Healthy Abortions: Both Permissible and Impermissible

There are countless circumstances in which women may want to have abortions and each of these circumstances have their own decision processes when determining whether the abortion is permissible or not. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether or not it is permissible for a healthy pregnant woman to have an abortion. In Judith Jarvis Thomson’s text “A Defense of Abortion” Thomson does not take a position on whether or not there are instances in which a fetus has the right to demand the use of the mother’s body, however she does say that if the fetus was conceived unwillingly then the fetus does not have the right to use the mother’s body. I will argue two points. (1) There are circumstances in which a fetus has the right to demand the use of the mother’s body and in such circumstances it is impermissible for the mother to have an abortion, and (2) in situations where a fetus is conceived under the influence of alcohol or by rape, an abortion is permissible and is sometimes the right thing to do. 

The closest Thomson comes to addressing the issue of the fetus’s right to an existence is, “there are some cases in which the unborn person has a right to the use of its mother’s body, and therefore some cases in which abortion is unjust killing” (Thomson 14). Thomson never elaborates or provides arguments for this statement so I will provide my own. Couples who have consensual intercourse with the intention of having a child have no right to an abortion. The couple engaged in intercourse not only with the knowledge that it could result in a child but also with the hope that they would conceive a child. Even if the couple change their minds early on in the pregnancy, the decision was made and it would be very irresponsible to abort the fetus. It is as if you order a new car online with a no returns policy. Even if you change your mind about the car before it is delivered you cannot cancel the order. It is assumed, just as it is with a child, that a lot of thought is put into the purchase before it is made final. Once the fetus was intentionally planted in the mother, the fetus has a right to the mother’s body and thus abortion is impermissible. If the couple still does not want the child when it is born then they should put it up for adoption.