Introduction:
Abortion remains to be a huge public health issue that conjures social, political, legal, cultural, and religious views and controversies in all cultures. This is mainly so in countries with restraining abortion laws. In spite of variations in the legal significance of abortions in favor of restrictiveness in developing countries rivaled with developed countries, generally, rates are reasonably greater in developing countries (Omo-Aghoja, Omo-Aghoja, Feyi-Waboso, & Onowhakpor, 2010).
An abortion is a medical or surgical process that ends a pregnancy before a fetus is born, however, the concern of abortion remains extremely debatable, since adversaries of abortion normally object to abortion for religious or ethical purposes, arguing that the process represents the unpleasant removal of what they believe to be a human life, but the people who back a woman’s right to choose an abortion claim that access to safe, lawful abortion is a right for humans (Gale, 2018).
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This paper aims to address whether or not abortion should be legalized worldwide, as the paper focuses on the debate from a global perspective including the United Kingdom, United States, and Brazil. Also, the national perspective will also be stated by evaluating this debate in Egypt which is my birthplace and the local opinion will also be contained by interviewing classmates.
Global Perspectives
United Kingdom
In 1967 the Abortion Act was introduced to legalize abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland, where four requests needed to be met for an abortion to be legal, and without them, abortion remains illegal. The first request requires the abortion to be done ‘by a registered medical practitioner’ (Brett & Wilson, 2019). The second request entails that the abortion has been agreed upon by a couple of registered medical practitioners ‘in good faith’, which is necessary to either protect the life or avoid any harm to the pregnant woman (Brett & Wilson, 2019). The third request involves the need for the abortion to be carried out on approved premises, in which specific ones are chosen, for example, National Health Service (NHS) hospitals or somewhere accepted by the Secretary of State. Fourth request only if it is on one of four grounds that relate to the pregnancy itself (Brett & Wilson, 2019).
There are six grounds that allow abortion in most countries: threat to life; rape or sexual assault; serious embryo anomaly; risk to bodily and sometimes mental health; social and financial reasons; and on request (Berer, 2017).
Legalizing abortion in the UK has also led to more benefits for women, including contraception advice and abortion care via National Health Service and private clinics. Whilst the abortion rate in the UK is higher than lots of the other countries in Western Europe, it’s considerably lower than in other parts of the world due to contraception (132healthwise).
To evaluate, as a result of legalizing abortion, the UK has experienced smaller families for the population and environmental improvements have been shown.
United States
The United States has states which allow abortion and other states with restricted abortions, and media analysis shows that attention to self-induced abortion increases in states with restraining abortion laws than in states without restraining laws (Jerman & K. Jones, 2017). According to a recent study abortion in every state has decreased drastically due to an increase in contraception usage and fewer women becoming pregnant (Belluck, 2019).
The likeliness of women to receive education of a standard better than seventeen years was linked to better access to abortion, in cases of limited or restricted access to abortion, children were found to have worse outcomes in their life, and lower participation of women in labor related jobs being correlated with increased fertility (Anna Bernstein, 2019).
To evaluate, the rates of abortion in the US continue to drop not due to restrictions, but due to the decrease in pregnancies which can be attributed to the use of contraception methods due to increased awareness.
Brazil
Abortion is heavily illegal in Brazil, which has caused Brazil to be the largest and most highly inhabited country in the Caribbean and Latin America. Brazil has the utmost laws for illegal abortion, yet it has the largest estimated rate of abortion in the world: 44 per 1000 women (Malta, 2019). Abortion in Brazil is only legal in cases of rape, incest, to save a woman’s life, and anencephaly, which is a deadly condition where an infant is born without parts of the brain or parts of the skull (Malta, 2019).In Brazil, people who practice illegal abortions can deal with up to 3 years in prison, whereas those who manage abortions can deal with up to 4 years (Malta, 2019).
Regardless of serious restrictions, 500000 illegal abortions are estimated to occur annually amongst women of ages 18 to 39 which are equal to one in five women. Research displays that 8 out of 10 Brazilians consider that abortion should be dealt with as a problem regarding public health, but only in six cases, which are: the case of an accidental pregnancy; if the condition of raising a child is unfitting; in the event minors; in the event of severe or incurable disease; if a woman is in danger of dying and in case the woman was raped (Miklos & Lavinas, 2018).
To analyze the effect of illegal abortion policies include a surge in governmental expenses as a result of the high cost of emergency room visits; lifetime child health expenses, and probable reproductive health results in women. Research has shown that abortion laws heavily affect the mortality of young women.
National Perspective
Egypt
The laws in Egypt ban abortion, as women who choose an induced abortion voluntarily are subject to a prison sentence ranging from six months to three years as stated in Article 262 of the Penal Code. As for the doctor who performs the abortion, he’s subjected to a sentence of three to fifteen years. The law in Egypt is established on the Islamic Sharia Law and only allows the procedure in case the woman’s life is at risk (Gehad & Aswat Masriya, 2014).
More attention has been drawn to abortion in Egypt in September 2017, when a joint statement mentioned that the Egyptian abortion law “is among the most restrictive worldwide”, as the law doesn’t allow abortion even if the pregnancy was a result of either rape or incest. Hence, doctors are encouraged to promote pregnancy prevention methods, sexual health education, and early pregnancy testing. Conception can also be prevented medically, for those who would not like to be pregnant or are sexually active out of marriage (Rasha, 2019).
Multiple women decide to go to secret and expensive physicians or end up using local unsafe abortion methods. A recent report says that not only does Illegalizing abortion not prevent it from occurring, but it also encourages women to practice abortion in secrecy or use unsafe procedures. A study shows that out of 1300 Egyptian married and unmarried women, one-third have tried to end a pregnancy (Gehad & Aswat Masriya, 2014).
An additional study in Upper Egypt established that in a singular rural area, 41% had a minimum of one abortion and of those 41%, 25% had more than one. 92% of them did it without seeking help from a professional medic (Gehad & Aswat Masriya, 2014).
To evaluate, illegalization has done nothing to prevent the actual procedure of abortion, yet it only made it a riskier and more dangerous procedure for the mother since they have to opt for under-the-counter methods for abortion.
Local Perspective
After conducting a survey on 40 people in the writer’s local area, it was established that 57.5% disagree with abortion being morally wrong and when asked why they believe so they say that a woman should have the freedom to give up her own child as long as there is a valid reasoning for the abortion.
Also, when asked whether abortion should be legal or not, 50% believed “Yes, a mother should be able to get an abortion on her will”, and 25% believed “Yes, as long as the baby has not passed a specific stage of gestation”, a combined of 22.50% believed “Yes, but only in cases of Rape/Incest” and “Yes, but only if the mother's life is at risk” and only one person believed that abortion should be illegal.
Courses of Action
We, the individuals, must educate our friends and family on the matter of abortion, teaching them about the plethora of reasons why a women's right to abortion is important. We must also ask them to push the government to not only legalize abortion but give the youth sex education so fathers can understand the needs of their wives better.
Furthermore, doctors are encouraged to promote pregnancy prevention methods, sexual health education, and early pregnancy testing.
Evaluation of Sources and Personal Reflection
Before conducting this research I believed that abortion is morally wrong and that it should be illegal to have an abortion no matter the reason, but after conducting the survey and doing heavy research on the topic and hearing people’s opinions and their stories considering abortion, my opinion on the matter has definitely altered. I still hold the opinion that abortion is morally incorrect, as abortion is equal to killing an innocent life, however, I strongly believe that every woman should have legal access to abortion, but only in severe cases like rape, incest, and risk to mother’s life, as the state cannot prevent the act of abortion itself hence keeping in focus the health of the country it should offer safe access to abortion.
My opinion certainly changed after referring to the IWPR article put out on July 18, 2019, by Anna Bernstein and Kelly Jones these two authors have a minimum of two years’ worth of experience in researching on this matter. Another article that has certainly changed my mind was posted on June 1, 2014, on Egyptian Streets by Gehad Abada and its heading is “The reality of getting an abortion in Egypt”. That article has done its part in opening my eyes to the miserable stories of women getting in trouble due to the severity of abortion laws in Egypt. One more article that made me realize the occurrence of under-the-counter abortions and unsafe abortions that are happening in Egypt as a result of the abortion laws was one posted on Ahram by Rasha Gaddah on Aug 3 2019 which is very recent with the heading “Abortion in the Arab world”
Bibliography
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- (n.d.). Retrieved from 132healthwise: https://www.132healthwise.com/which-countries-have-the-highest-abortion-rates.php
- Anna Bernstein, K. J. (2019, July 18). Retrieved from iwpr: https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/reproductive-health/the-economic-effects-of-abortion-access-a-review-of-the-evidence/
- Belluck, P. (2019, September 18). Retrieved from NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/health/abortion-rate-dropped.html
- Berer, M. (2017, June 19). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5473035/
- Brett, R. T., & Wilson, A. L. (2019, January 4). Retrieved from Wiley Online Library: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-2230.12389
- G. A., & Aswat Masriya. (2014, June 1). Retrieved from Egyptian Streets: https://egyptianstreets.com/2014/06/01/the-reality-of-getting-an-abortion-in-egypt/
- Gale. (2018). Gale. Retrieved from https://www.gale.com/open-access/abortion
- Jerman, J., & K. Jones, R. (2017, January 17). Retrieved from Wiley online library: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1363/psrh.12015
- Malta, M. (2019, November 01). Retrieved from The Lancet: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30204-X/fulltext
- Miklos, M., & Lavinas, L. (2018, January 22). Retrieved from open democracy: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/never-ending-subject-of-abortion-in-brazil/
- Nash, E., & Dreweke, J. (2019, September 18). Retrieved from Guttmacher: https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2019/09/us-abortion-rate-continues-drop-once-again-state-abortion-restrictions-are-not-main
- Omo-Aghoja, L., Omo-Aghoja, V., Feyi-Waboso, P., & Onowhakpor, E. (2010, December). research gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51782492_The_story_of_abortion_Issues_Controversies_and_a_case_for_the_review_of_the_Nigerian_National_Abortion_Laws
- R. G. (2019, August 3). Retrieved from Ahram online: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/341914/Egypt/Politics-/Abortion-in-the-Arab-world.aspx
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