Abortion should be Legalized

Introduction

Abortion is a single-word topic that can drive audiences at two ends. People who advocate against abortion rights argue that it is unethical and affects not only a fetus but also a woman who undergoes this procedure. On the other side of this spectrum, there are people who believe that a woman reserves the right to choose what she wants to do with her body without being controlled by any external agency, be it a state, religion, institution, or family.

These opposing views clearly foretell the complexity surrounding the idea of abortion by bringing emotional factors followed by the ethical and philosophical ones. The appointment of a new judge by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2020 was seen as a critical turning point for the issue. This suggests that abortion is not simply a healthcare issue; rather, it is a more profound cultural, political, and religious issue. Delving into history, we find that women in the United States were prohibited by law from having abortions in the nineteenth century. The law was changed in the 1960s, and today abortion is one of the most pressing and divisive issues in public policy. In the contemporary era, the globalization of human rights has led to unprecedented advancements in abortion laws, but there are still numerous debates regarding whether abortion should be made legal and on what grounds.

Indeed, the legal status of abortion has significantly changed over recent decades worldwide. Today, some countries and regions essentially ban abortion. By contrast, in other countries and regions, the law calls for disregarding any term-period restriction on when during gestation abortions are lawful. With such a highly diversified legal landscape, it is not surprising that the rights of women around the globe to law-abiding termination of pregnancy differ. As a matter of fact, these rights concerning termination of pregnancy can be quite different, with the legal landscape being a divided matter within a single state or country, as in the case of the United States. However, the most common legal stance worldwide is to allow women the right to have an abortion up to a certain point in time depending on various laws. "Pro-choice" and "pro-life" do not satisfy the depth of the issues surrounding the termination of pregnancy. There are various influences on these perceptions, such as cultural and religious beliefs that can lead to different long-term legal traditions surrounding the rights of women to have an abortion. Interestingly, concerning the legal prerogative on the termination of pregnancy, it appears that both bans and grants on this right accumulate in the domain of international customary law and in the domain of regional and multilateral organizations.

Historical Perspectives on Abortion Laws

And yet, despite the lack of any clear guidance from the sacred book of the Judeo-Christian traditions, abortion has often been discouraged during various times and places throughout history. While some people have supported abortion and viewed it as a social good, others have criticized abortion as a crime or sin. This section reviews historical and legal perspectives on abortion law. We begin this section with a discussion of ancient abortion laws and then progress to legislation in the Roman Republic and Empire, Judaism, and Christianity in the context of abortion. From the 1600s to 1847, we cover the significant role that quickening played in early laws in the United States, Britain, Canada, and Russia. We then delve into the period from 1847 to 1974, beginning with the United States and its initial state legislation, and subsequently examining the country following a significant legal case. That case became the grounds for the legalization of abortion in England and other countries, as we discuss in some depth. This section ultimately provides a broad historical basis for changes in abortion legislation and examines influences beyond the law that affect people's views on and responses to abortion.

Laws regarding abortion have evolved over the centuries, differing from society to society and often reflecting changing social attitudes and scientific knowledge concerning reproduction. Early Roman laws allowed women to determine whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, and in Europe in the Middle Ages, viewed the embryo or fetus as a homunculus, or fully developed person, and the mother's body as the dwelling place of the fetus, which translated into a belief that abortion was a woman's prerogative. This belief was formalized in canon law as the 'quickening' doctrine, which allowed a woman to elect to have an abortion prior to fetal movement, traditionally detected between 16 and 20 weeks of gestation. The status of the abortionist differed as public opinion swung from viewing abortion as an act that could only be perpetrated by a woman to one that opposed the ecclesiastical laws of heresy and excommunicated abortionists. During the latter half of the 19th century, a number of new factors, including pressure from organized medicine and the changing political and social role of women, led to a promotion of the anti-abortion movement in the United States. A distinctive feature of the new campaign was that the fetus was increasingly portrayed as a person in an effort to further deter women from having abortions. In 1869, a significant religious figure issued a statement from Rome, which was met with immediate ecclesiastical disfavor worldwide.

Ethical Considerations Surrounding Abortion

This study analyzes and discusses the legal and ethical aspects of the practice of abortion. The paper is structured into two parts: the first part concerns the ethical dimension of abortion, whereas the second part presents the legal regulations on abortion at an international level. This section presents the considerations that traditionally guide ethical thinking on the issue of abortion. First and foremost, there is the problem of framing the ethical issues to be tackled. Some scholars argue that the issue concerning the moral standing of the fetuses is not decisive in the context of abortion, because the decisive factor regarding justice lies at the level of birth. In any case, consideration of whether the fetus has rights revolving around its status is central in the context of the ethics of abortion. The discussion also covers the circumstance in which the fulfillment of women's projects conflicts with the situation of the fetus that the woman carries.

Three theories are traditionally used to address ethical issues, particularly issues of justice, concerning fetuses and abortion: namely, utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. The way in which these theoretical approaches behave varies from the point of view of their principles, but also the time when they morally legitimize abortion, going through times when they clearly reject it. One difficult issue to tackle is the role of personal autonomy in thinking about young people's reproductive decisions in general and abortion in particular, as well as informed consent, about which scarce literature exists. Moreover, the decision of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term is not just a matter of reason, but is also heavily emotionally weighted. The perception of fetal pain also plays an important role in practical decision-making in the context of justice, all the more so as an ethical dimension, as a concern for not inflicting pain. The section concludes with a discussion of approaches combining reason and emotion regarding the ethical dimension of abortion and the laws unequivocally regulating abortion or significantly restricting it.

Arguments for Legalizing Abortion

Many arguments have been expounded in support of the legalization of abortion. At the core of most of these arguments is the belief that women are deserving of and entitled to reproductive rights that include the decision of whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. Because the right to privacy is a legally recognized right, it is also heavily relied on to argue in favor of the professional autonomy of obstetrics and gynecology, and the right of the pregnant woman to make reproductive and abortion decisions. The right to privacy is often linked to the right to self-determination, which has been identified as a central tenet of the right of autonomy. Autonomy, a right more often associated with medical or ethical discourse suggesting limits to physician authority and power, is also seen as a right of pregnant women.

Legal access to abortion can significantly reduce maternal mortality and prevent abortion-related morbidity and negative health outcomes. Legal access to abortion also allows women to time pregnancies and limit the number of children they bear, which has potential economic benefits for themselves and their families. A number of reports argue that women have abortions because they are poor, of low socioeconomic status, or are students. Obviously, mandatory continued pregnancy and childbirth can have profound life and economic consequences for women and families. Research has shown that unsafe abortions continue to be high in countries with restrictive abortion laws, and criminalization of abortion does not dissuade women from pursuing clandestine procedures. Northern Europe and Scandinavia have the lowest abortion rates in the world, where abortion is also legal without question. These figures support the contention that to comprehensively address undesired and preconception pregnancies, abortion needs to be legal and available, and broader social and economic conditions lifting barriers to contraceptive services and reproductive healthcare need to change.

Implications and Future Directions

As trends continue towards restricting the right to abortion, abortion access for those in the United States may come to rely on the state in which they live. One implication of restrictive laws is that abortions will be driven further underground, putting already socially and legally marginalized communities at greater risk. Members of these communities may experience the highest costs as abortion becomes less accessible due to an inability to travel to a less restrictive state, affording the added costs, and alienation at the state level. Additionally, while there have been significant medical advancements that allow for earlier and safer abortion services, the services and the technology used to provide them are strategically limited by law. This suppression of technological advancements at a medico-legal level reduces the immediate impact of any shifts in public discourse should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

Many advocates and pro-choice organizations are committed to addressing and engaging in the promotion and protection of reproductive rights and justice at community, organizational, state, national, and international levels. By educating each other on issues that affect pregnancy, gender, sexuality, and policing, we will continue to make changes in law and policy that protect all people's bodily autonomy and right to self-determined reproduction. Ours is a rapidly changing world, and it will be critical to amend policies that alienate communities and marginalize individuals with respect to reproductive rights as well as to promote unrestricted and unencumbered healthcare access and navigation. These amendments—and the broader regulatory and cultural changes toward reproductive rights—should be made according to the representational and political views of potential stakeholders who are too often voiceless, ranging from pregnant people and their partners to medical personnel and the broader family structure that may be affected by the decisions being regulated. By considering the complexities of each of our examples and adding more conservative opinions to the space, we hope to reach the closest thing to truth that we have available forty-eight years after Roe was decided.

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