Introduction

Abortion refers to a condition when pregnancy is ended to ensure that the child is not born. In the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, the gestation period child has not yet been formed in their mother’s womb. Some nation has allowed abortion in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. However, most scholars and other opinion viewers have raised issues concerning the legalization of abortion in the first 16 months regardless of their reasons. The topic of abortion raises various ethical concerns about the act, where some claim it’s immoral, and others claim it is moral regardless of the reasons for abortion. This essay strongly disagrees that it is immoral for women to perform abortions within the first 16 weeks of pregnancy regardless of their reasoning. Abortion should be allowed to women in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy with no definite reasons provided the woman agrees to abort. This essay will focus on the reason for supporting abortion in the first weeks of pregnancy and other contrary points against it.

Abortion in the first 16 weeks

First, abortion should not be immoral in the first 16 weeks of pregnancy because a woman may not be ready to get a child at the time. Thus, most women engage in the abortion act in the first 16 weeks to postpone and stop having children. Ethically individuals have the right to choose what they want about their lives, situations, and various aspects of life. Thus, denying a woman right to abort during the first 16 weeks is against, and according to utilitarian ethics, this would help many women out there who are not willing to have kids should not be criminalized. Utilitarian ethics claims that decisions should be made based on the majority benefits (Vaughn, 93). Also, the criminalization of abortion and terming it as immoral does not deter women from aborting. According to research, there have been many abortions, especially for women during the first 24 weeks, which indicates that criminalization does not affect women deciding to abort.

Similarly, if the intention of criminalizing abortion is to protect the fetus, then criminalizing and making abortion immoral is not effective. Protection can be attained through other ways like pre-abortion counseling. Thus, abortion in the first 16 weeks is not immoral or criminal. The prevention of moral and legal abortion leads to clandestine abortion, unsafe abortion, and a high mortality rate of poor and young women.

Secondly, making abortion illegal and immoral in the first weeks ravages the basic human rights of women and girls. This would be against deontological ethics, which states that individuals should be treated with dignity and respect. Thus, women willing to have an abortion in the first weeks should be allowed as a way of respecting their choices. Most pregnancies result from a lack of even access to secure and exalted medical care services for women suffering from unwanted pregnancies. Thus, it would be discriminating to make abortion of the first 16 weeks immoral because it violates women’s rights. Society’s failure to ensure an even workout of reproductive rights ravages women’s right to existence, medical care, cognitive and ethical integrity, self-respect, and the right to freedom from torture, brutal, and humiliating treatment.

Moreover, the criminalization of first week’s abortion as immoral increases the mortality rates and health problems triggered by hazardous abortions. Safe abortion does not imperil women’s health (Vaughn, 130). At the same time, unsafe abortion is a serious public health difficult linking severe risks to millions of women’s health and lives. According to the report by WHO in 2014, it indicated that unsafe abortions cause more than 10% of maternal deaths. Thus, according to the social justice theory, it would be significant to consider giving women an opportunity to have a safe abortion within their needs (Vaughn, 92). This would ensure equality in reproductive health. The social justice theory claims that individuals should be given something that they need, and in this case, women should be given good reproductive health services.

Furthermore, criminalization and making illegal abortion negatively affect access to legal abortions. Society has made abortion seem immoral, and this has made numerous women who have a freedom to a lawful, harmless abortion but cannot get one due to the disgrace involved with the act (Vaughn, 150). Typecasts about maternity and social concept about abortion cause bias against females who decide their productive ability. The immoral interferences of judicial representatives, attorneys, and medical professionals obstruct lawful and safe abortion, pushing female to furtive abortions. Most of the challenges faced comprise of lack of corporation with the health officers, t