Position Paper
By: Group 5
Topic: Legalization of Abortion
Country: Philippines
According to Wikipedia abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or
expulsion of an embryo or fetus, in simpler terms, it is a medical procedure that ends a
pregnancy. Abortion’s legalization is a topic under debate for many years that continues to
this very day. So now we ask why abortion is not yet legalized when it can benefit many
people, and not just women.
Firstly, keeping abortion unlegalized puts women who want to abort in danger. It has
been recorded that around 1,000 women died in 2008, and about 90,000 women suffered
complications because of the ban that the Philippines placed on abortion. Since the methods
used to remedy non-viable pregnancies are similar to the ones used for abortion. Secondly,
during the years 2015-2019, 3,770,000 annual pregnancies were recorded, 1, 930,000 were
unintended, and 973,000 were aborted. Also in 2020, an estimated 1.26 million abortions
occurred. These statistics show that abortion is still practiced even though it is prohibited,
which heavily implies that women who want to abort will most likely be achieving it through
underground and unsafe methods proving that the ban does not lower abortion rates but
instead lowers the quality of abortion methods utilized.
Next, legalizing abortion allows doctors to use it without fear of being sued. As stated
earlier methods for non-viable pregnancies are similar to the ones used for abortion, and if it
stays unlegalized doctors cannot use it to save a patient/mother’s life without suffering
serious legal consequences. Examples of non-viable pregnancies would be miscarriages and
low-survivability-when-delivered fetuses, these non-viable pregnancies can only be remedied
through the termination of a pregnancy. Lastly, abortion prevents a child from suffering a
terrible childhood. With the Philippines' fairly high poverty rate of 15.5%, the low-income
class’s average family income ranges between ₱ 9,000- ₱ 18,200, and the minimum income
necessary to live comfortably is ₱ 13,873 per month as of 2021. Add the higher likelihood of
child neglect from mothers who were denied abortion when they wanted to on top of these
factors, there is no question that the child will suffer a terrible childhood one way or another.
However, there is also a multitude of counter-arguments against the legalization of
abortion, we shall tackle a few. First would be that abortion is murder since conception starts
the creation of life and many consider that the embryo/fetus is a human. Yet it can be argued
that it could be justified since the removal/elimination of the fetus/embryo would save the life
of a mother or abortion may be considered a mercy kill to end the suffering of a child before
it may start. The second counter-argument is that legalizing abortion will devalue the lives of
people similar to racism. As stated earlier abortion is oftentimes done to save the life of the
mother and one could argue that the act of abortion may be considered an act of bearing
responsibility for parents, specifically mothers who are not yet ready for a child by
preventing the child from suffering a terrible childhood.
Lastly, abortion may cause emotional distress to the mother considering that they may
suffer grief and depression. However, a study shows that abortion does not guarantee a
mental disorder. Another also states that abortion itself does not cause mental health issues,
however, the mental state of a mother before an abortion may be better at predicting the
mother’s mental state after an abortion.
In conclusion, abortion is a very controversial topic that continues to be debated
today. The side that wants abortion to stay unlegalized states that the fetus is a life worth
saving that we are devaluing it and that killing said life is murder along with the emotional
distress that abortion may cause is more than enough justification to keep abortion
unlegalized. However, many pieces of evidence show that keeping abortion unlegalized
endangers women and health professionals. It has also been stated that abortion can be the
most responsible action to undertake to prevent a child from suffering.
References:
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