Ethical Perspectives On Abortion

The Ethical Perspectives of Abortion Legalization

Introduction The ethics of the legalization of abortion is a widely debated topic and affects various groups of people. The complexities of this argument are shown by the copious amounts of perspectives needed to be taken into consideration such as the following: women, children, religious leaders, government officials, abortion counselors, psychologists, and victims of rape and incest. Around the globe, women are being denied access to legal abortion procedures and parental health care services (Planned Parenthood Federation of America). 231 out of 956 women are denied abortions in America (ANSIRH). In Goteborg, Sweden, 197 women were denied abortions, and in Prague, Czechoslovakia, over

This behavior is in correlation to pro-birth instead of pro-life by putting more emphasis on the rights of the fetus inside the womb than rights of the mother or the child outside the womb. It can be extrapolated that in order to claim one is pro life, one must also care about the life of the child and mother when it comes to finances, health care, and education. “About half of all pregnancies are unplanned, which can make the possibility of an unintended pregnancy seem like not that big of a deal. But the financial impact of unintended pregnancies, and subsequent births, can be significant—particularly for low-income women.” (White). The conclusion can be made from this statement that if a woman has an unintended pregnancy and is in need of an abortion as a consequence of financial situations, she should therefore be able to receive that legal abortion and at a lenient cost. Moreover, the cost of raising a child is extremely expensive and averages around $12,500 per year, which many low-income women find unaffordable

Thus, if a mother chooses that giving birth to this child will potentially cause it to have an unwelcoming life for the reason of certain defects, she should be able to choose whether or not she wants to bring this child in the world. According to David A. Grimes, chief of the Abortion Surveillance Branch at the Centers for Disease Control, both common sense and empirical evidence suggest that children grow best when they are wanted and loved. Unwanted children are at a greater risk of juvenile delinquency than those who are wanted (Grimes). Preventing children from entering the world unwanted could provoke a drastic decline in crime rates. “The five states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced declines earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s” (Donohue et al, 379). Based on the previous facts stated, the legalization of abortion shows an impact on the reduction of crime rates since the 1970s. A woman should have the right to terminate her pregnancy for the greater good of not only herself, but for the unwanted child and the community in its