The Debate on the Legalization of Abortion in Malaysia

The debate whether abortion should be legalized has been a hot topic in many countries. It is a hard decision to make for parents who face moral issues and a matter of fact it has to do with life and death of their child. Pregnancy may bring many issues to the woman who bears the child. It may cause the woman to suffer and affect her future such as studies and job searching. As women are the ones who suffer the most from bearing the child, they should have the right to choose whether to continue or end her pregnancy.

I strongly agree that abortion should be legalized in Malaysia due to the safety of both mother and child, financial stability and responsibility of the mother.

First, not every woman wanted to be pregnant, most of the unintended pregnancies are those young girls who are unaware of the importance of safety measurements. In many cases, teenage girls find out that it is difficult to confess to their parents that they are pregnant as they are afraid of the consequences that come after that.

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In this situation, some would take responsible of bringing the innocent child to the world and then give him up for adoption, some would seek out illegal abortion to get rid of the pregnancy in harming themselves by taking drugs or self-induced abortion. Or they might choose to give birth in a public toilet and abandon it there. “According to police statistics, nationwide one baby is dumped every three days”.

(Star, 2017) It is sometimes difficult for the mothers to make such cruel decision but they are forced to do it if there is no other way. It is dangerous to deliver a baby without any professional assistance and may danger the life of both mother and child. Also with supervision from physicians, the rate of injury and death will definitely reduce. Therefore, bringing abortion to be legalized would naturally be giving another choice to these young girls.

Second, nowadays raising a child is no small matter, especially for those teenage mothers who have unintended pregnancies. A research have found out that the number of teenage births is recorded between 13,000 and 17,000 every year in Malaysia and the number of teenage pregnancies would definitely be greater than the recorded data. Almost every live birth, there is one abortion or miscarriage. (Star, 2017) From here we can see that many young people decide to give up their child and the reason behind is not because they do not love it but rather because that raising a child would certainly need to sacrifice a lot. Without stable income, they would have to rely on their parents to help take care of the child or drop out of school and start working which will interfere their education and career goals. Therefore, many would come down to realise that they want the best for their children, financially, emotionally and physically but at the moment they are unable to fulfill that yet.

Last but not least, some people may say that abortion is the same as committing murder. Does the mother have the right to choose to kill the baby or not? Many people who are against abortion see the life of an fetus is the same as humans. I would like to justify that abortion should not be considered as murder at an early stage. A baby would need time to develop its human traits. Once the baby has reached the stage where it develops consciousness and senses, the mother of the child should not be allowed to do abortion as the child may feel the pain when being removed from the mother. Also, according to the Ministry of Health Malaysia on the termination of pregnancy (TOP) in 2012, abortion can be taken place to remove an embryo or foetus where the pregnancy is less than 22 weeks of gestation or less than 500g. There are many reasons why a woman may not be equipped or want to raise a child. For instance, pregnancy poses a threat to the life the mother and risks an injury to the mental or physical health of the woman.

In conclusion, abortion should be legalised in Malaysia. Many women do not want to be pregnant by choice, it is bad for the mother if she is forced to remain pregnant. So, even though abortion is banned from the country, they will still seek out for a way to get rid of pregnancy themselves. That way it will cause the mother to suffer more or even death as the body is not capable of delivering a child. It is best to leave the choice to the mother as she knows the best of her condition.