I’ll start my speech with a story about Rina, a 12 years old from
Honduras who was raped 10 times but a 27 years old man, leaving
her pregnant. Due to the strict abortion ban law in Honduras, Rina
cannot have an abortion and is forced to give birth to the child of
her rapist.
My speech today will be about a sensitive subject that has always
been up for debate and separated groups for many years and in
many countries, and that is abortion.
Abortion has always been a controversial topic. While many people
(also called pro-choice or pro women) believe that it is a woman's
right to choose whether or not she decides to have an abortion,
others have religious, political, emotional, or personal morals that
lead them to believe that having an abortion is wrong. (Those call
themselves pro-life).
Around the world, over 25 countries have taken away the woman's
right to choose and have decided for all women by making
abortion illegal. In some cases, the law permits abortions only if
the pregnancy could endanger the mother’s life, but stays illegal
even in cases of rape or incest, which is absolutely despicable.
The U.S state Texas's near-total ban on abortion for example
prohibits women from having an abortion after 6 weeks of
pregnancy, a time where most women aren’t even aware that
they’re pregnant, not only that, they also made it very hard for
them to challenge it in court.
Most of the anti-abortion advocates have for arguments the
following:

The religious ones believe that life begins at conception, and
that an abortion would be murder. The others claim that
it’s a dangerous procedure for the mother and in case of
rape or incest, there are still alternatives to it like adoption.
But the reality is that those bans and laws don’t actually stop
abortions, instead they just force many to get backstreet, illegal
abortions which can be extremely risky and sometimes even
deadly.
So, these supposedly pro-life laws will end up hurting a lot of
women and probably killing some of them which is especially
tragic because if pro-life lawmakers want to reduce abortion
there are so many other ways, they could do it by supporting
women instead of harming them.
According to a 2014 study by the World Health Organization,
In countries where abortion is banned, only 1 in 4 abortions is safe,
By contrast, in countries where abortion is legal, nearly 9 out of 10
abortions were found to be performed safely.
However, poor and rural women are the most likely to experience
difficulties due to their tough financial circumstances. Some
financially disadvantaged women even have to cross state lines to
have the procedures. If not, those women no choice but to go
through with their pregnancy whether it’s unplanned or a result of
rape or incest, and it’s unimaginable how heavy this is on the
mothers’ mental health.
Not to mention that in countries with the strictest abortion-ban
laws, most women who get pregnant after being sexually forced,
are most likely to have severe mental health issues for the rest of
their lives, and some of them opt for suicide even before giving
birth.
For all these reasons and more, pro-abortion people insist that a
woman has the right to choose whether or not she wants to have
the baby, since it’s her body and nobody else’s. In the case of rape,
it would be lacking in compassion to deny a woman the right to an
abortion, for not only moral, but psychological reasons as well.
The woman might be too young, or have work or family
commitments which make bringing up a child difficult or
impossible for her, and none of the laws actually supports these
women financially after birth, which leaves them in even tougher
situations than before.
Lastly, this is about the pregnant woman's health and welfare
which are more important than anything else.
It’s not a matter of taking sides, it’s a matter of whether strangers
should have the right to make decision about your body, about
your own life and future.