Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. Some might argue that there is no difference between killing an unborn baby at a clinic and stabbing someone to death in the street. However, imagine an ordinary Saturday night in a teenagers’ life, and a house party has been publicized over the Social Networking site, Facebook. Exams are over and everyone just wants to have a good time and let their hair down.
Sarah, unaware to the fact that she has just achieved six “A” grade Highers, inadvertently drinks too much and throws herself at a young lad who she doesn’t know but thinks she fancies. Believing he will increase his “street cred”, the boy responds favorably to her pleas to go upstairs and undoubtedly they conduct sexual relations without the aid of any form of contraception. The outcome of the sex is that Sarah is pregnant at the mere age of seventeen and the boy, with no prospects other than his state benefit coming through the mailbox, leaves the party the next morning with a cheering grin, texting rapidly revealing to his friends why he wasn’t in the taxi home being violently sick.
Filled with panic and regret, Sarah leaves the house, terrified and anxious as to what happened. Having no way of finding out what she did, she returns home to the usual lecture from her parents but with previous experience, she does nothing other than bat an eyelid. Another Saturday night, but one that got out of hand.
The impregnation of Sarah is disastrous on many levels. First, she would be forced to give up her bright and prospering future of possible further education to care for her newborn baby. Her single parent status would make this task even more difficult as the chances of a complete stranger coming back into her life to dedicate his time and money to an unwanted baby would be slim. In addition to this, the stress and friction that would be inflicted upon the surrounding family of Sarah, such as her Mum and Dad, would be resounding and potentially relationship ending.
This is all before the newborn baby is even taken into account. With the love and affection put aside, the future of this baby would not only be dull, but its life in general would be filled with confusion and lack of opportunities. Without the backing of a stable parent structure, the baby could grow up being influenced by peers to extreme lengths due to increased independence whilst Sarah was forced to work long hours in order to keep her family afloat. All of these premises to this argument all head in the same direction.
Can all of this friction and heartache be caused by merely not carrying out a procedure to help protect the lives of Sarah and people around her? Surely it is the right thing, if it is in the best interests of all the people involved, to be able to abort a pregnancy. This is not to say that I believe that abortion should give the right to anyone to go out and carry out unsafe sex on the basis that everything will be fixed by a clinic. I appreciate that having the courage and audacity to go and get the abortion can be a daunting experience but surely the scarring nature of it would go no length to comparing what damage would be done in the long term should Sarah, or the thousands of potential mothers, decide to keep their unwanted babies.