Over the last decade the need for a renewal in the obsolete abortion laws has been widely claimed because no changes have been made since 1985. Now, the debate is on everybody´s lips. On the one hand, there are those who argue that any woman should decide about her own life. On the contrary, there are people who believe that the current law should be kept as it is today without alteration since it is liberal enough and abortion is already too accesible. Therefore, the question is whether our government must make changes in the law or not.
I personally think that the law in force since 1985 should be changed in the short-term but not without a long process of reflection and, of course, not without the agreement of most political parties. On that point, the new law should assure the possibility of women to decide, because, underneath it, it is their future that they are deciding about the moment they think about an abortion. However, women must be informed about the pros and cons of the process by a panel of doctors. In fact, in many cases in which the woman is determined to have an abortion there is still a lot of misinformation or a complete lack of it, which can be the cause of a lot of problems. With regard to the proper age to have an abortion, I do think that it depends on every single case. Nevertheless, I also believe that women under eighteen should decide about their own life but always with the parents’ knowledge, since they could give them some pieces of advice speaking in hindsight.
Of course, there are those who claim that abortion is a crime against humanity, specially groups linked to the Catholic Church. I personally respect this point of view but no one would dispute the fact that abortion is a right, not an obligation, therefore, you can choose whatever you want taking into account all your moral and ethical beliefs.
To sum up, the abortion law should be updated since it has been there for more than two decades without any changes. If our day to day life is progressing, why are our laws not progressing at the same time. But this progress should not be based on overnight changes, otherwise we could regret having done things that do not work out at all.
Good essay Silvia!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you up to a point... well, maybe it's not stated in the essay and you think the same I reckon. Speaking in layman's terms and without a big education around it, I would say that up to now women are being able to abort under certain situations. Moreover, I think that in the period of about 14 weeks one has enough time to decide what to do. And only allow the abortion after that time if mother's life or health is in danger...
However, I admit that it's a very sensitive topic and if we have to wear other person's shoes it will probably be even more difficult to takle...
Good work Silvia, you raise some very interesting points.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of abortion is one which will always raise controversy, as there are two distinct groups of people: Those who are pro-life (on the baby's side) and those who are pro-choice (who advocate the right of the mother to make her own decision). It is not possible to keep both of these groups happy at the same time.
I personally don't agree with people using abortion as a method of contraception, which is becoming increasingly popular in the UK with teenage girls. They get pregnant and say "Oh, it's fine, I'll just get it aborted", and have up to 5 abortions in their lifetimes, which can run the risk of leaving them infertile.