The debate over the legality and morality of abortion has been under the scrutiny of religious, moral and government agencies for the past decade. One side of the debate is the pro-choice stand, which upholds that abortion be legalized and accepted by society based on several strong reasons. So much effort has been given to defend the rights of the unborn child, yet it should be understood that the pregnant woman also has rights. Every woman should also thus be treated the right to extricate herself from the current condition of pregnancy that she is in (Kortiansky, 2004).
It is important that the personal reasons of a pregnant woman be respected as she herself made the choice of terminating a pregnancy. Since a pregnant woman has made a major decision of terminating a pregnancy, it should be understood that her reasons behind such choice are strong enough to face such procedure. It is possible that a pregnant woman intends to resolve a social or medical issue, such as a pregnancy resulting from a rape incident or a pregnancy may result in her health risk and possibly cost her her life (Gondor et al. , 1996; Woodell et al. , 2007).
There are also cases of abortion that were based on the prevention and further spread of an infection such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (Blood, 1994b). The pro-choice stand also allows every woman to know and to understand the entire concept of abortion, as information regarding this procedure has been shunned for decades (Blood, 1994a). It is unfortunate to know that the gag rule has been followed by midwives and physicians for the last 3 decades, leaving pregnant woman ignorant and biased towards the procedure of termination of pregnancy.
Abortion will also serve as an additional resource for stem cell research, which provides the greatest potential for regenerative medicine (Pfeffer, 2009). The current youth better understands the issue of abortion and supports its specific purpose, which should be considered on a case to case basis (Gleeson et al. , 2008). Questions for the con side: 1. What action would you suggest to a pregnant woman who conceived from a sexual assault? 2. What action would you suggest to a pregnant woman who is HIV positive and her baby will most likely also be HIV positive?
3. Do you think that saving an HIV-positive fetus from abortion will be appreciated by this baby when he grows up? 4. Do you think that saving a fetus from abortion, yet the conception had a history of rape, would result in a fully loving mother caring for this baby? 5. Do you think that saving one fetus from abortion is more important than using the aborted fetus for stem cell research that could save more than one life? 6. How manipulative could the con-abortion side be with the gag rule being in existence for several decades?
7. Do you think it is right to keep women ignorant of the concept of abortion, based on the gag rule? 8. Would you choose the life of the fetus over the life of the pregnant woman who is at risk to die due to medical complications? 9. Would you choose the life of one HIV-positive fetus over the lives of thousands of people who may be infected with HIV by this fetus? 10. Do you think that an HIV-positive child would live a normal life when born into this world?