Abortion Debate: Pro-choice

Kaitlin Perry / The USD Vista

Freedom of choice is a right that all men and women have and it is a right that should be respected. Despite my personal views on the controversial procedure that is abortion, I firmly believe that all women have the right to choose whether or not to keep the child within them.

For me, I could never have an abortion. The procedures, whether they be salt injections into the amniotic sac, suction or dilation and evacuation, a procedure in which the surgeon tears apart the limbs of the baby within the uterus, are disturbing and violent. But the only way these procedures are ever performed is if the mother truly feels, or actually is, unable to endure the pregnancy.

Many “pro-lifers” portray “pro-choicers” in a light that makes them appear to be against life. This is completely inaccurate. To be pro-choice means that one is against taking away a womans right to choose. It doesn’t mean that you are pro-abortion. In fact, there is a vast difference.

The pro-life stance would only allow abortions that pose a severe health risk to the mother. To me, that’s hypocritical. You can’t pick and choose which fetus gets protection. In order to keep everything fair, all women need to be allowed to choose what’s best for themselves and their unborn child. It shouldn’t be decided by anyone else.

So everyone deserves the right to choose, but why should abortion be legal? The same reason alcohol is legal. It’s going to happen whether or not it’s written down in the rule books. Abortion was created to protect the health of a woman carrying a fetus, not just for girls that weren’t smart enough to use protection.

There are, of course, other extreme circumstances in which abortion is considered a solution. When rape or incest is the cause of a pregnancy, it is often emotionally too much for the mother to bare. They resort to abortion to fix the end result of a terrible occurence. This is what makes the topic of abortion such a difficult one.

Is an emotional inability to carry a child equal to a physical inability to carry a child? The only person who can answer that question is the mother who is being affected, not a person in a voting booth.

All in all, abortion is a terrible thing, but in some cases it is necessary and no one person can decide which cases are most applicable. That is why all women should have the right to make that personal choice.