Why Abortion Should Be Legal?

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Keeping abortion legal would prevent an increase in poverty. When a low- income mother is able to plan her pregnancies, she is much more likely to be able to provide for her baby. When she cannot get an abortion, if that is her choice, she is three times more likely to descend into and remain in poverty. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned and 21 percent end in abortion. Women of color are even more likely to live in poverty, also are more likely to suffer the repercussions of an unintended or unwanted pregnancy. Women who cannot afford to pay for an abortion out of pocket are forced to delay procedure for up to three weeks, if not longer. 42% percent of women obtaining abortions live below the federal poverty line, according to the 2008 report, Characteristics of US Abortion Patients. Using economic modeling, it’s been founded that if poorer women had the same access to contraception as more well-off women, it would cut the birth rate for single women living in poverty in half. Doing the same for abortion would also have a dramatic impact, reducing the birth rate from 72 births per 1,000 women to 49. Of course, the obvious solution would be to make both contraception and abortion accessible to lower-income women, which would then result in their unintended birth rate coming very close to what it is for higher-income women.

Abortions are sometimes needed to save the lives of the women choosing to have the abortion or even prevent the child from living a life they might not want. There are certain cases where ending the pregnancy is the only option, cases where it would be putting the mother's life at risk to continue the pregnancy. Conditions that might lead to ending a pregnancy to save a woman's life include severe infections, heart failure and severe cases of preeclampsia, a condition in which a woman develops very high blood pressure and is at risk for stroke. Cecily Kellogg, 44, a writer who lives near Philadelphia, says that was the situation she faced when she was nearly six months pregnant with twin boys in 2004 and developed severe preeclampsia. One fetus had already died and "my liver had shut down, my kidneys had shut down and they were expecting me to start seizing at any minute," she says. The doctors said they had to quickly dilate her cervix and perform an abortion to save her. "I fought it," she says. "But they told me I would die — that it was either me and my son or just my son." In a different article, a woman explains the story of when she was in her 5th pregnancy. She at that point had only one kid and a lot of miscarriages. She explains that she didn’t have a normal pregnancy and found out at 10 weeks. Her doctor said that she was at very high risk and it was most likely, the pregnancy wouldn’t last, but the women was still determined. One day she woke up gushing blood and was rushed to the hospital. While new med students and nurses pricked and poked her, no one really treid to help her because none of the doctors on call at the time did abortions at all. One nurse risked her job to call a doctor to come in for her. At this point she had been in the hospital for hours slowly dying. The med students were supposed to tell the doctor to call in another person and they didn’t. The doctor that did come in told the women’s husband that there was a chance she might die because they took so long to get a doctor to the hospital. Moral of the story would be that this women was almost left to die because a doctor thought that her fetus’s (who was already going to die anyway) life was worth more than a women who had a husband and a son. You shouldn’t need to know the details of why a woman gets an abortion. That’s no one’s business. You should just know that that women made the decision she thinks is best for herself and that unborn child.

In conclusion I believe there is a lot of evidence to support that abortion should be legal. In my opinion, having access to abortion is vital to a women’s health. I think what people fail to realize is, not all women get abortions to run away from responsibility. If a woman doesn’t want to have a child for whatever reason, she shouldn’t have too. If a woman cannot afford to raise a child, why be forced to have it just to not be able to properly take care of the baby and give it everything it needs. I think its unethical. At the end of the day, I feel everyone should have a choice. Just because something isn’t my choice, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be someone else’s.

Works Cited

Burke, Theresea, Ph.D., and David Reardon, Ph.D. "Abortion Trauma and Child Abuse." After Abortion. N.p., 1998. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Carfaro, William, and Rachel Fidis. "Abortion Paper." Abortion Paper. N.p., n.d.

David Anderson. “Top 10 Reasons Abortion Should Be Legal.” (2014)

Goler-Blount, Linda. "Poor Women Suffer Most From Restrictive Abortion Policies - Rewire." Rewire. N.p., 14 May 2015. Web. 05 Dec. 2016.

Kendall, Mikki. "Abortion Saved My Life." Salon. N.p., 26 May 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

Marcotte, Amanda. "Why Do Poor Women Have More Abortions?" Slate Magazine. N.p., 02 Mar. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

"The Impact of Illegal Abortion - Our Bodies Ourselves." Our Bodies Ourselves. OBOS ABORTION CONTRIBUTORS, 23 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

Painter, Special for USA TODAY, Kim. "Doctors Say Abortions Do Sometimes save Women's Lives." USA Today. Gannett Satellite Information Network, 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2016.

Watkins, Christine. "Real Life: Why I Chose Abortion." NJCU - REDIRECT PAGE. N.p., 2010. Web. 04 Dec. 2016.

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