We Should All be Pro-Choice

A common debate around the world is if abortion should be legal or not. Regardless of personal beliefs, abortion should always be legal. Now, this may sound shocking as many people will scream, “But what about the children?!”. To put this in perspective, what makes that clump of cells alive? One of the first things students learn in biology class is the characteristics of life. These include order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, adaptation, growth and development, homeostasis, energy processing, and evolution. Now humans can complete these characteristics but the embryo which is made of stem cells depends on the mother to survive. On its own, it technically is not living. Another common argument is that it goes against religious beliefs one might possess. These are typically made by Christians and in specific the Catholic Church. A beautiful thing we have in this country is the separation of church and state. The first clause in the Bill of Rights says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This country was built on the ideals that religion and legislature should never mix. Not to mention the U.S. does not have one religion. It’s a diverse country from ample religious backgrounds and just because one religion does not believe in abortion does not mean that it is unethical. The truth is that even with laws prohibiting it, there will still be abortions. According to the World Health Organization, 25 million unsafe abortions happen annually. Most often in developing countries that prohibit any abortion. The reality is keeping legal safe abortions would keep more people alive as each year between 4.7% – 13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion. There is no way to end abortions completely but the first steps to creating less would be bettering sex education in schools, and having more education on contraceptives.