Abortion: Ethical or not?

- Mahika Gandhi

Abortions: Everyone has an opinion on it, but who decides whether it’s right or wrong? How can anyone, especially men, decide what’s best for a woman and her child? Pro-lifers argue that the child has a life and it shouldn’t be taken away but the ones who are pro-choice question the quality of life the child will lead if the mother is forced to bear him. I feel the situation is very clear.

First, I think that everyone can agree that a fetus under 20 weeks is not a child, but just a cluster of cells. It feels nothing.

Second, no one should be able to decide what the woman should do. It is her body and her child. All the pro-lifers that force her to bear the child do not care about the child once the child is born. No one helps the mother take care of her child, and that is why so many end up in orphanages, with no proper life. What is the point of adding to the system of constant misery?

Some find it ethical to terminate the pregnancy ‘only if’ the mother is in danger or ‘only if’ there are fetal abnormalities. Abortions shouldn’t come with an ‘only if’ factor. Even if the mother gets pregnant in a healthy relationship and even if the fetus is perfectly okay, women should still have the right to decide because there are so many factors she has to take into account.

Some pro-lifers then also argue that women should not have sex if they don’t want to get pregnant and honestly, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Why is the woman criticised for everything? No one tells the man he shouldn’t have sex with her if he can’t take the responsibility of a child. The man gets away scot-free, with no responsibility. Only the woman is shamed for doing something so natural. Protection is a must, but you can’t just stop women from having sex, and even if they do, it’s men who will fuss about it.

Also, the illegality of abortions will not stop them. In fact, with even more dangerous practices used, in shady places, we will lose more lives than just the baby's.

At the end of the day, we are just a third person, judging a woman and making her choices without knowing the full extent of her problems. It is so easy for us to tell her what to do but we cannot fathom what she is going through. We have to stop classifying it as right or wrong and try to empathize with her cause at the end of the day, it is her body and it is her life that will be affected.