Pro Choice Essay

Why Support Pro-Choice?

Since the early 1800 's the issue of abortion has been a contentious one in the United States. Abortions are cases in which a pregnancy is intentionally interrupted and involves (as part of the process or aim of interruption) the intentional killing of the fetus. There’s generally two sides when discussing abortion. The pro-life supporters are people who oppose abortion no matter the circumstance and the pro-choice supporters are people who believe that pregnant women should have the right to choose if they want to keep or terminate their pregnancy. Pro-choice for me is about allowing people to assess their situations, think hard about their options and then choose what is best in their particular circumstances. In

Another philosopher who would support the pro-choice argument is Jeremy Bentham. Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), was a British philosopher who started the philosophy of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a theory in which the happiness of the greatest number of people in the society is considered the greatest good. If basing an abortion under the utilitarian ethics certain questions would arise such as who would benefit from the abortion and who would suffer? If it is beneficial to more people then it would be considered the right decision and if the majority of the people involved would suffer then that decision is flawed. They’re many different viewpoints that needs to be taken into consideration such as: would abortion be the best choice for the mother? Is she able to properly care for the child when it is born? Will she suffer emotionally from aborting her child which will result in her regretting the decision? How would the abortion affect the father of the child? Did he want the child to begin with? Will he suffer emotionally from the abortion of his child? What if the parents have conflicting views on the abortion whose opinion overrides the other? How would the family of the parents be affected? Would they feel pain because they lost a potential family member? What about the fetus? It would suffer, but does it count as a person since it isn’t born? If it can 't think, feel pain or live outside its mother can it really be classified as person?. According to Bentham an

Even if a mother’s life is at risk a pro-life advocate wouldn’t see it necessary for the abortion procedure. Numerous physicians have stated that it’s rare for abortion to be necessary to save a mother 's life and even if it were it is wrong to intentionally kill a innocent person to save another. For many pro-choice advocates the life and health of the mother are frequently used as reasons to keep abortion legal. If the mother has a medical issue which can complicate the pregnancy then it is medically necessary to have an abortion. In some cases where the mother happens to be a teen girl her body isn’t ready yet for childbirth. Teen mothers are five times more likely to die from child birth than mothers who are older. Statistics show that 70,000 young women ages 15-19 die each year from pregnancy and childbirth and the babies that do survive have a 60% chance of dying as well. This relates back to utilitarianism and they would agree to that an abortion would be necessary in this circumstance because not only the mother’s life would be at risk the baby’s mortality rate increases if the mother passes away during childbirth and this would cause great sadness to those involved in the mother’s