Over the past several years, many topics have become much more controversial in the United States and other places around the world. Gun control, abortion, vaccines, global warming, and many other topics. Some of the laws that have been enforced on this topic in certain states have left me speechless. Yet, one topic has always stuck out to me; abortion.
In Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed the most haunting abortion law I have ever heard of. It bans abortion at any stage of pregnancy, no matter if it was from rape or incest (Milligan 1). When someone looks at that, it may not matter one bit to them. Yet there are some people who are against it. Me being one of those people. Sometimes you have to put yourself in the scenario and think what if it were yourself? If someone raped you, should I be able to abort this baby that I did not want? Should I be able to make my own decisions about my own body? The answer to those questions should be yes. We never know what is going to happen in this crazy and cruel world, so what if you or your child got raped by a man, but due to abortion laws, you have to carry that baby to full term no matter the circumstances? That sounds absolutely crazy, but that is what every woman in Alabama has to fear now. Although this law is horrendous, they do have it to where if the woman is in any possible danger or the baby will inevitably pass away right when born, then one can have an abortion. Yet, what if you are okay to carry the baby to full term? What if the baby is healthy and has no risk of complications? Women still are forced to carry it to term. They do not get any say in what they want. The government is practically in control of their bodies at that point. It is our bodies, we should be able to do what we want with them.
When it comes to situations like this, one really has to put very much thought into the decision. Will you be able to properly be able to take care of and raise this child? Will the child be in a proper environment? Should you just put it up for adoption instead? These questions are some that a woman might ask herself. Although yes, she could just put a child up for adoption when it is born, we have to realize how many kids are currently in our country’s foster system. We do not even have to look up the statistics, it is known that there are way too many kids in the system and not enough families willing to take care of them. Yes, some families are willing to take care of multiple kids, but some get overwhelmed and end up singling them out or giving them back to the system. We sometimes hear of teens rebelling if they are in a foster home since they believe that they can do whatever since it is not their biological parents. Although that is not the case, some teens just do not understand that these people are doing their everything to try and give them a good life, but the kids will always wonder where their real parents are. This is why some mothers are scared to go through with their pregnancy, they are not sure if they want to deal with it in the future knowing that they did what was best for them and their child at that moment.
Although Alabama has that law, some other states have laws set in place with abortion too. Most states have a law called the “fetal heartbeat” law (Milligan 5). This law states that once the fetus has a heartbeat, it is then illegal to get an abortion. Although this is not the worst rule, some fetuses do get their heartbeats rather early. Some women do not even realize that they are pregnant until 6-8 weeks. Sometimes it takes up to 12 weeks for a fetus to get a heartbeat and the girls are able to catch it in time. Yet some are not and they do end up having the carry that baby to full term.
When it comes to speaking of this topic, many different opinions are said. There is a very large group that is pro-life and a large group that is pro-choice. I am very much pro-choice, but there are some times when I do have a pro-life mentality. If you are in a state where there is no law in place, then you should at least have a 14-16 week limit. If you are more than halfway through your pregnancy and decide you do not want the baby anymore, then that is on you. Whoever it is should have been making the right decisions and thoughts when they were putting themselves in the position. If someone was just messing around and not being safe knowing that they could not afford a child, then that was their mistake. Make smart choices and one would never be put in the position. We are all old enough to know when is and when is not the right time for us to bring a human being into this world, but in other cases, we should also be able to choose what we want to do in case something bad happens one day. For example, getting raped.
In Ohio, a young 11-year-old girl was raped by a 26-year-old man multiple times and unfortunately got pregnant (Smith 1). The young girl could not get an abortion due to the fact that when she had gotten her first ultrasound, the fetus had a heartbeat. Sadly at that point, the young girl had no other choice but to carry her rapist’s baby. Imagine if it were one of us or one of our children. Some young girls are not open about the things that happen to them. What if it was your very own daughter that had gotten raped, but due to the bill in the state where she currently lives, she has to carry that child to term because one was not even aware of what happened to her. That is something that I do indeed believe would piss some parents off. I for sure know it would anger me so much if it were my very own child. We have to consider these things when it comes to making very important decisions for our children and many more children in the country. They are the ones who we currently make decisions for, not just us but them also. We want our children to grow up in a place that we believe is somewhat correct on how they should be treated.