Can a Woman Choose to Get an Abortion?

The law says that men and women have equal rights. However, there is still some difference which is a creation of nature. A woman bears a child and a man does not.

Being a mother of two I know how fulfilling it is to be a mother; but what bothers me is the discrepancy in what we preach and what we practice. When a woman becomes a victim of rape or incest, she does not get to choose if she wants to conceive. Also, if she chooses to abort, all of a sudden everybody else gets the right to criticize her decision. It is amazing how the society can demonstrate an unfair and unrealistic expectation. Only on rare occasions do we see that the mother abandons her children. It is usually the fathers that take that route. When a woman is the one who will have to bear the child for 9 months, stay involved in the child's life the most and care for the child, why should anybody else get the upper-hand in dictating the decision that will directly affect her life. It is mind-boggling that when it comes to the topic of abortion, everybody but the woman herself has a say.

I would like to highlight couple other points to argue why a woman should be the one to make that decision:

1. We often hear the notion of religion forbidding abortion. Religion also says to treat everybody with respect, value everybody as an individual. When a woman's decision (which is, by the way not a whim or wish) is not valued or questioned, it shows that we are still trapped in that idea where somebody has to suffer to please others. In fact, a persons rights get violated. The people who detest abortion is done expressing their views and the poor woman is then stuck with a lifelong responsibility, for which she may not be quite ready yet. If she cannot perform her duties as a parent, yes she will give birth but she will not produce a good citizen for the society. Every decision has a prolonged effect on all of us. Most of the time we forget to look at the big picture. We are so busy establishing the LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Trans-gender) rights, the rights for minorities and so on and so forth. Seems like everybody has a right but the women. By the time we are done taking care of everybody in the society, we run out of options and resources to value the very group to which the mankind is indebted for its own existence.

2. Then comes the issue when there is an obvious concern about the health of the fetus. Some suggest that genetic testing should not even be done because a woman should have the baby no matter what. How responsible is it to bring a life to the world that will create enormous amount of burden for the parents and the society? In this day and age where technology has so much to offer, why not take the advantage and make a prudent decision? Nobody is suggesting people should act as God, but when there is scope to avoid such situation, why not act responsibly and not submerged in emotion? May be religion also needs new interpretations with time, it needs to evolve. Religion is for people and not the other way around. It is true that even after trying hard to make it right, people do face unforeseen situations; that is where God proves that he is the almighty and we cannot play God. I can assure you if it comes to that no parent will ever abandon the child.

3. I have already talked about the situations where a woman does not even choose to conceive. Since it is she who will bear the child, why cannot it be her decision to keep or abort? If I understand it right she is not the only one who was the player! I'm sure if men were destined to bear children, the societal view would have been drastically different; but at least for the time being that is not the case. Why? because though I bragged about equal rights in the introduction of my article, in reality, women don't have equal rights. In most of the cases, men are and were the policy makers. Therefore, this turmoil between "the reality of women getting overburdened with more than they can handle" and "ideally what freedom of choice they should to entitled to" will prevail. The good news is that now we are having more healthy discussions. That is how we can gradually have a greater impact on the society and who knows, may be together we will be able to figure out a way to respect lives (both born and unborn), establish equal rights and live healthy lives guided by religion.

There is another contradictory situation that develops when a pregnant woman with a severe history of substance abuse chooses not to get an abortion. The same goes for an alcoholic mother to be. What do we do in that situation? Do we let her choose or do we recommend an abortion? Doesn't the whole situation get complex?

In the end, I believe only on rare occasions the situation dictates the outcome. While nobody supports women's choosing abortion right and left, in most of the cases the women are more actively involved in the pregnancy and supposed to have equal rights. Therefore, they should get the benefit of choosing what is best for them. They should have the liberty to retain or abort.

By the way, religion (it can be Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) prescribes how we should live. However, it is wise to keep religion separate from politics. As soon as religion is used to micromanage an individual's life, its ideologies become tainted. Religion is something that can be preached, it cannot be forced upon anybody. Also, the right to abortion is a personal choice. We know that the politicians have to take a stance to get favorable poll results; but the fact is that the government should stay out of it. We have come up with fancy terms: "pro-life" and "pro-choice". Being a woman, I would definitely be "pro" everything to establish the rights for women.