Prompt

The topic of abortion is very controversial, but nothing has ever been learned by avoiding
tough subjects. What are your views on abortion? Under what circumstances, if any, would you
consider it? If you were a lawmaker, what would be your stand on this issue? (*In India, boys
are valued more than girls and amniocentesis has become widespread. In one province, only one
in thousands of abortions following: amniocentesis was that of a male fetus, the rest were
females. How do you feel about abortion as a tool for gender selection? Suppose that one of the
female fetuses in the previous example was also identified as having suffered severe mental and
physical damage to the point that, after birth, the resulting child would mentally and physically
be unable to care for itself. Would this information influence (change) your decision?)
Response
The topic of abortion has been a heavily debated issue in the United States for quite some
time, appearing on a variety of stages, including political debates, religious sermons, and
womens health center parking lots. Positions range wildly and logic is often eschewed in favor
of severe emotional outbursts, including occasional serious violence.

According to The

Washington Post (Bailey, 2015), traditional religious affiliation has dropped five percent in seven
years. As culturally traditional (and sometimes archaic) religious practices begin to lose their
hold on the United States population, it is a time for decisions founded on logic, as opposed to
traditional morality.
I personally am not a fan of the concept of abortion, although not entirely for logical
reasons. The idea of ending a process that if left undisturbed would result in a human life is a
disconcerting one. There is currently no way of knowing what the person who that fetus would
have become would be capable of or what that individual could mean to the world. Even so,
under the circumstances, I am comfortable with abortion as a tool for preserving the mothers life
and well being in situations where the pregnancy presents a clear and immediate threat to her.
Bearing all this in mind, with abortion and free womens health clinics, such as Planned
Parenthood, again coming under attack and with presidential candidates threatening their
funding, it is time for even our politicians to begin to operate rationally. Whatever moral or

ethical objections there may be, there is no legal foundation for restricting access to reproductive
care, including termination of a pregnancy. The situation changes when the fetus approaches
viability, or the potential to survive outside of its mothers womb, at approximately 22 weeks
after conception (Berger, 2014, p. 60). Even allowing for a 2 week margin of error, this would
allow for 20 weeks during which abortions should still be legally accessible.
Even the concept of attempting to use legislation to dictate morality on this particular
topic has recently proven to be ineffective. In India, where male children are generally seen as
more beneficial to a familys financial well being, using abortion as a device to determine the sex
of a child has been a common enough practice to cause a noticeable drop in the ratio of female to
male children between birth and six years of age (UNFPA, 2010, p. 2). In reaction, the Indian
legislature has enacted policy stating that determining the sex of a child through the use of
ultrasound or genetic testing is prohibited in an attempt to prohibit the practice of selective sex
abortions (Parliament of India, 1994, Chapter 3, 6a-b). Despite this effort, the ratio continues to
fall, reaching the lowest recorded levels in the last fifty years, with a continuing downward trend
in the last 20 years since legislation was enacted (Chadramouli, 2011, p. 9). These trends show
the ineffectiveness of the power of a legislative body to dictate truly moral decisions to a
population. This only reinforces the idea that in situations such as this, the most effective and
responsible legislative decision is to allow the moral decision to fall to the individual, and
attempt to educate and inform as a method for social change.
References
Bailey, S. P. (May 12, 2015). Christianity faces sharp decline as Americans are becoming even
less affiliated with religion. The Washingtion Post Online (Accessed through
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/05/12/christianity-faces-sharpdecline-as-americans-are-becoming-even-less-affiliated-with-religion/ March 2016)
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd edition). New York, NY: Worth Publishers
Chandramouli, C. (2011). Child Sex Ratio in India. India: Ministry of Home Affairs

(Accessed through http://www.actionaidusa.org/sites/files/actionaid/child_sex_ratio__presentation_by_census_commissioner.pdf March 2016)

Parliament of India, (1994). Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. India (Accessed through
http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/view_file.php?fid=434 March 2016)
United Nations Population Fund, a.k.a. UNFPA (2010). Trends in Sex Ratio at Birth and
Estimates of Girls Missing at Birth in India. New Delhi, India: United Nations Population FundIndia