Do women have the right to their own body?. Of course they do but does that include her right to abort or keep her baby. The fetus, or unborn baby, is a distinct individual. Therefore, the argument in favor of abortion on demand or abortion for convenience sake, that a woman has a right to do as she wishes to her own body, is not applicable to the question of abosince the mother’s body is different from that of her baby, or fetus. Abortion is permitted in some cases. When the mother’s health is in danger, it is supposed to save the physical health of the mother. There are many questions in our subject such as; abortion in cases of rape or incest should be treated the same as abortion for medical reasons?
Abortion is a well-known conflicted phenomenon that has occupied the public opinion. Abortion is a conflicted issue in several societies, because of its moral and ethical branches that surround it. Some debate on having an abortion and that is in the case of the women or the children are under danger if they proceed in the pregnancy. Others believe in their right of having an abortion no matter what the consequences are. Abortion is necessary or unnecessary as for the circumstances of the mother. In any way, there are laws can be implemented to protect the woman and their children. Unquestionably, Abortion is to end the pregnancy, causing death of the fetus. Abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy. Abortion refers to the abortion of a human pregnancy, while spontaneous abortions, which man has no hands in are usually termed miscarriages.
The term “abortion” is derived from a Latin word “abortus” that means “amiss born”. If abortion occurs before 20 weeks of gestation, it is termed spontaneous abortion. Abortions continue to be present in many areas where they are illegal. Abortion rates are close in countries where it is legal and in countries where it is not. The number of abortions worldwide is declining due to increased access to contraception. Almost of women live in countries where abortion is obtained on request for a broad range of social, economic or personal reasons. Of course, abortion plays a dangerous role in the mother’s health. Perhaps it can lead to many risks and might result to death. Some women who were raped are intending to make abortion and kill their fetus.
There are two teams; one is against abortion in any case, the other team is with abortion if the rule apply. Abortions have been done secretly by people who lack skill. In the last two centuries, abortion has been banned. In the last century laws have been documented that women have the right to have access to safe abortion services. It might cause a number of health problems after having an unsafe procedure. Women must use contraception, if they want to prevent getting pregnant. Some reject abortion strictly. According to a lady names Jenna, she said that it is not right to kill. Also, Particia Channon wrote that she was against abortion 100%. she was seventeen years old, when she got pregnant with a baby, there was no way she would have abortion. She would like to say that the baby is a part of you, so why you kill him or her? “I think any woman who has the guts to kill an unborn child has no love for anything. People say it is just a fetus – well that fetus is going to be a human being. How could you live with yourself knowing that you killed an innocent little baby?” (Rebbeca Monismith, 2006).
Others such as Jacob Ravinski said that “it is a sin to have an abortion. It is a sin to perform an abortion. It is a sin to be a priest and abuse children. It is a sin to be a priest and burn women because they said to be witches. It is a sin to kill people because they are not of your religion. The world has been, and always will be full of people who will point their finger at sinners, while sinning to their heart’s content”. No one can deny that abortion can cause many harmful aspects to the life of woman.
Civil societies are strictly against abortion, as it is parallel to murder. It punishes inborn babies, by taking away its right to live. Some of the main complications that arose from abortion are frequent miscarriages, premature births, blocked fallopian tubes and weakened cervix. It can as well weaken a woman’s reproductive system. Abortion has been proven to have an increased effect of breast, uterine and cervical cancer in women. A woman may experience stress problems and may fall into depression, as the guilt of the idea of killing her unborn child keeps haunting her. All these factors affect the women’s chance of baring the child. As Joanna stated in her article “I feel that abortions are right, depending on the circumstances. If a woman or young girl was brutally raped and became pregnant, I feel that it is her choice to have an abortion or not. I also feel that before anybody has an abortion they should talk to a health care professional about their decision. However, the abortion rate should be reduced as at 24 weeks a baby can survive.” (Joanna Budds, 2006).
In fact, abortion can be permitted in some cases. To save the life of the woman, abortion is permitted, If it will affect the physical and mental health of the mother, it is allowed to abort the fetus. Yet, if the woman is raped or incest, there is no need to abort the baby. It will be dangerous for her health. In some cases, women tend to have an abortion due to some economic or social problems. In that case, abortion is not permitted. A medical commission consisting of three medical specialists, one must be a specialist in gynecology and the other two are specialists in obstetrics, are required by law to recommend the procedure before any induced abortion can be performed. All induced abortions should be performed in a governmental hospital. The consent of both spouses is required for an abortion on eugenic grounds.
Abortion believers state that partial-birth abortions are only performed when the baby or the mother’s life is at risk. There is at least 80 percent of these babies who are normal. In fact, “Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, admitted that he had lied through his teeth when he reported the procedure was uncommon and only used in the most extreme situations. He admitted that partial-birth abortion is always performed on healthy mothers with healthy babies”. His statement proves that the procedure is not done to protect a mother’s health.
The laws of many countries, are influenced by religious rules, these cases are handled as a criminal offense. A lot of countries whose criminal laws punish the deliberate taking of human life; through the elimination of abortion. Under Nazi occupation, France imposed a punishment of execution. Abortion laws differ between countries, ranging from those in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Malta and Vatican City; these countries prohibition the procedure completely. In the case of the United Kingdom and the United States, which restrict abortion after the point of fetal viability, and Canada, which has removed abortion from the Criminal Code.
In the United States abortion has been legal for women since the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade of January 22, 1973. That decision established that a woman has the right to independence covering the decision whether or not to carry a pregnancy to the end. Yet, that right must be balanced against a state’s interest in preserving fetal life. The United Nations International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, documented a high number of unprotected abortions as a major public health concern. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 75,000 of women die each year from untrained performed abortion. Main reasons are because it damages the mother’s health and the burden of care that falls on the parents and the hospital expanses also add to the costly impact of poorly performed abortion on public health systems. Roe recognized that during the trimester period an increasing interest should be shed on the life of the fetus corresponding to the fetus’s increasing viability over the course of a pregnancy, such that states banned abortion at early in pregnancy but imposed increase restrictions or outright bans later in pregnancy.
An inclining number of countries are recognizing a woman’s right to perform abortion and have choice in the matter; however her choice ends by the twelfth month of pregnancy, and is only allowed to procedure afterwards when faced with health risks. In 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada, in the case of R. v. Morgentaler, held the country’s restrictive abortion law illegal. The Chief Justice found that “forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus a violation of security of the person.” The law was accordingly ruled invalid, and abortion was considered as any other medical procedure, giving women a chance to decide based on her ethical judgment. Human rights laws are giving priority to mainly the women’s health, then to her dignity, and to her capacity.
In the mid-1960s, recognition propagated that women often sought abortion for reliable reasons, and having medical restrictions could be cruel and unjust, causing women to visit unskilled illegal practitioners or to make harsh interventions in their own bodies. Britain’s Abortion Act of 1967, was amended in 1990, permitted abortion before reaching the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy. Abortion also became legalized after twenty-four weeks to prevent risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman, and when there is a substantial risk that if the child was born it might suffer from physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped. Health care providers, however, have a right of conscientious objection, and cannot be required to participate in abortion procedures.
The abortion industry has developed a number of different methods to destroy the developing child. There are two types of abortion; there is the first-trimester abortion and second-trimester abortion. In the first-trimester it involves two prominent kinds of surgical abortion, such as suction-aspiration where the abortionist has numbed and stretched the cervix. Then, a hollow plastic tube with a knife is inserted into the uterus and suctions the baby’s body into a bottle. After that, the baby’s body is torn apart. As well as, the dilation and curettage method is similar to the suction procedures. There are some side effects due to its high toxicity, such as nausea, diarrhea, liver damage and lung disease. Another common abortion method used in second-trimester is dilation and evacuation abortion. It dilates the cervix more widely because surgical instruments are used to remove larger pieces of the unborn child. After that the doctor inserts narrow forceps. The doctor then methodically cuts the baby into pieces. In this procedure, the woman may get an intravenous fluid and a painkiller or sedative.
As for statistics in the United States of America, 1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons. 64.4% of all abortions are performed on not ever married women; Married women account for 18.4% of all abortions and divorced women obtain 9.4%. 52% of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25. Women aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls under 15 account for 1.2%. The Number of abortions per year is 1.37 Million. And the Number of abortions per day is Approximately 3,700.
Last week I had an interview with a famous doctor, is called Said Ahmed. At first I asked him how long he had been delivering babies. He answered it was approximately eight years ago. Then, I asked him if he encountered miscarriage cases before. He assured that there were some cases he treated with them. After that, I wanted to know if there were some families came to him to make an abortion. He answered that few women who were at risk and their health was in a bad condition. Hence, it is better for woman to make an abortion to save her life. Also, I asked him when the hospital allowed making an abortion. His answer was if there were some harmful side-affects on the mother’s health; consequently, abortion is permitted. The last question I could ask him how many people who had an abortion per year and what kind of those people are. He told me that the percentage was approximately between 20% and 25% a year. In addition, the kind of people was both poor individuals and rich people.
To sum up, abortion is found in all societies. As for Qatar, it is illegal to kill the fetus. However, if there are any dangers on the mother’s health, it is no problem to have an abortion. Qatar is an Arabic country and its religion is Islam. Certainly, Islam refuses abortion strongly, but it is legal for saving the physical life of the mother. There are some laws that protect mother’s health as well as her children. It is known that abortion has been a controversial subject in many societies around the world owing to the ethical and moral issues that surround it. In fact, it has been regularly banned and otherwise limited.
An interview with the doctor:-
Al-Anoud: Could I ask you some questions, please?
Dr. Ahmad: Yes, of course.
Al-Anoud: Do you encounter a lot of miscarriages?
Dr. Ahmad: Yes. There are some cases I can treat with them.
Al-Anoud: How long have you been delivering babies?
Dr. Ahmad: For eight years.
Al-Anoud: Do any of the families come and ask for an abortion?
Dr. Ahmad: Certainly. Sometimes some families ask for abortion to save the mother’s health.
Al-Anoud: Could you tell me when does the hospital permit an abortion?
Dr. Ahmad: If there are some risks on mother’s health, the hospital will permit the abortion.
Al-Anoud: Can u tell me who exactly asks for abortion is it rich people or those from a limited income?
Dr. Ahmad: Both the poor and the rich.
Al-Anoud: Finaly. How many people who have an abortion per year?
Dr. Ahmad: About 20% to 25% every year.
Al-Anoud: Thank you very much, Dr. Hanaa.
Dr. Ahmad: You are welcome.