Abortion should be legal in the United States because of rape and mental health. The government should not oversee what a woman decides to do with her body.  

“Almost three million women in the U.S. experienced RRP [rape related pregnancy] during their lifetime,” according to the Center for Disease Control. This means a lot of women in the U.S. alone have had to deal with pregnancy as the aftermath of rape. This causes a lot of stress on their behalf of being pregnant.  

“Women who were raped by a current or former intimate partner were more likely to report RRP (26%) compared to those raped by an acquaintance (5.2%) or a stranger (6.9%),” according to the CDC. Most women who were raped became pregnant by their significant other. This creates a series of issues they may have with their love life afterward.  “30% experienced a form of reproductive coercion by the same partner,” according to the CDC.  Their partners wanted to forcefully impregnate them without their consent. This is a big violation of her right to her own body. 

Women may also struggle with mental health issues. This is not good for either the mother or the child because pregnancy and motherhood can be very overwhelming if she has unresolved mental illness. If she is mentally ill it may not be the best environment for the child to live in.  “Around 20% of pregnant people experience anxiety or depression during their pregnancy,” according to WebMD.  This means that one-fifth  of women who become pregnant will experience anxiety or depression. They are serious mental illnesses that which affect people significantly. “People who stop taking psychiatric medications for depression, bipolar disorder, and other mental health conditions during pregnancy may also experience increased or additional symptoms of their mental illness,” according to WebMD. 

Pregnant women who already have an underlying mental illness will suffer even more while being pregnant because they will not be able to take their medications used to help them. This will cause a lot of frustration and anger as the mother will not be able to help herself. “Parental depression or anxiety could lead to neglectful behaviors, causing future mental health issues in a child,” according to WebMD.

Mothers who give birth while having anxiety or depression may neglect their child in the future. The child is completely helpless in this case and cannot do anything about that. “Studies show that babies exposed to more stress hormones while they are in the womb are more likely to have a very active amygdala in the brain. This means that they have higher anxiety levels,” according to WebMD. The baby will be born with excessive anxiety issues and will have a hard time coping with society due to the stress hormones they were exposed to while in the womb. Sadly, it is very easy for the mother to expose the baby to stress hormones. “Babies of anxious moms reacted with an increased heart rate when their mothers were given a stressful task,” according to WebMD. When the mothers are working this will increase their stress levels that will affect the baby too. Their heart will race just as the mother’s will. 

“Babies born to parents who were depressed while pregnant have lower birth weights. Additionally, pregnant people with anxiety and depression are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or use other substances during pregnancy,” according to WebMD.  Babies will weigh lower than the average weight standard for an infant.

The mother’s decisions and feelings affect the baby too.

Because of all this, pregnant women should have the choice of whether or not to keep the child.