In the U.S., abortion is legal and the states regulate the specific laws concerning it. There is much controversy over this hot topic as people are either pro-life or pro-choice. Each side has valid reasoning and points, but the evidence supporting pro-life far outweighs that of pro-choice. Here in America, twenty-one percent of all pregnancies are terminated by abortion. This is an alarming statistic. From the very beginning, when the egg is fertilized, a human life begins. This means that abortion is another form of killing human life. It is murder. Thus abortion needs to become illegal.

Often people grow upset over unjust acts that cause animals pain. There are laws against animal abuse owing to the fact that animals are not objects, and therefore, have a right to a good life. Really, no living creature or being should ever be subject to unfair and inhumane acts of torment. Similarly, no unborn child carried inside a woman should be subject to forms of torture.

Recently it has been discovered that a fetus at 20 weeks of development can feel pain. Not only can it feel pain, but it feels it more intensely than the average adult does. This means that when doctors perform an abortion, they administer acute suffering to the unborn child. This arouses the question, why are people protecting animals over an unborn child? Perhaps it is a result of ignorant people who do not realize that unborn children are in fact humans and have a right to life.

Many people argue that because the Constitution only promises rights to “humans,” the fetus is exempt from protection and therefore can be exterminated. In Robert George’s book Embryo, it states human embryos are “living individuals of the human species — at the earliest developmental stage.” In other words, the fetus is human despite the fact that it does not have all of its human traits and characteristics at the time. They are simply in the process of growing and should not be killed because of this. Instead, we need to protect and try to save all the unborn like we do for any other person. A human is a human, no matter what stage of life they are in.

In a pro-choice article by Joyce Arthur it says, “Human beings must, by definition, be separate individuals.” Arthur further goes on to say that because the fetus is attached to the mother, it is not a human. This logic may seem justified upon first inspection, but if we look into it further, new questions arise. Conjoined twins are not physically separate individuals, yet they are decidedly human. This pro-choice argument simply does not hold true.

In contrast to Arthur’s statement, one man admitted that the unborn are humans, but that it is “irrelevant to the issue of a woman’s right to have an abortion.” This argument is similar to the arguments many people made years ago in concerning black slaves and even Jews during the Holocaust. During these events, it was believed that the slaves and the Jews were human but that the fact was invalid. Now how could people believe these lies? A person’s life and welfare should always be taken into account. No life should ever be considered so small that it is invalid and unimportant.

Going along with this, Barbara Ehrenreich said, “A woman may think of her fetus as a person or as just cells depending on whether the pregnancy is wanted or not. This does not reflect moral confusion, but choice in action.” Basically Ehrenreich is claiming that it is not the worth of a killed person that matters but the free choice of the person who has done the killing. Honestly if we take this pro-choice reasoning, anyone can kill anyone because it is not “moral confusion,” but rather “choice of action.”

Now I agree that mothers should certainly be given some choice in the matter, but there are other choices besides abortion in an unwanted pregnancy. If the child is not desired by the birthmom, adoption is an excellent solution. It is estimated that there are between one to two million couples that desire to adopt. Therefore, every child is wanted by someone. A nine month pregnancy may be an unwanted inconvenience, but in the long run, it will always be worth it. Choosing adoption over abortion gives a child the gift of life, and couples the gift of family.

All in all, abortion needs to be outlawed. Whether or not the mother wants to have an abortion because her pregnancy was caused by rape, accident, or she simply changed her mind, abortion is wrong. It is a gross acceptance of murder. On average, there are 1.06 million abortions every year in America. That is over one million innocent lives that could have been saved if the U.S. would ban abortion. So please, protect the lives of all the unborn children. Like you and I, they are humans too.