By Paul Cachia

The issue of abortion extends far beyond the taking of life. Abortion requires consideration of what is just and whether a pregnant woman has the right to decide. There are many diverging views. Rather than answering bluntly, I would like to put forward some questions.

Is it the woman’s right to terminate the pregnancy considering that it is her body? Is the woman solely responsible being the only or the major party affected by the pregnancy? Does the father have a say in the termination of the pregnancy? Generally, his role is supportive. Being a parent is a profound responsibility — financial, psychological, and moral. But when a man decides to abort on behalf of the woman is this wrong?

Is it fair to bring a child into a world that cannot provide it with a meaningful life? If the woman is poor, or cannot give her child a good upbringing, is having the child the right thing to do?

Pro-abortion groups say that there are many legitimate reasons why a rational woman might have an abortion — accidental pregnancy, rape, birth defects, danger to her health. Is this true? And if a pregnant woman acts capriciously, then should she be condemned morally or treated as a murderer?

Rights, the pro-choice groups claim, do not pertain to a potential, only to an actual being. A child cannot acquire any rights until it is born. How would then an abortion be defined if the foetus were considered a person?

Whether it is ethical to abort the pregnancy and thus terminate a potential human life is the broad problem that fuels the never-ending abortion debate. However, if my mother or yours for all it matters, decided to abort in her time, I would not be here to write down these lines, more so yourself to read them. I believe the value of life cannot be questioned!

Mr Cachia is a journalist with www.di-ve.com

By Mary Grace Vella

The resistance of society to regard a woman’s body as her own is strongly evident in the area of a woman’s reproductive process. Becoming a mother means a total life change. It calls upon a woman to make an irrevocable lifelong commitment in terms of emotional involvement, financial burdens and loss of freedom. Yet, historically, the last person to have any control over whether and when pregnancy occurred was the woman herself.

If married, she did not have the right to deny sex to her husband and until decades ago, artificial methods of birth control were unreliable. And as soon as more effective methods to prevent pregnancy were developed, society and law makers resisted in giving women access to these means of controlling their bodies and their lives.

However, as long as reproductive technology is controlled by men, it will be utilised not to empower women but to consolidate male power. The fact that only women can reproduce is a source of power which women should control.

Women do not terminate their pregnancies just because they want to, without a justifiable reason. Generally, there exists a combination of physical, psychological and social forces that justify the woman’s decision of termination. For many pro-choice believers, termination of pregnancy is a necessary evil, one that must be tolerated and supported until such time as better sex education, more effective contraception and a more just social order makes motherhood by choice possible.

In our present social reality, abortion or any other means of termination of preganancy, however undersirable this might be, is in certain cases the only solution to the problem of unwanted preganancy.

Here and now, there are women who need or desire abortion and neither the legal status of abortion in a particular country nor the health risks associated with having an illegal abortion, will deter them from terminating their unwanted pregnancies. Because of this, termination of preganancy services ought to be safely accessible and readily available in every country, if only as a means of harm reduction.

In my opinion, this is not being pro-abortion, this is being realistic!

Ms Vella is a Graffitti activist. The article reflects her personal opinion.