Abortion is neither a pleasant subject of discussion nor a desirable scenario. However, there will always be unwanted, unplanned, and unsafe pregnancies in women. Médecins Sans Frontières (2019) reports that “almost half of all abortions globally are deemed unsafe,” leaving 7,000,000 women and girls injured or disabled and killing 22,000 women and girls every year (para. 5). Since women bear all the consequences of pregnancy, abortions must be legalized, safe, and available to women as a fundamental right.
The abortion ban does not benefit society and causes more harm than good. Reading a newspaper or doing a little research online is enough to realize that the world is full of unwanted, neglected, and hungry children. According to Médecins Sans Frontières (2019), women can seek abortion due to sexual violence, contraception failure, physical and mental health problems, and financial and emotional hardship, among other reasons. However, when the government bans abortion, it does not provide the care, support, resources, and love needed for the baby, leaving full responsibility to the woman. Therefore, there is a need for safe and legalized abortions globally.
Several solutions are available to address the problem of unsafe abortions and unwanted children. Providing women with access to a safe, standardized, and judgment-free abortion procedure is essential in every country (Médecins Sans Frontières, 2019). However, while abortions should be a matter of the woman’s choice, they should not be encouraged because there are more effective and safer ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, it is important to educate men and women about contraception and make it easily accessible, especially in developing countries.
The proposed solution would prevent millions of injuries and thousands of deaths in women, according to the statistics mentioned above. When talking about abortion, it is important to remember that there is a real human experience behind every story involving an unwanted pregnancy. There are frightened, lonely, desperate, hurt, abused, and raped women seeking a basic right to decide what to do with their own bodies.
Therefore, every person should take a moment to research this uncomfortable subject and think about the consequences of unsafe and illegal abortion for women, children, and society. Everyone should realize that as long as a woman is the one going through pregnancy, whether she wants to terminate it or not should be her choice. Unless people are ready to provide the necessary support, love, and resources for the unwanted child, it should not be their decision.
Reference
Médecins Sans Frontières. (2019). Unsafe abortion: A forgotten emergency. Web.