Reproductive Rights
(579 Words)
Amnesty International argues that human beings have the right to make decisions concerning their health, sexuality, body, as well as reproductive life. Nobody should have any fear or feel coerced when making choices about their health since they should be free from discrimination or violence. The organization laments that individuals continue to face restrictions from exercising these rights since it is the state, relatives, or medical practitioners who step in to control their decision-making process regarding their reproductive health. Moreover, criminal law and punitive sanctions hinder individuals from choosing the path to take when it comes to sexual health activities.
Individuals reserve the right to choose who to marry and their preferred time for settling down in marriage. Nobody can challenge them if they prefer to remain single, and it is at their discretion to decide the kind of family that they wish to bring up. There is no age limit for bearing children, and one can give birth to any number of children that they feel comfortable raising. The materials that enlighten the masses about reproductive health should be available for all. Safe abortion is a service that everyone should enjoy in the event of rape or incest.
When the pregnancy poses a danger to the expectant mother, she has the right to receive secure abortion services. In the case where the fetus has experienced a fetal impairment, the pregnant mother has the right to terminate the pregnancy instead of giving birth and raising an impaired child. The organization hopes to fight against the laws that prohibit abortion, for instance, in Ireland, and early marriages in Burkina Faso. Further, it seeks to eliminate the existing barriers that hinder the populations from accessing information about contraceptives.
The Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform is against abortion citing that those who secure abortions do not have any authority to do so because the process does not qualify as a reproductive right. Every person has human rights, and life begins at conception meaning even a fetus who is still in their mother’s womb has the freedom to live and anybody who tries to cut their lives short through abortion should face charges of murder (Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform). Therefore, when people argue that the mother of the unborn child has the reproductive authority to terminate a pregnancy in the case of danger, they are devaluing the life of the fetus because age does not make an infant a lesser being.
The organization does not recognize that a woman has the right to choose whether she wants to bring a life into existence or not. Its primary stand is that nobody has the authority to kill a child through abortion because it already exists and has a life, which only God has the power to take away. A man and a woman have the freedom to together and conceive a child. This freedom is what fits the description of a reproductive right. However, after conceiving, they have the duty to take care of the fetus before and after birth. If they choose to terminate the pregnancy, they are acting outside their reproductive rights which stops at the conception stage (Amnesty International). Once a child’s life comes to an abrupt end because of abortion, the nation loses a valuable being who is unique and irreplaceable. It is a moral obligation for every human being to protect life, and killing an innocent child in the name of exercising reproductive rights is morally wrong.
Works Cited
Canadian Center for Bio-ethical Reform. Why abortion is not a “reproductive right”
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Amnesty International. My Body, My Rights.
Retrieved from