Level 1 research question. What ethical obstacles influence how the health sector addresses abortion?
In most cases, the health ethical obstacle influencing how the health sector addresses abortion is linked to the reproductive justice framework. This is in line with the right to have children, the right to have no child, and the right to parent a child in dignity and safety (Watson, 2022). Besides, most leaders in the general medical and policy circles must be activated to shape the disparity framework. For instance, it is considered that abortion disparities are more prevalent in poor women than in middle and rich women. Most rich women know their rights, while the poor tend to have accidental sex, which puts them in the upheaval of seeking an abortion. However, setting up laws prohibiting abortion is key in ensuring advocacy for poor women confronted with unwanted pregnancies due to the need for intellectual, social, and pollical capital in line with their medical needs. Ethically, the application of a standard health disparity lens when there is a need for abortion care is one way of being ethically justifiable in the preservation and expansion of abortion access. This depicts that when based on the ethical obstacles that affect the health sector in solving abortion, there is an anticipated relationship between patients’ poverty and the need to respect the patient moral agent (Watson, 2022). Suppose health care puts these elements into consideration. In that case, there will be a shift in analysis in line with the aversion act towards the ethics of abortion care, which brings along ethical disparities in solving this issue. However, In areas where abortion laws are strict, contraceptives are used less. This depicts that the pregnancy rate is high due to unintended pregnancies. When there are laws that govern abortion, obstacles can entail the women’s autonomy rights which might conflict with the rights entrusted to the fetus (Harries & Constant, 2020). Studies show that posing a risk to a woman might affect the doctor’s moral obligation in the community; hence an obstacle related to abortion influences the respect accorded to pregnant women regarding termination of pregnancy. As a result, the supreme court has brought along a shift in the bioethics related to the question of abortion in a manner to strengthen the thinking related to abortion ethics (Watson, 2022).
Level 2 research question. What ethical issues are encountered by medical personnel in reducing abortion in places where abortion laws are enforced?
Medical personnel encounters several ethical issues in places with laws restricting abortion. For instance, most nurses might resuscitate orders which might undermine the patients’ needs, going against the patient’s needs (Watson, 2022). This might be termed as malpractice or negligence. For instance, when a patient enters the medical facility in need of an abortion, the medical personnel is entitled to provide care, which might go against the law because the fetus’s moral status is an ethical issue largely encountered by the fetus. Countries that have laws that prevent abortion believe that the fetus has full moral status from the time of conception, while other states believe that the fetus has no moral obligation (Zareba et al., 2021). However, these laws are ideal for protecting the child’s rights because fetuses are humans. Thus, they make biological sense. Furthermore, ethical dilemmas such as the woman’s autonomic rights might conflict with the child’s rights and the doctor’s moral obligations. Preferably, the fetus has the moral right to personhood; hence most medical personnel’s will respect the pregnant woman’s decisions regarding pregnancy termination.
Conclusion
Laws restricting abortion reduce abortion rate but increase the rate of contraceptive use. This shows that making abortion illegal does not decline the number of abortions because once a process is illegal, the need is always there; hence women might look for safe places where they can perform the act. However, in places where abortion is illegal, there are difficulties in getting safe abortions; hence severe complications and risks might occur to the mother. There is a need for a stronger health system to provide universal reproductive care access that will lower the unintended pregnancy rate.