With the funding of planned parenthood currently being debated, a lot of media attention has been placed on the topic of available, legal abortions for women. Although Planned Parenthood performs a multitude of other sexual health services other than abortion, the added emphasis on the topic leaves me to urge others to protect a woman’s right to choose. I understand that this is a very touchy subject for some, but all religious and scientific beliefs aside, I encourage my readers to continue to advocate for the choice for the following reasons:
If abortions are made illegal, women will still get them: but they will be illegal and unsafe. An approximate “926,240 abortions took place in the US” in the year of 2014, and the numbers have only decreased according to abort73.com, and if those abortions were performed illegally, all 926,240 women could be at a serious health risk. Abortion is a medical procedure, and if it isn’t executed in a medical setting, the women undergoing it will be in life-or-death danger. I feel like the safety of the woman should be the main concern of this conversation, and without access to sterile, legal, and safe abortions, women will be stuck looking elsewhere or using other methods to terminate the pregnancy. With a worldwide total of “70,000 women” dying from illegal abortions according to genderacrossborders.com, we need not add to those numbers as a country that is supposed to support women’s healthcare and safety.
The decision to abort is one that is very personal and well thought out, and for the government to try tell a woman what to do with her body is immoral and unfair. A pregnancy, or the termination of, is occurring in the woman’s body and will affect the woman for the rest of her life, so it should be fundamentally the woman’s decision. In my opinion, the government should not be involved in private health matters, and for them to try to get involved in a concept as heavy as abortion should not be a question. An abortion should not be debated amidst the country and the government, it should be discussed with the woman and her doctor because that is who it’s truly affecting. A personal health matter should not be a publicly debated issue, and it should remain between the woman undergoing it and her health practitioner because it is their position to decide what is best.
*photo courtesy of Photopin.com
For those who do not agree with the concept of legal abortions being available to women, I urge you to look at a bigger picture. I am not urging you to get an abortion, but I am hoping that you will support the right for women to choose whether or not it is the best choice for them. I firmly believe this issue is for that of only the woman to decide, and we should not put them in danger because of a difference in opinion.
*Photo courtesy of Photopin.com
*Thumnail Courtesy of Photopin.com
*All political opinions expressed are not reflective of Her Campus at Cal Lutheran University.