Imagine not being able to do what you want with your own body. Imagine a law that constricts your human right to make decisions. Crazy, right? Sadly, this is the unfortunate reality of many women across the globe today. There is a law that strips women of their rights, which is restricting access to abortions. Many people who are pro-life would argue that abortion should remain illegal. However, abortion should be legalized because restricting abortions lead to unsafe abortions which cause far more health issues, every woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body and the government should have no say, and fetuses are not viable up to twenty three weeks and therefore have no human rights. According to the World Health …show more content…
Since abortions are illegal, women have to go to extremes to get them performed. This risk puts them in immediate danger. Maternal mortality rates could be lowered if abortion was legal in all countries. There is no reason to continue to threaten the lives of women when there is a solution that is clearly obtainable and would save lives. Unsafe abortions also have a lot of long term consequences. These unsafe abortions are performed by multiple different methods, including but not limited to swallowing leeches, probing themselves with a knitting needle or coat hanger, hitting the stomach with a blunt object, spending the night in the snow, and bathing in scorching hot water. Not only are these insanely painful, but they cause major health issues. The long-term consequences that arise with unsafe abortions could be poor wound healing, infertility, internal organ injury, bowel resections, etc. Lastly, these unsafe abortions cause mental deterioration. Since the abortions are performed unprofessionally, they often take place in uncomfortable places. Examples would include kitchen tables, dark alleys, and damp basements. …show more content…
The government has no right to interfere with basic human rights. The main issue is that the government is treating the woman and womb as two different things, as if the womb is not apart of the woman. As Christyne L. Neggs said in the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, “a right of privacy is not a meaningful concept for a woman if it allows the state conceptually to sever her womb and represent its contents as a separate and identifiable interest” (327-328). Women will continue to have restricted rights as long as the government puts the unborn fetus before the woman. Another concept is bodily integrity. Bodily integrity is the inviolability of the physical body and the importance of personal autonomy and the self-determination over their own bodies. Basically, it promotes human rights and the right to choose whether it be a pregnant woman, someone transitioning genders, or even something as simple as tattoos or piercings. However, both bodily integrity and basic human rights are being overstepped due to Roe V. Wade. Roe V. Wade is the law which was passed on January 22nd, 1973 that ruled abortion as unconstitutional (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Roe V. Wade has not been the only case for abortion. In Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey (1992), the Supreme Court established that restrictions on abortion are unconstitutional if they place an “undue burden” on a woman seeking