Abortion has been a highly controversial issue since the 19th century, with people proposing arguments for it and against it based on a variety of ideologies and viewpoints. The people who have traditionally been against it stem in large part from a religious background, as many religions prohibit the killing of living humans with broad descriptions of what constitutes life. The pro-abortion side prominently features women’s rights advocates, who stand for the rights of pregnant women to control their bodies and choose when and whether to reproduce. Both sides have been supported by the establishment at different times, and currently, abortion laws within the US vary dramatically between states. To understand the reason for this disparity, it is critical to list and evaluate the moral arguments that are made by both sides.
The first moral issue surrounding abortion is that of the fetus’s personhood. The specific time at which it stops being a mass of its mother’s flesh and starts being a person who has rights and cannot be killed at another’s discretion is essentially impossible to determine. Opponents of abortion try to assign personhood to the fetus as early as possible, possibly as soon as fertilization occurs. Its proponents, on the other hand, try to set deadlines within which the fetus is not considered a person that are longer.
Cantens (2019) also notes a philosophical approach that differentiates a human being and a person with rights. Another moral issue is the conflict between the human rights of the mother and the fetus. This problem arises particularly sharply when the continued pregnancy threatens the mother’s life, causing the rights of the two individuals to directly conflict with each other. Emphasizing the mother reinforces the pro-abortion stance while focusing on the child supports its opposite.
Another moral issue is the source of the traditional pro-abortion stance that has been prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Per Cantens (2019), a sizable part of feminist discourse focuses on how legislation and policy stem from a male-dominated perspective that downplays the importance of women’s issues, such as abortion. As such, they state that restrictions and prohibitions on abortion are inherently biased against the female sex and morally unjustifiable. An example would be the argument that abortion is both unethical and illegal because it entails the killing of a person. As Cantens (2019) notes, it is possible to disagree with the morality of gay marriage while still supporting its legalization.
That is not the case for abortion, with opponents pushing to equate it to murder in the eyes of the law. This emphasis on equating it to an atrocity makes it more challenging to promote abortion, as it cannot be construed as “victimless” as easily as many other controversial matters.
Overall, the ethical issue surrounding abortion is extremely challenging to resolve because of the deep disagreement between the two sides. The proponents emphasize the woman while downplaying the fetus, focusing on the former’s reproductive rights and freedom of choice. The opponents assign rights to the latter, which fundamentally makes abortion a violation of said rights and an egregious crime. The argument effectively has no scientific answer, as it is rooted in philosophy and partially in metaphysics. As such, it is at one’s discretion what side to take, with no answer being fundamentally correct. With that said, they should be mindful of the legal aspect of the issue and the approach of their local legislature to addressing it to avoid violating any laws.
Reference
Cantens, B. (2019). A critical introduction to the ethics of abortion: Understanding the moral arguments. Bloomsbury Publishing.