Opinion: Keep abortion legal, let women decide what’s best for their bodies
By Perla V. Submitted to Mr. Dinh’s English 9 Honors class as part of the Advocacy Essays 2021 Unit.
Some people believe that abortion is wrong and others believe it all depends on a person who chooses to do it. Abortion is a procedure done on women to end an unwanted pregnancy (a woman’s choice) that has divided the country once again, as do many other issues. Abortion started in the early 1800s and became legalized in 1973, up until that point it was viewed differently amongst people. It is still a very controversial issue in today’s society. Bodily autonomy also seems to be a big issue because women don’t ever seem to have the right over their own bodies without being judged for everything they do or having men respond negatively. Bodily autonomy is the right to govern our own bodies, this especially is true more with women, non binary, trans people. In this case the bodily autonomy we are going to go over are people with uteruses. This is an important issue today due to the lack of support women have when getting this procedure done. Bodily autonomy, in this case abortion should remain legal due to the fact that a woman’s body has no right to be involved with by the government.
People who choose not to have an abortion put babies in adoption, not many know what a child may feel and the issues that come with. There’s a good and bad side to adoption.Over many years some people with uteruses chose to give their babies up for adoption. There’s a good and bad side to adoption. The good includes: Adoption is becoming more of a welcoming atmosphere with lgbtq+. Adoption is becoming more of an open and shame free topic according to Adoption In American: The Good, The Bad, And A Path To Reform. The bad consists of the child’s well being. Children and mental health is a very hard subject and very sensitive. As a child grows so does their mental health, adoption can also affect the child. Some effects are guilt/shame and rejection. According to the North American Council on Adoptable Children Fact Sheet they state “ Adopted children often believe there is something intrinsically wrong with them and that they deserved to lose their birth parents, which causes them to feel guilt and shame,” according to 7 core issues of adoption. Neglect or non proper mental health care can affect the child, it goes unnoticed and used as a option to shut people who chose to have abortions up without the thought.
As the topic of abortion is very controversial as it shouldn’t be, pro-lifers don’t know the changes a person with uterus endures. Each year there is a high risk of people with uteruses dying than death involving getting an abortion. “Sadly, 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications,” according to Pregnancy-Related Deaths. With in the time span of 1973-2015, 447 women deaths were reported by abortion, according to U.S. Abortion Statistics. As shown, there’s a higher chance of people with uteruses dying giving birth than getting an abortion. Although there are some deaths of abortion they have occurred more likely before the 1980s. Having a child is hard, raising them, making sure their mental health is well, giving birth to a child and making sure your child has what it needs. As a person with a uterus I don’t want a person to get the wrong idea of pregnancy, yes it’s beautiful but there’s a very painful and scary part that gets pushed to the side. It’s not easy and people with uteruses should know they have options although it comes with criticism.
As children grow older, as teens grow older they start to form their own views/opinions but in some cases they take on and get influenced by their parents and the parents views. Education is a main factor in everyone’s life, there’s many subjects and in some cases kids get taught about sex education. In sex education they teach you about resources but a factor I feel they miss out on is abortion. It’s a subject that is not discussed at schools. If we teach students to not criticize people for what they do with their lives, maybe we won’t have as much controversy. Sharing people’s stories and having speakers come to schools. An appropriate grade would be 5-6th grade due to the lack of aggressiveness and girls start to hit puberty then. Advocates for youth has a part for abortion stories and how to get involved with support.Teaching kids to voice their own opinions about any subject should affect their thinking and future choices, sex and abortion education is not an easy topic to talk about but parents don’t take the responsibility to talk about it or give out the wrong information or idea.
As shown abortion is not about murder, it’s not about being ignorant, it’s about finally taking full control of your own body. For people with uteruses to finally get to choose what they want with their body, for ages men have taken control over every choice we have. Abortion is not only a way out of many situations but it’s also a help for what could have been a child. I see that because the world a child deserves to be in, there still needs to be severe change. How would you feel to get criticized/judged for a choice you made to benefit your own wellbeing and what could have been a child? How would it feel to have people in your business that has absolutely nothing to do with them?
