Should University Students Take Abortion?
Emma Wang
National Central University
Abstract
In recent years, more and more young students have sexual experience, and their pregnancies become serious problems. Do they have enough financial capacity to support their children? Are they well-prepared to be parents? Are they mature enough to face the overwhelming pressure? Wang (2004) propose a lot of aspects of mental pressure when young girls get pregnant. Then why do some people are opposed to taking abortion? Famous law and psychology scholar, Ronald Dworkin, discusses this problem in his book «Life’s dominion». And in U.S, Roe’s case is the reason that made abortion legal, during the process, the Court had considered the necessary for girls to taking abortion. The main point I want to emphasize in the paper is that girls have the right to choose whether they want the child, and that they should not bear the stigma with taking abortion.
Should University Students Take Abortion?
Nowadays, with the concept of having open sex in Taiwan, pregnancy becomes a serious issue among college students. My side is against college students who give birth to babies. Below are my reasons. First, most of students have no capacity for supporting themselves, not to mention of their children. Even their parents could give financial help, their quality of life will become worse. They probably have to reduce buying their clothes or anything expensive and to sacrifice their time with friends in order to give their babies better lives.
Second, though they are regarded as adults, it does not mean all of them are mature, especially mentally. Having a child needs the strong responsibility of parents, and it is not a short-time job. Furthermore, if the two students decide to make up a family, then it is not only a problem with children, but it also includes their marriage. If they get married just for their children, when they regret, it still becomes a problem. Third, the environment or the society is still not friendly to those mother-students. Before the law which forbids students studying in the university more than four years was modified, most of the students have to choose suspension or abortion. Although this law had been modified, which means now those who have to take care of their children can apply for more time to stay in university, most of schools do not have enough measures to deal with the demand of mother-students. For example, many restrooms are not equipped with nursery rooms.
Besides these problems, mother-students may have to endure that people will treat them with unusual eyes or thoughts. People may think this girl probably has complex relationship or does not take care of her body so that she gets pregnant. Have a child and being pregnant are not bad things, but the stereotype in the society still exists. Some of students think a baby has its own right to come to the world, so we should not take abortion. But I think this decision is very serious and that it effects three groups- girl’s family, boy’s family and the two students with their baby. We have to consider whether it can grow up happily and parents’ mental health. Many students think they can understand the responsibility to their child and decide to make up a family by impulse, but that could lead to more problems. If students cannot shoulder the burden and conquer the stress, rather the baby goes and parents endure physical and mental pain, than no one is happy in the family, which adds problem to the society.
Why Do Some University Students Rather Taking Abortion?
In the video of the TV program “College Talk”, there are two main points about why some university students do not want to give birth when they are pregnant.
First, university students would rather take abortion cruelly, than consider it reluctantly.
Second, since children cannot support children, a mistake will be a permanent regret
Another reason is money. “College students do not really have enough financial capacity. Some of them probably still have to ask money from family. If give a birth, then will you use the money that parents give to support your child or just ask your family to take care of it?” said a male student.
Still another reason is marriage. They think it is necessary for children to have parents, and it means they have to get married. However, the baby is unexpected, they haven’t considered whether the lovers are their spouses. They are afraid of regretting to get married. They do not want the child becomes the reason for them to get married or the trouble when they decide to get divorced. “The most important is, I think the relationship between students is still not that mature, you have to consider whether the person is the one you will live with forever, so will you marry him/ her?” said a male student. Some of students are mature in physical, so they have sex, but the truth is that in both of mental and their relationship, they cannot be responsible to the possible result that having sex would bring.
The external problem, like money, still can be solved; however, the mental problem cannot be solved in a short time. Furthermore, they do not really think it is a baby, most of them treat it as a trouble. Because being pregnant is unexpected, they think it is a fault. For example, in the video, the host asks a question: “Who will you tell if you are pregnant?” No one wants to tell their parents first, because they do not want to disturb them. Although they think they are able to deal with the situation, they treat it as a mistake subconsciously.
To sum up, those who support taking abortion tend to consider real life problems and their future. They all admit that they don’t have enough money and are not mature to have a baby. Accordingly, taking abortion becomes a way for them to escape these troublesome problems.
The Impact To Young Mothers
For those students who are pregnant, taking abortion becomes a serious problem, especially when they have not expected the coming of this child. Some people are against taking abortion because they think it is immoral to take away a life. Obviously, they stand on the side of the baby; however, I think people should not neglect its impact on the mother.
Wang (2004) has mentioned two aspects of the impact when young students get pregnant and if they give birth. Below are my summary and analysis about the impact in the article. First, those pregnant students have to face the overwhelming pressure from their family and during giving birth. In a traditional Chinese family, it is unacceptable for girls to get pregnant when they are not married. A girl’s family may not know what to do with her pregnancy. Moreover, they may be hostile to the incident. Wang (2004) made an important point: “Even if giving the birth, the young girls usually do not know how to do when they face changing their role and the duty of supporting a baby.” The young mothers probably do not know what their kids need, and they lack the experience and patience. Some of them cannot bear the stress then turn to ignore their children or even become violent toward children.
Second, whether the environment is suitable for the mother and baby is also a problem. Wang wrote, “When the young girl decides to give birth, she may endure the pain from the bad living environment, malnutrition, unemployment, not enough work or suspension, and not enough career training or dependency on financial support. The possibility that her life falls into poor is higher than those married mothers in their 20s.” It is not easy for a young girl to take care of herself and the kid, not to mention under the unprepared and immature environment. The situation may have influence on both of the mother and the baby.
Most of the students do not expect they will get pregnant. They have not prepared to be parents. Therefore, they have to receive many mental stress. They are students and parents in the meantime, if they go to work, then they will have less time with their kids, and that could result kid’s educational problem. What’s more, the unfriendly stereotype with students’ unmarried pregnancy still exists in the society. So if they cannot overcome these difficulties, I do not think giving a birth is a better way.
Keyword:
Malnutrition: healthy problem, someone does not get enough nutrition.
Is Taking Abortion A Murder?
Why do some people disagree taking abortion? Why do they add a stigma on it? You probably think that because life is sacred and precious or that no one could take away the right for the innocent embryo to grow up. However, you should ponder that what is a life and that whether an embryo could have rights before protesting abortion strongly. The book« Life’s Dominion» which is written by Ronald Dworkin(2002), pointed out many questions about taking abortion.
Ronald Dworkin is a law scholar and also a philosopher. He devoted himself to interpreting law and morality, and he wanted to find a way to solve the disputative issue about life by analyzing constitution, cases, and human belief. He divided those who object to taking abortion into two parts- one is derivative objection which means they think taking abortion is to deprive babies’ rights and benefits, while the other is detached objection, which means they believe that life is sacred and valuable.
From many surveys and cases, Dworkin proposed the contradiction to the two parts. First, how to define a start of a life? It depends. Some people’s answer is when the ovum got fertilized, and some people’s answer is several weeks after the ovum got fertilized. According to a public announcement of a priest of Jew, David Feldman, it said: “In Jew’s laws, an embryo is not a human. Until it quits the womb and comes to the world, it will become a human.” There is no clear and exact timing to define the start of life, how can you regard taking abortion as a murder? Women should not live in the nightmare of killing human and the stigma.
The next problem is whether an embryo has rights. Dworkin said that: “Only if something owns, or has already had some forms of senses, and that is a kind of mental and physical body life; otherwise, it will be meaningless to suppose something has its own rights.” He even took Dr. Frankenstein for example. “If he could make the body come alive, then the stop of this experiment would be also seen as a way to take away its right. However, no one thinks that it is unfair to the body or that the body has rights. Therefore, the derivative objection is facing the contradiction.”
Dworkin thought that detached objection could make sense, but it also faced challenges. He mentioned that people think it is acceptable for a mother to take abortion when the pregnancy is threatening her life or the pregnancy is resulted from a rape and an incest. However, if you ask a girl not to take abortion because life is precious, then is the life resulted from a rape or an incest not also precious and valuable? Why does the former have to be blamed, while the latter is acceptable? Is it fair that girls who want to take abortion have to shoulder the moral stress?
To sum up, people who object to abortion could add stigmas on it, and form an overwhelming stress to women on the basis of unclear reasons. For those young girls who do not want babies, if taking abortion could release their pressure from money and responsibility or the environment which is not prepared for the coming baby, then it is cruel and unfair that you call those pregnant women as murderers.
Why Can’t I Take Abortion?
January 22 has been seen as a depressing day by anti-abortion people in U.S, because taking abortion has been legalized in the country since 1973. It must surprise you, for we all know most of people in United States believe in Christianity. In the Bible, it sees unborn babies as children. According to Exodus 21-22: “If men, while fighting, do damage to a woman with child, causing the loss of the child….” And any murder is not allowed. According to Exodus 20-13: “Do not put anyone to death without cause.” However, the country also value freedom and fairness. How do they deal with it if women want to take abortion? Which one does the law have to protect, the unborn babies or women’ dominion of body?
The legalization of taking abortion started with the famous case “Roe vs Wade” in the Court. In 1970, there was a poor girl named Jane Roe in Texas. Because she had not enough money, she wanted to take abortion. However, the laws in the state forbade taking abortion. As a result, she brought a suit to prevent the prosecutor from enforcing the state’s antiabortion laws. The controversial points were whether women’s right of taking abortion should belong to privacy, whether unborn babies should be protected by the constitution, and whether the antiabortion laws in Texas violate the constitution.
Because of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the Court announced that the antiabortion laws were violations to the constitution.
In the amendment, it said: “The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local government officials from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without legislative authorization.” And the unborn babies are not the “persons.” The opinion of the court, Blackmun, even noted that “the state imposed a great burden “upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice,” subjecting women to potential medical harms, as well as financial and emotional harms.” He believed that there would be many of women like Roe shouldering the burden after giving a birth. In 1990s, most of states tended to legalize abortion.
Why taking abortion is not like removing a tumor? People tend to give the assumption to unborn babies, and see them as humans. This assumption restricts women to take abortion and makes women stressful. As in the case, during the suit, Roe had no choice but to give birth and still had to give it up for adoption. People care about babies’ rights, but ignore pregnant women’ rights and force them to deliver unwanted babies. All in all, the society should give women the dominion of body, ceasing imposing restrictions on them, and respect their decisions.
Conclusion
Although taking abortion could hurt girls’ bodies, delivering is not necessary could solve the problem perfectly. We need to realize the difficulties if young girls have to support their children, instead of imposing moral restriction and stigma on them. If they do not expect and prepare to support a child, then delivering is just to toss an innocent person into depression. It is hard for an unprepared girl to shoulder the responsibility of unwanted baby. Pregnancy is related to mothers and children. When the girl wants to take abortion, people should not merely think about the unborn baby. Thus, girls should take abortion into consideration if the condition is not appropriate.
Reference:
1. Zhi-Zhong, C. Boys can also have Parental Leave. Health Chinatimes. Retrieved (Oct.2.2013) from http://health.chinatimes.com/contents.aspx?cid=4,31&id=2649
2. ctitv (2011-05-03). 5/3 College Talk: If College Students Are Pregnant (part2). Retrieved(Oct.10.2013) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cn5nhnBMFg
3. Xiao-Wan, Z. University students get pregnant without marriage, and the ways they solve the problem are different. 48.7% boys will take the responsibility, and 38.6% girls will take abortion. Dept. of Journalism. Retrieved(Oct.2.2013 ) from http://jou.pccu.edu.tw/weekly/opinion/1038/04.htm
4. Wang Shu Qing (2004). The related factors of young unmarried girls’ pregnancy and the policy of prevention and guidance. E-Soc Journal,36, Retrieved(Jan.15.2014) from: http://mail.nhu.edu.tw/~society/e-j/36/36-43.htm
5. Dworkin, R. (2002). Life’s dominion: An argument about abortion, euthanasia, and individual freedom (Ya-Ru Chen,Zhen-Ling Guo, Trans.). Republic of China: Business Weekly Publications.
6. Paul Finkelman & Melvin I. Urofsky. Roe v. Wade. Retrieved (Dec 15, 2013), from http://science.jburroughs.org/mbahe/BioEthics/Articles/Summary_Roe_v_Wade.pdf
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