Abortion: A Woman's Choice Abortion, defined as the intentional termination of a pregnancy, is one of the most debated freedoms of all time. One to three million abortions are performed each year. Women undergo abortions for reasons such as rape, teenage pregnancy and health problems. Unfortunately, it is a freedom that some still want to eradicate due to religious beliefs and misconceptions. Abortion should remain a legal option for women because illegal abortions result in many more victims, religion does not serve as the basis for a law, and most importantly, there is no conclusive evidence that a fetus is equal to a human being . Unsafe conditions contribute to a large number of deaths each year. According to Wendy Wanlund, “In 1930, illegal abortion was the official cause of death for nearly 2,700 women, or 18 percent of the childbirth-related deaths recorded that year” (Abortion Debates). In the more than four decades since the Roe v. Wade, thousands of American women's lives have been saved through access to legal abortion care. Furthermore, making abortions illegal would force women to end their unwanted pregnancies with unsafe procedures. Every year, millions of women in developing countries are treated for complications resulting from unsafe pregnancy termination. These complications can include heavy bleeding, infection, and sepsis, as well as more serious conditions, such as uterine lacerations or perforation, which can put a woman's life at risk. Lack of access to abortion clinics does not result in fewer abortions, but in unsafe and illegal abortions. Unsafe abortion is therefore an urgent problem. Both primary methods of preventing unsafe abortions… at the center of the paper… emptiness, physical integrity, and self-determination until the baby is delivered from the woman’s body” (ACLU). Until a fetus is delivered from a woman's body it is only a potential person and therefore has no rights. The decision to terminate a pregnancy improves the lives of women around the world every day. Abortion should remain an option because many deaths are caused by unsafe abortions, individual morality should not govern society as a whole, and no scientific evidence has been presented to confirm that human life begins at conception. Moralists promote the belief that legal abortions are dangerous and that human life begins at conception, however both of these claims have been refuted. When performed legally, abortions are one of the safest surgical procedures. Women should continue to have the right to terminate a pregnancy for any reason.