Francesca Benitez

STEM 12

Pro – choice Abortion

Abortion is undoubtedly one of the long-standing topics dividing our society today. Because abortion
kills an unborn child, most people believe it is cruel and unethical. People, on the other hand, feel that
abortion is a concept of bodily rights. It is a woman's right to choose whether or not to have children.
Abortion should be authorized for a variety of reasons.

In Medical terminology. Abortion should be performed in a variety of scenarios in order for the mother
to live. This notion was utilized by Judith Jarvis Thomson, a philosopher, to make the parallel between
forcing a woman to maintain an undesired pregnancy and forcing a person's body to be used as a
dialysis machine for another person suffering from kidney failure. She claimed that even though the
fetus has the right to life, abortion is ethically justified since a woman, or mother, has the right to
regulate her own body. Thomson stated that just as unplugging and causing the death of the person
who is using one's kidneys is legal, so is abortion of the fetus.

To legalize abortion in situations of rape, incest, and significant fetal deformity. The UN also proposed
decriminalizing all other circumstances in which women have abortions. It is clear that the Philippines
has some of the most restrictive abortion regulations in the world. Under present legislation, abortion is
prohibited in all circumstances; there is no direct legal rationale for an abortion, even if the pregnancy
endangers the mother's life. In these disadvantaged groups, the prevalence of induced abortion reflects
the difficulties women have in obtaining reproductive health care, including modern contraception.
Despite the passage of the country's Reproductive Health Bill, contraception and sex education, among
other issues, remain contentious in the Philippines. This total prohibition continues to force women to
seek abortions from untrained practitioners, who use traditional medicine and perform abortions in
unclean environments.

According to recent research, unsafe abortion is a major contributor to the Philippines' high maternal
mortality ratio; over 1,000 Filipino women die each year as a result of unsafe abortion complications,
while tens of thousands are hospitalized. The bulk of the women that contribute to these figures are
often young, impoverished, or from rural regions. Poor women are more vulnerable to these issues
because they encounter hurdles to effective family planning and lack access to reproductive health
services. These abortions are typically performed in back alley clinics by persons with no professional
medical expertise. This puts the mother in a risky and perhaps fatal condition, with 8 out of 10 of these
women experiencing difficulties. Hemorrhage, sepsis, peritonitis, and damage to the cervix, vagina,
uterus, and abdominal organs are some of the usual medical consequences that result from the use of
such crude and risky procedures.

Pro-choice advocates think that if abortion is permitted, it will now take place in medical settings,
assuring the mother's safety. Abortion has been illegal in the Philippines for almost a century. The
legislation and the criminal amendments make no exceptions for women to get abortions. As a result,
women are forced to seek risky and unhygienic abortions. According to Guttmatcher data, this unlawful
abortion resulted in the deaths of at least 1,000 women and problems for another 90,000 in 2008.