With the variation of the previous argument, one that invokes the right of privacy states that every woman has the right to control her own body. The phrase "her own body" really means two bodies and two distinct lives, that of the mother and that of the child. There are two heartbeats, two sets of brain waves, maybe even two different blood types and very often two different sexes.
Scenarios involving a rape victim are perhaps the most controversial matters that arise in the ongoing debate. However, experience has proven that when a country allows “limited abortion for hard cases,” abortion on demand inevitably becomes the norm. The courts and doctors find it impossible to distinguish hard cases from those that are not. In the United Kingdom where the 1967 Abortion Law was intended to be a strict law for "hard cases" only, nearly 200,000 abortions took place in 1999, and 99 % of those killed were perfectly healthy babies from healthy mothers. Rape and incest are undoubtedly hard cases but rape is a grave violation of a woman that leaves her deeply wounded, sometimes physically and always emotionally. Those responsible should be severely punished. Yet, it is a fact that a pregnancy arising from sexual assault is very rare, and it is not a justification for abortion. Dr Sandra Mackorn studied 37 pregnant rape victims of the USA and her results contradict the commonly held belief that victims of rape or incest need an abortion to recover their mental health. The conclusions of her study show that hostile and negative feelings towards the baby changed during pregnancy, women who had planned to give the child up for adoption chose to bring it up themselves and some women stated that because they saw the pregnancy through, they felt that they had conquered the rape.
Pro-Choice arguments state that abortion should be available for women under such extreme circumstances but should the value of the life of the child not be considered over the horror of the crime? Experts even insist that abortion is not the appropriate treatment of depression or rape. An expectant mother may realise that the task of raising a child would be too interfering in her life; she may feel that the circumstances of her pregnancy are tragic but abortion is merely a short-term escape. It may bring her immediate relief but it leads to long-term agony, not to mention the death of an unborn baby. Abortion does not heal the woman or undo the rape. It is nothing more than a further desecration of a violated woman and an attack on another human being. Punish the rapist; do not condemn an innocent child to death.
The legislation permitting abortion has proved controversial and unsatisfactory to both opponents and supporters. Anti- Abortion campaigners say that some of the grounds for abortion, particularly the risk to a mother’s mental and physical health and to her existing children, are social rather than medical and have in practice brought about “abortion on demand.” On the other hand, supporters of abortion believe that the law does not go far enough and thus argue that it should not interfere with what goes on in the privacy of a woman’s womb. However, in that womb, a human being is undergoing the process of growth and development and is entitled to the protection of the law.
With arguments concerning abortion for convenience it must be remembered that with every medical practice there are consequential risks. In the case of abortion the immediate consequence is the risk of damage to a woman’s reproductive organs and her future ability to have children. Whilst an abortion may carried out for expediency reasons in a young expectant mother, what happens when that woman decides they want to have children in later life, only to discover they can’t because of their previous actions?
With the physical penalties of abortion posing a danger the more harmful consequences involve the psychological implications of terminating a foetus. The psychological damage, today known as Post-Abortion Syndrome, is all too real for many women and the consequences are long lasting and destructive. When an individual undergoes an abortion she has a high stress reaction to the experience. Yet all too often her emotional pain is denied at the abortion clinic, minimised by partners and families, mis-diagnosed or trivialised by helping professions and ignored by society in general. With the short-term emotions being numbed, the mother begins to develop the post-abortive syndrome and her behaviour can begin to change profoundly. Symptoms often result in insomnia, trouble with relationships and intimacy, psychosomatic problems with bodily signs of continuing stress, trauma and depression, which results in recurring thoughts of suicide. There is no doubt that a psychological price is paid. The trauma may sink into the woman’s unconscious but it is not harmless and casual. If she chooses abortion she goes against her deepest instincts, therefore it is reasonable to expect that all women, to different degrees, will suffer as a result of abortion.
However pro-abortionists argue that counselling can cure the psychological problems that a mother may face after an abortion is performed. An absolute “sham” is the only way to describe the therapy offered by abortion clinics and those of their agents. Due to the scrutiny of the abortion industry, by the media, more and more cases are highlighted everyday. In Britain, The People Newspaper dated 1st November 1992, reported the traumatic story of a young woman who underwent an abortion at the Pregnancy Advisory Services Clinic in Liverpool, only to give birth to her supposedly aborted baby, forty-eight hours later. The woman said that she held the tiny baby in her hands before collapsing in distress. “I’ll never forget holding that tiny thing- I felt like I was playing God. I was hysterical,” she told reporters. The woman claims that she had wanted to keep the baby but counsellors “pressurised” her into believing that “termination would be best” after she told them that the baby’s father had left them. What this woman thought would be a few hours of her life will end up in years of torment and long term counselling because of the fact that she decided to take the life of that child.
Conversely, what if abortion is necessary to save the life of the mother? Again, this is another common argument used by those fighting for abortion but what do the experts have to say on the matter?
“As obstetricians and gynaecologists we affirm that there are no medical circumstances justifying direct abortion, that is, circumstances in which the life of a mother may only be saved by directly terminating the life of her unborn child.”
In effect, protection of the life of the mother as an excuse for abortion is a smoke screen as with more than 36,000 births per annum between them, the three Dublin maternity hospitals had only three deaths of pregnant patients in the past four years. All three died of complications caused by heart disease. Pregnancy did not cause or aggravate their conditions and abortion would not have saved the life of any of these expecting mothers.
How often do people, especially on television, use the word "foetus" as if "it" were something sub-human? They carefully avoid using the word "baby" when speaking of the unborn, and always speak of "it". The word "foetus" comes from the Latin word meaning "offspring", and describes the unborn human when its limbs and body parts are clearly formed. When we use the word "foetus" it is only a description of a stage of human development, in the same way as one might describe someone as a newborn, a teenager, or an old age pensioner. From the moment of conception, a unique individual human being exists who is different genetically from both mother and father. This is a basic fact of biology as taught in any secondary school. To say that the baby in the womb is not human is the same argument used by the slave traders in the 18th century. We now recognise that no one in their right mind would hold the view that Blacks are not human beings, but there are still people arguing for abortion on the same ground.
In a perfect world where there was no poverty or disease, where men and women treated each other with respect, every child would be wanted, welcomed and loved without conditions. Sadly, we do not live in this type of environment and sometimes a child is neither planned nor wanted. Once conceived, he or she exists with all the dignity and promise of our common humanity. Their existence demands that we give all the love and care that we can possibly provide to ensure the healthy development of that child. Nevertheless, it is argued that only "planned children" should be born; yet it happens that many children, the result of careful planning, later suffer neglect and abuse. Too easily planning is a cover for a self-centred lifestyle that views children as a consumer item and often a problem.
Ultimately the religious morals that a person holds often identify what views they hold on abortion. However, although not all religions define a particular moment when life begins the majority including Buddhism, Sikhism and Christianity, teach that life begins at fertilisation – the moment that sperm meets egg.
Christians see several references as relevant to the issue of abortion. On two occasions there is an indication that God considers an unborn child to be a living being. Psalm 139 states; “You created every part of me, you put me in my mother’s womb…when my bones were being formed…you saw me before I was born.” Whilst Luke 1 asserts, “For as soon as I heard you greeting, the baby within me jumped with gladness.”
If it is accepted that an unborn child is a living person, then it follows that they deserve the rights and respect awarded to all human beings as the Bible teaches that all human life is sacred: “So God created human beings, making them to be like himself.” Furthermore Christians believe that children hold a special place in the eyes of God, with Jesus having said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
In conclusion, the worth of the human race itself hinges on reverence for human life at every stage and the long tradition of morality is marked by an abhorrence of destroying the life in the womb. No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the direct right to destroy an innocent human being and anyone who believes that abortion is the correct thing to do is deluding themselves.
