Late-Term Abortion Should be Legal

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Background Information
Canada is one of the three countries in the world where abortion is allowed and is carried out within the dictates of the law. As such, the country serves as an indication that abortion is a medical care process, just like open heart surgery, and needs no special attention (Green Party of Canada, 1). This means that carrying out the process in the county is taken as a legal process. It is also a way of ensuring that the rights of the people are respected. That is, the women have a chance whether to or not to keep a pregnancy to term. However, there arises a question of how long a pregnancy should be taken as legal. As such, the question of late term abortion has come up, and it is hotly contested. In this light, the report below looks at the issue of late term abortions, indicating why they should be made legal.
There exists societal divides over this issue, where many people do not seem to agree as to whether late term abortion should be allowed or not. There are the conservative people in the society who are of the idea that abortion policies should be based on the moral or legal questions of the procedure. This is also the same view that is supported by Arthur (para. 4 ) who observes that "abortion is a question of choice, conservatives disagree strongly, taking away innocent life is wrong." This implies that the conservatives are of the opinion that the procedure should not be allowed. How much more would they be opposed to the issue of late term abortion can be quite surprising.
The Need to Legalize Late Term Abortions
First of all, there is the need to get a clear definition of what late term abortion is. The best definition for this is when the abortion is carried out at such a time when the fetus is more developed in the mother`s womb. As such, the act is taken by many as murder. Abortion in Canada observes that "late termination of pregnancy or late-term abortions are abortions which are performed during a late stage of pregnancy" (1). To a large extent, the argument is refuted on the basis of when the fetus becomes viable outside the woman`s womb. As such, it can be seen that there is a moral aspect to the issue, where the ethical difference comes in between killing a zygote and killing a newborn infant. There are statistics that indicate the current status of abortions in Canada, as presented by Kosalka (1). In Ontario, there were 43,997 abortions in 2010 which run at a cost of about 5.4 million dollars. Out of these, 18,330 were carried out in physicians offices, 16,055 were done in abortion facilities while 9,612 were carried out in hospitals. This indicates that the cases of abortion are common in the country, especially after the bill allowing it was passed. This bill made Canada one of the few countries in the world which allow abortion to be carried out. However, there is controversy over the issue of late term abortion, where many do not seem to agree as to whether it should be allowed or not.
However, when the fetus is beyond 20 weeks old, many physicians refuse to go on with the process (Canadian Press, 2). It is such a reason that sees to it that many Canadian women travel to Kansas, Colorado and Washington in America to have the process carried out, since it cannot be offered in Canadian facilities. Even doctors such as Henry Morgentaler who is a pro-choice Canadian refuses to offer the process on the basis that it has quiet a depth of ethical concerns (Canadian Press, para. 2). The ethical issue holds the doctors from carrying out the procedure (Patsioti, 1) since their code of conduct goes against the termination of life. Late term abortion counts as the ending of a life. The women incur much travel costs while others opt to go for cheaper but risky processes, through which many lose their lives. To curb this problem, late term abortions should just be legalized.
Current Legislation on Late Term Abortions in Canada
From the above perspective, there is a clear indication as to why the issue of late abortion should be legalized. However, it has also been indicted that carrying out an abortion in the late term can be termed as murder, since the fetus is thought to have already transformed into a baby. As such, aborting at this time can be taken as taking away the life of another individual, which by any definition is murder. In general, any abortion that is carried out after 16 weeks of pregnancy is a late-term, and should only be performed when the pregnancy is a threat to the mother`s life, or when the baby has a birth defect such as anencephaly, which is a case where the baby develops without a brain. There is no way that such a pregnancy can be allowed to go to term. However, und...