I am perpetually baffled by how much of a taboo abortion is. Even at this point, in 2016, a time I personally believe is innovative and educated enough to have this conversation without judgment; we are still tiptoeing around the topic. When I think about most of the discussions I’ve had on abortion, I think of hushed voices and looks of discomfort. During my senior year of high school I took a Bioethics class, and it completely changed my outlook. Thinking about medicine from an ethical perspective is interesting because oftentimes things that are practiced in medicine and what is considered ethical, contradict. Ethics takes arguments from every angle of the issue and analyzes them; that being said, ethical arguments are not always valid on their own, but in tandem they are extremely solid. This is very much true for abortion. There are a lot of pro-choice arguments that aren’t heard everyday because they seem outlandish. I don’t believe they are.
So here is my attempt at a new approach to listing necessary, pro-choice arguments that are bound to make you look at the issue in a new way, with the help of “Shameless” (the best show ever).
1. A woman’s right to choose whether or not to have an abortion and how to go about her reproductive health is under her own autonomy.
2. Personhood (aka, what makes you, you) begins at birth, not conception.
3. Abortion is statistically safer than a traditional 9-month pregnancy.
4. Typically, there is less emotional distress for the mother in terminating an unwanted pregnancy than waiting and using an adoption method.
5. Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in America in 1973.
6. Unwanted children are just that, unwanted. They may not live a good quality of life, be abused, and feel unloved.
7. Motherhood should not be a punishment for unsafe sex.
8. If abortion is illegal, people will be forced to perform them in secret and this poses many potential health hazards to both woman and fetus.
The next time you find yourself in the middle of a heated abortion debate, take a step back and think outside of the box for arguments. We need to stop walking on eggshells around this topic. Everyone is entitled to their own views but there is absolutely no reason for something so prevalent in our society to be considered banned speech.
