McKenzie Dumas

1D-ABORTION
The topic of abortion is very controversial, but nothing has ever been learned by
avoiding tough subjects. What are your views on abortion? Under what circumstances,
if any, would you consider it? If you were a lawmaker, what would be your stand on this
issue? (*In India, boys are valued more than girls and amniocentesis has become
widespread. In one province, only one in thousands of abortions following:
amniocentesis was that of a male fetus, the rest were females. How do you feel about
abortion as a tool for gender selection? Suppose that one of the female fetuses in the
previous example was also identified as having suffered severe mental and physical
damage to the point that, after birth, the resulting child would mentally and physically be
unable to care for itself. Would this information influence (change) your decision?)

Abortion sometimes can be a very difficult subject to discuss. Every person has
their own view or opinion on the subject. My personal view on abortion is in the middle
of believing it is ok, and believing it is not. I think it should be allowed with certain
exceptions. The exceptions I feel would be acceptable is if the woman was raped or
incest. I feel that it should be a choice for the woman to decide. If the woman also known
as the victim feels that she does not want to be reminded of what happened and does not
want to put the baby up for adoption, then I think it would be acceptable under the
circumstances. On the other hand if you are sexually active, chances are you know
exactly what you are doing in not using protection. As the study in the text book shows

about male students that have had sex before the age of 13; Every year compared to the
twelfth grade males, twice as many males in the ninth grade say they have had sex before
age 13. (Berger, 2014,Page 35) I feel at that point it should not be an option. If those
students not just male and also female feel they are old enough to have sexual
intercourse, they are old enough to make a responsible decision in adoption or keeping
the child if the outcome ends in pregnancy. If that woman feels that she made a mistake
and does not want to continue out and become a mother, there is always adoption.
Adoption can be used in both situations, there are several couples that would love to
adopt, who are not able to have children of their own no matter the circumstances or
situations in how that child was conceived. If I was a law maker I would still try and stick
to the law of no abortion is allowed unless the child was conceived forcefully by rape or
incest.
I do not think that abortion should be a tool used for gender selection. I feel that
in using abortion as a tool for gender selection it is in fact discriminating against women.
It can also set off the human sex ratio. When looking into some research on human sex
ratio I found there are 107 boy babies born for every 100 girl babies. This skewed ratio
is partly due to sex-selective abortion and "gendercide," the killing of female infants, in
countries such as China and India where males are more desired. But even discounting
those factors, the completely natural male-to-female sex ratio still hovers around
105:100, meaning that most women are inherently more likely to give birth to boys.
(Wolchhover, 2011) The ratio for women to men is already lower, why would we allow
gender selection to continue in dropping that number.
Even if the child that was in the womb was a female that suffered from severe

mental and physical damage, and that after birth they were unable to care for themselves.
Having an abortion would not change my view, whether the child has mental and
physical damages. It is still a child. Those children did not choose to be born that way so
that if they did have complications they could be terminated and the parents could then
try again. I strongly feel that every child should be loved no matter the mental or physical
health, age, or race.
In conclusion, there are always going to be many views and opinions on whether
abortion is the correct thing to do. I will always stand with the statement that Adoption
is an option. Unless of course there are certain circumstances. Also, children that are
born differently, should never be loved or treated differently. Or be aborted due to mental
or physical damages or health, because in the end we are all equal.

Reference Page
Berger, K. S. (2014). Invitation to the life span (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
Wolchover, By Natalie. "Why Are More Boys Born than Girls?" LiveScience. TechMedia
Network, 09 Sept. 2011. Web.