Very few topics in today’s world cause division and disrupt unity as much as abortion. Viewed as a taboo, rarely discussed in the open, held as a wrench against women by many in authority, abortion and it’s laws around the world is not without its hyda-headed problems.
Current polls show that there are no more pro life than there are pro choice supporters when it comes to terminating a pregnancy. However, we must be able to make a decision guided by scientific evidence and the best interests for the continuity of life while respecting the inalienable rights of the persons involved.
Due to the position of several political and religious power blocs such as the far right and the church; particularly the Vatican on this issue, who continue to lobby governments, several lives have been put in danger even when the decision to carry out an abortion or not rests with the potential mother from an objective standpoint. On the continuum of agreement to this practice, there are those who think it should be legal until the end of the first trimester, some others are more flexible in their opinion while others are completely against the practice from the point of conception to parturition. In certain parts of the world such as several states in the US, abortion is illegal except in cases of rape and incest. In others such as, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Laos, Madagascar, Mauritania, Nicaragua, Philippines, Palau, Senegal and Suriname, there is a total ban on the procedure irrespective of the factors in play . Here, I ask a question that if it is legal in one , in the same political sphere, why shouldn’t it be legal in another? There is no justification for this. The same individuals who disfavour abortion are usually absolutely against contraception, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research. They are usually a flock of males who do not understand what it means to bear a child you do not want. They do not understand the needless suffering that a child and it’s family would be spared from when a recalcitrant genetic disease is in question.
This should not be acceptable in any part of the world. Women deserve that the minimum respect for the individuality of their person be granted. The history of abortion dates back to as far back as the beginning of medicine when women realized that avoiding certain foods and herbs helped strengthen pregnancy. It was obvious to conclude thereof that consuming these items could terminate a pregnancy. According to modern anthropology, almost every studied culture has evidence of abortion which therefore makes it an ubiquitous human practice. Documents from China and Egypt indicate that certain herbs were used to carry out abortions as early as 3000BCE and 2500BCE respectively. With the evolution of medicine, more women sought termination of pregnancies from mostly midwives. This inadvertently led to doctors demanding for regulation of the practice as it was in their favour to monopolize health services. It logically follows that the debate on abortion is hardly an ethical one as much as it is a control for power and subordination of one gender over another or one power bloc over anatomically vulnerable females.
Today, an estimated 225 million women and girls are denied access to modern contraception which often leads to unplanned pregnancies. With 47000 women dying from unsafe abortion and a further 5 million of them being permanently incapacitated from it, the day has come for all of us to call on world governments to decriminalise abortion and increase its access in order to save lives and respect the merited choices of women and girls. It is well known without doubt that criminalising abortion does not reduce the demand for it by women and girls, rather, it opens up channels for unsafe abortions to be attempted and for charlatans to exploit individuals under the guise of providing health services.
