Overview of The Pro Life and Pro Choice Movements

Abortion is a medical or surgical procedure where a foetus which is inside the woman is terminated ending the pregnancy process. It definitely does not sound like an easy procedure to go through and it isn’t. However, people do decide to go for this procedure for whatever reason, it could be for financial, environmental and even personal reasons. I want to look into some reasons as to why people are against abortions to the point that they want to enact a law to restrict abortions only allowing it under only few circumstances. I want to look into reasons such as; pro-life and pro-choice, health risks and religion to open up my view on people’s beliefs.

People who classify themselves as ‘pro-choice’ they believe that all individuals should have unlimited autonomy over their own reproductive system without the interference of another individual’s reproductive system. However, people who classify themselves as ‘pro-choice’ they believe that the government should have obligation over other individuals’ reproductive rights for the cause to preserve all of human life. In the media this is one of the biggest arguments across the globe as some people try to throw their own beliefs onto others. In America about seven states have enacted a ban which restricts the reproductive rights a woman has, and abortion becomes illegal. The first country to enact the law was Alabama on 24th of May, however, Alabama became the most aggressive anti-abortion law which only permits an abortion if the woman is at risk or if the foetus would not survive the pregnancy but not in cases of rape and incest. People believe that this is ‘the beginning of the end’, as on the 22nd of May the “Pro-life, Pro-woman” rally commenced. Roughly about 75 people attended the event to celebrate the pass on this legislation as it’ll help eliminate the amount of abortions that occur, and foetuses will grow to become babies. However, do you believe that this will reduce the rates of safe abortions? Yes. Reduce the rate of unsafe ones? No. In recent studies about 75% of abortion patients are poor and low-income including about 49% live below the federal poverty levels. It may be good to have some legislation on abortions but if someone is placed in a position where they believe cannot take care of the child for any reason; for instance, if the environment is unstable, mentality health, unstable finances, etc. A woman may look out for an unsafe abortion even though it may risk their life.

Another notion as to why people are so against abortions as questions arise in the media asking about the health risks which come through having an abortion. Issues such as infections, infertility, mental health issues and an increase risk of breast cancer. However, an abortion is considered generally safe and a lot of women have experienced any problems but like any surgery there are small little complications which can occur, such as;

• Infection in the womb- occurs up to 1 in every 10 abortions and can be treated with antibiotics
• Some pregnancy remaining in the womb- occurs up to 1 in every 20 abortions and results in further treatment
• Excessive bleeding- occurs in about 1 in every 1000 abortions and may require a blood transfusion
• Damage to the cervix- occurs in about 1 in every 100 surgical abortions
• Damage to the womb- occurs in 1 in every 250 to 1000 surgical abortions and less than 1 in every 1000 medical abortions carried out at 12 to 24 weeks.

With research by the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG), states that chances of a serious complication to occur after abortions are rare and the serious complications occur less commonly with abortions than going through the pregnancy process. They discovered that there is no link with induced abortions and breast cancer, infertility and long-term mental health issues, with the help of on reliable scientific investigation which were documented by highly respected medical publications.

So why would we be told this still if its discovered that to have no relation with breast cancer, infertility and long-term mental health issues? Well an induced abortion is recognised as something that is unnatural to happen. That life begins when conception begins (when the female egg is fertilised) so what right do we have to choose whether the foetus lives or dies?

Religion is another factor as all the religions have a biased opinion on abortions. They believe that their god/s is to protect and contend life no matter what form of life. So that if a woman does not intend to have the child it’s not her choice to play god over life and death on the child that is within her. That the child should instead be placed in adoption to give the child an opportunity at living their lives. I agree with this, however, I do not as well since in recent studies there are 600,000 foster children in America alone and a lot of them suffer from behaviour issues from having no attachment to a form of family and about 30% of homeless people in America were people who were placed in foster care. Why would you want to bring an innocent child into an unstable life? Where you don’t know if the child would be safe? The foster care system is already struggling to find foster families to take care of the children and give them the abilities to live fulfilling lives, and with these anti-abortion laws becoming enacted I fear that this will increase the amount of unwanted pregnancies and children going into the foster care system. Why would you want children to go through that?

While looking into these arguments about abortions being a pro-choice myself, I completely understand why some people are so against abortions, however, I believe some of their solutions are quite flawed and that pro-choice people solutions are quite flawed as well. In some way we are destroying the potentiality of a child living their life but sometimes we do what we believe is the best thing is to do in whatever situation we are in. Why don’t we try to find the solution first then act upon it?