By:Lydia Gould
Jewels Green was just a teenager when she found out she was unexpectedly pregnant. At the time, she was pro life and wanted to parent the child, but her current boyfriend and family convinced her to get an abortion.
After the abortion, Green became an abortion clinic worker and became pro choice, survived a suicide attempt, and was very regretful. She never realized the emotional harm having the abortion would cause. Eventually Green fell in love, got married, and had children. However, to this day Green still feels saddened because she feels like a member of her family is missing. She said she will forever regret her decision to have an abortion.
Abortion. It’s a scary word that most people do not understand. For many people, abortion is the simplest and most pain-free way to deal with the news of an unexpected pregnancy. However, abortion is much more complex, and it can leave emotional damage that one could never imagine.
One thing that people normally do not get is what the actual abortion procedure is like. The procedure can vary, but most of the abortions will take place in an organized abortion clinic. The most common type of in-clinic abortion, according to the Planned Parenthood website, is known as aspiration which is also known as vacuum aspiration.
In the vacuum aspiration procedure, the uterus is emptied with suction by a manual syringe by a clinic doctor. Another popular way for an abortion to happen is simply for the mother to swallow a pill. This procedure can only be done when the mother is early on in her pregnancy.
So it’s true: an abortion, when done properly, is relatively painless from a physical standpoint. However, most people considering an abortion don’t take into account the emotional damage that is much greater than the physical damage.
According to the After Abortion website, women who have abortions are eighty one percent more likely to experience subsequent mental health problems. Also, women who have abortions are fifty nine percent more likely to have suicidal thoughts, two hundred and eighty percent more likely for substance abuse, and sixty one percent more likely to have mood and social anxiety disorders.
Mental disorders are huge side effects from having an abortion and most people don’t consider them when they are killing the little fetus inside of them.
One of the main arguments that pro-choice activists argue is when “personhood begins”. Many pro-choice activists believe that it is okay to kill the fetus because the fetus is not a person. However, according to the PA Pro-Life website, the fetus has characteristics of a human being from the point of conception.
According to same source, cellular development immediately begins upon fertilization. Blood cells develop at seventeen days, eyes develop at nineteen days, the nervous system is fully developed at twenty days, and the heart has regular beats and pulsations by twenty four days. The entire skeleton and reflex system is even developed by as early as forty two days.
So it is proven that an abortion doesn’t just kill a blob of fat. When you have an abortion you are murdering a cellular based, a heart-beating little fetus that will eventually develop into a little baby. These characteristics and many more show that an abortion is truly killing another human being.
Another argument that many feminists and pro-choice activists like to argue is that abortion should be legal for all in case of rape or incest. This is a point that many people struggle to understand, because there is not a specific answer. There is no scientific evidence to back up why abortion shouldn’t be legalized for victims of rape.
However, there is one strong point that Green says has changed many people’s decisions on whether or not to get an abortion.
When women of all ages find out that they are pregnant after they had been raped, they are most certain that they want to have an abortion. They are scared because they don’t have the support system, the money, or the time to parent a child.
However, when the doctor gives these women an ultrasound and show them the miracle inside of them, they see that this child is just as beautiful whether the baby was conceived out of love or of rape. According to Jewels and the staff at Planned Parenthood in Harrisburg, many women are more than willing to consider their other options after seeing the life that they would be killing if they were to get an abortion.
What are these other options? What a lot of mothers do not consider when thinking about whether to have an abortion or not is that there are other options. The ideal option of course is parenting. While scary at first, having a child as your own is a bond that can never be broken.
There are even organizations such as Planned Parenthood that give new mothers formula, diapers, and clothing for their newborn baby. They also offer maternity clothes and counseling to young mothers who are going through the process of carrying the child.
The other option that is often overlooked is adoption. Many loving couples nowadays are struggling to conceive, and are praying for a child to have for their own. If a mother considering an abortion decides to adopt, they can give the child they are not ready to parent a home that will forever take care of the child. More importantly, the mother will not have killed the child that could possibly prosper in a home of loving parents.
So yes, becoming unexpectedly pregnant can be scary. Whether the mother is fourteen or forty four, some people are just not ready financially or emotionally to have children. However, abortion is not the answer.
Why kill an unborn child that could eventually have a prosperous life? There are other options and people around to help a mother in need. Don’t think of the short term problems because they could leave long term effects in the future. Make a difference and safe the life of your child. Become pro-life and join the fight to end abortion.
