An Open Letter to Those Against Abortion
Dear Pro-Life Supporters,
The purpose for this letter is to not to compel you to become the biggest activist for pro choice, but I want you to hear me out and reconsider your opinion on this matter. Abortion; a very controversial topic between two groups of people. Pro-life and pro-choice. I strongly believe that abortion should be legal. Overpopulation and responsibilities, health concerns for both the mother and fetus along with the lasting psychological impact on teen mothers and victims of rape or incest. With abortion being legal, a large number of these cases can be prevented or fixed.
Overpopulation is a big problem in today’s society. If a woman is not ready to take care of a child and becomes pregnant, she should not have the child. This is because the world’s population is already increasing at staggering rates and if the mother is unable to handle the responsibilities of a child, she should get an abortion. According to The Mirror, a mother explained how she would be relieved if her third child died in their sleep because she was too afraid to get an abortion when she was pregnant as the pregnancy was 16 weeks along. This is a prime example of a situation where the woman should have gotten an abortion because she feels incapable of taking care of her children. If abortion was illegal, many women would have to give birth and either give their children up for adoption or attempt to take care of it and likely give it a life it does not deserve full of neglect. If a woman feels unable to take care of her child and she gets pregnant at a young age, she should be able to have an abortion, considering the rapid growth in the world population.
Pregnancy can cause many health issues or concerns for both the baby and the mother. At a certain point during pregnancy are fetuses able to feel pain. This means that if the abortion procedure is done before this point, the fetus will be removed peacefully. According to LeMauricien, before 24 weeks fetuses are unable to feel pain as their sensory structures are not developed. In a case of abortion, you are not putting the fetus through pain if the procedure takes place before 24 weeks into the pregnancy. This will eliminate many problems regarding the ethics of this issue, as you are not physically hurting the fetus. Another point is the fact that in some pregnancies, the baby developing can cause health issues for the mother, to the point where they could be risking their life by carrying the baby. If this is known and she does not have the option to have an abortion, she will die during birth and the baby could die too. It is safer to have the option to have an abortion if there are any issues regarding the mother’s or fetus’s health, rather than risking their lives.
Victims of rape, incest and teen pregnancy can all have major significance on their lives in the future and can further destroy women psychologically. If a woman goes through any of these situations, she has the right to have an abortion as they are either not capable of taking care of another being or there was no consent. As a person with rights and freedom, they should be able to take charge of the fact that they do not want to be pregnant, either because of rape (including incest) or teen pregnancy. Both of those can ruin their lives such as not being able to complete school or emotional scarring that could come from raising a child conceived through rape. A case where a young girl was denied abortion took place in India, and she was forced to give birth to the child conceived when her uncle raped her, according to The Telegraph. This will likely haunt her through her life and lead to complications later in her life.
You, pro life supporters, may argue that abortion is murder and it is killing off children that could grow up to be such amazing people. First of all, the world’s population has grown so much in the past 200 years. In 1800, the world population consisted of around 1 billion people and has grown to 7 billion people in only 200 years. The world is way overpopulated and is growing rapidly and if a woman feels like she is unable to take care of a child, she should be able to have the option to have an abortion. Along with that, there are many cases where there can be health risks by being pregnant that could cause death to both the mother and baby. If there is a possibility to safely remove the fetus or to risk both the baby’s and mother’s life, there is an obvious option to select.
To summarise, I believe abortion should be an option for everyone and it should be legal. There are so many situations where a women having the choice to have an abortion would benefit their life massively. All the topics I discussed are valid reasons to get an abortion and everyone should have an option to choose.
Best Regards,
A Pro-Choice Supporter