Introduction
The question of abortion has recently drawn considerable global debate from many sectors and stakeholders within the society. The most prevalent within such debates is whether abortion is legally acceptable, religiously correct, or scientifically necessary for public health concerns. It is also notable that amidst such debates, various countries or states remain unique or distinct on the policies guiding abortion practices (Gal, 2000).
Thus it is critical to note that whereas the practice might be acceptable and legal in certain states or contexts, it remains a legal crime and totally inacceptable in other states or contexts. Abortion has been immensely blamed for neonatal as well as maternal deaths globally. This occurs despite the health benefits that have been attributed to it in cases of trying to save the mother’s life (Haney, 2009).
Notably, it is critical to consider the various merits as well as the demerits of abortion in the wider global perspectives. This paper thus presents an argument as to why abortion ought to be banned or not. It does this by drawing instances from a global perspective.
Moreover, it highlights notable examples of the agonies that the mothers undergo during abortion and the reasons for the practice. In this respect, there is a presentation of a global perspective or situation regarding abortion, with specific instances drawn from UAE.
Supporting Reasons
Safeguarding life/health of the mother and the baby
The most basic reason or merit that potentiates or supports abortion is that several times, the practice assists to protect and safeguard the woman’s health. According to most health professionals and other academicians, it is evident that abortion may be used in potentially life threatening situations (Hill, 2007). For instance, this practice remains applicable and appropriate in situations where the pregnancy poses a potential health risk to the bearer or mother.
The logic behind this argument is to better protect the health of the child bearer than risk both the life of the unborn child as well as that of the mother. Healthcare providers therefore advise for abortion in such instances (Singh, 2002). This concept is largely acceptable and permissible even within most governments and legal systems.
In an analytical perspective, it is clear that such moves to safeguard the mother’s health are not intentional or ill-motivated. In the UAE alone, there is massive evidence that there are women suffering or languishing from diverse hazardous medical conditions. Such complications include heart and kidney complications as well hypertension, sickle-cell anemia and severe diabetes.
To a greater global extent, even HIV/AIDS has led to potential health impacts on the pregnant women that might lead to the conduct of a medically- guided abortion (Walker, 2009). Because these health complications may be life-threatening, an abortion always helps to prohibit severe medical complications from child birth.
However, in conducting such medical procedures of abortion, proper medical advice is appropriate in order to prohibit potential miscarriages in the coming days. It is critical to note that medically performed abortion prohibits surgical procedures (Haney, 2009). Because certain females who have had the surgical abortion in the past have recorded an unpleasant feeling, the medical abortion gives them the room to have the liberty of option that they deserve.
It is also critical to note that medical abortion is just like the miscarriage that normally occurs at home. It is evident that most women seek for medical abortion as a natural and a private means of solving potential health crisis. Additionally, they also appreciate the domination that they have on timing as well as setting of occurrences.
Eradicating unwanted pregnancies, inequality, health complications, and having a child of one’s choice
Abortion practice is a vital approach towards enhancing gender equity as well as equality among the populations. It is important to note that there are societies that are largely chauvinistic and supports only the male prosperity. In such male chauvinistic communities, the females are largely regarded and treated as child bearing machines (Martinelli-Fernandez, Baker-Sperry & McIlvaine-Newsad, 2009).
It thus follows that a right to abortion would provide the women with an individual identity. Consequently, such a freedom would support the women decide on the fate of their children. It is clear that the entire humanity deserves the universal right to access to good health, secure tenure as well as right to have children with choices.
It therefore follows that in order to ensure a full protection of their rights; women must have the right or legal entitlement to abortion whenever there health is grossly compromised. It is observable that the option also comes in handy whenever the women are sexually abused or raped.
In such instances, when they get pregnant, the pain of bearing such a child usually results into a more magnified brutality and loss of human dignity. Abortion thus becomes the best and most preferred rational way of getting to solve such crises.
Forceful and early marriages are particularly common within the Muslim society. This is also notable in UAE where women are highly discriminated by the existing chauvinistic society. Abortion seems a rational manner of doing things to eradicate the problem of unwanted pregnancies and early marriages. This is particularly advisable when a medically-guided abortion is conducted.
In this particular view, abortion seems to be a legal and rational means of preventing women’s stigmatization (Haney, 2009). This is particularly in the societies where traditional male chauvinistic practices are still pertinent components of the population lifestyle. In a critical perspective, such a practice also helps to minimize psychological influences that might arise from the pain of having to bear and sustain an unwanted pregnancy.
It is indeed true that the women at times or occasionally have to bear up with the great psychological pain and torture of maintaining an unwanted pregnancy (Zebedee353, 2012). To save financial losses and economic degradation from such unwanted pregnancies, sometimes abortion truly remains the most preferred manner of saving these stigmatized women.
A family planning tool
Abortion remains a potential family planning tool. In public health, the need to adopt effective family planning methodologies is crucial (Singh, 2002). This is because such initiatives allow individuals as well as families to raise healthy children (well-taken care of) who grow up healthily and productively. There is an increasingly overwhelming concern on the need to curb the rapidly growing world’s population.
Indeed, this is already observable in the developing countries where the overwhelming population cannot be sustained by the scarcely available resources. It is thus apparent that most times, abortion assists in keeping the vital check on the family size (Ladock, 2012). Through this option or freedom, the couple is empowered to make critical decisions as to whether to raise another child particularly in times of unwanted or accidental conceptions.
Analytically, this initiative may also be used as a potential tool or methodology to undo misdoings thus safeguarding the mothers or child bearers by forbidding women from raising children during their tender ages or when they have already attained their desired or appropriate birth counts (Singh, 2002). The basic fact here is that the abortion option offers the parents of the child with an alternative of having a wanted baby.
Basically, in the absence of abortion, the unwanted pregnancies may lead or result into the birth of several children, who may be difficult to maintain and feed healthily. When viewed from this perspective, it is vital to note that the lack of abortion alternative could thus severely hamper a community’s social factors (Zebedee353, 2012). Consequently, it could have detrimental implications particularly on the child’s psyche.
Evidently, even most health care providers advocate for family planning that ensures the upbringing of few but healthy and children whose education, feeding and medical attention remains affordable for the family. It is also notable that such similar views have been adequately echoed by the World Health Organization, WHO as well as other local and global health care service providers and stakeholders.
The Malthusian theory on population growth perhaps adequately illustrates the need for abortion as a rational means of ensuring an effectively sustained population and healthier families. Viewed on other premises, the abortion may also be a key methodology through which the government might use to control population growth implicitly (Martinelli-Fernandez, Baker-Sperry & McIlvaine-Newsad, 2009).
The end objective in such instances might thus be to effectively manage resources to sustain an affordable population. Arguably, it can be potentiated that it remains advisable for the community to have children aborted rather than have the babies raised in a poor manner and neglected. In such instances, it is not the child alone who suffers but the general society may also languish particularly when these children grow and indulge in crime, warfare, as well as other socially detrimental activities.
Counterarguments/Responses
Killing innocent lives/denying others a chance to live
According to most personalities, abortion clearly remains a brutal act to the child within the womb. This is basically because the act does not allow the baby in the womb to have an equal chance to life as compared to others who are born freely with joy (Walker, 2009). There is a basic deprivation of fundamental rights of the unborn child by the perpetrators of any abortion undertaking.
This argument is highly potentiated by most personalities and a lot of religions also severely condemn it. The practice thus remains an act of old blood murder of the innocent child within the womb. There have been intensive been intensive arguments though on when the life of a baby is regarded to have started within the womb.
Biblically, the Christians have observed their procreation mission as commanded by God (Juggle, 2012). In this command, the biblical presentation is that the creator commissions the humanity to go and multiply.
To most of the believers, it therefore remains a potential sin to conduct and abortion as it is not according to God’s will or command. It is thus their great conviction that whenever there is no other potential challenges to the mother’s health, abortion must not be willfully conducted or permitted as this is a great sin as per God’s command.
Alternatively, one of the God’s commandments presents the warning of not to commit murder. Since abortion involves the termination of the life of the baby whilst inside the womb, it is as well as form of murder that goes against the Ten Commandments (Durand, 2009).
The illustration of the negativity of abortion from the Christian belief is critical because it has featured as one of the potential sources of debate as to whether the practice should be legalized globally. There are also arguments that the act denies the child within the womb the chance to live and enjoy a variety of privileges enjoyed by other children. There is thus a sense of gross inhumanity drawn from this act of abortion.
In response to this, is important to note that abortion is never that detrimental. This is particularly when considering the rational facts such as the life-threatening conditions for the mother due to the pregnancy. As already explained earlier, women also bear the right to willful acquisition of the babies (Walker, 2009).
They thus have the right to demand for abortion if need be. Lastly, it is agreeable that not the entire world population have Christian faith. Therefore, the Christianity or biblical explanations may not be necessarily applicable in all cases of abortion across populations.
Unacceptable on health grounds
Abortion also largely remains unaccepted on several health grounds. Herein, the most important health reason for avoiding the practice is its ability to cause or lead to psychological impairments in women (Singh, 2002).
Consequently, such effects or implications might lead to great levels of depression as well as individual guilt. Since the practice is largely denounced within most societies, the engagement or initiation of the act would definitely make women feel guilty and suffer. Consequently, this would result into development of stress as well as mental depression overtime.
It is vital to note that this is particularly dangerous when coupled with anxiety resulting from the feeling of the likelihood to face criminal charges especially in states where the practice remains a legal offence (Messerli, 2012).
Since abortion has been largely viewed to be an act of killing, the mothers who conduct this are most likely to suffer from anxiety, fear, as well as tension that might consequently build up to severe depression. Indeed, even in UAE, the healthcare providers as well as other relevant organizations have indicated most depression cases amongst the women to be associated with the historical abortion cases.
In response to this, it is critical to note that a rationally conducted medical abortion requires and should entail a packaged service for the client (Ainsworth & Hall, 2011). Ideally, any women conducted for medical abortion must undergo a series of long term psycho-social support in order to live positively with the situation. This is important to enable them cope up with their condition and view life positively.
Illegality and uninformed decisions by minors
Lastly, there have been potential arguments that most abortion decisions usually remain undertaken by the minors or junior adults. These categories of persons lack the capacity, maturity as well as life experiences to arrive at rational and good decisions. For this reasons, it has been noted that most abortions remain irrationally undertaken even in the larger global scene.
Consequently, such immature decisions to conduct abortions often lead to severe health consequences and at times even death cases (Ladock, 2012). The WHO attributes most maternal deaths to illegal and irrational abortions prevalent amongst the adolescent groups globally.
Indeed, this trend is immensely observable even within learning institutions and places of work. In such instances, it is not just the potential life of the unborn child that is lost but also a potential life of the mother who at most of the instances have been young adults or teenagers still undergoing their education.
In response to this, it is critical to observe that one should not confuse illegal and rudimentary conducted abortions to the medical ones. Moreover, it is notable that even with legalization of this practice; most governments have set out minimum requirements as well as conditions and provisions to be met by the actors of abortion (Martinelli-Fernandez, Baker-Sperry & McIlvaine-Newsad, 2009).
In cases of medical abortion, provision of adequate guidance is mandatory for the victims. At times, the indulgence of the senior care givers, parents or guardians is always appropriate particularly when the victim is underage.
Conclusion
The topic of abortion remains one of the highly contested and debatable undertakings in most sectors globally. In particular, there are many interests drawn from the fact that most states and stakeholders have diverse opinions on the matter. This is potentiated by heavy campaigns either for or against the practice that have been observable in most organizations.
Moreover, states have different polices and frameworks concerning abortion. The controversy still continues amidst the notable loss of life in high percentages as presented by global public health monitoring agencies. There are also concerns that arise from the varied polices already instituted by diverse states on the topic.
This is because the policies have mostly led to increased illegal abortion that has instead increased the number of maternal deaths. This discussion has therefore elicited notable arguments supporting or negating the practice of abortion by drawing global instances and with close references to the UAE.
References
Ainsworth, S. & Hall, T. (2011). Abortion politics in congress: Strategic incrementalism and policy change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Durand, J. (2009). The abortion: Before I formed you, I knew you. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse.
Gal, S. (2000). Reproducing gender: Politics, publics, and everyday life after socialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
Haney, J. (2009). The abortion debate: Understanding the issues. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow Publishers.
Hill, F. (2007). The Advantages of Abortion. Web.
Juggle, (2012). Abortion should be banned. Web.
Ladock, J. (2012). Pros and Cons of Abortion. Web.
Martinelli-Fernandez, S., Baker-Sperry, L. & McIlvaine-Newsad, H. (2009). Interdisciplinary views on abortion: Essays from philosophical, sociological, anthropological, political, health and other perspectives. New York, NY: McFarland.
Messerli, J. (2012). Should Abortion Be Banned (Except in Special Circumstances Like Saving the Mother’s Life)?Web.
Singh, R. (2002). Contemporary American politics and society: Issues and controversies. London: SAGE.
Walker, L. (2009). The battered woman syndrome. New York, NY: Springer.
Zebedee353. (2012). Pros and Cons of Abortion and pregnant women today76. Web.