Devika Sudhir

UG1
Critical Reasoning
Amit Anurag
05-05-2022

Q1. Should abortion be banned?

Abortion – for a notion that concerns only the private parties involved, there sure is a

monumental amount of controversial discussion regarding the same in the public court.

The popular arguments revolving around this topic essentially boils down to two parties –

pro-lifers and pro-choicers. The pro-lifers’ main argument states that since the idea of life

originates when a child is conceived, abortion becomes inherent murder. This conceived child

has the fundamental humanitarian right to live and being aborted takes away this right from

them. They believe that due to this very reason, abortion should be held in the same regards

as murder and hence be banned legally. However, banning abortion doesn’t take away the

need or demand of abortion, it just acts as a law designed for punishment. And a legal action

that is proposed as such is going to open up avenues for parties to do the same illegally and

under the radar. This questions the safety of such procedures being conducted, not just for the

woman but also for the conceived child. Moreover, there is not enough evidence and prior

legal precedence to conclude whether or not the child has rights at the time or conception or

when it is able to survive out of the womb, and both parties naturally prefer the stance that

favors their viewpoint and hence using this argument just leads to an argumentative vortex

without a conclusive result.

On the other hand, the pro-choicers argue that since the lines between whether or not the

conceived fetus has rights is blurred, the focus should be on what is painfully evident and

being disregarded by the pro-life argument – the rights of the impregnated woman. Raising a
child puts a significant amount of financial strain on the parents, and if they are not ready to

incur the same, it is their choice. Just as the other group argues about the rights of the fetus,

the woman’s right to choice also has and should hold equal validity in their eyes. The other

group might argue that if the parties were not ready to handle the financial, mental and

physical responsibility of a child, they should have not indulged in unprotected sexual

intercourse that put them in this situation in the first place. However, this group takes a rather

narrow viewpoint regarding this and it fails to consider that contraceptives are not 100%

effective in preventing pregnancy – Condoms are 98% effective, IUDs are 99% effective and

contraceptive pills are 99% effective as well. These numbers are also only valid when there is

‘perfect’ use of the same, otherwise the typical usage of these contraceptives drops the

effectiveness rates down to 91% which is a more realistic statistic rather than an ideal one

(NHS website), leaving scope for pregnancies even when the parties take the necessary

precautions.

Additionally, the pro-life group also ignores the nature in which the child is conceived. A

child born out of sexual assault is being born out of trauma. Forcing a woman to have the

child is essentially forcing her into a life-changing decision and if she doesn’t feel ready to

have a child, it is forcing her to relive the trauma she had to endure. If the sexual assault

victim is a teenager, forcing her to have a child, is like snatching her childhood away.

The idea of banning abortion takes a tunnel vision approach and fails to evaluate the

intricacies of the decision making behind having an abortion. For this very reason, Abortion

should not be banned. The conclusion is also drawn from the fact that it is also possible in

cases that it is better for the child to be aborted than to be carried to term such as in the case

of unfavorable results of the amniocentesis test, when abortions are medically advised.

Banning abortion would be taking a prejudiced stance in the fight for rights and hence, it
should not be banned.
NHS website. “How Effective Is Contraception at Preventing Pregnancy?” Nhs.Uk, 18 Nov.

2021, www.nhs.uk/conditions/contraception/how-effective-contraception/#:

%7E:text=Intrauterine%20device%20(IUD)%3A%20more,Older%20types%20are

%20less%20effective.