I am vehemently prochoice. Every woman in the world should have the right to an abortion for any reason. It is her body and no one else can decide what they should do with their own body. However, prior to an abortion, there is one thing a woman should think about before she has one—whether or not she really wants it.
The only thing a woman should think about is whether or not this abortion is what she really wants. Believe it or not, many women have abortions that they do not want. It could be because of financial hardship or an inability to take care of more children than they already have. It could be because they do not want to be a single parent or the conditions in which they are currently living are not suitable for raising a child.
Whichever way you slice it, what a woman should think about at the end of the day is if she is really making the decision of what to do with her body. If a person is forcing the abortion of a child a woman really does want to have, this is not a good reason for having an abortion. However, if it is a conclusion that she feels comfortable with at the end of the day and wants to proceed on her own volition, this is entirely within her right. The life we should defend, when considering abortion under duress, should not be the fetus, but rather the woman who is being forced to undergo a procedure that she may not want.
In some parts of the world, such as parts of India, even those, which are not so rural, are forced to undergo abortions by shady doctors because they know they are going to bare female children. Even if these women want to have their children, girl children can be considered burdensome and the source of great loss of finances in many parts of India and southeast Asia still today. Because of this, the baring of a daughter is undesirable and women are forced to have abortions in some instances and girl children may even be abandoned if the mother chooses to carry them to term.
Forced abortions also occur in China due to the fact that, like India, it is still more desirable to have sons than daughters, which can lead to forced feticide and the abandonment of girl children.
While Americans may believe that because of the “modernized” society in which we live this could never happen, but there are instances in which women are in violent relationships and, either through coercion or violent attacks, women have forced abortions by their partners. This is not an accident. A woman did not tumble down the stairs, but this a violent act a man took against a woman because he believed, even if only at the time, that his inappropriate actions were acceptable. Of course, when we think about forced abortions, we may think of violent or uncivilized human beings who were not correctly socialized. However, women can still be fired for being pregnant or fear losing their jobs behind having a child even though men are not treated this way for having children. It’s malignantly and overtly sexist and even as we evolve it still manages to exist.
In the end, women should have the right to abortions. But these abortions should be like other surgeries—something that women can make the decision about on their own if they so desire and something that no one should be forced into having if they do not want. Even close to home there are women who are talked into having the abortions they do not want. When we protect the right to abortion, we should be protecting the right to the wanted abortion, not the abortion that a woman has because she fears her partner will leave her, she will lose her job or her children will be viewed as financial burdens.
