When a pregnancy is the result of a crime such as rape, incest or child abuse, if a woman doesn’t want a permanent reminder of her ordeal, abortion may be the answer. There is the option to have the baby and have it adopted. However, this means the woman has to live through 9 months of the consequences of something that was a harrowing experience.

Another of the reasons for abortion is that the pregnancy may be a danger to the mother’s mental health. This also implies insufficient to look after a child after it is born. Termination is sometimes safer and even necessary for the mother.

This is similar to the previous reason. If a pregnancy puts a woman at physical risk, abortion might be the only solution to maintain her own fragile health. Again, the health and well being of the mother must be considered as well.

Another of the reasons for abortion concerns the child and not the mother. If the unborn child is known to have physical defects, parents to be may not be mentally pre-disposed to take care of a handicapped child. They must weigh the potential risks and problems.

Similarly, abortion may be the option taken if genetic defects are suspected. Other mental defects must be considered as well. These include such issues as those caused by the mother’s substance or alcohol abuse.

There may be social reasons for abortion. A mother may be too young to cope with a child or may be ill equipped to cope physically and mentally, or because she already has too many children. Poverty is also another factor under social considerations.

Another of the reasons for abortion is population control. It might be government policy to regulate population size or to control ethnic, religious and cultural groups within a population. It might also be used as a way of improving the physical and mental demographics of a population.

Abortion is an incredibly complex and emotive moral issue, and even those who faithfully believe they would never opt for a termination may one day find themselves facing this most difficult of questions and being presented with the options; who can say how we would all react? Unwanted children can have miserable lives, whilst a mum who dies because having the child caused the anticipated problems to manifest themselves leaves behind a grieving father and a motherless infant. This is one of those ethical issues that no-one will ever agree on and the reasons for abortion are treated differently from country to country, culture to culture and religion to religion. For all these reasons for abortion I’ve listed here, you will find someone to argue the case for both sides. Nothing will ever change this because even if science intervenes there’s no perfect response to the questions of life and death. Unfortunately, man was given a mind to make choices, unlike the animal kingdom that exists on natural selection and survival of the fittest. Would you like to discuss this difficult subject?

Top Photo Credit: arizonaguardian