Abortions as One of the Most Controversial Issues in the Modern World
For someone who is even remotely interested in the current social issues of the world, it is no secret that the topic of abortions is a subject of an ongoing debate. Similarly to any other controversial issue, there are individuals who strongly, sometimes to the extent of being radical, support one or the other perspective. Of course, there are people who have developed a more moderate and rational view on the subject as well. However, almost everyone has something to say when it comes to this issue. Nowadays, the question of abortion is being raised in almost every realm of human activity that is at least remotely social. Politicians build their campaigns on it, social activists organize various movements in order to advocate for one attitude towards it or another. As the time goes by, more and more individuals support the pro-choice position. Without a doubt, it is up to everyone to decide what their attitude towards abortions is, and it not yet possible to fully invalidate someone’s pro-choice or pro-life point. However, it is indeed possible to objectively examine the most common pro-choice arguments.
It is often thought that the history of women fighting for their reproductive health begins with the ideas expressed by Margaret Higgins Sanger. Sanger was a famous social activist who believed that “no woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body”(“The History Of 100 Years Of Women’s Health Care”). To these days, a great number of pro-choice individuals stand by these words. However, even though Margaret Sanger was one of the first women to promote this new way of thinking about female health, it is worth to note that her main aim was to legalize contraception rather than to encourage the concept of legal abortions per se. Undoubtedly, one also cannot say that she was against the procedure of unnatural pregnancy ending. Her main argument and the main argument of many current pro-choice supporters, both individuals-supporters and organizations-supporters, such as Planned Parenthood, lies in the idea of abortions being justifiable in certain situations.
Needless to say, that “certain situations” is quite a vague definition that leaves a lot of room for subjective interpretation. It is even possible to suggest that this subjectivity is what causes the greatest amount of controversy around abortions nowadays. To some people, not having enough money to raise a child is a well-justifies reason for the unnatural pregnancy ending. Meanwhile, to other individuals, only the possible serious health problems of an expected infant seem significant enough. Naturally, to others, even the situations of this kind do not appear to justify the abortion even though a great number of pro-choice supporters and women’s reproductive healthcare providers do think that financial hardships can be of a serious concern when it comes to upbringing a child.
Besides that, various organizations that aim to protect the female reproductive rights, such as previously mentioned Planned Parenthood, emphasize the fact that banning abortions or making them hard to afford is not a solution for the problem. This has to do with the fact that women who fully acknowledge their inability to raise a child are not that likely to simply give up and to accept their fate. On the contrary, a great number of them will seek moral and financial help, and they will risk their lives to do what has to be done (“Whose choice” 4). Some of the pro-choice activists also stress the fact that women’s opinion regarding pregnancy and giving birth has always been neglected, which to them seems absurd.
To the mind of modern organizations protecting women’s rights like Planned Parenthood, what is even harder to understand, is the way society puts all the responsibility regarding pregnancy control on the female individuals. For instance, even though there are studies that suggest options of male birth control like the concept of suppression of spermatogenesis (Behre et al. 4779), these ideas are not nearly as common and accepted as the ones that rely on women’s desire to prevent pregnancy. The position of some of the pro-choice activists also suggests that there are numerous manifestations of this type of discrimination. Sometimes, it can be demonstrated in the realms where one would not expect this type of prejudice to exist. For example, in medicine and biology, in the spheres where ideally everything has to be as objective as possible, one can observe a certain tendency of describing the menstruation as a failed act of fertilization and viewing the processes of spermatogenesis as something eminent and prideful (Martin 486).
All things considered, it is safe to conclude that the question of whether abortions should be legal and fully accepted in the modern world’s society is quite a controversial one. Usually, the pro-choice activists and organizations that fight for the women’s reproductive health rights are able to express numerous well-justified arguments in order to support their point of view. However, it is still worth to note that this issue overall is certainly a subjective one. Thus, the whole debate has not been settled yet, and currently, there is no widely accepted approach to the concept of the unnatural ending of a pregnancy.
Work Cited
Behre, Hermann, et al. “Efficacy and Safety of an Injectable Combination Hormonal Contraceptive for Men.” J Clin Endocrinol Metab, vol. 101, no. 12, Dec. 2016, pp. 4779–4788.
Martin, Emily. “The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical Male-Female Roles.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 16, no. 3, 1991, pp. 485–501., doi:10.1086/494680.
“The History Of 100 Years Of Women’s Health Care At Planned Parenthood | NowThis.” YouTube, 17 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqYspn7PZmQ. Accessed 12 July 2017.
Whose Choice? How the Hyde Amendment Harms Poor Women. Center for Reproductive Rights.
