Abortion - legalization or sin?

Abortion – legalization or sin?

Introduction:

Since time immemorial women all around the world including some of the most modern and developed countries have been condemned for committing a crime - as they call it - which is medical termination of pregnancy for various reasons of their own. Abortion is legalized, thanks to the understanding judiciary, but the social taboo attached to it makes it traumatic for the women who undergoes the procedure.

Patriarchy had never failed to rule over women and in ordering them what they should do and what not. There are countries where abortion is a crime, unless the women is absolutely dying she cannot opt for the termination of her pregnancy.

Islam and Christianity absolutely condemn abortion, though no one really tried to reason with the rules set and the loopholes they have. Today’s news flash must have made women across the globe a tad happier when Pope Francis called upon priests to forgive contrite women who have aborted their pregnancy.

Legalization:

1. Pregnancy, no matters how long or short, is a personal experience for the woman. She is emotionally and physically attached to the foetus connected to her life, her umbilical cord. It is she who has to carry the foetus for nine long months and she might not be morally and mentally prepared to undergo the pain and anxiety attached to the process. It is her body that will undergo the change and she has every right to decide whether or not she is in the state to deliver.

2. The woman could be unmarried while she conceived and it wasn’t entirely her fault if they ignored the precautionary measures. It makes no sense to force the woman to face the consequences of an action of which there is also another person involved. Eventually it will be she who will have to take up the entire responsibility in case the guy shows his back, not to mention she might not be financially independent at the time or might be still struggling for a brighter career.

3. There can be many reasons why a woman might not be ready to bear a child within her. She could already be nursing a toddler and would not want another just yet. She might have had a previous baby undergoing caesarean section and she might not have healed completely when she conceived the next one. She could be having plans for her future and career which is important. Illegalizing pregnancy is brutal murder of feminism. If she is being denied the rights of her own body, there is no scope for women empowerment in such a society.

4. Illegal abortions are popular in countries where abortions are considered taboo. In India alone records show an unbelievable number of very young girls who died because of improper methods of abortions followed at clinics that were unregistered and followed wrong techniques to terminate pregnancy, at the promise of maintaining confidentiality. Illegal abortions are carried out in almost all countries where abortion is a taboo and is condemned by people of being sinful in nature. Before US legalized abortions, it is believed that millions of women died every year in an attempt to terminate pregnancy in the illegal way.

5. Accidents and heinous incidents of rape can also be reasons why a woman could be seeking abortion. However, society still chooses to blame the woman for her sufferings. They would argue that the child is not at fault for the doings of a man. Yes, that is true. But then is the society trying to prove that the woman is responsible for it and she must pay and she must be forced to reproduce the child of a rapist and then never come out of the trauma all her life? We should stop talking of women empowerment altogether if we cannot give her a place where she is free to make choices for her body.

6. In remote areas of our countries, going by current census it is mainly Orissa, Rajasthan and Bihar where most girls under 13 years of age were pregnant. The accused was never found and after a few days of political disruption, the matter came to a standstill. The government promised good healthcare and consultation to the girls but none could even think of terminating the pregnancies. Lives spoilt, careers ruined, images distorted, childhood punished and innocence lost – yet the big deal in the matter was only to suspend the principal of the hostels they stayed at. Wouldn’t it be better if they (with their parents support) would have been given the open choices to terminate the pregnancy at the earliest?

7. Legalizing abortions would save women from having unwanted child. If they are neither willing nor ready to take the responsibility of carrying a child, it is true that they would feel about the child as unwanted burdens. Most orphanages in India become home to these unwanted children who live a life devoid of parental love and care. Who is to be blamed for their incomplete and usually misled lives?

Sin:

1. Genocide is a crime in India, a country where girl child are killed in the wombs of mothers. We cry our hearts out to proclaim “save daughters” and then we talk about freedom to terminate them. If we give woman the freedom to kill her child just because she doesn’t want it just yet, wouldn’t men also want to have their rights to have male or female child only? How would we justify killing by a woman just because the child was inside her and deny the same to the father who is expected to be the breadwinner of the family?

2. Mistakes happen. Contraceptives fail. And the couple decide that they might not want the baby yet and hence he/she must be stopped from growing and pulled out in bits and crumbs. Yes, that’s how abortions are done. Even the most advanced of techniques could attest of this. If abortion is absolutely illegalized, unless needed by medical emergencies or conditions, it would save people from being careless and ignorant about taking precautions.

3. Women suffer after abortions. The pain of losing a child cannot be explained by her unless she has gone through it. She might have the entire world believing that she is confident of her choice but the pain is unavoidable. She will still undergo trauma and guilt combined, which is what the pope was talking about when he asked priests to forgive women who are condemned for this crime. It applies to only contrite women which makes it clear that women feel remorseful even after years of pregnancy termination.

4. After eight weeks of pregnancy, a foetus has a heartbeat, a brain and is in human form. She/he keeps growing distinctively. Though underdeveloped, they are still a complete form of human being. Abortion by choice is simply killing the child that could have lived to be a distinctive personality. Life begins at conception and that cannot be denied and it would be a sin to stop that life from growing and developing.

Conclusion:

Legalizing abortions might have it cons like termination of girl child through illegal ways of gender determination of foetus but the pros definitely overweigh the cons. We have to make India free of all the myths that our society has been holding so close for long. It is time when women should have the freedom to make choices that determine the course of her future. The taboo attached to medical termination of pregnancy can be done away with only if people come out of it and accept that it is not a crime if a woman decided whether or not she should have the pregnancy.