Abortion and the Right to Life

The argument about abortion, and whether or not it should be legal, has been a prevalent topic of controversy for decades. Abortion has always been a sensitive subject to discuss, as people are hard set in their viewpoint on the matter. The two viewpoints on whether or not abortion should be legal has divided society into two contradicting categories. While the abortion epidemic is not settled in our own country, I will be examining the viewpoints taken by Europeans and how this debate is affecting other countries.

In this bibliography, I will explore different resources illustrating the certain stances taken on this dispute. While research shows that women have had complications while undergoing the procedure, most abortions have proven to be successful. There are good points made for each side of this argument and I plan to discuss the viewpoints of each.

In Henry David’s online journal article “Abortion in Europe” (1992), he asserts that people have been performing abortions for centuries and that they will not be stopping anytime soon.

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This study analyzes Europe’s current trends and previous history involving abortions. However, people in Europe are still undergoing drastic measures to have abortions because not everybody has access to a safe, clean abortion clinic. This is obviously a major public health problem and causes concern among individuals. David claims that the way to prevent this problem is to create more pro-abortion laws that demand accessible medical clinics. He supports this idea with statistics stating that European countries with legal abortion laws have lower abortion rates.

In Thomas Schirrmacher’s online article “Human Rights Threatened In Europe: Euthanasia, Abortion, Bioethics Convention” (2001), he claims that people’s lives are being belittled by new trends being set in Europe. He threatens that human life is being threatened as a whole. First, the author examines new technology emerging in Europe that can dissect the embryo of a baby while it is still inside the mother. Mothers are being used as ‘test subjects’ for ‘research’ because they generally do not know what is happening to them. Schirrmacher also refers to religion in his article. He states that God gives everyone the natural right to life and that killing a human before birth is immoral and a sin. The author is bias towards the idea of pro-life, given the fact that he refers to abortions as “legally killing and wrong.” He is writing to other pro-life advocates who share his same ideas.

In Marianne Githens’ online journal publishing “Reproductive Rights and the Struggle with Change in Eastern Europe (1996), she defines the conflicts that Eastern Europeans’ are undergoing when facing abortion rights. She first supports her claims by discussing the lack of abortion rights in Eastern Europe. One example includes certain countries, such as Poland and Hungary, that have banned abortion. Poland currently has a law stating that women can have an abortion if the child if life-threatening or causes the mother serious injury, however many citizens are afraid to ask for an abortion because of the penalties associated with it. Mothers can be sentenced to prison for undergoing the procedure and doctors can lose their license for practicing abortions. Githens draws attention to the issues involving abortion in Eastern Europe.

In Patrick Flood’s online article “Abortion and the right to Life in Post-Communist Eastern Europe and Russia” (2002), he claims that Eastern Europe is making drastic improvements towards a more pro-choice society. He backs up his assertions by disclaiming that a few years prior, all of Eastern Europe was full of survivors who dealt with communist and Nazi totalitarianism, so the idea of abortion was absurd because everybody was so appreciative of life. However as years passed and the idea of abortion became more practical, laws preventing abortion have slightly changed. For example, there are plenty of pro-choice women groups emerging in Eastern Europe, an act that would have previously imprisoned a women. Flood concludes his article by stating that abortion rights are not as liberal as the United States, but are a major improvement for Eastern Europe as a whole.

In Igor Kon’s online article “Sexual Culture and Politics in Contemporary Russia (2005), he states that Russia is undergoing an epidemic stemming from the lack of sexual education provided by the government. She states that since the Russian Communist Party is associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and is supported by numerous pro-life groups, the government has deliberately steered away from the idea of teaching sex education. This, respectively, has caused numerous health problems including the widespread of STDs and the increase of unsanitary abortion practices. The lack of sex education leaves Eastern Europeans unaware of the negative consequences sexual intercorse may have.

Conclusion

After exploring a multitude of sources, I have discovered many pertinent points made for each viewpoint on the topic of abortion. The pro-choice viewpoint illustrates the importance of women having access to clean and safe abortions. When women have to covertly get an abortion procedure, they face many health complications and sometimes an incomplete operation. The sources discuss how many women get the procedure done in secret simply because they are afraid of the repercussions. In countries with the most drastic abortions laws, these repercussions can even include death. The sources declare that if women had access to safe and sterile operations and weren’t facing such harsh consequences, the abortion rate would actually decrease. Just knowing that they have the ability to choose what happens to their body will allow women to rethink their decision before doing it out of impulsivity. The sources that are pro-life argue that life is a very valuable thing and should be treasured above all else. As parts of Europe were involved in the genocide of the Holocaust, their views on life have become that of appreciation and gratitude. There are also sources that state that women who get abortions are considered “test subjects” in some countries as they are ignorant to the full extent of what is happening to them.

Many sources that are pro-life also address the religious aspect of the matter, stating how God wouldn’t create a life form if it wasn’t intended to be born. They reiterate that God does everything with a purpose and that the said baby is here for a specific reason. Through researching this topic, I am able to see the thought process of both viewpoints. There are many articles that depict the substantial controversy surrounding this topic. Viewpoints on abortions and its moral implications are an objective matter, however most women are unable to take objective action. This topic will remain relevant for decades to come as it previously has. The smartest way to come to a conclusion on how to feel about the subject is to research both sides and determine which one is more justifiable.