Introduction
The debate on abortion has taken a different shift in the recent times with many pro-choice members of the society claiming that it should be a right for every woman to determine whether to terminate a pregnancy or keep it. It is apparent that the extreme groups in this debate include the pro-life and pro-choice group, but there has emerged a new group in the debate that takes a neutral perspective in some instances while supporting either side of the debate in others.
The members of this group in the contemporary world believe that the termination of pregnancies should be permitted in different situations. The main argument is that there are certain circumstances like rape that should be treated differently if the victims get pregnant. This group believes that ethical considerations should apply in such situations to ensure that the plight of the victims is placed into context before the pro-life and pro-choice groups start judging them for their choices. While it is difficult to share sentiments with the neutral group in the debate, there are some valid arguments that they have presented over the years.
However, it is still clear that despite the side that the neutral parties eventually support, their sentiments will always be rejected by the opposing side. This paper looks into some of the scenarios that one would reasonably support abortion if they were neutral on the debate.
Rape Cases
Rape cases in the society have always led to psychological stress and emotional distress on the victims. It is apparent that most of the rape victims are women, and their plight has been ignored by the authorities, especially in the states that have made abortion illegal. When a woman is raped by an unknown criminal, and she gets pregnant, it is difficult to imaging keeping the child. Some women may have the strength to keep the pregnancy, but the majority of the victims would resent the child because it would be a constant reminder of the ordeal. Such situations are tough to imagine, but they are existent in the modern society.
Many rape victims look for abortion services because of the psychological torture they experience when they are carrying the child of a criminal (Caruso, 2015). It is difficult to tell such victims not to abort their children because one cannot adequately relate with the ordeal. In such cases, the psychological and emotional wellness of the pregnant women may be more important than the wellness of the unborn child.
A pro-life individual like me would argue that despite the circumstances that led to the pregnancy, it is not right to punish the innocent child, especially through death. The innocence of the fetus is always undisputable when a woman is raped; hence, abortion should not be the solution to the psychological and emotional distress that ensues. It would be more logical for the victimized women to pursue legal measures against the rapists, or to give up the child for adoption after birth. Killing the innocent child is a cruel act. However, this opinion is strictly based on sentiments weighed on the scale of personal views on abortion.
One would imagine that the victimized women undergo depression and self-destructing emotions before deciding to terminate the pregnancy. When the president gave the speeches highlighted in the articles reviewed in the abortion essay, it was apparent that his sentiments were geared toward ensuring that the women with unwanted pregnancies have the chance to eliminate the torture associated with carrying an unwanted fetus (Hallowell, 2013). It is only through experience that the world would share sentiments with the victims. This issue is a problem in the modern society because there has always been a generalization of the circumstances that different states permit abortion.
Health Complications
The supporters of the pro-life doctrine believe that there should never be an aided termination of pregnancies regardless of the situation. They believe that only natural termination of pregnancy should be allowed because any form of assistance means that the assistant and the mother commit murder. However, there are many instances where health care providers have to make a choice between saving the mother or losing both the child and the mother.
In such cases, abortion is allowed in all states (Abortion – Reasons for Abortion, 2016). This implies that even if it is morally wrong to terminate pregnancies according to the pro-life supporter, there are some cases that are quite unfortunate, and they are acceptable because keeping the pregnancy would result in the death of the mother. The main issue in such scenarios arises when people start questioning whether the life of the mother is more important that the life of the fetus.
The constitution provides certain rights to the unborn fetus, which implies that the fetus is alive. However, the majority of the rights in the Constitution are only applicable to humans, and there is no part of the Constitution that clearly defines the biological state of the fetus as a human being; hence, the termination of pregnancies is not considered as murder in the legal sense. This implies that the act of terminating a pregnancy to save the mother is, indeed, an ethical process.
However, when considering the plight of the fetus, a pro-life supporter would have to be biased if he or she was to support the act. It is apparent that the main cause of the dispute between the pro-life and pro-choice supporters is the circumstances that either party is willing to embrace the choices made by the women and the authorities on abortion. The members of the pro-life party have always cited the termination of healthy pregnancies as an evil deed without considering that some pregnancies are health risks for the mothers (Painter, 2012). Likewise, the pro-choice party seldom highlights the termination of pregnancies because of health complications as a weighty point to support their argument for abortion.
Fatal Deformations in Fetus
Technological growth in medicine has led to the development of the ability of physicians to detect deformations in fetuses at an early stage. Some of the deformations can be fixed through surgery after birth, whereas others can only be managed with the hope of the child surviving. In some cases, physicians openly confess to having little hope for the survival of the child, especially when the deformations affect the vital organs of the body, such as the heart and the brain.
There have been many women who had to terminate their pregnancies because of the deformations in their unborn children. The women are forced to make this decision by the fact that their children have little chances of survival after birth, and even if they were to survive, their lives would be characterized by numerous challenges. While many pro-life supporters would urge the women to give the children a chance to survive, it is sometimes ethical to prevent the pain that the child would have to endure. One would expect that President Obama was talking about providing abortion services to such women, but his speech generalized the cases that should be considered (Hallowell, 2013).
It is apparent that the president believes that all cases should be treated similarly when a woman wants to terminate her pregnancy. While it is difficult to relate to the psychological pain that mothers go through when the doctor proposes the termination of the pregnancy, one would understand that giving birth to a child that might not survive a few days after birth is quite difficult to imagine.
As a pro-life proponent, it is difficult to relate to any case that may be considered by many as ethical regarding the termination of pregnancies. It is apparent that even in the cases where the life of the child or the mother is compromised there are some options that can be applied. It would be unfortunate to lose the child or the mother, but if there is hope that both can survive, the associated measures should be applied before the termination of the pregnancy (Painter, 2012).
When one rethinks the fact that life starts at conception, it is apparent that even the states that permit abortion under the situations highlighted above should entirely make abortion illegal. However, it is clear that there are many people who are neither pro-life nor pro-choice supporter, and their stance on abortion is strictly based on the circumstances involve. The society would be a better place if the people in the authority were neutral about the issue. President Obama is clearly a major supporter of the pro-choice party, and his advocacy of abortion has led to an increase of the use of abortion as a form of contraceptive in the nation.
Conclusion
There are many people who share a neutral perspective on the issue of abortion in the United States. These people are particularly inclined toward refraining from judging women when they terminate their pregnancies in different situations. The members of the neutral party in the debate on abortion are also clearly against abortion as a form of contraceptive, but they support it when it is a necessary measure to protect the wellness of the mother.
For instance, when a woman is raped, abortion might be an ethical measure to help the mother to forget the ordeal. Keeping the child would be a constant reminder of the ordeal, and it has been associated with many suicides among pregnant women in the society. Abortion may also be the only option for women when keeping the pregnancy poses a hazard to the life of the unborn child or its mother. Such incidences are common in hospitals, and it is difficult to blame the mother for taking the option to save her life. Whether one is strictly pro-life or neutral on the matter of abortion, there are some cases that one would view abortion as an ethical procedure; however, none of the special cases is involved with the use of abortion as a form of contraceptive.
References
Abortion – Reasons for Abortion. (2016). Web.
Caruso, K. (2015). Rape Victims Prone to Suicide. Web.
Hallowell, B. (2013). Obama’s 5 Most Controversial Statements About Abortion and ‘Women’s Rights’ During His Planned Parenthood Speech. Web.
Painter, K. (2012). Doctors say abortions do sometimes save women’s lives. Web.