My Body, My Choice

Katie Austin

You have a baby in one hand and a petri dish holding a fetus in the other, and your current
scenario requires you drop one. Which would you chose to drop? For someone fighting for pro-
life, there would be no difference. It would not matter, for though one has already been born, the
other holds the potential for human life.

Though many pro-life protesters think of fetuses as equivalent to human beings, the ultimate
decision of whether or not to abort lays on the mothers right to chose to have a child or not. I
take a libertarianism standpoint on this, and agree with the quote from Robert Nozick, From
each as they choose, to each as they are chosen. To me, this quote means we are individuals,
and so make our own decisions. These decisions may be reflected on other people, but they still
are your own.

Since around the 1960s, women have been fighting for more rights regarding their bodies and
choices (History). Though we have made some progress, we currently seem to be slipping
backwards. In fact, more abortion restrictions were enacted in the past three years than in the
entire previous decade (Thirteen). There is also another amendment (Amendment 67) that is
being voted on to make abortion classified as murder, and therefore illegal.

It is a terrifying thought that a group of people could potentially make decisions about your own
body. One pro-life argument is that an abortion is murder, but that is essentially giving the
unborn the same rights as a child, when we do not even truly know at what point the fetus can be
described as alive and human.

Our problem, as BBC states in their piece on the ethics of abortion is how, Unfortunately there's
no agreement in medicine, philosophy or theology as to what stage of fetal development should
be associated with the right to life (BBC).

Rights are not always black and white, and in this situation, the rights of the mother need to be
weighed against the rights of the child. As stated in the Ninth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people, (U.S. Constitution. Amend. IX.). This means
that even if rights are not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the government has to
recognize the implied rights as an actual right. The mother has the right to an abortion if she
deems it necessary to her health, and the government cannot get in the way of this.

Though many arguments are made against abortion through the lens of murder, the ultimate
decision should be made by the mother. In a case like this, I know I would only use an abortion
as a last case scenario. I do agree that an abortion can be invasive to a woman, but so is having
an unwanted child. This reinforces my point that a woman would not choose to have an abortion
unless it is urgent or necessary. The only person who can truly analyze the emotional or physical
state of preparation for a pregnancy is the individual woman, and so she should make the final
decision.

This is the point where we must question how far into a pregnancy a woman is for the fetus to be
considered human. At some point it is considered murder, but what we must ask is whether that
point is immediately at conception, when the child is actually born, or some point between. Far
less research has been done than is truly necessary to evaluate the health of both the fetus and the
mother during the pregnancy. At what point in the pregnancy does the heart or brain of the fetus
become developed enough for it to be considered human?

When thinking about rights, a decision must be made about whose rights we put first, and how
the length of the pregnancy weighs in to that decision. The Fourteenth Amendment speaks about
how no person should be deprived of life and liberty, and this can apply to both mother and child
(U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIV, Sec. 1.). Do we hold the life of the potential human being over
the liberty of the mother to make her own decisions?

Through the beginning of the pregnancy, the mothers liberty should be held over the childs life.
This is the period of time where the fetus is not as developed and the mother can have the time
do make her decision.

Having a child will change the rest of her life, and pregnancy is not always a choice. There are
cases of rape we need to consider, as well as birth control malfunctions. Reproduction is not
always a black and white issue, as your partner may not be fully honest with you about birth
control, or the birth control is affected by previous medication. There comes a point though,
where the life of the child must be considered over the liberty of the mother. Not only is the fetus
considered human enough for the abortion to be murder, but the longer a woman waits for an
abortion, the more dangerous it becomes for her to abort. This obviously has no clear way out, or
even a clear argument.

What we must take out of this is the need for scientific advancement. We need to center our
strengths, not towards arguing ethics, but finding out by what point the fetus can be considered
human enough for an abortion to become murder. The questions we need to ask are not
necessarily between pro-life and pro-choice, but rather about the development of the fetus and
the health and safety of both the mother and the child.























Bibliography

BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 26 Oct 2014

History of Abortion. History of Abortion. N.p., n.d. Web, 16 Oct. 2014.

Nielsen, Robert. Do The Unborn Have A Right To Life? Robert Nielsen. N.p., n.d. Web. 19
Oct. 2014.

Thirteen Charts That Explain How Roe v. Wade Changed Abortion Rights. Washington Post.
The Washington Post, n.d. Web, 27 Oct. 2014

U.S. Constitution. Amend. IX.

U.S. Constitution. Amend. XIV, Sec. 1.