Abortion

Unwanted babies remain a detriment to society today, but their numbers would only increase of abortion is banned. A popular belief is that adoption will find a welcome home for all unwanted babies. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. About 110,000 children are living in the child welfare system, needing families to adopt them. Most of the children waiting to be adopted have some sort of special need. The median age children are adopted is 6.4, leaving some older children never adopted (“Adoption Facts”). In Arizona, a widely publicized adoption campaign took place, but not a single child has been asked to be adopted. In greater Pittsburgh, hundreds of families have put baskets out on their porches for unwanted babies; none have been dropped off (Sykes). Many younger moms simply abandon their children, with the psychology that putting them up for adoption is too much of a hassle.

In 2001 alone, babies have been discovered in the Mississippi River, a trash bin behind a Texas high school, a field in Richmond, California, and a gas station rest room in Los Angeles. In just January that year, babies were left along railroad tracks in Paterson, New Jersey, behind disposable diapers in a Denver supermarket, and in a Minneapolis trash can. A computer search of major daily newspapers found sixty-five reports of discarded newborns in 1991, and 105 in 1998, but experts estimate that over half are never discovered (Hampson). After Roe vs. Wade there has been a significant decrease in rape, assault, murder, and other violent crimes. This is because unwanted children are often neglected and abused, channeling a built up inner rage they unleash upon society (Morgentaler). Undesirable children who aren’t left for the dead at birth often grow up without loving families. Their lives are frequently void of joy or happiness, which they convey upon society. Outlawing abortion would cause the birth of innumerable children that will live out miserable lives, which sometimes last a mere hours or days, and inflict irreparable damage upon others.

Although society or moral obligation may condemn the act of abortion, it must remain as a choice. Legal abortion is part of a woman’s personal liberty, can benefit the health of a woman, and solves the nagging problem of unwanted babies. Outlawing abortion would be infringing upon the Constitution, the document the guides the government and ruining the lives of the 1.4 million women that receive abortions every year (Deam). Abortion is allowing hundreds of women to choose to progress their lives and society every day, and there is no justifiable reason to eliminate the choice of abortion.