I'm sorry to have missed so much discussion (well, some of it). This is a really busy time around here for my fingers and I have to go where they go.
Last week, doing what we all do, roaming the net looking for articles, I had come across a history of abortion that discussed WHY PBA had been used, and why it isn't necessary now. ANd I CAN"T FIND IT AGAIN.
I hate that.
But I did find an interesting history of abortion through the ages. Everyone here has probably read enough to realize that unwanted pregnancies have been terminated in various ways since humans figured out they could do it.
Here are a couple of excerpts that will remind us that outlawing abortion is not a solution to the problem.
cbctrust.com
Women faced with unwanted pregnancies have turned to abortion, regardless of religious or legal sanction and often at considerable risk.2 Used to deal with upheavals in personal, family, and community life, abortion has been called “a fundamental aspect of human behaviour”.3
At present almost two-thirds of the world’s women reside in countries where abortion may be obtained on request or for a broad range of social, economic or personal reasons.26 Liberalization has been successful; countries which have developed access to safe, legal abortion have typically lowered the rates of pregnancy-related complications and death as well as infanticide, and improved the health of women and their families.27,28,29
Abortions are carried out in every country in the world today, regardless of the law.30 World-wide, it is estimated that 50 million abortions occur every year.31 More than one-third are illegal abortions occurring mainly in the developing world, and nearly one-half take place outside any health care system.32
In those parts of the world where abortion remains prohibited or restricted, clandestine, illegal abortion remains a serious health problem. Much of Muslim Asia, Latin America and Africa fall into this category. These are the same places where safe, affordable means of contraception are the least available.33 About 100 million women worldwide have an unmet need for contraception.34
The methods of illegal abortion vary somewhat from culture to culture. African women may seek abortion from midwives or traditional healers, who insert plant roots or twigs into the cervix, hoping to induce uterine contractions. Desperate Zambian women may attempt to self-induce by drinking detergent or gasoline or taking an overdose of aspirin or chloroquine in order to cause violent contractions.35 In rural Indonesia and Thailand, intensive abdominal massage is the method most often used,35 while in Latin America, abortions are performed with catheters, hangers, knitting needles, caustic substances, toxic herbal teas or drugs.
In many countries, a large proportion of maternal deaths is due to illegal or clandestine abortion: Ethiopia— 54%; Argentina— 35%; Chile— 36%; Zimbabwe— 28%.36 The estimated number of women worldwide who die from clandestine abortion ranges from less than 100,000 to as many as 200,000 women a year.32 Most clandestine abortions are performed by non-professionals or are self-induced. And for every woman who dies from an illegal abortion, many more suffer serious (and often lifelong) health problems— among them haemorrhaging, infection, abdominal or intestinal perforations, kidney failure, and infertility.37
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There is a breakdown of countries and religions. For instance, I didn't realize that in Judaism, abortion for therapeutic reasons, when the woman’s life is clearly in danger, is mandatory. The mother's life takes absolute precedence over the potential life of the fetus, which is not regarded as full life until late in the process of birth.
And they had this to say about Islam:
The majority of Muslim scholars permit abortion, although they differ on the stage of fetal development beyond which it becomes prohibited.196
Scholars agree that abortion at or after the ensoulment stage is prohibited, except to save the woman’s life. One group permits abortion up to 120 days after conception. Another prohibits it as early as eighty or even forty days after conception. On the other hand, a minority of scholars hold a very strict view which prohibits abortion the minute the semen attaches to the uterus, on the theory that it is already on its way to being ensouled.
The two I found most appealing, despite their almost opposite positions, were these because they don't try to make minute religious distinctions and they make sense to me:
Native Spirituality
Abortion is regarded as killing, and in the native culture children are often adopted by other members of the community.
and Humanism:
Humanists do not consider an embryo/fetus to be a person, but rather, to have the potential of becoming one. They see the abortion decision as a personal, moral choice for the woman and not properly the subject of criminal legislation.195
In the first you have a community in agreement, that will take on responsibility for the child. The culture believes that a child belongs to the tribe. We may think we believe this, but it's just not true- so in the second, our very independent society- we allow the individual to make these decisions for herself. |
