Abortion’s pros, cons both have merit

opinion@dailylobo.com

Columnist’s note: This column is not addressing abortion in the case of adolescent (ages 11-13) pregnancy caused by rape or incest. It only addresses abortion used as a means of birth control, abortion for health reasons and abortion in the cases of adult rape.

On Tuesday, November 19, the city of Albuquerque will vote on whether to abolish the right of women to abort after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Everyone has an opinion about abortion; it really is a controversial issue with reasonable arguments from both sides.

Some people frown upon it because they stand behind their religions or the conviction that a fetus a human being; some people are for it because of the belief in a woman’s right to choose. In reality, who are human beings to say someone else is wrong? This is a look at some statistics and some ideas to help us all make the right choice when we go into the voting booth.

According to RAINN (the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), every two minutes in the U.S. someone is sexually assaulted. RAINN also states that one out of every six women has been the victim of attempted or completed rape. These victims are four times more likely to commit suicide, six times more likely to suffer from PTSD and three times more likely to suffer depression. Of the victims of completed rape, RAINN estimates that, because 5 percent of unprotected intercourse results in pregnancy, 3,204 pregnancies occurred out of 64,080 rapes in 2004-05. With everything these victims have to go through, carrying the children of their attackers could add to the hardships.

There is a thin line between the myths and facts about abortion.

One is that at 20 weeks a partial-birth abortion, in which a living, usually conscious fetus is killed, is still legal; it hasn’t been legal since 2003. Another common misconception is that all women who would abort at that phase in pregnancy are sexually irresponsible and are doing it out of regret, as a means of escape. More often than not, hormones in a woman have given her a strong attachment to the baby, and at 20 weeks she is more likely to be aborting for her own health or for the sake of the baby. The woman who does have the abortion is more likely to suffer postpartum depression as well.

Abortion will probably never be completely outlawed because we live in a world in which the equality of bodily rights is paramount. Abortion at 20 weeks is not easy for the mother, and that should be understood. At 20 weeks a baby has a defined gender; at 22 weeks, if the baby is born, it has a higher chance of survival because of how developed it is. If abortion is ever declared illegal, there will be no other choice for women than to go “underground.” That being said, we would see a decline in the rate of dead babies and an increase in the rate of women dying during botched abortions.

Because we have spoken about the statistics of sexual assault and rape, and the seemingly positive points of this method of birth control, we need to also mention the downsides of abortion.

Anyone who has taken a human sciences class knows that, according to ‘Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary,’ a fetus is “the unborn offspring in the postembryonic period, after major structures have been outlined, in humans from nine weeks after fertilization until birth.” It is also stated in the embryology textbook ‘Before We Are Born: Essentials of Embryology and Birth Defects,’ “the zygote and early embryo are living, human organisms.”

We know that an embryo is an organism on its way to becoming fully human. There isn’t a lot of denying that, as a baby’s heart begins to beat at 18 days after conception, abortion is taking a life from another being, much like crushing of a seemingly unimportant bug. What effect that has on our world will remain unknown because we will never know the potential of the things we put to an end.

I do, in fact, have an opinion about the issue of abortion. I am a member of the largest demographic of those who go through abortions — I’m female and a college student. That means a pregnancy for me could change many things about my future, and possibly not for the better. I’m riding the middle ground on my opinion, unsure of where I should stand on the issue because there is no way I can relate to someone who has faced the question to abort or not to abort. Who am I to voice my opinion when I don’t know what someone else has been faced with? I know how I am voting on the 19th, but do you? It’s a relevant issue and an important one, so make sure your voice is heard.