Is Abortion Ever Morally Justifiable?

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Is Abortion Ever Morally Justifiable?
Abortion is one of the hotly discussed topics all over the world. Abortion is the act of artificial termination of life of afetus before the pregnancy completes its cycle. There are as many who support as those who oppose the practice. The proponents of abortion cite reasons such as where the continuation of the pregnancy puts the life of the mother in danger or where the pregnancy was as a result of rape or incest. It is argued that giving birth to a child that resulted from rape would bring a humiliation to the family and everlasting trauma to the victim of the rape. It will act as a life reminder of the horrible act that occurred leading to the pregnancy and the child being born. On the other hand, opposes of abortion argue that it is wrong to kill. That a fetus is already a living human being and procuring an abortion is equally killing. Most of the opponents are people of Christian faith who believe that God forbids murder and that they should live by God’s command that no one should kill. Even though life is sacred and human being has no mandate to tamper with, some of the Christians as well as others who oppose the practice have come to compromise certain situations such as where the pregnancy puts the life of the mother at risk and where the childbirth could be an everlasting trauma for the mother. Generally, abortion is morally justifiable under certain circumstances such as where abortion is the only way to save the life of the mother, where pregnancy was as a result of rape or incest, where abortion could help in preventing unacceptable quality of life and where abortion could help in regulating population.
Abortion is justified where the pregnancy acts a threat to the life of the mother and the child. According to Savchev (2016), there are instances where pregnancy is extremely dangerous to the life of the mother as in ectopic pregnancy or cases of cancerous growth that threatens the life of the mother if pregnancy continues to birth. The logic here is that if the pregnancy continues, the mother will die. If the mother dies, the child dies also. However, if the pregnancy is terminated through abortion, the child dies but the mother survives (Norman, et al 11). In such a case, a life has to be lost and is therefore morally right and justified to save at least a single life even if through abortion. In such a dilemma, it is clear that abortion cannot be avoided.
Also, pregnancy could have been as a result of crime such as rape or incest. Naturally, sexual relationships are part of human life and it is no surprise that they would end up with a pregnancy (Fishe, 13). However, there are instances where pregnancy results from crime or abuse of sex where there is no agreement to participate in a sexual act such as in rape and the pregnancy might lead to trauma for the mother. Is it justified to force the mother to bear the consequences of the trauma if she does not desire? Certainly no and there can be no moral grounds to force a mother to bear a child whom she does not know the father and bear other consequences such as bring up the child alone without assistance (Norman, et al 14). What if the rape had occurred to...