We're still early in the week, and we already have a pretty spicy topic at hand, which has become the root of countless debates all around the world, including the country where I live. It's about the topic of abortion or the medical procedure used to terminate pregnancy. For many people, they believe that life begins at conception, mostly influenced by their religious beliefs, making abortion for them equivalent to taking a human life. That was also the case here in the Philippines, as it was a Catholic-predominant country, and as a result, abortion was not only heavily criticized by the society, but it was also illegal under all circumstances, with no exceptions.
I am not really a religious guy, so when it comes to these kinds of topics, I mostly lean toward the side that promotes bodily autonomy, and would rather have the individual in question to decide what's best for their circumstances instead of the society.
Whether a person is a "pro-life" or a "pro-choice", we can all agree that pregnancy changes the life of a person, including both physical and psychological aspects, which makes it more difficult to fulfill their other obligations, not to mention being pregnant can be really costly too. Some couples may not have considered these repercussions when they had intercourse, so they decided to abort it when they realized that they are not yet prepared for a baby, which makes them irresponsible, but I think it would make them more irresponsible to bring the child into the world without the capacity to provide their basic needs, and its not as if I or the society will provide that needs, which gives me no right to condemn them. Well, you can say that they could just use contraceptives during intercourse, and I do too, but that also does not give a 100% assurance that a woman will not get pregnant, and there are also places where access to contraceptives is limited, as well as the possibility that people may lack the knowledge of family planning methods.
Of course, if the father is against the abortion, I think that the mother should hear him, but the overall decision still lies with the mother, who will have to carry the child in her belly for 9 months, and have to suffer the consequences of rearing a child, as well as all the risks it will bring in her life. Yes, it is dangerous, and there are also situations where keeping the child can cause the death of the mother. Well, that is, if the woman has a partner who is willing to support her, because there are also situations where, after a man impregnates a woman, they will just leave her behind, along with all his responsibilities, which I will say, it will be very justifiable if the woman decides to abort the child.
But those were not just the reasons why women would decide to abort their child. There are situations where there are complications in the development of the child, and even when the woman continues to carry the child, the child will just die as soon as it leaves her womb, so it is better to cut the child's suffering and abort it.
Aside from that, some pregnancies were not just unplanned but also unwanted. For instance, women who were victims of sexual abuse. After experiencing the horror of being sexually assaulted against their will, I believe that they have every right not to proceed with carrying the child, if it means that it will not also remind them of their abuser, which may result in them hating the child if they decide to release it to the world. Not to mention, if it were an underage that becomes pregnant due to sexual abuse, keeping the child will not only remind her of her trauma, but it will also steal her youth, where instead of doing things that an underage girl does in his age, she is taking care of a child.
Unfortunately, that was how most of these cases ended up being in my country, as abortion here is illegal under all circumstances. The only alternative for them is to resort to unsafe methods of abortion, such as taking online-sold pills, which may even be more dangerous than pregnancy.
So, rather than completely banning abortion, I would rather have it legalized with some regulations, which will take each of the women's circumstances into consideration before deciding whether or not they should have an abortion. In this regulation, I would prefer that they have the option of supporting the child if the mother decides to carry it through, or to send them to an orphanage after birth. That way, not only can we save potential lives, but also keep the women less guilty of their decision. But at the end of the day, no one should have the right to tell a woman what to do with their body, unless they are willing to share half of their burden.
Thank you for reading my post, and see you in the next one!
