Should Abortion Clinics Be Closed? Essay, Research Paper
In 1973, the supreme court decision known as Roe v. wade, made it possible for woman to get safe, legal abortions from well-trained medical practitioners and therefore led to dramatic decreases in pregnancy-related injury and death. Now the policy proposal has been done to close up abortion clinics. We are against this proposal and we will give you some arguments why we think abortion clinics in this state should not be closed.
Closing up abortion clinics enables a lot of woman to have an abortion. Having an abortion should be woman’s own choice. But when there are no providers of abortion around, that choice has already been made for her. Closing up the clinics will higher the barriers of having an abortion. But when the barriers are too high, this means that for some woman, the right to make their own choices in life, is taken away from them. The constitution says we have a right on Privacy, so taking away a woman’s chance to make decisions over her own body and life, infringes with that right.
In 1973 the American Supreme Court ruled that American’s right to privacy included the right of a woman to decide whether to have children, and the right of a woman and her doctor to make that decision without state interference. Closing up abortion clinics violates that right woman have.
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) is the nation’s preeminent defender of the Constitution and The Bill of Rights, they defend the rights of all. The ACLU has protected the right of woman to choose abortion, and in recent years has argued the key cases opposing restrictions that deny woman access to reproductive health care. Policy 263 states: “The ACLU holds that every woman, as a matter of her right to the enjoyment of life, liberty, and privacy, should be free to determine whether and when to bear children.”
Closing up abortion clinics will be done with the purpose to reduce the number of abortions. This raises the question whether this will be effective.
Before 1973 abortion was illegal. Criminalization of abortion did not reduce the number of woman who sought abortion. What is known is that between 1880 and 1973 many thousands of woman died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to self-induce their abortions, or going to untrained practitioners who performed cheap abortions with primitive methods or in unsanitary conditions.
Taking away the provision of abortion will obstruct to access for woman to have an abortion. But like before 1973, woman will keep attempting and succeed in ending unwanted pregnancies. With this a lot of woman will risk their health and even their lives. Keeping open local abortion clinics, increases the chance that woman who choose to have an abortion at least will do this in safe way.
So closing up abortion clinics will not reduce the number of women who seek abortion. Demand stays the same, but the provision is declined. This means that the waiting lists of abortion clinics in others states will be much longer. Women will have to wait longer to get an abortion, and will be treated later in their pregnancy.
Some people say that the unborn baby is alive and has feelings when the heart starts to beat. The heartbeat begins between the eighteenth and twenty-fifth day. So when the woman who wants to have an abortion will have to wait that long, her abortion, according to abortion activists, will get closer to murder the unborn child. This problem could be solved with keeping abortion clinics open, because then the woman can be treated early in her pregnancy, when the heart of the unborn baby is not beating yet. She won’t have to wait because of long waiting lists, or because she needs time to raise her funds to be able to afford the abortion.
A woman who wants to have an abortion will have to travel a long way when there are no providers around. This will make her abortion even more expensive then it already is. She will have to pay for the abortion itself, the traveling costs, and the costs of the accommodation that she will need. She is longer under way, and therefore also needs to take off from work longer, this also costs her money. All these extra expenses will make it for some woman impossible to have an abortion.
An abortion clinic is not a butcher’s place where young lives are getting killed. They provide woman with the choice when and whether to bring a child into this world.
What is worse? Taking away the life of an unborn child that is not even aware of life itself yet?
Or a mother bringing an unwanted child into this world, knowing that she will not be able to take care of it, knowing that her child will have to suffer from the circumstances she’s living in right now. Fortunately, she has the possibility to take away the unborn child, and it is up to her to make that decision, that is her right.
Or a young girl who has been a victim of rape, and now carries the baby of the man who ruined her life like that. Should she really, at such a young age, give birth to this unwanted child of which she’s not even sure of she will be able to love it. She did not choose to take the responsibility of a child. Shouldn’t she be glad that she’s able to choose.
Or giving birth to a handicapped baby of which you know that it will not be able to live a normal life, and also the parents will not be able to live a normal life. Knowing the child will have to suffer from dozens of treatments.
Everyone has its own opinion about these issues, and therefore everyone should be able to make their own decision about it. There are dozens of reasons why a mother would want to have an abortion. And of course there are also women who want to have an abortion for their own sake and abuse the right of abortion. But all these woman who made their choice well over thought should not be disadvantaged because of the few woman who abuse their right.
Of course, another option for woman who are not able to take care of their baby could be adoption. They will have to carry the baby for nine months and then give it up. Not all woman are able to do so. After their pregnancy they will have to hope that their baby will find a good and loving home. And this is not always the case. Both mother and child will have to go through life wandering whatever happened to them.
And looking at the number of children that are waiting to get adopted, giving up your baby for adoption is just putting one more in line. These children will have to suffer from living in orphans houses waiting to get adopted and maybe change family ones in a while. Adoption can not always be seen as a good solution to unwanted pregnancies.
The advantage of closing up abortion clinics, could be that woman will be forced to take the responsibility over their baby, and let their unborn child live. But can it be seen as something positive, that a mother brings another child into this world, when she rather would have chosen not to, because the child is unwanted, or she is financially not able to take care of it. Getting an abortion does not always mean that the woman is thinking of her own good, but she also could be thinking on behalf her baby. Whether to get an abortion or not is a very hard decision to make for every woman. Abortion providers around you do not suddenly make this choice easier, or force you into it. People who are against abortion have the choice not to have one. It is not fair to take away the choice of people who are not against abortion.