Discussion on Abortion Rights and Ethical Considerations

Abortion remains a heavily stigmatized subject, especially in a country as rooted to religion as the Philippines. I realized that, funnily enough, many of those who are against abortion are men – individuals that won’t get pregnant and won’t have to deal with the many problems and health concerns about pregnancy. I believe that women must be the foremost debaters of abortion, either for or against, as they are the most affected in a pregnancy.

The most prevalent argument for abortion is that a woman’s body is her own, and thus she can do whatever she pleases with it. I find this a very selfish argument, albeit understandable, and that this completely disregards that it is not only a woman who is concerned, but also an unborn child. Scientifically speaking, life begins when an embryo is formed, and to abort a child is just like killing somebody, except that this somebody was not given a chance to even experience life. Society detests crimes where another life is deliberately and gravely harmed and especially crimes where another life is killed, and I do too. Yet, even before reading the article, I have long been pro-choice.

Not all reasons for abortion are humane – sometimes it is done because a couple do not want to live with an unplanned child. However, in some circumstances, an unborn child is a painful remembrance of trauma or something wrong in the body that must be taken out to live, like a tumored organ. In those situations, abortion doesn’t sound bad at all, but, no matter what circumstance, it still deals with the deliberate killing of life. Despite this, I am firm that when a minor is raped and impregnated by an adult, or when the woman’s health becomes critical because of something wrong in her pregnancy, that abortion is the lesser of two evils.

As a female, I would not want to be in any of the two difficult situations previously said, and if I were, I would be emotionally distressed. I think that, if I were in either of the two situations, that I would still prioritize myself, especially my sanity and/or my health, even though I have to consider another life. Is this selfish? Probably yes. However, if I were not to pick abortion, my life will either be tarnished for life or will no longer exist. It may sound that by choosing my life over my potential child that I think my life has more value, but I would just really want to feel better about myself and continue to live a life without any of the associated pain or trauma.

No matter how justified the reason may be, abortion is still killing, and yet I am alright with it even though I am against other forms of killing. Sometimes, I even understand and sympathize with those who aborted because they simply didn’t want to have the child. This is relativism, and I know it is, yet there are many grey areas to abortion that I can’t help but feel sorry sometimes for those who did it, especially those who needed to do it. There are reasons to why I feel this way, not only because of the reasons why abortion must be implemented stated in the article.

First is how stigmatized abortion is currently. People judge those who have aborted, even those who had to do it. There is this thinking that those who aborted, no matter the reason, have complete disregard for human life. Like previously said, many of those who stigmatize the women who aborted are men, yet they are in no position to speak about the complications of pregnancy. They don’t understand that pregnancy is life-changing for a woman, either positively or negatively, and is not something that is easily forgotten if it is reversed.

If those who judge are properly educated, I think that their minds can be swayed into thinking that abortion is sometimes necessary, although I understand if they don’t forgive those who abort even though it is unneeded. Yet, there is also a lack of conversation about abortion – people don’t want to talk about it because it is stigmatized, and people who have undergone abortion don’t want to be stigmatized. I think it would be healthy for a nation if multiple discussions about abortion are conducted without the need to judge those who have actually aborted before. People should also not quickly judge those who aborted; they don’t know the reasons and should not get themselves involved in other peoples’ lives.

Another reason is because some of those who are pro-life only care about the life they defend when it is in the womb of a woman. They don’t care about the circumstances of the child’s life after they are born. What if the child is born, but the mother dies? What if the child is unable to be taken care of by the parents, who by then already have multiple children? What if the child’s mother is a minor who has been shunned by her family and is forced to raise the child alone? Pro-life supporters, at least some of them, disregard these situations entirely, when in fact the child may not even be able to live well, or live in the first place, in some of the situations. I hope that pro-life supporters are not hypocritical about their beliefs and actually care for the life of the child after birth, because if they are, they may not just be endangering one life.

While my opinion about abortion and how it relates to killing is very relativist, there are both reasons to why abortion is a crime and why abortion is beneficial that I can’t help but feel mixed about the subject. Still, I think that abortion deserves to be discussed more about, and for, the women who need it. Abortion is a life-altering decision for those who take it; they may feel distressed or confused while deciding it and after having it. What they need the least are people who constantly judge them for that decision.

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