In what circumstances should abortion be permitted and why?
Introduction
Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. They can be done through medication
or medical procedures with common state of mind questions asked beforehand. There are ‘Pro-
choice’ organisations that protest that any women should have the right to choose whether they
want an abortion or not, alongside ‘Pro-life’ organisations that protest that the foetus life is equal to
the mother’s life, therefore the termination of such would be murder. The argued alternative to
abortion is to have the baby with possible financial support from the government for low incomes,
or adoption where the baby would be given to another family that would raise it. Abortion should be
permitted up until the last trimester of the women’s pregnancy as the women would have had
plenty of time to decide what she wants to do with her body and what course her life will go in.
Well done for defining abortion at the very start – it sets up the parameters of the essay nicely.
However, you don’t need as much background info as you've put in here. All an introduction needs
to do is:
1. Define key terms – it might be a good idea to define the parameters of abortion (i.e. are we
talking about morning after pill, or full on surgery, and if the latter, is there a cut-off point
after which it would no longer be permissible?)
2. Set out basic line of argument which should be max 2 short sentences or 1 long sentence.
Argument for
All women should have the right to bodily autonomy as without it more women’s life would be at
risk from childbirth. Good opening sentence – simple and clear. Not everyone has access to high
quality medical care, where there may not be hospitals or medical professionals in enough areas or
enough medical understanding and knowledge to correctly act in ways that would protect the
mother. Even in western countries where the medical care is deemed to be more advanced there
are still social bias where mothers of different race and ethnicities could be treated differently,
resulting in increased risk of death during pregnancy or birth. Having the bodily autonomy to choose
whether to terminate the pregnancy is important because then women can control whether the
risks of death or injury of childbearing is bearable to them. Therefore, the fatalities in pregnancy
would decrease as those who do not feel they are in an environment to get effective medical care
can chose not to go through the physical and mental strain of pregnancy and childbirth. For those
who struggle to get good quality of medical care would be a lot safer to take a pill (which is most
used in abortions) to terminate the pregnancy, then to have the baby where there is not facilities or
enough knowledge to optimise chance for survival. True, but is there also an argument for
automomy for autonomy's sake? You don’t have to ultimately agree with it, but it would be worth
raising the idea that women should be able to choose what to do with their bodies without their
needing to be some sort of medical or financial emergency.
Many women who want to have an abortion are often not in the financial position to afford the
medical care or general costs or having and raising a child. If these such women are forced to have a
baby both of their quality of life would be very poor, as they may not even be able to afford the
necessities to live such as food and a home. Bringing a child in to an environment such as this would
cause nothing put pain and suffering through both the child’s and mothers’ life. Yes – emphasise this
by saying it's not even just the mother who may have a low quality of life, the child might as well.
(Although against this, it is perhaps doubtful whether we can say with any certainty that not having a
life is really preferable to the unborn child than one which might have some financial or other
Introduction
Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy. They can be done through medication
or medical procedures with common state of mind questions asked beforehand. There are ‘Pro-
choice’ organisations that protest that any women should have the right to choose whether they
want an abortion or not, alongside ‘Pro-life’ organisations that protest that the foetus life is equal to
the mother’s life, therefore the termination of such would be murder. The argued alternative to
abortion is to have the baby with possible financial support from the government for low incomes,
or adoption where the baby would be given to another family that would raise it. Abortion should be
permitted up until the last trimester of the women’s pregnancy as the women would have had
plenty of time to decide what she wants to do with her body and what course her life will go in.
Well done for defining abortion at the very start – it sets up the parameters of the essay nicely.
However, you don’t need as much background info as you've put in here. All an introduction needs
to do is:
1. Define key terms – it might be a good idea to define the parameters of abortion (i.e. are we
talking about morning after pill, or full on surgery, and if the latter, is there a cut-off point
after which it would no longer be permissible?)
2. Set out basic line of argument which should be max 2 short sentences or 1 long sentence.
Argument for
All women should have the right to bodily autonomy as without it more women’s life would be at
risk from childbirth. Good opening sentence – simple and clear. Not everyone has access to high
quality medical care, where there may not be hospitals or medical professionals in enough areas or
enough medical understanding and knowledge to correctly act in ways that would protect the
mother. Even in western countries where the medical care is deemed to be more advanced there
are still social bias where mothers of different race and ethnicities could be treated differently,
resulting in increased risk of death during pregnancy or birth. Having the bodily autonomy to choose
whether to terminate the pregnancy is important because then women can control whether the
risks of death or injury of childbearing is bearable to them. Therefore, the fatalities in pregnancy
would decrease as those who do not feel they are in an environment to get effective medical care
can chose not to go through the physical and mental strain of pregnancy and childbirth. For those
who struggle to get good quality of medical care would be a lot safer to take a pill (which is most
used in abortions) to terminate the pregnancy, then to have the baby where there is not facilities or
enough knowledge to optimise chance for survival. True, but is there also an argument for
automomy for autonomy's sake? You don’t have to ultimately agree with it, but it would be worth
raising the idea that women should be able to choose what to do with their bodies without their
needing to be some sort of medical or financial emergency.
Many women who want to have an abortion are often not in the financial position to afford the
medical care or general costs or having and raising a child. If these such women are forced to have a
baby both of their quality of life would be very poor, as they may not even be able to afford the
necessities to live such as food and a home. Bringing a child in to an environment such as this would
cause nothing put pain and suffering through both the child’s and mothers’ life. Yes – emphasise this
by saying it's not even just the mother who may have a low quality of life, the child might as well.
(Although against this, it is perhaps doubtful whether we can say with any certainty that not having a
life is really preferable to the unborn child than one which might have some financial or other
