Abortion and Possible
Solutions
By Anthony M. Wanjohi
1.0 Introduction
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or
expulsion of a fetus or embryo from the uterus, resulting in or caused by its
death. (Dutt and Mathews,
1998).
Worldwide 42 million abortions are estimated to take place
annually with 22 million of these occurring safely and 20 million unsafely.
While maternal mortality seldom results from safe abortions, unsafe abortions
result in 70,000 deaths and 5 million disabilities per year (Potts et
al. 2007).
According to Okwemba abortion is still a hush issue in Kenya. But
despite those laws, which restrict the termination of pregnancy, illegal
abortion continues in this East African nation unabated. Ignorance about
contraceptive methods is one of the prevailing causes of high abortion rates in
Kenya. Around 85% of girls’ aged 15 to 19 and 72% of women aged 20 to 24
reportedly do not use contraceptives (Gathara, 2010). Due to the country’s
restrictive laws on abortion, women in Kenya are forced into backstreet abortion
facilities. Approximately 35% of Kenya’s maternal deaths are caused by unsafe
abortions.
Abortion is prohibited in Kenya except where the life of the
mother is at stake (Wako, 2005). In Kenya, about 300,000 abortions are
performed each year, causing an estimated 20,000 women and girls to be
hospitalized with related health complications. This translates into about 800
abortions a day and the death of 2,600 women every year. This is a worrying
trend. This paper closely examines the concept of abortion. The paper is
divided into the following sections:
2.0 Reasons for Seeking Abortion
Women have many reasons for not wanting to be pregnant, and thus
to seek an abortion. In a study by Torres and Forrest (1998), the majority of
abortion by women is due to personal issues. These issues are;
·
Most of them feel that they do not have the financial resources to
bring up a child.
·
Others feel that they are not ready for the responsibility of
raising a child.
·
Where as one feels that her relationship with her partner is in
difficulty.
·
In addition others feel that they are too young, and not
sufficiently mature to become a mother.
Some of these reasons may be influenced by:
·
Pressure from her parents to have an abortion so as not to a shame
the reputation of the family.
·
The feeling that she lacks the emotional and physical strength to
go through another pregnancy and raise the
child.
·
She believing that raising an additional child would short-change
her existing
children.
·
The sense that she is a student and that raising a child would be
too difficult and disruptive at her time in life.
·
She not wanting other people to know that she became
pregnant.
·
A child would interfere with her career or
education.
·
She may fear physical abuse from a parent if they learn of her
pregnancy.
·
In conclusion, the basic reason why women prefer abortion is due
to the existing environment around her. That is, parental pressure, economic
stability and long life challenges.
In determining what type of abortion to choose, access to and
availability of abortion services along with length of pregnancy play into the
decision (Stacey, 2009).There are different types of abortion. These include:
3.1 Surgical
All surgical abortions are medical procedures that must be done in
a health care provider's office or clinic. There are several different surgical
abortion options. How along a woman is in her pregnancy often determines what
method will be used (Lowen, 2009).
According to (Agarwal, 2008) surgical
methods are the most commonly used abortion methods these days. The doctors may
initiate one of the three surgical procedures to initiate abortion at an early
term. Some of these procedures include;
3.2 Medical
Medical abortion is a term applied to an abortion brought about by
medication taken to induce it. This can be accomplished with a variety of
medications given either as a single pill or a series of pills. Medical
abortion has a success rate that ranges from 75-95%, with about 2-4% of failed
abortions requiring surgical abortion and about 5-10% of incomplete abortions,
depending on the stage of gestation and the medical products used.
It can also provide some measure of safety in that they eliminate
the risk of injury to a woman's cervix or uterus from surgical instruments.
Some women require an emergency surgical abortion, and, for safety concerns,
women undergoing medical abortions need access to providers willing to perform
a surgical abortion should it be necessary.
The process of a medical abortion involves bleeding, often like a
heavy menstrual period, which must be differentiated from hemorrhage (a serious
problem). Regardless of the amount of tissue passed, the woman must see a
doctor for evaluation to make sure the process is complete (and not an
incomplete abortion).
4.0 Factors Influencing the Increase in Abortion Rate
Lack of financial support to single women may lead to an increase
in the rate of abortion. In the past, welfare payments were increased with the
birth of each baby. However, many countries now cap payments so that the
family's standard of living decreases with each birth. Faced with the choice of
a lower standard of living or an abortion, many women in this decade will chose
abortion.
In this generation some of the women have decided to remain
childless either for now, or for their entire life. If they inadvertently
become pregnant, they are more likely to want to terminate the pregnancy.
When a couple realizes that they are genetically related, that is
they may be cousins or relatives. They sometimes seek abortions because of
concerns that their baby will be born with a genetic defect because of the
similarities in the parents' DNA. According to a 2002 study, an unrelated
couple has a three to four percent risk of having a baby with a birth defect,
significant mental retardation or genetic disease. The study found that first
cousins run an additional risk of 1.7 to 2.8%. Some couples would consider this
increase an acceptable risk, if they knew its magnitude (Bennett.2006)
The strength of a person in religion really influences the rate of
abortion. According to a study carried out by Modi
(2002), he found out that the less religious a person is - the less she goes to
church and the weaker she considers her religious affiliation to be, the more
liberal her beliefs is within her own religion, and the fewer the number of
times she prays - the more pro-choice her viewpoints are hypothesized to be.
Lack of quality sex education, a decrease in the use of
contraceptives and high rates of sexual violence all influence women’s
abortion-related deaths or illnesses. Although some non-governmental
organizations provide sex education for adolescent girls and boys, the quality
and quantity of information provided to this growing sector of the population
is poor (Kinoti, 2010)
In each and every clinical procedure there is always a risk, but
abortion poses few risks to a woman's physical health, particularly when
carried out during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
During the abortion process, there are less risks to be incurred
compared to those after abortion. The low risks associated with abortions are:
hemorrhage (excessive bleeding) – occurs in about 1
in every 1,000 abortions
Damage to the cervix – occurs in no more than 10 in every 1,000
abortions
Damage to the womb – occurs in up to 4 in every 1,000 abortions
during surgical abortion, and less than 1 in 1,000 medical abortions carried
out at 12-24 weeks.
After an abortion, the main risk is infection in the womb, usually
caused by a failure to completely remove all the foetus and
associated tissue. If you have an infection after an abortion, you may bleed
heavily from your vagina and have some period-like pain (NHS, 2010).
The risk of breast
cancer almost doubles after one abortion, and rises even further with two or
more abortions (Howe et al, 1989).
Abortion is associated
with cervical and uterine damage which may increase the risk of premature
delivery, complications of labor and abnormal development of the placenta in
later pregnancies. These reproductive complications are the leading causes of
handicaps among newborns (Hogue, Cates and Tietze,
1983).
Abortion increases the
risk of placenta prevail in later pregnancies (a life threatening condition for
both the mother and her wanted pregnancy) by seven to fifteen fold. Abnormal
development of the placenta due to uterine damage increases the risk of fetal
malformation, perinatal death, and excessive bleeding during labor (Barrett, et
al. 1981).
6.0 Solutions to
Abortion
There are various solutions that if implemented may help a lot in reducing the problems related to
abortion. These solutions include
According to (Green,
2000), with availability of sufficient birth control, there should almost never
be any need for abortion hence reducing abortion rate.
Emergency contraceptive
pills may contain higher doses of the same hormones (estrogens, progestin’s, or
both) found in regular combined oral contraceptive pills. Taken after
unprotected sexual intercourse or contraceptive failure, such higher doses may
prevent pregnancy from occurring (FDA, 1997).
According to Planned
Parenthood, birth control is the silver bullet. If every child is provided with
comprehensive sex education and offered easy access to birth control,
especially condoms and the morning-after pill, the world will be a much better
place.
The percentage of
students in public schools who receive some form of sex-education has been
increasing over the past few decades. Studies have shown that sex-education
tends to defer sexual activity among students. This reduces the number of
unwanted pregnancies and thus the need for abortions.
Comprehensive sex
education may lead to less teenage pregnancy (Science Daily Mar. 20, 2008),
with this reduction of teenage pregnancy, automatically, there will be a
reduction in the abortion rate.
This may discourage
women from aborting since the cost of abortion will be much higher than of
maintaining herself as she waits for her baby to arrive. The federal government
and most states have severely restricted Medicaid funding for abortion. As a
result, low-income women - who are disproportionately women of color - often,
find it difficult or impossible to obtain safe, legal abortions.
6.4 Enforcing Child Support Laws
According to Ms. Pratt,
aggressive enforcement of child support, can lead to a reduction in abortion.
This statement is also supported by scientific evidence. That is, enforcement
of child support may reduce the number of abortions, by giving women the
resources they need to raise children, encouraging men to take an active role
in parenting and in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Statistics from a number
of sources have routinely shown that economics is the reason why many women
choose abortion.
We can also hold fathers
responsible for the children they produce by enforcing fornication and adultery
statutes against men who abandon their children. Statistics show that at least
eighty percent of aborted pregnancies are started by fornication or adultery,
so such a strategy might have a significant effect on the abortion rate.
Statistics also show that most women obtaining abortions report that the father
failed to fully support them in their pregnancies.
Facts are that there are
too many women dying each day due to ‘unsafe’ abortions and that women need to
have a choice about their bodies and health. The Pro-lifers counter that since
life begins at conception, there are two lives at stake here both of which need
protection and that legalizing abortions will not necessarily make them ‘safe’
as it will neither increase the number of registered medical practitioners nor
make the conditions any safer.
Another item is that, as
depicted from the above discussion most cases of abortion results from lack of
finance for supporting the child. The highest level of abortion cases is that
of young women most probably teenage girls still in learning institutions.
Abortion should not be
legal for all. One has to have a responsibility especially when a she chooses
to have sex knowing that she is taking a chance. This, she does of her own free
will, and she has control over what she is doing. If a person decides to have
sex whether it is safe or not, what happens after that is her responsibility as
well as his. And if you are going to chose to participate in this risky and
unsafe practice then you must be ready to pay the consequences no matter the
circumstances. (Lisa, 1996)
References
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Barrett, et al. (1981). "Induced Abortion: A Risk Factor
for Placenta Previa",
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Bennett, R.
(2006), Journal of Genetic Counseling, National Society of Genetic
Counselors. Retrieved on December 6, 2010
Dutt, T., & Matthews,
M.P. (1998). Gynaecology for Lawyers. 14. Routledge.
FDA (1997-02-25). "Certain combined oral
contraceptives for use as postcoital
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Kenya: Using the law, we can reduce the number of
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H.L. Howe, et al., "Early
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Suggested
Citation in APA
Wanjohi,
A.M. (2010). Abortion and possible solutions KENPRO Publications. Available
online at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/abortion-solutions.htm
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