Pregnancy can be scary and sometimes even deadly, which is why abortion should always be legal.
I don’t think people realize how terrifying it can be to get pregnant, even if someone wants to. You carry another human being. You may experience negative pregnancy symptoms like nausea, depression, hormonal changes, and other unpleasant side effects.
You’re doing something dangerous. Maternal mortality rates are a medical health issue, and those rates are even higher for Black and Hispanic women. In fact, medically-induced abortion has been proven safer than childbirth.
Even after you give birth, there can be negative effects.
One in eight women develops postpartum depression, which negatively affects the parent and the baby. Not every woman who gives birth can take care of a child or even wants to have one. In extreme cases, a pregnant person forced to give birth may even abuse their children. Not everyone is fit to be a parent, and they shouldn’t be forced to parent, either.
We should never force someone to give birth when we know how to perform medically safe abortions.
Parenting a child takes an enormous amount of responsibility that not everyone can handle. Parenting also requires the same amount of work that a full-time job does, but no one gets paid to parent.
Not everyone can take care of a child or wants to take care of one, and they shouldn’t have to. Therefore, we should ensure everyone has access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion.
A pregnant person should terminate a pregnancy if they know they can’t or won’t be able to care for a child for whatever reason. There are too many children in the foster care system. Too many biological parents abuse their children instead of taking care of them. And there are too many unwanted children worldwide.
Forcing someone to care for a child because they had sex is absurd. There are ways to prevent pregnancy without abstinence. We know those methods aren’t perfect, especially when not used correctly, but that’s why we have more options available.
Abortion is a human right, but it often isn’t treated as one. The overturning of Roe vs. Wade shows that.
You don’t have to like abortion or the idea of it. Ideally, someone who doesn’t want to get pregnant won’t. But the reality is more complicated than that. Even if a person wants to get pregnant, they may need to terminate their pregnancy for health or other perfectly valid reasons.
Everyone has different circumstances. For some, carrying a pregnancy full-term makes the most sense; for others, terminating the pregnancy is the right decision. Whatever choice people make, it’s theirs to make, and no one has the right to take that away.
We do not know the circumstances people are in when they decide to terminate pregnancies, and that’s because we can’t know their situations. They are individual and personal. We don’t need to understand why the decision was best for them. It’s none of our business. What we do need to do is make sure abortion is accessible for everyone.
By overturning Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court has declared that bodily autonomy is not a constitutional right.
Abortion may not be illegal in every state, but it’s no longer constitutionally protected. But it should be because it’s a human right. The fact that it isn’t speaks volumes to how dystopian our society is.
What’s happening in the country regarding reproductive rights is horrific. People’s freedom and rights are being stripped away — rights people have fought, suffered, and even died for.
Abortion is a medical procedure. It is a medical decision, and, like most medical decisions, it must be made by the person affected.
Abortion is a human right. It always has been and always will be. And that’s why I will continue to fight for the right for all to have access to safe abortions.
Originally published on Revoloon
Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
