The Most Obvious Reasons Why Abortion Should Be Legal

There have been about 60 million legal, medically induced abortions between the years of 1970 and 2018. Some may see this as a negative thing, but truly it is a blessing. This number resembles a large population of women who had their wishes successfully fulfilled safely. Abortions have been a way of terminating a pregnancy for many years, but in modern-day, a controversial debate of whether abortions should be illegal has become a pretty common one and in this essay it's revealed in reasons. Some believe abortion is murder while others believe it’s a fundamental right every woman has. For many reasons, it would be an awful decision for the government to ban abortions. One of the reasons is that illegal abortions are super unsafe and they can be fatal. Along with the risks that comes from illegal ways of ending a pregnancy, banning abortions will also lead to babies being born unwelcomed and it’ll cause them to feel like a burden later on in life. Even though some say abortion should be banned because babies feel pain during them, they are wrong because the fetus doesn’t feel pain until the 23rd or 24th week and abortions usually aren’t done past that period.

The first reason why abortion should be legal is because if they’re banned, people will turn to illegal abortions. Illegal abortions are very dangerous and they take up a pretty big chunk of maternal deaths annually. The World Health Organization reports “ Each year between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed by unsafe abortion”. If we were to ban lawful abortions, the numbers of women who die each year from illegal ones sadly wouldn’t decrease. It will actually increase because even though women know it’s dangerous, they will risk anything to fulfill their wishes and end their pregnancy. Along with death being a huge risk of unconstitutional abortions, health problems can be another. The US National Library of Medicine states that “The women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications”. Illegal abortions do not only kill thousands of women each year. They pose millions of long term health issues to women that could have easily been avoided with a lawful, safe abortion.

In addition to how perilous banning abortions would be to the lives of many women, banning abortions will also allow babies to be brought into this world unwelcomed and cause them to feel like a burden. Families should love and cherish their babies forever, but if women decide they aren’t ready for that commitment, they often side with an abortion. Although, if abortions were banned, this wouldn’t be an option and the mother would be forced to have her child. According to an article published by the BMC, having an unwanted baby can cause a very bad relationship between the child and the mother. “Unwanted births may also cause poor relations between mother and offspring, even after the child has become an adult”. As a result of the poor relationship caused by an unwanted pregnancy, things such as abuse, child neglection, and abandonment are more likely to happen just because the government decided to ban abortions. Unwanted births may also put the mother at risk of many things such as depression that can make the child feel like a burden. The same article published by BMC states “Unintended pregnancy is a risk factor for poor maternal mental health including perinatal depression, stress, and lower levels of psychological well-being and life satisfaction”. If abortions were banned, more mothers would be faced with depression, stress issues and overall, a constant feeling of crappiness. This will cause the offspring to feel like the root of all these issues; which would be a terrible feeling for anyone, let alone a child.

Even though millions of people believe abortions should not be banned, some people think differently. Some people believe abortion should be banned because they think the fetus feels pain during the procedure. Nancy Flander argues that “As early as eight to ten weeks after conception, and definitely by thirteen-and-a-half weeks, the unborn experiences organic pain…” Even though people believe this, they are wrong because babies don’t feel pain until around the 23rd or 24th week after being conceived. Sarah G. Miller defends this by saying “ ...the neurons that extend from the spinal cord into the brain need to reach to the area of the brain where the pain is perceived. This does not occur until between 23 and 24 weeks… Moreover, the nerves' existence isn't enough to produce the experience of pain…” Overall, the people who say a fetus can feel pain during abortions are not correct. To feel pain you need a fully developed cortex (a neuron pain receptors) and babies don’t fully develop one until the late 2nd trimester. Abortions are often not done after the pain receptor is developed. So why is it a brilliant idea to ban abortions if babies don’t even feel pain during them?

To sum it up, it’s a horrible idea to ban abortions. If we decide banning abortions is an outstanding idea for society, it’ll lead to many health risks that’ll affect the mother along with the child. Once we ban abortions, women will turn to illegal abortions that can kill them or severely injure them. Additionally, if women who are set on having an abortion can’t have one, the child will be brought into the world unwelcomed. That can pose many issues, both emotional and physical, for the mother and the offspring. If you are strictly pro-life, you might think that abortions are awful because babies feel pain, but you would be incorrect. They don’t feel pain because they don’t have a fully developed pain receptor until around the 23rd week and abortions rarely take place after then. Ultimately, this nation must decide what is truly best for the people - a safe and healthy abortion that has little to no risk or a law that can ruin many families in seconds.