Sabrina Butler

Mr. Pace

Honors Junior English

5/25/23

The Abortion Argument

How is it that guns have more rights than women? How is it that government officials

dictate what a woman does with her body? Following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade

decision, abortion is now illegal in 14 states. Likewise, Georgia banned abortion at 6 weeks of

pregnancy, a very early point in pregnancy when most women don’t know they are even

pregnant yet. These laws are highly problematic because there are several reasons why a woman

needs to get an abortion. Some of these reasons include women not being physically or mentally

ready to be a mother, not having the financial stability and security to maintain a child, the father

not being present, the baby having major disabilities, or the pregnancy being due to rape. Women

should have access to abortions because there are several mental, financial, medical, and

situational factors that dictate whether they can bear a child or not.

Abortions should be made available to women nationwide because of mental immaturity

and financial instability. There are many cases where young women, many in their teenage years,

will get pregnant and are nowhere near ready to be a mother. Their brains haven’t fully

developed, so they are still going through crucial periods of development in their own body and

brain. Everyone needs the time to discover themselves as individuals and experience life

adequately on their own before committing to the responsibility of another human. Since many

accidental pregnancies happen during critical times of self-exploration, women should have the

choice to decide what they want to do with their body and their future. If they are not ready to be
a mother, abortion is the best choice for both the baby and her, because she can’t guarantee to

provide the baby with proper care and love when she isn’t fully matured herself either.

Furthermore, many women don’t have the financial security to support a child and all the

expenses that come with it. In a recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper on women

who successfully sought abortions compared to those who were denied the procedure, “The

amount of past-due debt incurred by the “turned away” [denied abortion] women jumped by 78

percent compared to the average they owed before they gave birth” (Sarah Miller, NBC News).

This data highlights the significant financial impact having a child has on women. Unfortunately,

though, many women have no choice and bear the financial burden for years after, which can

sometimes lead to bankruptcy. Even more, women are statistically proven to have disadvantages

in the labor market, “Black women attain an average earnings peak of $61,100, compared with

$68,800 for white women — both of which fall far below the $104,100 peak earnings of white

men” (NBC News). The wage gap that women suffer already puts stress on their ability to meet

the cost of living to support themselves, let alone a child. For many, being denied abortion means

getting sent into a financial catastrophe and prevents them from pursuing other goals in life.

Overall, the mental and emotional unpreparedness for a baby and lack of financial security are

reasons why many women need access to abortion resources and clinics.

Women should be able to have an abortion because of medical and situational

circumstances that impact the quality of life for both the baby and the mother. In some cases,

women discover that their baby has major disabilities. Not only does this entail a strenuous

parenting job, but also a hard life for the child. While it’s incredibly sad to say, depending on the

severity, a baby with disabilities can be a burden on the family, so the best decision may be for

the woman to abort. Another significant reason for a woman to have an abortion is the father not
being present. Single parenting is extremely difficult in all aspects - mentally, physically,

financially, and emotionally. Taking care of a baby is a hard enough job for two people, so doing

it alone is nearly impossible. The amount of stress that will be put on the mother is unhealthy and

could very well put her own health at risk. In addition to the stress of meeting all the baby’s

physical needs, she’s also responsible for the finances to cover the baby plus all the other costs

she has for living. Furthermore, abortion should be legal because the pregnancy could be due to

rape. Carrying a child that was due to such a traumatic experience means that the baby will

forever remind her of that awful man and her trauma. It will completely affect the way she sees

and feels about the baby. The way the baby was made will inhibit her from loving it normally

because her pregnancy wasn’t from a place of love, it was from a place of fear and trauma. Even

more, she will have to explain to her child why their father is not present. She has two options,

she will either keep it a secret that the child came from a rape, or she will have to tell the child

the awful truth. Neither of those options are pleasant. All in all, abortions should be available

nationwide because of the medical and situational circumstances of the pregnancy that could

affect the quality of life for the baby and the mother.

Some may believe that abortion is murder. Pro-Lifers feel that they are advocating for the

baby’s nonexistent voice, that the child has moral rights, and that abortion kills a separate human

being. However, this stance entirely disregards the many factors that contribute to abortion.

Pro-Lifers do not care about women and their lives. They don’t consider the possible economic

and financial stress, medical issues, rape or incest, male abandonment, single parenthood, or the

psychological and emotional burdens of parenthood that can come out of an unwanted

pregnancy. Instead, they simply ignore these factors and argue their one and only point: abortion

is child murder. The argument that abortion is killing a human is solely based on biology, not
theology. According to theology, the human organism goes from a zygote, embryo, fetus,

newborn, toddler, teenager, and then to an adult. Anti-abortionists argue that aborting an unborn

fetus is killing a baby, but that’s why there are restrictions on how far into the pregnancy women

can abort. However, some prolifer states have made it nearly impossible to have an abortion -

while still checking off the box that makes it legal. For example, Georgia has laws in effect

banning abortions at around 6 weeks of pregnancy - a time when most women aren’t even aware

they are pregnant. Georgia believes that abortion should be prohibited when cardiac activity has

been found in an embryo, but at this stage in development, the baby is nowhere near viable. The

baby is not even near a complete human, so aborting at this stage is not technically killing a

distinct living human being. Anti-abortionists have one and only argument: abortion is murder.

However, this is a narrow perspective that doesn’t consider women’s lives. It generalizes all

stages of development as a distinct human organism that has moral rights that need to be

protected. There are several factors involving an unwanted pregnancy that completely constitute

and justify an abortion, bearing a child requires a lot of strength and responsibility that many

women don’t have access to.

On a final note, there are several reasons why abortion should be legal and made

available to women nationwide. Some of these reasons include women not being mentally,

emotionally, and physically prepared to raise a child; women could be struggling financially,

making them unable to sustain the expenses of a child; there could be medical issues with the

child, which poses a difficult parenting job; women could be impregnated and abandoned by the

male; and lastly, the baby could be due to rape, which makes the mother’s pregnancy based on

trauma. Everyone should put themselves in others' shoes before judging them for their actions.

Instead of taking a narrow, blind perspective on abortion, we need to consider all the factors that
go into having a child and the hundreds of scenarios that could make it unrealistic to add the

responsibility of another human to it.

 Works Cited

White, Martha C. “How Limiting Abortion Access Hurts Women Financially.” NBCNews.Com,

5 May 2022,

www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/limiting-abortion-access-hurts-women-financ

ially-roe-v-wade-rcna27291.

Paulsen, Michael Stokes. “The One and Only Pro-Life Argument.” Public Discourse, 25 Apr.

2022, www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2022/04/81966/.