Essay on Abortion and Respect Life vs. Catholic Church
Abortion is one of the most controversial issues in the US because the conservative part of the US society stands for the legal ban of abortion, while the liberal part of the US society stands for the full legalization of abortion as one of the basic rights of women. The core of the abortion debate is the debate between proponents of abortion, who believe that abortion is essential and women should have the right and opportunity to undergo abortion, and opponents of abortion, who believe that abortion is a sinful, wrong act that should never be practiced at all. In this regard, opponents of abortion represent the religious community mainly. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that the position of the Catholic Church is particularly important in the abortion debate because the Catholic Church traditionally stands against abortion, which Catholics view as a sinful act that contradicts to the will of God. The debate between the Catholic Church and proponents of abortion grows stronger as abortion has already become a widely-spread surgery in the US that contradicts to the position of the Catholic Church in this regard. In fact, the Catholic Church stands for its fundamental principles, which respect human life and view it as a gift of God that makes the position of the Catholic Church concerning abortion rigid and unchangeable.
The position of the Catholic Church was and still is vulnerable to the severe criticism from the part of proponents of abortion, who believed abortion to be an essential option for women to determine whether to deliver a child or not. Historically, motherhood limited economic and social opportunities of women and feminists, for example, believe that the ban of abortion is the way to set control over women and limit their opportunities of birth control. They believe that women should be free to decide whether they need abortion or not and this is the way for the liberation of women because it expands their opportunities for birth control.
At the same time, there are more sophisticated arguments that refer to the life and death issues which emerge, in case of pregnancy of women. For example, proponents of abortion insist that pregnancy may threaten to the life of some women. This is why they believe that abortion should be legal and the ban of abortion will put under a threat the life of many women. This position is very strong since it rejects any arguments that there are other tools of birth control but abortion, because there are cases of pregnancy after rape, for example. Hence, abortion seems to be virtually an essential option for women.
However, the Catholic Church still insists on the ban of abortion and views it as absolutely unacceptable and sinful act. In fact, there are several key points, which justify the position of the Catholic Church in this regard. First, the Catholic Church views a human life as sacred (Boonin, 2002). Catholics believe that a human life is a gift of God that should be always respected and not a single human has the right to play God and decide whether let a human life to appear or not. In other words, the Catholic Church stands on the ground that humans has no moral right to take a decision on abortion because abortion is the deprivation of life of the unborn baby. This is why the Catholic Church views abortion as a sort of murder, while murder is one of the greatest sins in Catholic religion.
Furthermore, the Catholic Church respects the childbirth and views it as one of the most important and sacred elements of human life on the Earth. In fact, the birth of a child is sacred and highly respected by the Catholic Church because Jesus Christ was born by a human woman and he was the son of God (Hern, 1996). Similarly other babies are also born in a natural way and, if they are born, then this is the will of God. Moreover, the Catholic Church views the childbirth as one of the main elements of the human life because the childbirth is one of the major responsibilities of women as well as men. They should live according to divine laws and they should create their families, have children and bring them up with respect to God and Catholic teaching.
In addition, the Catholic Church always stood for traditional family values and childbirth comprises an integral part of traditional family values. In fact, children make the family life more purposeful and pleasant for God. This is why the Catholic Church promotes the idea of the childbirth as an essential element of the family life. The idea of abortion contradicts to the idea of the childbirth. Therefore, the Catholic Church insists on the necessity to ban abortion because it undermines traditional family values and lifestyle. In fact, the Catholic Church associated abortion with the downfall of morals in society because abortion leads to the devaluation of family values and it may have a destructive impact on the family life as well as life of individuals. Hence, the position of the Catholic Church to ban abortion is reasonable within the religious framework the Catholic Church operates within.
At the individual level, abortion is also unacceptable for the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church stands on the ground that women cannot stop the life of the unborn child through abortion. The Catholic Church rejects the argument of its opponents of unwanted children, as is the case of rapes, for example (Finer, 2005). In response to such arguments, the Catholic Church develops the idea that there are no unwanted children. All children should be wanted by their mothers. Women should not reject their babies, even if they have got pregnant after a rape. Instead, women should be aware of the fact that, if they got pregnant, then this was the will of God. Moreover, the Catholic Church holds the premise that all children are born absolutely pure and women cannot view their children as the cause of their troubles. Instead, they should view them as innocent creatures, which they should take care for and provide for. Therefore, they should not commit abortions but, instead, they should deliver their babies and take care for them.
In fact, the Catholic Church rejects all arguments of its opponents. When opponents of abortion remind of the threat to the life and health of women associated with pregnancy and delivery of children, the Catholic Church traditionally refers to the will of God and insists that the contemporary health care system can minimize risks to the life and health of women and women have ample opportunities to avoid pregnancy, if they are aware of risks to their health, instead of murdering unborn babies. At this point, the Catholic Church stands on the ground that abortion is the murder of the unborn child.
The position of the Catholic Church originates from the traditional Christian teaching, which makes the respect of life the major priority. This is why the Catholic Church respects every life that is born or is going to be born. The life is the most valuable humans have in their life and the Catholic Church view the life as a sacred concept, as a gift of God and as a will of God, which humans cannot change or contradict to. Instead, the Catholic Church is respectful to life because every person has the right to live and other people cannot deprive any person of this right, including unborn children. This is why the Catholic Church insists on the ban of abortion in the US.
Thus, abortion is still one of the most debatable issues in the US. The large number of opponents of abortion has a strong religious background because religion tends to reject abortion. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the case of the Catholic Church, which stands against abortion as a sinful act and as a murder of an unborn child. The Catholic Church justifies its position by strong religious and moral concepts. The Catholic Church insists that abortion contradicts to the will of God, violates basic moral laws, destroys families and undermines traditional family values. Therefore, abortion has a destructive impact on individuals and the entire society.
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