Abortion is considered one of the world’s most controversial topics. Almost every culture or religion seems to have an opinion on whether or not it should be an acceptable practice. Despite the moral issues surrounding the idea of abortion, there is one thing that is true. Abortion is, in some cases, a woman’s best option. Every year, 211 million women get pregnant. Of these 211 million pregnancies, half of them are unplanned. Unplanned or not, pregnancy takes a detrimental emotional and physical toll on a woman. Abortion should be legalized and more easily accessible for women because many women are not ready or planning to get pregnant, many women are not financially capable of raising a child, and without access to abortions many women are forced to turn to unsafe options that put their own lives in jeopardy.
With almost half of all pregnancies being unplanned, this leads to the issue of many women becoming pregnant at times when they cannot emotionally, financially, or physically carry a fetus. According to Guttmacher institute, a pro choice research organization, most unplanned pregnancies that occur in America happen to women between the ages of 18 and 24. Women at this age are typically still in college or university, meaning they aren’t yet financially secure, or emotionally mature enough to raise children, or carry a fetus to term. Pregnancy at this age is, in some ways, dangerous, it threatens a woman’s education, career, and social life, all of which are desperately needed for a support system during pregnancy and raising children. These difficulties are even further escalated through parenthood.
Raising children is financially taxing on parents—this difficulty is exemplified on single mothers. Abortion aids women who aren’t financially capable of raising children on their own. According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), raising a child can cost a middle class family upwards of $230,000, from birth to the age 17. This means that most single parents struggle with the cost of housing, school fees, and even putting food on the table. In addition to this, single mothers also face difficulty getting jobs and finding places to live, as most employers/landlords discriminate and offer them lower salaries/higher rent.
Even without access to safe and legal options, women won’t stop having abortions. In desperation, women could be forced to turn to unsafe illegal home procedures, the effects of which could become fatal. In an article featured on the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), Lisa B Haddad, MD, MA, Clinical Fellow in Obstetrics and Nawal M Nour, MD, MPH state that out of the approximately 42 million abortions that occur each year, 20 million are unsafe. Of these 20 million abortions, 5 million women will suffer long term health issues. Almost 70 thousand women die as a result of unsafe abortions annually, which also makes it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), every 8 minutes, one woman dies from an unsafe abortion in an undeveloped country. The most unfortunate thing about these procedures is not only that they are so common, but also that they are entirely preventable when women like this have access to proper healthcare.
In conclusion, abortion should be more accessible worldwide because having access to safe and legal abortions prevents women from having to undergo financially, emotionally, and physically draining pregnancies, from having to raise children they might not be ready to raise, and from undergoing unsafe abortions that can result in death or potentially long-term health issues.
