The Truth About Abortion

The decision to have an abortion is a very serious decision in a woman's life. The effects are often damaging, both physically and emotionally. Still, an estimated 50 million abortions are performed each year (Jacobson 30©38). Not that so many make that choice more palatable. Terminating a pregnancy violates both Kantian ethics and the mother's autonomy. It can be dangerous to the mother, and is always deadly to her unborn child.

According to Compton's Learning, the loss of a fetus, or unborn offspring, before it is developed enough to live on its own outside the womb is called abortion. Abortion can be spontaneous, often called a miscarriage, or induced. The usual technique for induced abortion is to insert a metal or plastic tube into the uterus through its opening, the cervix. A spoon-shaped object at the end of the tube is used to scrape the developing embryo from the uterus. A suction machine at the other end of the tube then removes the tissue from the womb ("Abortion" np). The "ideal" time for this procedure is between three and seven weeks of pregnancy. Unfortunately, the woman at this time may not even be aware that she may be pregnant (Simpson13).

Available data indicates that unmarried women account for the majority of abortions (McCuen 29). Of today's teenagers it is estimated that 40 percent of those fourteen years and younger will become pregnant and 18 percent of those will have an abortion (McCuen 146). Many try to justify abortion in these 2 cases, saying that the mother is too young to have a child of her own. As written in the Northwest Florida Daily News, people also seek to justify abortion on the basis of rape or incest, but the fact is that only about 2 percent of the abortions in this country fall within those categories. The other 98 percent are performed for reasons of convenience (Wiginton B-1).

Abortion is not a form of birth control. It cannot be justified morally, socially, or ethically. According to Kant, the dignity, autonomy, duty, and life of the child must be respected. Abortion takes these away from the baby and often from the mother as well.USA Today states that far from being a simple, easy procedure, abortion has turned out to be fraught with dangers and problems. Women have been damaged both physically and emotionally by abortion, and the majority of Americans realize that killing a child is not going to solve the mother's problems or the social problems surrounding the pregnancy ("Overthrowing" A-7). Linda Parise, a pro-life activist who herself has had an abortion, said, "Besides ignoring the life of the child destroyed by abortion,. . . abortion also destroys women. It does not make our lives a little easier or a little more bearable. Abortion solves nothing for women; it only wreaks havoc within our bodies, our minds and our emotions ("Smothering" 5). In Coping with an Unplanned Pregnancy, the author says that despite abortion having been the "right choice", guilt can still plague a woman for many years. "Teddy was a junior in high school when she became pregnant. She had an abortion. She seemed to handle the aftermath fairly well, except for one thing: bad dreams. . . , dreams about dead babies (Simpson 18). The toll on women and their families, as well as the health costs of treating complications of abortion, are issues that must be faced."

Jeff Lyon of the Chicago Tribune notes that other than physical and emotional complications, doctors occasionally slip up with manual or visual examinations. On May 4, 1982, a sixteen-year-old girl was diagnosed as 21 weeks pregnant. She wanted an abortion. Although this is quite far along in the pregnancy, the fetus is still quite short of the age at which it could survive outside the womb. doctors could have confirmed their diagnosis with a test that yields a "picture" of the fetus,called an ultrasound, but it was not deemed necessary. The diagnosis was wrong. The girl was in fact 26 weeks pregnant and the baby was born alive. The next day, defying all statistical odds, another abortion at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center failed. A seventeen-year-old girl delivered a 22-week-old female infant. This time there was no mistake, ultrasound had been used. Neither of the babies lived beyond 27 hours, but their passage through this world, however brief, showered new publicity on what has become of medicines most haunting ethical quandaries: the live-birth abortion. On July 15, a woman believed to be 22 weeks pregnant had a prostaglandin-induced abortion and gave birth to a live, 32-week-old baby. The infant was born with multiple defects due to the abortion, but lived. Doctors may think they are doing a 20- or 21-week abortion, in which the fetus is not expected the survive, but in fact their patient may be as far along as her 26th week, if not further. The fetus, at this point in the pregnancy is entering viability, the point at which the fetus is potentially able to live outside the womb (se. 12 1 and 3), and the effects of an abortion are disastrous.

Abortion is not an easy way to get rid of a problem. That problem is a child and doing away with it is a very serious decision, a decision many have lived to regret. These women often suffer both emotionally and physically from the effects of an abortion. Although the choice to end a pregnancy is a choice given to every woman, we must realize that abortion is not a cure for a problem. According to Kant, there is no one to blame for any problem but ourselves. We cannot justify abortion because it takes away the ethical rights of the unborn child, punishing it for a reason it cannot understand and can do nothing about it.

Works Cited

Abortion. Compton's Learning. 17 Sept. 1992.
Jacobson, Jodi L. "Choice at Any Cost." World Watch. March/April 1988: 30-38. Rpt. in Vol 3. Boca Raton, FL: SIRS,1988.
Lyon, Jeff. "The Doctor's Dilemma." Chicago Tribune. 15 Aug.1982: Sec. 12, 1 and 3. Rpt. in Ethics Vol. 2. Boca Raton,FL: SIRS, 1987.
McCuen, Gary E. Children Having Children. Wisconsin: Gary E. McCuen Publications, 1988.Overturning 'Roe': Threat or Benefit to Women, Children? Today. 7 Jan. 1992: A-7.
Simpson, Carolyn. Coping with Unplanned Pregnancy. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 1990.Smothering The Silent Scream; Abortion Groups React. Life Cycle. Fall, 1985: 5.
Wiginton, Ron. "Abortion Fight Will Be Bitter." Northwest Florida Daily News: B-1.