Abortion: The Debate That Never Dies

The abortion debate is one that has been going on for years now. When an abortion is performed, an embryo or fetus is removed from the uterus, causing its death and termination of the pregnancy.

Some argue that a fetus has the right to life, and the mother should not be able to make life and death decisions for it. Whoever has that idea in their head really needs to rethink things over. The mother should be able to make this decision no matter what the circumstance. Needless to say, victims of rape should be allowed abortions. But for mothers who are not in the right position to care for and provide the baby with a good life (financially, physically or emotionally) this should be an open option for them as well. In all these situations, both the mother and baby's lives would have been better off if an abortion had been performed.

Approximately 25% of the world’s population lives in countries where abortion is illegal or very restricted. In some countries, such as in Chili, women go to prison for having an abortion. It has even been proven that abortion rates are very similar in countries where it is legal compared to countries where it is not. So why bother restricting abortion laws at all? We can all see that these laws do nothing to deter women from getting them. Also, abortion is much more dangerous in countries where it is illegal, and many women die as a result of this. It is said that 80,000 women die EVERY YEAR due to illegal and unsafe abortions in India.

In order to prevent these unnecessary deaths and suffering, all the world leaders need to do is legalize abortion. We really need to give women the right to choose a better life for both herself and her baby.

Click on the map to enlarge it and see which countries heavily restrict abortion.

Calorie Counting in NYC

A few days ago, an article in the Time magazine took me by surprise- “NYC Takes Calorie-Counting Campaign to the Rails”. Its about time the city Health Department started this new campaign to encourage healthy eating habits among its American citizens!! This campaign is intended to build on the city’s new regulation, requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on their menus. In the posters that appeared in about 1000 subway cars, people are advised that 2000 calories is all a normal adult needs per day.

During the last 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. Approximately 127 million adults in the U.S. are overweight, 60 million obese, and 9 million severely obese. Obesity is a serious chronic illness, which occurs when the weight exceeds 120% of a person’s median weight for their height. Someone who is 40% overweight is twice as likely to die prematurely as is an average-weight person. Obesity has even been linked to several serious medical conditions including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, asthma and many others.

I think it’s a really good thing that the New York Health Department is trying to make people more aware of what and how much they’re eating. If every restaurant provided calorie counts for their menu items, people would see that, for example a chicken burrito with toppings contains 1170 calories! That is more than half the calories a normal adult should consume in a day. However, everyone has different needs for energy intake and people should definitely not regard this campaign poster as they would a bible. They should just allow themselves to become more aware of how much they are eating every day. Hopefully when fast-food chains provide the calorie information in their restaurants, they will not hide the pamphlets in a corner like McDonald does. If this whole campaign is effective, I really do think that people will start to pay closer attention to the foods they eat, and cut down on their calorie intake in order to lead a healthier and safer life.

Bonus- RGS Lecture: Afghanistan Peace Building By Dr. Daniel Taylor

In an hour, Dr. Taylor’s intriguing lecture on “Afghanistan: Peace Building” had opened my eyes to what was happening with the War on Terror, and how it was affecting countries in the middle east, like Afghanistan. The War on Terror was raged the day after 911. As Dr. Taylor explained, September 11 was not the real tragedy, September 12 was. The day after 911 was the “golden hour”. It was a chance for world peace. However, we all know that it didn’t turn out this way. And thus, the War on Terror began. If the United States had taken the opportunity for peace, many countries around the world, including Afghanistan would have been in very different situations today.

In 2001, the war in Afghanistan was raged by the United States in response to the 911 attacks. This resulted in the fall of the Taliban government, and the beginning of the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban insurgency took root, the Afghan people have faced a large wave of armed attacks and bombings, which have been increasing year after year. Over 1500 Afghan civilians have been killed so far this year- a 40% increase over the previous year's numbers.

In the lecture, Dr. Taylor identified several key issues regarding the situation in Afghanistan. The international community that came to “help” the Afghan people after 911 had now created a problem for Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan is slipping away, but there is a new war- a battle amongst the Afghan people. Through these hard times of war and conflict, groups of people who trusted one another, called sub-clans, are all that hold Afghanistan together. Dr. Taylor works with his organisation, Future Generations Afghanistan, to bring peace and stability to the Afghan people. They build from the sub-clan level, focusing on the successes and resources available in each community.

I feel that by raging a war on terror and by stepping into other countries to try to “fix” imperfections, the United States is causing more and larger problems along the way. After 911, the United States decided to point their fingers at one man and his organisation: Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda. This completely changed the world’s views against the people of the Middle East. With this, the world became prejudiced and less tolerant towards people of a different faith. As Dr. Taylor mentioned, people are “veering to the wings of religious thinking” and are becoming more fundamentalist in their approach to dealing with or responding to various issues. I believe that people have become this way because extremists have resulted to using violent actions as solutions to their problems. I strongly believe that we need to find other ways to solve these problems. Violence only makes matters worse. Obama is definitely leading the world in the right direction with his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Some say that the war on terror is crucial in protecting innocent people against terrorist attacks, and that the war on terror also helps to disrupt the activities of terrorist organisations around the world. However, I strongly believe that by stepping into Afghanistan and wiping the Taliban government out of power, the United States had interfered with the country’s domestic issues, destabilizing its political and military balance, which created new and even larger problems for Afghanistan- the Taliban insurgency. It is easy to see why the Afghan people have lost total trust in the international community.