Introduction
In the recent past, there has been a debate on whether abortion should be legal or not. Many people in the US complain that they are restricted and at the same time, there are laws, which punish doctors who perform abortions. Abortion is inaccessible for many individuals and this forces them to travel to their states to access abortions. Around the globe, many states have not included abortion in the list of healthcare services, however, some situations can guarantee abortion. Most states provide exemptions for abortions in cases of threat to life, rape, or incest. The US government has put laws in place, which regulate the number of abortions that should be undertaken and this makes it difficult for abortion service providers to stay open. In this paper, the focus is to explore how people struggle over abortion law and how the human rights law protects women who seek a legal abortion.
From a moral perspective, it is against human rights to end a life prematurely. Women try to escape from unwanted pregnancy ad are forced to use dangerous and unreliable methods, which also put their lives on danger. For instance, research done by Reardon (2018), demonstrated that more than 70 percent of women in Alabama have tried to use methods such as blows to the abdomen, knitting needles, and even poisonous drugs to terminate their pregnancies. Furthermore, those women who have money are taken for a clinic for an illegal abortion. These women are exposed to dangers in that when knitting needles are used for an abortion, there is no pain relief. Also, many women bleed heavily, something that is life-threatening because at many times they bleed to death. Human rights came to rescue innocent infants who die prematurely and also several women who are suffering and dying as a result of abortions.
According to the human rights, abortion is appropriate when doctors independently agree that the life of the mother or the baby is in danger (World Health Organization & World Health Organization. Reproductive Health, 2015). 99 percent of abortion in the US has been approved to legal when the mother’s life was at risk. In an article by Erdman (2017), women asserted that she was advised by medical professionals to proceed with the abortion because if the pregnancy continued, her life would be at risk. Scans have shown that the fetus was badly disabled and this could put physical wellbeing at risk. Also, human rights allow abortion to proceed if the child to be born is a risk to harm existing children or if the test scans show the child has a deformity and is unlikely to live after birth. Therefore, there are exemptions when abortion is legal and not in that even the father of the child has no rights by law to stop the abortion.
Is abortion ethical and when do human beings become part of the moral community? Many people in the US have been debating on this question and others have developed their conspiracy theories, which to some extent related to natural law or human rights. Some proponents argue that the fetus is not a person because there is no life at conception, therefore, that form should not be protected by the law. They further add that not all human tissue is a person, for instance, living cells such as cancer cells are human tissue, which exists in the human body and they are not protected by the law. In this regard, if the fetus should be classified as a person then abortion could be equivalent to murder. However, critics of this position indicate that a fetus is still under development and will become a human being at some point. Also, since the fetus is not self-aware, killing them is comparable to killing human persons.
Abortion is a controversial topic that draws attention in sectors such as health, political, religious, and more. Even though these sectors have their measures and theories about abortion law, there is an inextricable link between women’s health and abortion. The law puts measures to restrict women from unwanted births and unsafe abortion. According to Reardon (2018), the high percentage of deaths from pregnant women occur where abortion is not restricted by the law. If there will be restrictions of abortion in medical facilities, poor women and young girls will not be exposed to unnecessary deaths and morbidities, something that further adds a social and financial burden. Law, policies, and regulations have been geared in the health sector to restrict not only clients but doctors to conduct abortion; this will achieve a positive health outcome for women especially those in vulnerable situations, including rape survivors, women living with disabilities, poor women, women living with HIV to mention but a few.
Whereas there are restrictions of abortion in the health care sector, the government is coordinating with the center for human rights to ensure that there is a comprehensive ground for abortion (McCurdy, 2016). Even though abortion is considered illegal, women will at some point decide to abort in case of unintended pregnancy. A lack of access to abortion is likely to increase the number of women seeking illegal abortion services and augment mortality and morbidity. Legal restrictions make women seek abortion services from unskilled persons hence exposing them to significant risks such as death or disability. Moreover, legal restrictions force women to seek abortion services in other countries, something that is likely to delay access and cause disabilities (Reardon, 2018). In this case, abortion services have been integrated into the health care system to protect women who are exposed to this kind of suffering. For example, in the US, abortion up to a set of gestational limit is not subjected to criminal code.
In the same parallel, there are some situations where abortion is necessary, for example, when there is a fatal impairment, when there is a threat to the mother’s life, based on the woman’s social and economic circumstances, on request and more. The reason why the health sector was of concern is that it helps to plan and manage safe abortion. It is not that it is trying to infringe human rights and the law, but it is also an approach to safe human life. At the medical facilities, abortion is performed using appropriate medical drugs and techniques, which are safe. This reduces mortality and morbidity risks that women have been experiencing. The health sector today has a mandated work in conjunction with the human rights to ensure that safe abortion services are available to women in the full extent of the law. The government has also ensured that actions, policies, and services that are delivered to people are o the health needs and the human rights of women in the broader social, economic, and cultural context.
It is also the responsibility of the health sector or health care system to create an enabling environment to ensure that every legally eligible woman has ready access to safe abortion (Erdman, 2017). Human rights require that all people be respected and protected despite the existence of comprehensive policies and regulations about abortion. Human rights indicate that laws and regulations of abortion should limit access to unnecessary abortion but they should also protect, respect, and fulfill human rights of women (World Health Organization & World Health Organization. Reproductive Health, 2015). This is an effort to protect and promote women’s health in a complete state of physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
It is the health sector that should provide good-quality information to women and young girls out there to minimize the rate of unintended pregnancies. For example, the world health organization provides comprehensive sexuality education and a broad range of emergency contraception that helps to address discrimination and stigma that women face (World Health Organization & World Health Organization. Reproductive Health, 2015). Moreover, the world health organization is dedicated to meet the needs of women belonging to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups such as single women, adolescents, and single women to elaborate policies that expand sexual and reproductive health services.
Abortion also raises the question in the realm of justice. The justest claim is that there will always be a need for abortion throughout a pregnancy. However, the government must require an abortion to be legal, safe, and accessible. The US has one of the laws that allow abortion for any reason before the third trimester (Erdman, 2017). The support for abortion agrees to the mother to control her life, but as per the law, the conditions for abortion must be justified by the state. If there were no restrictions, parents could kill the newborns because they feel the unwelcome changes when the child is born. Abortion as from the recent past has been justified based on social hardships and developmental abnormalities (McCurdy, 2016). Today, people decide to abort because of the preference for human characteristics they do not like.
Abortion service providers are thus asked to follow administrative practices as labor induction to safeguard the law and protect the lives of women. According to the law, second-trimester abortions are obscured with a death certificate meaning that each abortion carries a legal meaning and consequence (McCurdy, 2016). If laws are not followed, there is a boundary closing originating in medicine to undermine restrictive abortion laws (Erdman, 2017). The other claim of justice is the law to protect women who suffer from economic hardships. Policy measures delay addressing conditions of women of vulnerability who experience greater health, financial, and personal hardships. The human rights, however, project to reduce the risk of prosecution to these women in support of women who seek later termination of a pregnancy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, abortion is one of the controversial topics in the US in that people debate on the line of regulation and freedom. The world health organization and the center for human rights protect women who seek abortion legally. However, human rights law cannot answer the question of whether abortion is moral, but it supports the policies and measures in the health sector to respect and protect the lives of women that are lost during unskilled abortions. The integration of abortion into the healthcare system is likely to reduce the number of mortalities and morbidities that is experienced.
