Over Thanksgiving break, I took some time to watch several episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philly."
In one episode, the ever-so-touchy question of whether or not to keep abortion legal comes up. Some say it is a woman's choice to do what she wants with her body. Others say "It's a child, not a choice."
I think there is more to the issue than these two arguments.
While I side with many pro-choice people who say the country should keep abortion legal, I do not usually have the same reasons. The way I see it, keeping abortion legal is safer for more people than banning it.
The first question I want to pose is this: What if abortion were to become illegal?
Most questions that begin with "what if" do not have a proven answer. However, in the case of abortion, America has seen both sides.
Before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, abortion was illegal in the United States. However, laws against abortion before this time did not stop them from occurring. The Center for Reproductive Rights found that as many as 1.2 million abortions were conducted in the United States each year. It seems to me that outlawing abortions had as much effect on the number of abortions as prohibition had on the consumption of alcohol - almost none.
These procedures were not always safe. Many times women were harmed or died from receiving an abortion. There were very few, if any, safe clinics in which a woman could have an abortion. This resulted in the death of thousands of women each year. The National Abortion Federation found that during the time abortion was illegal, "hospital emergency room staff treated thousands of women who either died or were suffering terrible effects of abortions provided without adequate skill and care."
What the evidence shows so far is that banning abortions does not stop them, and "back-alley" abortions kill not only the unborn child, but also the would-be mother. When I use logic to put these things together, I conclude that illegal abortions result in more deaths than legal ones.
With this in mind, I beg the following question: how can a person be pro-life and against legal abortions? They can't.
When looking at the evidence, it is clear that a woman who wants an abortion will have it - whether it is legal or not. This conclusion not only follows what studies have shown, but also conventional wisdom.
Terminating a pregnancy is not what any woman wants. No woman wakes up one morning and says, "I want to get pregnant so I can have an abortion." On the contrary, many women hope they never have to encounter such a painful decision. Unfortunately, many do. If a woman is so sure that the best decision is to abort the fetus that she will actually go through such an emotionally and physically draining process, there is no stopping her.
Using this logic and knowing what happened before Roe v. Wade, keeping abortion legal only makes sense. It is no longer a question of keeping abortion legal, but rather keeping abortion safe. It is a question of losing the life of only the unborn child or losing the life of that same unborn child an its mother.
With all of this in mind, is being against legal abortions really being pro-life? Absolutely not. Instead, people who want to ban legal abortion are supporting the death of thousands of women every year.
If you truly believe that America should value life - if you truly are "pro-life" - then you will join me when I say that keeping abortion legal is safe and smart.
Be the first to comment on this article!