According to World Heath Organization, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. This year there have been approximately 26,791,220 abortions so far.
An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its death. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced. (definition from Wikipedia)
Abortion as a term most commonly - and in the statistics presented here - refers to the induced abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions are usually termed miscarriages.
When discussing your opinion about abortion, there are two “sides” that most take. Pro-choice and Pro-life. Pro-choice emphasizes the right of women to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy, meaning support abortion. Pro-life emphasizes the right of the embryo or fetus to gestate to term and be born, meaning you oppose abortion.
Of course, you may not fit into any of these categories. You can be on the fence, you can be right in the middle, you can have exceptions. Below I have included two different essays: One arguing pro-choice, the other, pro-life. I highly recommend that you read both with an open mind, and that you formulate your own opinion. I will also have links to other resources!
Pro-choice Argument
Persuasive Essay: Pro-Choice Abortion. Written by B3CCADEE
"Abortion has been one of the biggest controversies of all time. Many people believe it is immoral and even consider it to be murder. The definition of abortion is; “The termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to being capable of normal growth.” These pro-life believers do not support the idea of induced abortion and believe it should be illegal. Many of these supporters do not know that if abortion were illegal they would still be performed, unfortunately by an uneducated staffs. Over 70 thousand maternal deaths occur every year because of unsafe abortions1. These women die, so the idea of supporting pro-life is contradictory, this is why the nation should be pro-choice.
Pro-choice believers support the right to privacy and the idea women should have the choice to do what she pleases with her own body. As an example; a woman is raped by a man and becomes pregnant with his child. She decides she doesn’t want to keep the baby; she has an abortion because the idea of raising a child of her rapist is too painful for her to cope with. Pro-choice defenders take sympathies to this woman while she then gets called a murderer by pro-life supporters. Abortions sometimes results in the woman being harassed because of the choice she has made about her own body. That’s what pro-life supports. Often time’s situations like this turns into harassment which can be considered to be part of anti-abortion violence1. These pro-life supporters stalk, threaten, and even sometimes kill women who have chosen to have an abortion and even the doctors that provide the procedures. Pro-life also supports the idea that every child has a right to live, even if the mother is not financially able to support the child and the child would struggle everyday along with their mother. These children would be underprivileged and could potentially die from the circumstances they’ve be forced to live in. Again this is what people that are considered to be “pro-life” defend.
Pro-choice supports the girl that is fifteen years old loses her virginity and becomes pregnant because she wasn’t fully aware of the consequences of her actions. The choice of her keeping the child would result in her getting kicked out of her home, she’d be finically unable to support the baby, and she would lose her education. With abortion she would not have to deal with these issues, though she would have to deal with the emotional aspect of deciding to terminate the fetus. Pro-choice supports the idea she would learn from her mistake and that ultimately it was her choice to do what she wished with her body. The results of the experience for this girl would be social maturity and evolution, rather than a state of repression.
Even though many people practice pro-life because of their religion, it may be surprising to learn that catholic women are 29% more likely to get an abortion than Protestant women, though they are as likely as all women to do so. In Christianity abortion has been considered homicide since Pope Sixtus V declared it so, but the debate didn’t become heated until the 19th century1. So even these pro-life supporters sometimes find the circumstances where abortion is necessary. An example of a situation where you may see this is in a given situation where bearing a child and giving birth would kill the mother because of health issues or womb complications the fetus would have. It’s said that the risks of death associated with childbirth is 10 times higher than that of abortion2. This proves that life is too situational to say whether or not abortion should be illegal.
About 14,000 women get abortions fallowing incest or rape and it is estimated that 43% of women worldwide will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old2. It is also estimated that there are 43 million abortions a year. Imagine that those abortions had not occurred with the current population issue in the world, there are over 7 billion people on the planet and we have limited resources which are depleting quickly. So in a strange way abortion is beneficial to the planet. Pro-life supporters do not see the situations, reasons, and benefits from abortions. They are ignorant to the reason why many women choose to make the decision they do. It is clear abortion should remain legal; even if it seems immoral it can often be the best situation for the people that have to make that tough decision. Pro-choice defends and protects the people, it is ultimately the woman’s life that would be affected and no one else’s, who would the government be to take that away from us the people? We live in a country based on freedoms, and women have and should continue to have the freedom to that choice."
Pro-life Argument
“Precious Life”- A Pro-Life Essay by Ashley Osbahr, first-place winner in junior category of Pro-Life Essay Contest. BY TEXAS RIGHT TO LIFE ON FEBRUARY 8, 2017 EDUCATION, HIGH SCHOOL NEWS https://www.texasrighttolife.com/precious-life-a-pro-life-essay-by-ashley-osbahr-first-place-winner-in-junior-category-of-pro-life-essay-contest/
"Pro-life. What does that mean? Pro-life to me, means that I believe that a new human life is created at the moment of conception and has the same rights as any other human, therefore abortion is wrong. I have three reasons why I am pro-life. First and foremost, I am a Christian. I am pro-life simply because God wants me to be. Secondly, I believe any human life taken intentionally is modern day human sacrifice. Third, is that I have lost a sibling while he or she was only weeks old and know the heartache of a lost life.
The number one reason I am pro-life is because God is in charge of life and death. He did not create us to do this for him. In the Ten Commandments, God tells us “thou shalt not kill.” Yet millions of unborn babies are killed every year worldwide. We are created in the image of God. “We” means everyone – big or small, young or old, disabled or not. God created us all.
The second reason I am pro-life is that ending a human life by abortion is modern day human sacrifice. In studying ancient history, I learned that humans were killed as sacrifices to false idols. Now we “sacrifice” our unborn children to our modern idols such as money, self-desires and convenience. People are taught that children are expensive, a burden to carry and will prevent them from pursuing their own dreams. All people are to be treasured and motherhood received as a gift from the Lord.
Not only am I pro-life for the reasons above, but I have also seen first hand how precious life is even when it is small. When I was around ten years old, my mom was pregnant and we had already seen the baby’s heartbeat on ultrasound. Sadly, when the baby was only eleven weeks old, my mom had a miscarriage. She had the baby at home and even though the baby was smaller than my thumb, I could see that it was a human being. The baby had arms, legs, eyes, ears and a nose. I knew this baby was a true gift, made by God. Since then, my family has been blessed with two more children and I have realized that no matter how small, babies are a gift from the Lord.
In conclusion, the three reasons that make me pro-life are God, knowing that abortion is human sacrifice, and how much I still love my lost sibling. I believe as our founding fathers did when they wrote the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” All human life, born or unborn, has value. It is time we all start respecting and protecting it."
Other recommended resources to check out!
Abortions Worldwide This Year - (Number of abortions done this year so far)
What Actually Happens When You Have An Abortion?
Pro-Choice And Pro-Life Supporters Search For Common Ground (GREAT VIDEO!)
Sources-
I Side With - What is your stance on abortion?
Abortions Worldwide This Year
Persuasive Essay: Pro-Choice Abortion. Written by B3CCADEE
Persuasive Essay: Pro-Choice Abortion. Written by B3CCADEE