Abortion：Murder or Mercy

Sophy Robin Ray Bryce

Abortion is the intentional ending of a pregnancy due to various reasons such as
financial problems，women’s personal health condition and being a rape victim. It is
found that 75% of abortion women are from poor or low-income families and 59% of
them have had at least one birth (Nobis & Grob, 2019). On June 24, 2022, the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade and declared that the U.S. Constitution no
longer protects women's right to abortion. Since then, abortion bans have been in
effect in 5 states such as Louisiana, Missouri and Mississippi. Advocates consider that
legalization of abortion may protect the right of privacy and liberty of women, while
other opponents think that this is life killing or murdering. This essay aims to analyze
whether abortion should be legalized by presenting research findings, data and
examples related to illegalization of abortion. This essay focuses on three advantages
of illegalization of abortion which are protecting children’s right to life, defending
women’s mental health and solving the problems of labor shortage which intensify
aging society and one disadvantage which is damaging the right of privacy and liberty
of women.
The most important advantage of illegalization of abortion is that the
illegalization of abortion could prevent mental health problems for women after
abortion and could effectively prevent health problems for babies caused by abortion.
The psychological damage of abortion to women has gradually become an important
concern. Both the unimaginable pain suffered during abortion and the psychological
guilt of strangling the newborn after abortion result in the shadow that women cannot
erase in their life. As Thorp et al. state (2005), after multiple abortions, women are
more reluctant to give birth to the next generation. They may often recall the
extremely strong physical pain caused by abortion and the guilt for the newborn that
cannot be forgotten in their minds. This psychological shadow leads them to become
more negative and unable to suppress their emotions in the subsequent life, which

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may contribute to some extreme self-harming behaviors. According to Fergusson et
al. (2008), under the influence of guilt, the self-harm rate and suicide rate of women
after abortion greatly increase, which could have certain influence on the stability of
their family and society. In addition, multiple abortions have a significant impact on
the weight of newborns. Babies born to mothers who have multiple abortions are
lighter, and compared with normal babies, they have different physical qualities
(Mandelson et al., 2011). Therefore, the illegalization of abortion is a protection for
women, which could protect them from suffering some unnecessary psychological
burden and indirectly protect the physical health of newborns.
Another advantage of the illegalization of abortion is that illegality of abortion
could protect babies' right to life, which means that innocent babies can live through
illegality of abortion. The fetuses have the right to life, which means their parents
have no right to kill the fetuses. Hendricks (2018) states that the fetuses are not the
property of parents, and parents have no right to kill the fetuses like destroying
property. If parents do not want to admit their relationship with their babies, they can
legally abandon the babies. There are comprehensive relevant laws and enough
facilities to help the abandoned babies to survive, which means if babies are
abandoned by parents, their parents can not be guilty of a crime and the survival of
the babies can be guaranteed. A parent is not guilty of a crime if the infant is left with
an appropriate person or in a suitable location and the parent promptly notifies an
appropriate person of the infant’s location (The Official Website of New York State,
n.d.). Philipsen (2013) explains the reasons and necessity of formulating the
abandoned-baby laws, which is an effective method to protect the health of
abandoned babies. Many State legislatures have enacted legislation to solve the
problem of infant abandonment and harm in response to the report that newborns are
abandoned in unsafe place. To date, all 50 States and the District of Columbia have
enacted safe haven legislation (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2022). They have
set up corresponding facilities, such as “safe heaven” and “ baby box”. The facilities
in each State are different, but they all protect the lives of abandoned babies until they

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are adopted by other parents or sent to orphanages. Therefore, illegality abortion can
effectively protect children's right to life.
In addition, from the perspective of the birth rate, the illegality of abortion could
increase the birth rate which consequence to further improvement in labor shortage
and intensify aging society. By the fast development of economy and society,
population aging has become a serious problem. The most direct effect of population
aging is the labor market, which reduces the labor supply, affects the saving rate and
increases the financial pressure of pension insurance and the burden of elderly care
and support, thus affecting the development of the entire economy. Maestas et al.
(2016) examine that 10 percent upsurge in population aging and a significant increase
in the number of people over 60 which have led to a decrease in GDP per capita of
nearly 5.5 percent by using the data from the past few decades (1980-2010) on
scheduled aging populations in different states of the United States. As aging problem
is linked to birth rate. In the United States ， abortion was not legalized until 1973.
According to Levine et al. (1999), legalization of abortion leads to a 4 percent drop-in
births rate compared with states that outlawed it, especially among young women and
women over 35. This means that if abortion is banned nationwide, the birth rate may
increase dramatically. Conversely, if Roe v Wade is overturned, America's fertility rate
might rise sharply. As population aging is a serious problem, which may result in the
social labor shortage. If abortion is legalized throughout the country, the birth rate
may decrease. If people want to increase the birth rate in the short term, they should
not legalize abortion.
On the contrary, from the perspective of women’s right protection, abortion
might not be murder and it may be mercy. This is because a fetus which relies on the
energy supply of its mother may not be seen as an individual life and legalization of
abortion can protect women’s rights of privacy and liberty which represent that
women are given the option of whether they will give birth to a baby taking their
physical condition and personal willingness into consideration. Firstly, Nobis and
Grob (2019) indicate that early fetuses having no feelings are not conscious and if a

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fetus who is or has been unconscious completely, it could not be defined as a person
who has all the rights given by law. Therefore, from this perspective, legalization of
abortion may not be killing, but it is kind and mercy, because women’s rights which
have priority compared with it are protected. Secondly, the legalization of early-term
abortion is a popular desire to protect women's rights. According to Hartig (2022), 61
percent of Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases during the
first trimester of pregnancy. It is also found that 54 percent of Americans oppose
overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion
nationwide to protect women’s rights of privacy and liberty (DeAngelis, 2022).
Additionally, illegalization of abortion means that no professional abortion medical
services are available for women who would like to do abortion, which is more
dangerous to women’s health, because some women who are determined to have an
abortion are unacceptable to have professional abortion, leading to serious heath
problems. The statistic estimated by World Health Organization (n.d.) and cited by
Pich (n.d.) shows that almost one -third of maternal deaths is the result of the illegally
induced abortions. It is found that before the legalization of abortion in Britain, there
were many deaths because of unprofessional abortions, but no deaths have been
recorded after abortion become legal (Pich, n.d.). To conclude, legalization of
abortion may not only not be a kind of murder because of fetuses’ unconsciousness
but also mean a kind of protection to women’s rights.
To conclude, this essay has analyzed whether abortion should be legalized.
Illegalization of abortion could not only protect women's physical and mental health
and children's right to life, but also increase the birth rate to solve the problems of
labor shortage and aging society. Although, legalization of abortion protects women's
right to privacy and liberty, in our view, abortion should be illegal in most of the cases
except of abortion owing to rape, incest and women’s health condition because the
advantages of illegality of abortion far outweigh its disadvantages. As far as we are
concerned, more relevant laws should be introduced to regulate the illegality of
abortion in the future. For example, in some special cases, such as women who are

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pregnant due to rape or women with fertility problems, abortion could be allowed at
the beginning of pregnancy (about the first three weeks). (1508 words)

References:
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2022). Infant safe haven laws.
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/safehaven.pdf
DeAngelis, T. (2022). Most Americans oppose decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/10/americans-oppose-roe-wade
Fergusson, D., Horwood, L., & Boden, J. (2008). Abortion and mental health
disorders: evidence from a 30-year longitudinal study.
https://www.sciencegate.app/document/10.1192/bjp.bp.108.056499
Hartig, H. (2022). About six-in-ten Americans say abortion should be legal in all or
most cases.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/13/about-six-in-ten-
americans-say-abortion-should-be-legal-in-all-or-most-cases-2/
Levine, P., Staiger, D., Kane,T., & Zimmerman, D. (1999). Roe v Wade and
American fertility.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1508542/
Maeastas, N., Mullen, K., & Powell, D. (2016). The effect of population aging on
economic growth, the labor force and productivity.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w22452
Mandelson M T., Maden C B., and Daling J R., (1992) Low birth weight in relation to
multiple induced abortions.
https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.82.3.391
Nobis, N. & Grob, K. (2019). Thinking Critically About Abortion: Why Most
Abortions Aren't Wrong & Why All Abortions Should Be Legal.
https://doi.org/10.22595/MC.IR.FAC.PUB:2019_NOBIS_BOOK
Philipsen, N. (2013). Abandoned- Baby Laws.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595144/

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Pich, C. (n.d.). Should abortion be legalized?
https://www.academia.edu/8354859/Should_Abortion_be_legalized
Thorp, J., Hartmann, K., Shadigan, E. (2005). Long-Term Physical and Psychological
Health Consequences of Induced Abortion: A Review of the Evidence.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15856572/