Academic writing

Opinion essay

Abortion and why it should be legal

Even though abortion is a very controversial theme and, usually, everyone talk about it at
some point in their lives, it is still debated almost daily in every part of the world. If we think
about this, everyone has a point of view about this topic and when the moment to express
it comes, no one hesitates. In Colombia, abortion is legal in three specific circumstances:
when the continuation of the pregnancy constitutes a danger to the life or health of the
mother; when the existence of life-threatening fetal malformations; and when the
pregnancy is the result of rape, non-consensual artificial insemination or incest. The main
idea of this essay it’s to establish the importance of the total legalization of the abortion.
Feminism is a movement that seeks for the emancipation of women and one of their big
fights are with the legalization of abortion. They fight for the right to choose of women over
their own body without the pressure of the rest of the society. However, people say that
they are not only choosing for themselves, they also are choosing for the “life” inside them;
the Colombian constitution stables that the baby count as a person after they are born.
People has a lot of postures about this theme, this essay will try to answer to the main
postures against abortion with reasons for it to be legal.
One of the main reasons people use to be against the abortion is the fact that they believe
that because the fetuses have DNA they are entitled to life, but in fact, another kind of
organisms also have DNA and they do more a lot of harm in people. In the paper: “Genetic
alterations in gynecological malignancies.” They talk about genetic alterations detected in
ovarian and cervical cancer cells. This kind of cancer has its own DNA and this does not
mean that it should be left alive damaging the body of the host.
As everyone knows, medicine and science in Latin America is strongly influenced by
religious beliefs, leading to the most restrictive regulation globally of sexual and
reproductive health and, most particularly, of abortion. Although Colombia is a country with
a strong division between the state and the Catholic Church, it is normal to see people
being influenced by the dictations of the priests and their interpretation of the bible;
religious people argument against the loss of life in this procedure but, maybe in ignorance
and disinformation, support procedures like assisted fertilization in where the amount of life
lost is a lot bigger than the amount lost in abortions.
A total of 1,808,082 non-donor embryos were transferred in 748,394 fresh cycles resulting
in 358,214 live born. During the years of analysis, the mean number of embryos
transferred has progressively decreased leading to an overall significant decrease in
Embryo Wastage rates (83.2 to 76.5%, p < 0.001) while the percentage of transfers
leading to a live born increased (24.8 to 27.8%, p = 0.002). Embryo Wastage negatively
correlated with percentage of transfers resulting in live birth (p = 0.001), and the average
number of embryos transferred positively correlated with the percentage of embryos
wasted (p < 0.001). The overwhelming majority of embryos transferred still do not result
into a live birth confirming that only few embryos per ART cycle are competent. (Ghazal &
Patrizio, 2017)
If the point of the illegality in abortion is due to the intention of preserve life, the most
logical thing to do is to make the abortion a possibility to everyone. The Lancet paper of
2017 that provides information about the amount of unsafe abortions says: “Worldwide, 25
million unsafe abortions (45% of all abortions) occurred every year between 2010 and
2014, according to a new study by WHO and the Guttmacher Institute published today
in The Lancet. The majority of unsafe abortions, or 97%, occurred in developing countries
in Africa, Asia and Latin America.” And almost 47000 women die every year from unsafe
abortions.
As an economic problem, a research from Torres A, Donovan P, Dittes N, Forrest JD
showed that for every tax dollar spent to pay for abortions for poor women, about four
dollars is saved in public medical and welfare expenditures. Therefore, it is cheaper for
countries to legalize abortions than cover the expenses of unsafe abortions.

In conclusion, abortions are a reality that will not stop only because it is illegal. If our
intentions are to preserve life and to maintain a good economic the real solution is not
persecute woman that realize this procedure the solution it is to give them the opportunity
to live the life they choose.

1. REFERENCES

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18348653 Genetic alterations in gynecological

malignancies

http://scielo.isciii.es/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1886-58872015000100002

https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/28-09-2017-worldwide-an-estimated-25-million-unsafe-
abortions-occur-each-year

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/3100324/ Fam Plann Perspect. 1986 May-

Jun;18(3):111-8.

https://www.alianzaporlasolidaridad.org/noticias/47-000-mujeres-mueren-cada-ano-en-el-
mundo-en-abortos-inseguros

Ghazal, S., & Patrizio, P. (2017). Embryo wastage rates remain high in assisted
reproductive technology (ART): a look at the trends from 2004-2013 in the USA.
Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 34(2), 159–166.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10815-016-0858-2