A Legal, Public and Moral Look at Abortion on Society

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Evidently, from the religious point of view, the religion-supporting organizations stand firm on their opposition of abortion. “Killing” is morally permissible for most of the religions, including Catholicism and Buddhism, to name yet a few. Abortion is considered as an action of killing, because the right of an unborn is equal to that of a full-grown. Recently, the 40 Days for Life campaign, which is an international Christian movement for expressing the injustice of abortion, has been launched in Hong Kong (40 Days of Life, n.d.). Within the period, they hoped to achieve the goal of promoting the message of “respect life, opposing abortion” through praying and fasting in front of the FPA of Hong Kong in Wan Chai. The campaign lasted for 40 days, and more than ten churches showed their supports to this event. In addition, the Society of Truth and Light held an interview among Christians in 2012, 88% of the candidates claimed that it is unreasonable to terminate the lives of unborn babies by abortion (The Society for Truth and Light, 2012). From the above, we can see that the Christians have showed their thoughts that even the unborn children have their human rights and abortion would be considered as taking the lives of them. They believe that all of the human beings have “pro-life” and “pro-choice” that we should not deliberately rake their lives away.

From the above, those are the major four views from the society about “Abortion”. From the religious view, abortion is by no means an ethical way to solve the problem of unplanned pregnancy. It could be only solved by discussing and accepting that the violent approach is intolerable. From the point of views from the teenagers and social organizations, abortion is generally accepted, as they concluded that a full-grown woman should have her own choice to terminate the pregnancy if it affects her mental status. For the legal view, it takes the physical and medical approaches to sum up that “legal abortion” is accepted within a certain pregnant period when the woman is physically or mentally-abnormal; however, the “illegal abortion” which without taking civil legal applications and procedures would be unacceptable. In my opinion, abortion could be a good alternative for both lives of the unwilling pregnant woman and her baby.

The Nature of Abortion

First of all, abortion could be a way to stop the child abandonment from happening. As we know that, most of the cases about abortion are caused by the unintended pregnancy when the woman did not notice the consequences before engaging in pre-marital sex, therefore not accept giving birth to a baby. There could be a myriad of reasons for a woman to not giving birth, for example if the pregnancy affects her schooling or career, her relationship with family, or pregnancy is a threat to her health for natural reasons. If a woman is being forced to keep the baby during the period of pregnancy, it does not mean that the woman would continue to keep the baby after giving birth to him. In 2008, there was a report that five newborn babies had been found dead in public toilets or tossed down from high-rise apartment blocks in seven months (The Society for Truth and Light, 2008). The babies not only fell victim to parental loss, but also suffered from the pain of being abandoned and starvation. The innocent babies are usually abandoned in public places where in unhygienic conditions, and they will be suffered even more when their sensations have better development than the period they are in their mother's body.

Secondly, it is believed that both lives of the mother and her baby would be hindered when she is not ready to give birth to a baby. In case that the woman choose to raise the baby up, does it mean that both lives would not be in danger when the mother is not physically and mentally ready? According to the Hong Kong Population Census in 2011, the government revealed the statistics that more than 88% of single parents were employees and there were proportionately more working single mothers than single fathers (Census and Statistics Department, 2011). For the single working mothers, they usually work as service and sales workers or elementary occupations with only average incomes which could merely maintain their lives. It is foreseeable that the babies who do not get the financial supports would be raised in a undesirable environment and they might not have a pleasant childhood, as the single mother might not have time and financial ability to take them to interest classes. In addition, it would be very likely that the children are often left alone at home, when the single mothers spend most of the time to earn a living, whereas the basic needs of the babies are being ignored. In February 2016, a tragedy which was about a 3 year-old girl climbed the window while she was left alone in a room, and she fell off from a high building accidentally in Hong Kong. Due to the curiosity of young children, they usually feel fascinated and interested in knowing everything in the world, it is so dangerous to leave a children alone in a space that they might climb the window or get hurt by the sharp weapons. Therefore, I feel tragic for the situation that giving birth to a baby and the single mother is not able to take care of the baby financially and physically. Not only does the baby's life is in danger, but also the single mother.

The single mothers usually bear immense pressure after giving birth to a baby. The above has mentioned that the single mothers usually have to go to work for a long time to afford the daily expenses of herself, and also the costs of raising a child, including food costs, living expenses and school fees etc. Except bearing the huge pressure from working, they also need to look after the babies, feed them every two or three hours, learn how to change their diapers, bathe or breastfeeding for the newborn etc. There are loads of responsibilities as a single mother that she might not have the ability to carry the burden. Moreover, the single mothers might have to deal with the critics from their families and their partners, and also the discrimination from their employer or general public due to their identities. When they are in a state of isolation, exhaustion and panic, they might suffer from postpartum depression. For the victims of postpartum depression, they would have the symptoms of having low self-esteem, sleep and eating disturbance and social withdrawal etc. For the worst case, they might seek for substance abuse or commit suicide when they are not able to experience pleasure from daily lives after giving birth.

“Woman has the right as how her body is treated”, the right of abortion is fundamental to female empowerment and equality. In a traditional patriarchal