I Support Murderers

Author: Samantha Lambrecht

Essay topic: Abortion

I Support Murderers

A Persuasive Essay on Abortion

Anyone who has so much as read a newspaper will have heard about abortion. Abortion is one of the most divisive political and controversial issues in the United States.  There is very little middle ground for the opposing sides with respect to media coverage of this topic. While abortion is often discussed from a moral standpoint, there should be no morals in the discussion: Abortion is a woman’s physical health issue, a mental health issue, and a human rights issue. Abortion is a right and it should be protected by the government.

This right deserves protection because history has proven that women are going to seek abortions, whether they are legal or not. If they do not have access to safe and legal abortions they will find other ways that are unsafe and women will die. Making abortion illegal does nothing to change this. Around 46 million abortions are performed every year and 20 million of them are illegal, as stated in the essay “Legal Abortion: A Sign of Civilized Society” by Joyce Arthur. Later in the essay, when referencing the United States legalization of abortion and the effects, Joyce states “America has had legal abortion on request since 1973. Before legalization, abortion complications accounted for 23% of all pregnancy-related admissions to municipal hospitals in New York City. After legalization, that number fell by 75% almost immediately, and continued to fall through the 70's and 80's.”

Anti-abortion groups argue that abortion should not be a right because women who obtain abortions develop PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts, or a myriad of other mental illnesses. This is not true and plenty of research has been done to prove this. The American Psychological Association (APA) in 1989 and again in 2006, University of California at San Francisco Professor Nancy Adler in 1989, researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008, researchers from Oregon State University and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 2010, and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AMRC) in 2011 all say the same thing: That there is little to no difference mentally between those who have abortions in a safe and sanitary place and those who carry the pregnancy to full term. Any mental illnesses after the abortion were present before the abortion. The idea that mental illnesses occur from abortions has no basis and there has been nothing to prove that this is even a legitimate theory.

During the court case Roe v. Wade it was decided that abortion was a human right because it was a part of the 14th human right, or right to privacy. The exact wording for this 14th human right is as follows: “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks.” However, those who are anti-abortion state that this conflicts with the 3rd human right, “Everyone has a right to life, liberty and the security of person.” Firstly, stating that a fetus has a right to life is operating under the assumption that a fetus is a human being, which is like saying an acorn is an oak tree, but for the sake of this debate let us think that a fetus is a human. To say that a fetus has more right to life than a woman has a right to control her own body is also stating that a fetus has more worth than a woman. This concept alone devalues women and takes away their rights.

The most popular argument against abortion is that abortion is morally wrong because it is murder. There are many ways that this does not add up because, yet again it works under the assumption that a fetus is a human and that one life is worth more than another. However, morals should be taken completely out of the argument. The Separation of Church and State is a popular topic when in relation to the freedom of religion, but it also plays heavily into the discussion of abortion. The morals of one person should not have an impact on another. Your right to religious freedom does not mean that laws must bend to your beliefs. In fact, the view that your religious beliefs have the ability to create laws and remove laws directly conflicts with the 30th human right “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.” To simplify, the 30th human right is that no one can take away your rights, and since abortion was ruled a right that fit under the 12th human right to privacy, making abortion illegal because of another’s religious views goes against the 30th human right.

Abortion is an important issue and not one that we can afford to be ignore. The legalization of abortion is slowly being chipped away at by people who would see abortion rights completely taken away, regardless of cases involving rape, incest, or the declining health of the mother. As a society we must return to this issue with renewed vigor and make the dream of all those who have fought for their rights and the rights of their loved ones a reality. Abortion is about women’s physical health. Abortion is about women’s mental health. Abortion is about the right to privacy. Morals need to be left out of the conversation.

It is a right to have a safe and legal abortion in a supportive facility and those who would oppose this notion have lost touch with the reality we live in today.

Bibliography:

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