Zoe Glantz is a freshman at Lafayette. She chose to submit this piece as a guest column for The Lancer Feed.

Abortion is one of the most debated topics of all time. It took a decade-long fight to even reach the Supreme Court’s ruling of decriminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973.

But now that court decision is being challenged by something called a fetal heartbeat bill, which would make abortions illegal as soon as the fetus has a detectable heartbeat. Fifteen states, including Missouri, have introduced such measures in 2019.

The foremost issue with these bills is that they are nearly bans. This is because a fetus develops a heartbeat at six weeks, and most people who are pregnant are not aware at such an early stage.

In fact, the symptoms of pregnancy that occur at six weeks are almost exactly the same as the symptoms that come before a period. Not having a period for six weeks can be normal for some people with irregular periods, so many would have no idea that they are pregnant at this time.

By the time most people realize they are pregnant, it would be too late to get an abortion in a state with a fetal heartbeat law.

The main reason why I am pro-choice is because abortion is a human right. People only get abortions because they cannot have a baby without facing health, financial, emotional or mental issues. No one gets an abortion just because. It is a heartbreaking experience for anyone to go through.

No one’s body should be policed by the government because of religious views. Since there are no biological explanations for why abortion is immoral, the only reason why these laws are being made is because of religious or moral beliefs.

However, if these lawmakers actually cared about morals, they would prioritize the people who have to bear the child over the child itself. It’s better for a child to not be born at all instead of being born to a parent who cannot properly take care of it.

It’s also important to note that not just women need abortions. Yes, the current abortion restrictions mainly focus on women, but transgender men and nonbinary people are just as affected by these heartbeat bills, and not acknowledging that fact is problematic by nature.

One of the most common arguments against abortion is that “pregnant people should have to take responsibility for their actions”. However, this argument is unfair because it is based on the assumption that a person is pregnant because of a choice to have sex or not use contraception.

In reality, people get pregnant from rape and contraception can fail. And even if two people did choose to have sex, abortion should still be a viable option. If the parent is not mentally, emotionally, physically or financially ready to have a child, abortion may be the most responsible choice.

Another popular argument against abortion is that “if you don’t want to be a parent, just choose adoption.” This is an issue because sometimes pregnancy is the problem, not parenthood. Some people cannot physically bear a child, and sometimes people just don’t want to deal with the pain and the toll that pregnancy takes on the body.

Abortion is healthcare. The fact that people are trying to take it away because of misinformed opinions is dangerous.

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