Only, the Mother Has the Right to Choose the Abortion

RE - “Only, the mother has the right to choose the abortion”

Abortion is a widely discussed topic. There is much debate as to whether abortion should be legal, as the removal of a foetus is the murder of a potential life. The key word there is ‘potential’, as many other people believe that a human’s life begins the moment they come out of their mother’s womb, and for this reason, abortion is not murder.

In the bible, there is not much information that is directly related to abortions, because abortions weren’t as common as they are now. Although the word ‘abortion’ is never used in the bible, Christians – who are mostly anti-abortion, use other lines from the bible to support their belief that abortions should not be allowed. One example could be, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” – Jeremiah 1:15. This is saying that before God formed the foetus, he knew it, and this suggests that life begins even before conception. This would mean that to terminate a pregnancy at any stage would be ending a life, not a potential life. Another line that supports this viewpoint would be, “So God created man in his own image” – Genesis 1:27. This could be interpreted as meaning every human contains part of God, and to kill a human is to essentially, kill God. This is the same with abortion: to kill a foetus is to kill a part of God.

Christian teachings vary, however, but all seem to have the same belief – abortion is wrong. Roman Catholics believe that abortion is morally wrong in absolutely all circumstances, and the church has more recently said that, ‘From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognised as having the rights of a person’. This quote supports the idea that life begins from the moment a foetus is conceived. Roman Catholic belief has varied over the years, as abortion used to be seen as a sexual sin rather than murder, but the fact remains that Roman Catholics have always seen abortion as a sin. The only exception for the Roman Catholics is if the abortion is unintentional, e.g. the foetus is lost as a consequence of a car crash. The Anglican church agrees with the belief that abortion is wrong, but they believe that there are exceptions, three to be precise. The first is that abortion is allowed when the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. The second is that abortion may occur if the pregnancy is the result of a rape, and the final exception is that abortion is allowed if the foetus is to be born severely handicapped.

A reason abortion should be a decision left only to the mother is that a mother would never intentionally and purposefully end her child or potential child’s life. There must be a reason for the abortion to occur, for example, the pregnancy is to result in the child being handicapped, and therefore, it will live a life of suffering. No mother would want to let their child suffer for their entire life, and this is a reason abortion should be allowed – in most cases, it is most likely an act of love for the child, and not wanting to put the offspring through a life of pain and misery. Also, abortions may occur because the mother cannot support the child, and does not want to let the child live a life of disappointment where it cannot always get what it wants. This is another reason a mother should be the one to make the decision as to whether an abortion should occur or not. A mother is the one that has to carry the child for nine months, and then care and provide for it for the next eighteen years after that. If the mother is not able to do this, then she should be allowed to decide whether the pregnancy should be terminated or not.