The abortion debate: the moral and the legal

Welcome to another installment of Better Bickering, the series in which I take a popular controversial topic and analyze it from each side of the issue. Through this process I hope we can all learn to understand opposing perspectives better, and that we can all strive to argue to learn instead of to win.

In my weekly discussion group with fellow students, the topic of abortion came up. Although it was an interesting conversation, it was not particularly fruitful, and it’s easy to see why. Abortion is a wildly divisive issue, so wrapped up in moral and religious beliefs that it’s almost impossible to even discuss it, let alone reach consensus. So that’s this week’s issue. Hopefully we can understand the complicated nuances of abortion and its political controversy a little better.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines abortion as “the termination of a pregnancy after, accompanied by, resulting in or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus.” This can be done through surgery or drugs either at home or in a hospital. Abortion is not contraception, which is defined as a “deliberate prevention of conception or impregnation (as by the use of birth control pills, IUDs, condoms, coitus interruptus, vasectomy or tubal ligation),” which is legal in all 50 states. Nor is it the killing of a child during or shortly following birth, which was banned by the supreme court in 2007. Both of those are separate issues that I will not be discussing here.

There are two parts of the discussions of abortion: the moral and the legal. We will start with the former. Many abortion opponents believe that abortion is murder because life begins at conception, which is defined as “the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilization or implantation or both.” If life begins at conception, then the life of an unborn child has the same value as the life of its mother, making abortion murder. While some might argue that exceptions for rape and incest are acceptable, the argument holds that once a pregnancy begins the only reason it may be terminated is if there is no way the mother can survive the pregnancy.

Those that support abortion believe that pregnant women must be given the choice to terminate a pregnancy,
especially if it is an unwilling one, in order to protect their own life or to stop from bringing a child into a bad or unfulfilling life. The argument holds that pregnant women have the right to make decisions regarding their own lives and bodies over the theoretical needs of the unborn child that may or may not end up becoming a person.

The moral issue of abortion often confronts deeply held religious and moral beliefs making it extremely controversial; however, the more impactful part of the debate is the legal issue, whether abortion should be banned or enshrined as a right. They are often in line, if abortion is amoral it should be federally banned, and if women have the right to choose to get an abortion it should be federally protected. There are split opinions though. The most common is that if abortion is to be banned, then the child must be guaranteed a fulfilling, healthy life free of trauma with the ability to meet all their needs. Because the country is not at that point right now, even though abortion is morally wrong, the government does not have the right to ban it. Another split opinion is that it is outside the purview of any level of the government to rule on abortion, regardless of the morality of it. The final opinion holds that abortions will happen regardless of a ban, so they should be allowed in order to mitigate safety and health risks.

Although abortion is contentious and hard to agree on, everyone deserves respect and the freedom to make their own decisions. That means we must be open to hearing each other out regarding abortion, even if we don’t agree. And credit where credit is due, that is how I’ve written this article. The opinions in
this piece have all been informed by women I have consulted.

While abortion affects men, I believe it is fundamentally an issue concerning women, and thus women ought to have a greater say over it. If I had any conclusion it would be this, go talk to the women in your lives, find out how the decision to get or not get an abortion has affected people you know. Research the health impacts on mothers and children in places with and without a ban on abortion. This is such a difficult and complicated issue, the least we can be is respectful, well informed participants in discussions for the common good.

If you want to send in your opinions about abortion or suggest issues you want to see evaluated in a future installment please email any and all thoughts to me at wflannery001@csbsju.edu I thank you all for reading and I hope you will all strive to argue to learn rather than to win.