Abortion Rights? What Are Those?

November 16, 2022

Abortion Rights? What Are Those?

People who are protesting the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, Block Club Chicago

    The overturning of Roe vs. Wade is a very complex issue that has taken the Nation by storm. It has torn families apart, ruined friendships, and has split the country in two. 

    Roe vs. Wade, according to Alternatives, is a court case from 1973. The ruling of the case was that abortion is a constitutional right. The Supreme Court ruled that if a woman wants to have an abortion, she has the right until the time where a fetus can survive outside the woman's womb. 

    On this issue, as there is with any issue, there are two sides: pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-choice fought for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Pro-life fought to keep Roe vs. Wade alive. The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, which gave the states supreme power over abortion rights. Obviously the result of this case was that Roe vs. Wade was sadly overturned. 

    The side of pro-life argues that abortion shouldn't be legal because it's murder and doesn't allow a child the right to live. I believe abortion is not a form of murder because the zygote or fetus does not yet have a consciousness, thoughts, feelings, and cannot survive on it's own, so therefore you are not killing an actual human being. Pro-life people argue that every child has the right to live no matter the circumstances of the mother, home life, or financial situation. While allowing children to opportunity to live is good, allowing them to be born into an unstable household and life is not. 

   Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this situation since both sides have valid reasoning. In my opinion, I believe that pro-choice is the way to go when talking about abortion laws. I believe that a big argument from the pro-choice side is the stability a child grows up in.

    If a child is born into a financially unstable household, they have a greater risk of having a bad life. The Children's Bureau supports this by saying, "Living in poverty means having limited access to health care, food, and housing security, greater risk of school drop-out for children, homeless, unemployment due to lack of education or childcare and, unfortunately, not reaching one's full potential."

A teen mom who is distraught, CEPR

    I know a couple of girls who had a child while in high school. These people had to drop out of high school, which leaves them at a disadvantage of getting a well-paying job because they don't have a high school diploma. I know that these girls struggle to pay for their child's needs as well as their own. They also abuse substances like alcohol and marijuana, which creates an environment that no child should grow up in. If a child is going to be in an unstable environment that is going to harm the child more than help is a reason why abortion should be legal. If the mother knows she cannot financially, emotionally, mentally, and physically care for her child, then she should have the right to an abortion because she is doing what is right for her and her unborn child. 

    Another big concern I have about abortion being illegal is about when the mother's life is on the line. In the past, if there was a situation where only one person could be saved, the husband or next in line to the mother would choose if the doctors saved the mother or child. If abortion is illegal, the doctor would have no choice but to save the child and let the mother die. The family would have no say in who lives and would have to live with the loss of the mother, which would affect how the child is raised. The family might show resentment and anger towards the child because the mother died in child labor, so the family might blame the child for the mother's death, which isn't at all fair to the child. 

A woman who has been raped and is visibly struggling emotionally with this, Inside Edition 

    Another big concern I have is when a girl gets raped and gets pregnant from it. The fact that a girl has been raped is bad enough, but the fact that she won't be able to get an abortion because of a law is outrageous. According to The New York Times, the following 13 states have completely outlawed abortion: Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee,Kentucky, and West Virginia. If this girl has the child, she is going through so much extra stress because she didn't want a child in the first place and now is about to have a kid when she isn't ready. 

    I know someone who was kidnapped when she was younger and sexually assaulted. She luckily didn't become pregnant, but if this happened to her today, she might not have the right to get an abortion. She has expressed to me her thoughts on this issue as someone who has been through sexual trauma. It disgusts her that a girl or woman won't have a choice about her pregnancy when she didn't choose to have the child in the first place. 

    Because women might not have the choice to get an abortion if they are raped, many of them might turn to more extreme methods. They might turn to getting an illegal abortion, which tend to be unsafe and potentially harmful to both the mother and child, or, if they feel they have no other option, they might commit suicide because they see no other way out. 

    An abortion is a human right that women should possess because how can people that don't experience the modern-day world to its full effect decide the fate of an entire country? They shouldn't be able to, which is why we need to fight back to get back abortion rights for the Nation.