Legal abortion not really safe

THE EDITOR: Is legal abortion really safe? Even in international circles there is a debate about this question. Dr Gunta Lazdane, the European Regional Advisor to the prestigious World Health Organisation on Reproductive Health and Research, recently said that “up to 20 percent of maternal deaths are due to abortion, even those where abortion is legal... there is a question whether ‘safe’ abortion is safe.” Those who seek to legalise the procedure called “procured abortion” make the claim that legalising abortion will make abortion safe. They make the assumption that unsafe abortions are presently carried out by “back street” abortionists. The blunt fact is that medical doctors in their offices do the vast majority of procured abortions.

According to Dr Jehan Ali, head of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the San Fernando hospital, “These days we don’t get too many cases involving crude methods of abortion, like where dangerous objects are inserted into the womb. We get a lot more cases involving doctors, who have not properly completed the abortion, leaving room for infection” (Express, May 20, 2002). One of the reasons for the approximately 4,000 admissions for complications due to abortion is that some doctors induce an abortion and instruct the woman to go to the hospital to finish the process, which they must do as a precaution against further infection.

Another reason is the illegal dispensing of drugs to induce spontaneous abortion like Cytotec, needed for stomach ailments and ulcers, blamed by Urologist Dr Fuad Khan on “greedy pharmacists endangering the lives of women” (ibid). The bottom line is women suffer the consequences of greed and from an ideology that refuses to acknowledge the gift of human life and that sees human fertility as a disease that has to be controlled. Is the ability to choose to destroy human life a human right? Pro-choice advocates claim it is a woman’s right to choose between pregnancy and abortion.

Their empty argument about when human life begins is a mere smokescreen to obscure their true intent to ultimately obtain approval for abortion on demand. Science informs us that from the moment a human ovum is fertilised a human being will be born, unless interrupted. Laws “teach” society what is wrong and harmful. The more serious the wrongdoing the more severe is the penalty. When it is very serious the action becomes a crime. To kill an innocent human being is the most serious of crimes, for without the right to life, all other rights are irrelevant. To decriminalise procured abortion is to legalise a crime and it is not common sense to claim that because the law is ineffective to prevent abortion, it should be changed. A crime is a crime.

Is there a more humane alternative to abortion? Notwithstanding the above, we are aware of the desperation that many women, especially young, unmarried women, experience when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. Many such women have come to us and we have helped them in a variety of ways to resist the need for an abortion. Once they have an alternative, and support, they choose to carry their baby to term. They subsequently rejoice in the birth of their baby when, originally, they may have been in despair.

We are, therefore, enthusiastic advocates for the care and support of the mother and the child. We urge society, notwithstanding the mistake made, to respect the dignity and gift of life of every person and to support women so that they may not be driven by desperation to kill their babies at the risk of subsequent physical and psychological dangers to themselves. Government for its part should be mindful of the need to uphold the Supremacy of God and the God-given rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago.

EMMANUEL COMMUNITY
Port-of-Spain