Abortion is the deliberate medical process of terminating a pregnancy among human beings. It is currently a safe and legal way of doing away with unwanted pregnancy. Every woman has the right of deciding whether to keep a pregnancy or terminate it. If one feels that abortion is in her life’s or her family’s best interests, they need to do look for safe, non-judgemental and supportive advice as well as help on how to do it. When one decides to terminate the pregnancy, the most asked question is when to do it. The answer to this question depends on the stage on which the pregnancy is in and the possible consequences. Some options of abortion are available for the several stages to ensure that the health of a mother is not put in danger.
The time limits for abortion are set cautiously to avoid putting the health of the mother at risk and prevent a viable fetus from being tampered with. For instance, in the United States, the time to terminate a pregnancy depends mainly on the age of fetal viability, around 24 weeks, as well as the state in which one resides. At around 24 weeks, the fetus can survive outside the body of a mother, so if abortion is undertaken after this time, it will be considered as an intention to murder. For this reason, it is advisable to have an abortion sooner than later, and this way makes it easier to perform and also safer for the mother. Most abortion, therefore, occurs between the 12th and 13th week of pregnancy. Despite this, it can be still performed later in the pregnancy, though it is hazardous.
The central thesis of this research paper is that abortion should be made legal only when the baby is one and a half month old and not older than that. The reason for this is that at this time it is safer for the mother, easier to perform and will not be seen as murder to the fetus. At this period, the fetus is not yet developed, and abortion will just mean tampering with the tissues rather than murder.
Why do women abort?
Statistics say that 50 percent of the women in the United States will have at least one abortion during their lifetime (Chibber et al. 132). The many reasons that may make a woman decide to terminate a pregnancy include being unable to raise the baby, when they are not ready to be a parent and when they do not want to become a single parent in case they get pregnant outside marriage. Women also abort when they do not want other people to know that they have had sex or they are pregnant. Also, if a woman has all the kids that she wants, she will decide to abort a newly conceived one. Other reasons are if the mother or the fetus has some health problem and if the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape.
Reasons behind the argument
Risks associated
As the pregnancy grows, the type of abortion to be performed goes on to be risky. The use of abortion pills, also known as medical abortion, can be done up to the 7th week only. The first medication is given by the doctor at the clinic to start the abortion process and the second is taken at home. The pregnancy gets terminated easily, and for this reason, the abortion is safely accomplished. The second one is the surgical abortion which can be performed up to the 14th week of the pregnancy, though some individuals use it until the 24th week (Chibber et al. 136). It can only be allowed after this period due to an extreme case, but if there is no threat to the mother's life or the baby, the pregnancy will have to continue. Finally, there is abortion by induction, which is done after the 16th week. This type involves admitting the mother at the hospital and giving them medication that induces early labour. The fetus will be delivered, and this method may also be backed up with the surgical one to ensure that the uterus is empty completely.
As seen from the explanation, the second and the last types of abortion are risky, and this is why there is the need for the doctor to be present throughout the process. Also, the pregnancy that is done within the first one and a half months does not kill the fetus since it has not yet been formed by this time. The two types that are done later each means disturbing the fetus that has already been formed. The third type can at times lead to delivery of a fetus that is not well-formed but is alive.
Among the several risks of the abortion done in late stages are damage to the organs, hemorrhage, damage to the cervix and permanent damage to the uterine wall. It also leads to cases of perforations and infections to the uterus, retained uterine contents, which may necessitate a second procedure and death in rare cases. Statistics have shown that the risk of death increases as the pregnancy advances. During the first eight weeks only one death can occur in 530,000 abortions, in 16-20 weeks, one death can occur in every 17,000 abortions and 21 and more week’s one death occurs in every 6,000 abortions (Chae et al. 237).
All the risks also depend on where the procedure is carried out, the health of the mother, doctor’s skill and the type of procedure carried out. For this reason, the woman undergoing the procedure needs to meet some criteria. The abortion also has to be performed carefully and at the right stage. As have been recommended by many, the right stage of carrying out the procedure is within the first seven weeks.
Right to life
It has been argued that even the most underdeveloped fetuses are potentially rational and self-aware and they, therefore, qualify for moral personhood and right to life. Although at this time the fetus does not exhibit the psychological features of rationality and self-awareness, the fetus is organized uniquely and allowing them will make them develop them in time. No matter the fact that the fetus is still in the period of underdevelopment, it should be recognized as a person just like the adults when they are drunk or in a comma, for instance, and lack self-awareness and rationality. The reason being, just as the drunk or unconscious adults have the potential of exhibiting rationality and self-awareness later, we can rely on the potential argument that the fetus will exhibit them later and therefore has the right to life (Sinding et al. 48). Since a fetus is a creature formed after the eight weeks of pregnancy, it should not be legal to abort after eight weeks since the creature is already a potential individual who has the right to life.
Studies have shown that fetuses develop or acquire their souls while developing in their mothers’ wombs. One research maintained that the fetus gets a distinct component of the human soul at the second or third month of pregnancy. For this reason, carrying out the termination of the pregnancy after the second month means killing a creature that already has a soul. That is why it should be made legal that abortion is performed within the first one and half months to reduce the chances of killing a surviving creature. Legalizing abortion within this period only and not after will help reduce the killing of the already developed fetuses, and therefore reduce the rates of murder.
It is after the one and a half months that the conception results in the formation of an organism that can be recognized as a new entity and new genome capable of being internally self-developed and self-directed. This point of development indicates the presence of moral worth and the feature developed remains the same all through the life span. The development is continuous and smooth up to birth and beyond. During the process, the internal organs of the fetus are formed, and they begin functioning as well. This development shows that the basic parts of the biological process of development are intact. There is also the emergence of the nervous system and this makes the fetus almost complete and aborting it at this time is like killing a living individual (McIntyre, Beverly and Carol 33). The reason is that the fetus then has almost all the characteristics of adult human beings and terminating them is like killing a person who is already alive.
Balancing the mother’s and fetus’ rights
Assuming that the fetus has a full right to life, there are still questions concerning whether the mother has a self-determination right that is above the right of the fetus. It should be known that it is the mother’s life, body, health and emotional state that can be affected drastically by the pregnancy. Even though this fact carries some reasonable weight, the most confirmed cases for abortion to be termed legal are those that result from incest, rape or if the life of the mother is at risk. Some abortion critics also take a strong position on the fact that abortion denies the fetus a right to live. Therefore all abortions are wrong. For instance, a law was enacted in the year 2006, with support from the Roman Catholic that banned all the abortions even when the life of the mother is in danger. Also, a 3-6 years’ imprisonment was set for all those who do not obey the law (Priaulx 82). Most people found the law too extreme since they realized that there could be at least some circumstances that justify abortion.
If the pregnancy results from rape, for example, there is no point leaving the woman to suffer the pain of carrying the baby they did not plan for. In this case, abortion is justifiable, and it is, therefore, good to perform it before the fetus developed. Legalizing abortion within the first one and a half months will give the mother the chance of doing away with the pregnancy without involving herself in murder. This idea is food for the cases of incest and risky health also. The mother is advised to get rid of the pregnancy early since it is easier and safer. The mother will also be spared the shame or the health issues that will be associated with the pregnancy in each of the cases respectively.
Maternal and fetal protection
During the early stages of pregnancy, within the first trimester, there are minimal risks associated with abortion. In fact, these risks are even lower than those associated with childbirth. Within this period, the only thing that can be done to safeguard the health of the mother is the basic health procedures like requiring the procedure performed by a qualified individual (Newton et al. 525). For this reason, the access to abortion is not limited during this period and therefore can be one easily. After the first trimester, the fetus can be able to survive outside the body of the mother, either through natural are artificial means. This period is between the 24th to the 28th week of pregnancy.
At this period, there I a greater interest in protecting the health of the mother and therefore abortion has to be regulated for the sake of maternal health. In the second trimester, there is a need for the doctor to designate to the woman in quest of abortion about the dangers related to it. The doctor has to make sure that the information is not meant to discourage the woman from terminating her pregnancy, but to protect her health. This procedure makes the abortion not easy to come by at this period, and the mother may end up keeping the baby when they do not want to do so. It will regret regrets that could have been avoided if the procedure was performed earlier.
The third trimester is the point of fetal viability. At this period, the main interest is to protect the potential life of the baby and is very risky to carry out an abortion. The only time abortion will be allowed when the health or life of the mother is in danger, and a qualified doctor has confirmed so. In this case, it is the state’s requirement that the abortion is done in a hospital and approved by more than one doctors to save the life of the fetus or the mother. This fact makes the procedure long and tedious, and therefore it is not recommended. Unless it is a health problem that arises later in the pregnancy, a woman has to undergo all the checkups in the early stage to determine whether she is keeping the pregnancy or terminating it (Sheehy, Yadanar and Angel 480).
Deciding when to do the abortion
It is well known that most women perform the procedure during the first trimester, a few during the second trimester and life-threatening abortions only during the third trimester. Despite these facts, the earlier the abortion is done, the cheaper, easier and safer it will be. When abortion is done within one and a half months, there will be few chances or none at all of the infertility, tubal pregnancy or miscarriage in the future life of the mother. These risks might only occur if the woman has some infection, which is only in rare cases.
Much as many individuals believe that abortion can be carried out without any risks at any time as wrong as the necessary precautions are considered, there is still a need to consider the stage of pregnancy. An abortion could be too risky if the last monthly period of the mother were more than three months ago. It is also very dangerous when the pregnancy has started showing since it means that the baby has started to develop (Cornell 250). The longer the pregnancy stays the higher the chances of complications to result after abortion.
When one is considering terminating their pregnancy, they will need to visit a qualified doctor. They will have to look for a reputable abortion hospital or clinic and make sure the doctor helps them date the pregnancy carefully at the visit through the use of ultrasound or dates. After this, the doctor will be able to decide whether it is safe to carry out the procedure and the procedure that is right. A few things will help in deciding when to terminate a pregnancy are worth knowing. The heart of the baby starts beating in 5 weeks of pregnancy. Therefore, the longer one waits to have an abortion, the guiltier they feel about ending the pregnancy if they know there is already a heartbeat. Another thing is that fetal movement starts at the 13th week and once the mother feels the baby move, they will be more attached and bonded to the fetus (Gold 23). The longer the procedure is postponed, the harder it will become to be carried out once the mother has felt life inside them.
One main fact about the babies aborted in the late term, after the first two months, especially from the 20th week, is that they can be born alive. This fact means that after the abortion the baby can live and so the termination of the pregnancy will not be successful since the mother will have to raise the baby after all. Also, when the abortion is performed by use of the pills, the passing of the materials of the pregnancy will happen at home where there is no doctor to observe the mother. The mother has to be prepared to see the tissue and lots of blood as the pregnancy passes, and this is very disgusting when done late since the materials will be much. It is, therefore, a good idea to perform the procedure with the first one and a half months for the materials passed to be fewer.
Laws concerning abortion
The laws of most states give protection on individuals’ decisions regarding marriage, family relationships, procreation, contraception, childbearing and education. All these choices are central to an individual’s autonomy, dignity, and liberty as protected by the fourteenth amendment. When one has liberty, they have the right to their concept of the universe, their existence as well as the mystery of human life. According to most supreme courts, a woman has a right to choose whether to have an abortion before the fetus viability (Imber 16). She can obtain this without undue prevention by the state. This fact supports an individual’s right to privacy; the rationale is that abortion is a personal choice for a woman and she need not be decided for by the state. For this reason, it is up to the woman concerned to establish the right time to do it so that she will not endanger her life. The state can only be able to interfere by legalizing abortion within one and a half months only and not after that.
Conclusion
It is a conservative stance that personhood begins at conception, and it is only in rare situations that the mother has more rights to the fetus. Because of this, abortion is only justifiable in case of poor health, rape, and incest. The arguments for this conservative position include the religious tradition that believed that abortion is wrong since the scriptures suggest that life starts from conception. There is also the fact about the need to protect the innocent fetus since it is unable to speak for own interests or defend itself. There is also the argument that abortion is an intentional killing and is therefore morally wrong. Finally is the argument that women have to take the responsibility of the consequences of their sexual activity.
Despite these arguments, there is a need to be considerate of the facts that may necessitate abortion. Among these facts are maternal health and cases of incest and rape. Legalizing abortion is therefore necessary under these conditions. Since it is riskier to perform the procedure in the late stages, abortion should only be legal when the baby is a month and a half or younger and not older than that. This early stage is the best period since at this period the process is cheaper, easier and less risky.
Works Cited
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Newton, Danielle, et al. "How do women seeking abortion choose between surgical and medical abortion? Perspectives from abortion service providers." Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 56.5 (2016): 523-529.
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Sheehy, Grace, Yadanar Aung, and Angel M. Foster. "“We can lose our life for the abortion”: exploring the dynamics shaping abortion care in peri-urban Yangon, Myanmar." Contraception 92.5 (2015): 475-481.
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