Choose Life; Your Mother Did

“Fourty-six million “unwanted” children have been eliminated since 1973.” An unborn baby is killed every twenty seconds. Ninety-three percent of these are aborted for social reasons; the child was unwanted, or inconvenient. For years, abortion has remained one of the most controversial issues in history. There are two sides: “pro-choice”, and “pro-life. What I want to show you, is that getting rid of your unborn child is simply inhumane. A baby, no matter how old, is a human being, and nobody has a right to decide whether it should live or die.
All women have their own reason for getting an abortion. According to statistics, however, the main reason women have abortions is because the child is simply unwanted. As it was earlier stated, 93% of abortions happen for social reasons. More women who are financially stable are getting abortions compared to the ones who can barely support themselves. Only 6% of abortions are related to health problems for either the child or mother, and just 1% is because of rape or incest. What this tells us is that unborn children are being “eliminated” simply because the mother doesn’t want to take on the responsibility. Since about 52% of the women who are getting abortions are under 25, 64% of these women never been married. Casual sex is a big factor that can lead up to abortion, but it still comes down to the fact that it’s the woman who decides she isn’t ready for a child. Or rather, she decides that that child doesn’t have the choice on whether it wants to live or die. If you have unprotected sex outside of marriage or a stable relationship, then you have to accept the fact that becoming pregnant is inevitable. When you decide to abort your child, you’re blaming your mistakes on that little girl or boy. Even if you can’t afford to support a child, or the environment you’re in isn’t ideal, there are always other options. If you really cannot bring yourself to take care of your child, then put it up for adoption! There are so many people that are unable to have children that would love the oppertunity. To take fertility for granted, or even deeming it troublesome would be like slapping the infertile in the face. Giving birth isn’t going to be the end of your life. It may be your body, but it’s also your child’s very life at stake.
Daniel Oliver, a senior director at the White House Writer’s Group in Washington, D.C. accurately states that “The first and central issue in the abortion debate is whether the fetus is a person.” A lot of women can justify getting an abortion because they believe that it isn’t a human they’re killing; it’s simply a “fetus”: extra tissue growing in their body. Society agrees that human life starts once the child is outside of the womb, though they cannot really prove either case. Life is life, and the baby inside of a woman is certainly a living, growing creature, no matter what you want to call it. Fetuses have recognizable human parts only mere weeks after a woman gets pregnant. Mr. Oliver goes on to say that “If life is only what we say it is, and begins only when we say it does, then…we can say anything we like and can never be incorrect. We could say life begins when a child turns two.” In 1873, a suffragist leader named Elizabeth Stantion said that “when we consider that women are treated as property, it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.” People seem to ignore the Precautionary Principle of “when it doubt, take no chance of killing a human being. So if that “fetus” inside of you is human and you’re getting an abortion, you’re committing murder.
Finally, there is something called “Post Abortion Syndrome” that many women have experienced. Although many studies deny PAS, they are false for two reasons. One: There is usually about a 5-year delay before the symptons show. Two: The woman in question would obviously deny feeling guilty or depressed about something she’s done. She would want to forget the abortion, not dwell on the grief it is causing her years later. Casey, a university graduate with a degree in psychology has extensively studied many patients who have experienced “psychological complications” because they had an abortion. Shortly after having an abortion, the women’s initial reaction is, predictably, relief. However, about 20% of these women may be presented with anxiety and guilt for several weeks or months, two years after their abortion. About 10-20% of women receive further symptoms, such as insomnia, crying, panic attacks, and other anxiety related problems. More and more women who have had abortions are experiencing this illness.
Overall, women should not be getting rid of their unborn child for any reason, except if there are fatal complications to the mother. Even though the baby is still inside its mother’s womb, it is a living, breathing part of her. Defining it as “not-a-person” is just another form of discrimination. The “fetus” is a human being, no matter what stage of life it is it. Even if your child isn’t perfect, you have no right to lower that human’s personal value. It’s your body, but it’s someone’s life. That someone you’re going to kill would’ve been a friend, mother, or perhaps a wife or husband. A child is not a right; it’s a responsibility. Therefore, you don’t have “the right” to kill an innocent human being. They have the right to life, and you have the responsibility of giving them that choice.