Arshad 1

Mustafa Arshad
Mr. E. Cloninger
English 2
16 May 2016

Should Women Have the Right to An Abortion Without Screening?

It was a cold December night in Delhi, India, where two parallel worlds were evolving,
simultaneously. In one, it was just the regular conflict and resolution, people running errands and
living their everyday lives. However, poles apart, inside of a tour bus, a 23 year old young girls
life was being torn apart. Jyoti Singh was a medical prospect. Being an enrolled medical student,
she was also working at a call center and trying to keep debt off her shoulders. She was human.
All until her male friend was abused and nearly killed, and she was raped to a point where her
digestive system was pulled apart. Practically living in hospitals, and being shipped to different
countries for procedures, Jyoti Singh was a lab rat before she died. Had she have lived, would
she have had the baby? Would she have parented the baby of a so-called-man who thought it
would not only be socially acceptable to rape someone, but have the guts to say that their gender
deserved it? No. Hence, women should be able to abort without screening, as we do not have a
right to exploit their moral vulnerability caused by rape and/or lower socioeconomic classes.
Conceived in violence, raised in neglect and shame, children born of rape have become
a lost generation (Warner). Judith Warner, a Times Magazine columnist and sexually abused
mother who decided to keep the child puts together a statement that summarizes the horrific
outcomes of one of the biggest sins of every religion: rape. For the conservative minds who
might have rebuttals and say that killing a fetus is killing a child: we have an answer. If killing a
child means that you exclude them from the years of disgust creeping into their lives as they find
of their biological fathers; then so be it. If killing a child means that you take away from the fact

Arshad 2

that their real father or mother is currently in prison, because they were ignorant enough to
disregard social morals; then so be it. If killing a child means that you dont have to tell them for
18 years that their real parent was a murderer of society; then so be it. Truthfully, Jyoti Singh
would not have kept the baby. Honestly, the rape that results in pregnancy every 6.6 minutes in
the United States, should not be kept. Any kind of sexual assault that is forced upon a woman
results in mental trauma. This trauma might not be severe in some cases, but most victims
experience RTS, more commonly known as Rape Trauma Syndrome. RTS is known to cause
disruptions in every day life, and in more severe cases, change the interpersonal behavior of
victims drastically. This means that most cases, which are more severe, resulting in pregnancy,
normally change the life of the victim. Not only have the victims been wounded of such terrible
sin, but they now have one of the largest decisions to make in their life: to keep the baby, or to
not. Surely, the last thing a sexually abused woman needs is an apathetic doctor building guilt of
killing a life. They have to wrestle with their hate and anger, trying not to project that onto
their child (Ensler).
A culture of despair is being built within the destitute places of the United States. A new
study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, suggests that teenage girls in places of
lower socioeconomic classes have higher proability of aborting a falsely conceived child.
Partaking in this false activity is a number of different factors; including isolation for the work
industry, social exclusion and living in constant poverty. These terrible conditions lead to
hopelessness in a society which barely gives its communities any opportunity to exceed
expectations of their own or otherwise. Not being in higher social classes makes them believe in
the fact that if they go ahead with childbirth at a young age, they are giving a child to a
community that is already failing, and hence worsening the life of a child. They ask themselves

Arshad 3

this question: if I cant afford to feed myself, how will I be able to provide for a baby, and even
make an effort to change his life for the better? The multiple screenings before abortions lead to
a growing feeling of despair within these girls and make them feel like they are doing something
morally unjust and ethically wrong by aborting the baby. According to the same research, 41% of
abortions are overturned by clinics after the screening and the questioning of young teenage
girls. They continue giving birth into a lower socioeconomic class and have no chance of
bettering their own life or their childs, as they are never given the opportunity. When there is
relatively more hope of economic advancement, it is more desirable to delay motherhood and
invest in human or social capital (Hunter). However, due to being in places of persistent
poverty, and due to persistent and unnecessary questioning, the hope for economic advancement
is taken away, and so it becomes undesirable to delay motherhood, and rather invest in it.
However, there are always arguments in prevalent numbers of abortion being a sin, which result
in women of poverty and rape victims being sinners. But last time I checked, we had something
called the separation of church and state.
There are a variety of reasons to a why a woman might have to abort her baby, and we do
not have a right to question her authority. What happens inside of her body is purely in her
possession. The two most dominant reasons are rape and being in low socioeconomic classes.
The mental trauma of being a rape victim is enough to give a woman a disorder. Alike, the
responsibility of grooming a child in destitute conditions is also enough to change the personality
of a teenager who made a simple mistake. These people, these women are morally vulnerable to
be harmed by us, and we should not exploit their conditions. You never know when you might
meet a Jyoti Singh. Become pro-choice, and do not question.

Arshad 4

Works Cited
Hunter, Lori M. "U.S. Teen Birth Rate Correlates with State Income Inequality." PRB.
Population Reference Bureau. 1 Apr. 2012. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.
States Abortion Restrictions Erode Freedom of Choice. USA TODAY. 08 Sep. 2015: A.7. SIRS
Issues

Researcher. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

Udwin, Leslee. "India's Daughter." PBS. PBS, 16 Nov. 2015. Web. 04 Feb. 2016