Why Abortion Violates Ethics and Should Be Illegal?
Should abortion remain legal when it deliberately ends developing human lives? This article makes the case that abortion is unethical, harmful, and should not have legal protection in society.
I examine key issues in the abortion debate from moral, medical, and legal perspectives:
- Why abortion is viewed as immoral by many
- The severe health risks and emotional trauma caused
- Alarming abortion statistics and denial of life
- Reasons abortion should be illegal
Why Is Abortion Viewed as Immoral?
A core argument from pro-life advocates is that abortion is morally wrong because it constitutes ending innocent human life, which should be protected. Let’s analyze some fundamental moral questions around abortion.
Does Human Life and Rights Begin at Conception?
The exact beginning point of human life is debated, but many agree life begins at conception when egg and sperm combine to form a unique genetic human organism. This nascent life then develops rapidly towards a born child. Since this organism is human and alive, pro-life supporters argue it has basic human rights that shouldn’t be violated.
Is Abortion the Same as Deliberately Ending Innocent Human Life?
Abortion proponents may claim the fetus is not equivalent to a person, but examining its development reveals strikingly human form and function in early stages:
- A heartbeat begins around 6 weeks gestation
- Brainwaves start around week 5-6
- Fingers, toes, eyes, and nostrils form by week 8-10
- Reflex responses start by week 26
- All organs present by week 12
With such human development, deliberately ending this life is viewed by many as unethical and equivalent to murder.
Should the Right to Life Override a Woman’s Right to Choose?
Abortion is also framed as an issue of a woman controlling her body and future. But the developing fetus also has a fundamental right to life and future that abortion denies. We don’t allow people to harm others to solve problems or improve their lives. Since pregnancy involves two lives, the fetus’s right to life overrides a woman’s right to choose according to pro-life philosophy.
What Harm Can Result From Abortions?
In addition to moral concerns of denying life, abortions pose threats to women’s physical and mental well-being that should limit their legal access.
Can Abortion Procedures Severely Injure or Risk a Woman’s Health?
Surgical and medical abortion carry risks:
- Hemorrhaging
- Infection
- Uterus perforation
- Future infertility
These complications can even be fatal in some cases.
Illegal abortions performed in countries with restrictions show even greater risks. Without proper medical oversight, improper procedures, unsanitary tools, and dangerous abortion drugs threaten women’s safety. Keeping abortion legal is argued to reduce this health impact, but banning would avoid these inherent risks altogether.
Does Abortion Cause Emotional and Psychological Trauma for Women?
Abortion is also linked to an array of negative mental health impacts:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Post-traumatic stress
- Higher rates of substance abuse
- Increased suicidal behaviors
These reflect complex emotional trauma from the procedures, hormonal changes, and severing maternal-fetal bonds abruptly.
Regret and guilt especially haunt women who feel what they did was morally wrong. One study showed over 95% of women said abortion was the wrong choice years later.
Is Fetal Pain a Reason to Question Abortion Methods?
Fetal pain is another concern used to argue against allowing abortions. Evidence shows:
- Reflex responses to stimuli begin early
- Pain receptors appear by weeks 24–25
- Stress hormone reactions by week 12
- Very premature babies show pain response
Since fetuses may experience significant pain, subjecting them to abortion seems inhumane.
A Closer Look at Abortion Statistics and Impact
Examining fuller impacts reveals the true costs of keeping abortion legal that warrant making it illegal.
How Many Abortions Occur Annually in the United States?
Over 629,898 abortions occurred in the US in 2019 alone. Total abortions number over 63,459,781 million since the 1973 Roe v Wade case legalized the procedures nationwide.
This staggering loss of human life should give us pause on keeping abortion access open.
Could Abortion Deny Society Future Contributions and Talents?
Consider the myriad scientists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and leaders aborted each year. Valuable contributions to bettering human life and society are erased.
One aborted baby could have discovered the cure for cancer or key technology to reverse environmental damage for example. The loss is impossible to quantify but still a critical reason to stop abortions.
Are There Compassionate Alternatives to Abortion Like Adoption?
Adoption allows women unable or unwilling to care for a baby to release them to welcoming families – fully respecting both mother’s needs and the child’s life. Yet only around 1% of women with unwanted pregnancies choose this option.
Wider adoption access could prevent many abortions and save lives. But adoption requires the fetus be protected and brought to term healthily, underscoring the need for abortion restrictions.
Key Reasons Abortion Should Be Illegal
Given the ethical, medical, and societal case against allowing abortion, granting legal protection or rights cannot be justified. Here are the central reasons abortion should be illegal:
Life and Human Rights Begin at Conception
Human organisms begin developing immediately at conception, exhibiting strikingly human structure and function within weeks that constitute new life worthy of legal protection.
Deliberately Ending Innocent Human Lives is Unethical
Intentionally destroying innocent human life developing in the womb – whether considered murder or not – goes against moral standards of avoiding harm and respecting others’ right to exist.
The Right to Life Should Take Priority
A fetus’s equal right to life and flourishing future supersedes a woman’s rights to opt out of pregnancy. Society limits freedoms that impede others’ basic human rights.
Abortion Procedures Risk a Woman’s Well-Being
Significant health complications up to infertility and death demonstrate abortion’s dangers. Subjecting women to these risks for elective reasons seems medically unjustifiable.
There are Traumatic Psychological Impacts
Symptoms of remorse, depression, anxiety and more show abortion often causes severe emotional trauma and grief from both procedures and loss of bonding.
The Fetus Can Feel Pain During Abortion
Fetuses likely experience significant pain from abortion procedures after pain receptors and transmitters form early in development. Inflicting this on innocents is inhumane.
Millions of Lives are Lost Each Year
The sheer volume of over 63,459,781 million abortions and counting in the US reveals massive loss of life abortion access enables that harms society.
Valuable Future Contributions are Denied
Incalculable potential talents, ideas, and advancements are erased when unwanted pregnancies are terminated rather than brought to term.
Alternatives Like Adoption are Available
Adoption allows women to avoid parenting while still respecting fetal life and growth. Its wider use could replace many abortions.
Conclusion: Preserving Life Should Limit Abortion Access
I’ve shown multiple arguments on why abortion is morally wrong, harmful for women’s health, and damaging for society that justify making it illegal. The central case against legal abortion is it enables ending innocent human lives. And life itself – not just experiencing it freely by choice – is the most precious thing we work to protect individually and together. Any practice resulting in over 63,459,781 million deaths requires society’s intervention.
So medically unnecessary procedures that deliberately terminate genetically unique human organisms developing actively in the womb should not have open access given what’s at stake. Instead abortion should only be allowed for severe fetal abnormalities, urgent medical indications, or undoable pregnancy impacts threatening the mother’s life. All other cases require banning access to align with moral views on preserving life.
In summary, abortion should be illegal because human development begins at conception, ending this life is unethical, the risks of trauma and lost potential outweigh justification of rights, and respecting life itself is imperative. Sensible legal abortion restrictions would still allow exceptions where pregnancy or birth seriously threaten women’s lives as well. But otherwise, protecting the miraculous process of human creation from willful destruction is a basic obligation for a moral society.