Morgan+S’s+2018+OpEd+Article

=Abortion: A Nationwide Crisis=

Due to the recent events regarding the upcoming March for Our Lives, protesting gun violence, I’ve decided to shed some light on the similar named March for Life, which protests legalized abortion. At this moment in time, Americans are fighting for the safety of public schools, and the promise of no more people dying from the misuse of firearms. But how can a country not be disrupted by the fact that at the same time, millions of infants are dying everyday? Abortion, as defined by Google, is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. While nearly 19 children die or are treated from a gunshot wound a day, 2,900 abortions are performed A DAY. That is 137 per hour, and exactly 2.3 occurrences per minute(rtlofholland.org)With the addition of strict policies regarding the issue, abortion is legal in all 50 states, and has been since 1973. YOU ARE ALLOWED TO KILL YOUR BABY IN ANY OF THE 50 STATES IF YOU DESIRE. Women all over the country have the decision to end the life of their 1-28 week old baby growing in their stomach. And since 1973, over 56 million abortions have taken place in the U.S(rtlofholland.org). An unplanned pregnancy can spark the need for an abortion. Whether the patient had unprotected sex or was raped, a baby can be an unexpected hiccup in a young person's life. My opinion is that if one commits to being sexually active, they should know just exactly what they’re getting themselves into. Whether protected or unprotected, sex is dangerous as it might lead to a pregnancy, something that any two, ordinary teenagers are definitely NOT ready for. They are not ready to make those mature decisions on their own, so they are frequently tempted to just end the pregnancy. END THE PREGNANCY? ERASE YOUR MISTAKES? What are we teaching our younger generations if we are allowed to forget about the big mistakes we have made? And how does murdering an infant who hasn’t even gotten the chance of seeing the world justify canceling out the poor choices that have been made by the young person themself? If anything, the people who have made the unplanned child should be punished for their mistakes, rather than the human lives that are punished everyday. Many studies from over the years have shown the immense psychological toll an abortion can have on a woman in her later life. Just a fraction of these side effects include anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts or actions(rtlofholland.org). Young women especially are always too late to find out that they are never prepared emotionally to deal with the aftermath. Still a lot of women plead for their choice of doing what they want with their baby. I personally believe that the only choice that should be given to an unplanned pregnancy patient should be to keep the child and raise it on their own, or to give the child up for adoption. Both do require having the baby and going through extremely painful labor. But God punished women with this in the beginning, as Eve had sinned and therefore needed to face the consequences, and pass them on to the future female generations. People all around the world struggle with the incapability of having children and are always interested in adoption. Adoption is very popular among the LGBTQ+ communities, as child bearing for them is difficult. Take famous homosexual singer and songwriter Elton John, who with his husband David Furnish, adopted two sons. If the decision to not let someone kill their child but rather give it up if they don’t want it was passed, everyone in the adoption agency would benefit, as every child would find a home, and the process of finding a child would be less time consuming. I believe that instead of Planned Parenthoods being the base for abortions, they should be turned into clinics that solely focus on adoptions and helping the needs of teen moms and single moms around the world. I have to be fair in my knowledge of the other side on this particular topic, as I have taken their angle into much consideration. Many unplanned pregnancies are the result of rape and sexual crime. Though the percentage that this situation caused the pregnancy is 1%, these women who are sexually mistreated don’t have the consent in the actions that were performed (johnstonsarchive.net). And therefore many have argued that these victims should have the choice of abortion. But whether this baby was your mistake or not, you still have a human life in your hands, one that requires careful consideration. Think about the decision of killing a child that hasn’t even seen the world yet. In result of killing them, you are then taking away their chance to be something and change the world. Who knows how may babies that have been aborted were going to be future Presidents, Nobel Peace Prize contenders, or doctors that would have made historic medical breakthroughs? These human beings are “The Dreamers” as well, and they are only silent because they can’t talk yet. That's why I’m here, before you, on their behalf. When are we, as a nation, going to stop funding the processes of Planned Parenthood, which entail killing innocent children with our tax dollars? These fetuses, which have sprung from our poor decision making all over our country, shouldn’t be punished for our mistakes. The recent events regarding “gun” violence may fill up our news channels at the moment, but this is a national priority as well. These institutions and campaigns nationwide are ridding us of half our future generations. I simply will NOT STAND for anymore of this corruption and violence instilled in our governments and the minds of the youth. So NO MORE abortions, for the innocent babies of America should NOT be the ones taking such harsh penalty for your very own actions.