Picture this situation in a grandmother's old tale. Her story reflects perfectly one of the main problems of illegal abortion. Way back in 1920, when she was 16, her friend was pregnant as a result of incest. Incest refers to having sexual relations between persons who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom. As it was not a favorable condition for a woman at that point of time, the grandmother decided, along with her sister, to help her, by putting something sharp into her womb to perform a kind of an abortion. However, the friend died after the act.
The sad part of this story is that such incidents are commonplace in the present world as well.
Statistics reveal that only 39.3 % of the world population lives in countries where abortion is authorized as a choice made by women, with restrictions of time (in terms of viability, as we will see later). This means that 71% of women from industrialized countries can choose to interrupt their pregnancy if it is not desired.
However, many countries do not authorize abortion except in drastic cases, in conditions where there are health problems for the woman (13.8 %) or when their life is in danger (25.7%). Poland changed its liberal laws to very restrictive ones. Latin-American countries emphasized the restrictive character of their laws.
In conservative countries, it is quite hard to think about abortion in a liberal way. This is the case of many countries, such as England, Spain, USA and Ireland.
Abortion is illegally practiced on 20 million women each year, while officially we know that 42 million of women undergo the process each year. This represents almost half of the abortions made in the world each year. Moreover, the saddening part is that in addition to being extremely expensive, it is performed under very bad conditions, leading to death in a lot of cases.
[...] Indeed, the fact nobody is able to say whether a fetus is a human being or not does help women to be able to use this kind of contraception as much as possible. After the right to vote for women came to the fore in 1946 in France and in 1920 in USA, abortion began to be considered as a real step towards an improvement of rights and conditions of women. However, in many countries, women are not free to choose whether or not to keep the fetus. This is a real problem as it does not only depend on the [...]
[...] in the world each year. Moreover, the saddening part is that in addition to being extremely expensive, it is performed under very bad conditions, leading to death in a lot of cases. Abortion as a right to chose According to Susan Wicklund, the renowned abortion doctor, contraception is a not perfect mode of avoiding abortion. There is always a risk, even with the pill, which works in 99% of the cases. This means that one woman out of one hundred can be pregnant even after taking the pill. [...]
[...] This could reduce the authorized abortion period. When questioned as to whether the pain is a way to contradict the idea that a fetus is not able to feel things, Susan Wicklund said that a fetus is not human because it does not feel any pain, cannot sense and think as well. Actually, the contrary has been proved, at least for one of those specificities. The question of viability is consequently something really controversial and is ready to change as science is always improving its technique to save babies as much as possible. [...]
[...] This law is considered in France as a real improvement for women's rights through the fight led by Simone Veil. In 1982, abortion was refundable in France. Basically, it is a chance given to women to choose how to live their life, as well as to decide when they are ready to bear a child. It is not only good for the woman, but also for those fetuses which could have been children with health problems, or even not well bred because of psychological problems (in case of women who were raped) or financial issues. [...]
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