Abortion argument

Abstract

Abortion is a difficult topic. I am not a supporter of abortion in all cases, but in the case of the 17 year old pregnant girl whose boyfriend was killed in a car accident, I will argue that her choice for abortion was the right one for her situation. I will justify my position using Judith Jarvis Thomson's essay “A Defense of Abortion.”

The reasons why I do not disagree with abortion in the 17 year old girl's situation are because the girl's life will be severely impacted in a negative way if she has the child. She never wanted to become pregnant and she has a lot of hardships coming her way if she has this child – her family will likely disown her, as a single teenage mother she will have difficulty supporting herself and a child, and she will not be able to pursue her ambitions to attend college and have a career. These things could make her resent the child that she never even wanted to begin with.

She was also responsible because she used birth control to try and avoid pregnancy, so it is not like she was being stupid about having sex. I have less sympathy for people who have sex irresponsibly without thinking about the consequences and then end up pregnant. It is a very unfortunate situation, made even more unfortunate by the fact that her boyfriend was killed in a car accident, because if he was around to support the girl, life would not seem as bleak as it seems to her now.