermore, when abortions are outlawed, there is a high probability that un-medical procedures would be applied to terminate pregnancies, which risks the woman’s life. Lastly, readiness and psychological welfare should be a consideration for giving women abortion rights as it contributes to their overall well-being.

References

Bertini, I. (2022). From the UK Abortion Act 1967 to the present: the woman’s decision-making journey. BioLaw Journal-Rivista di BioDiritto, (2), 283-297.

Bhalla, S., Goyal, L. D., Bhalla, S., & Kaur, B. (2018). Self-administered medical abortion pills: evaluation of the clinical outcome and complications among women presenting with unsupervised pill intake to a tertiary care hospital in Malwa region of Punjab, India. Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol, 7(4), 1537e42.

Rahimparvar, S. F. V., Jafari, A., Hoseinzadeh, F., Daemi, F., & Samadi, F. (2018). Characteristics of women applying for legal abortion in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 24(11), 1040-1048.