Caroline Wilkie
Short Paper 3
Abortion in Cambodia, Mexico and Canada
Abortion, for the vast majority of people is not a subject that is easy to talk about. According to the World Health Organization, out of the 211 million pregnancies, 46 million end up in abortion and 18 million of those abortions are done in what WHO considers unsafe conditions (World Health Report, 2007). Unsafe conditions are defined by WHO as, “ abortions performed by people lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking the minimal medical standards, or both” (World Health Report, 2007). The maternal death rate for women who have unsafe abortions is 350 out of 100,000, and there are other complications that are not fatal but can lead to disease or disability (World Health Report, 2007).
In Cambodia, abortion through the first trimester has been legal since 1997 (Green, 2013). It legal after the
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(García et al., 2004a) In most states it is also allowed if the pregnancy puts the woman’s life at risk (García et al., 2004a). These laws make the vast majority of abortions in Mexico take place in unsafe conditions (Juarez, Singh, Garcia, & Olavarrieta, 2008). The estimate of abortions that take place in Mexico is 33 per 1000 women aged 15-44 (Juarez, Singh, Garcia, & Olavarrieta, 2008). The contraception use rate is 72.5% and their maternal mortality rate is 38 deaths per 100,00 live births (“The World Factbook - Mexico,” 2001). There is a lot of stigma surrounding abortion in Mexico although studies have shown that the majority of Mexicans think abortion should be allowed under certain circumstances (García et al., 2004b). I support a woman’s right to choose if she wants an abortion or not so I do not agree with the laws in Mexico. Contraception, unless it is abstinence, is never 100% effective and there should be a legal method to end an unwanted pregnancy if a woman chooses to do
Abortion-on-demand during the first trimester is legal in the Mexican capital, but there are restrictions in the later trimesters. Also, the current law states that women who obtain abortion
Furthermore, modern abortion procedures are extremely safe. So safe, in fact, that the risk of a woman dying from an abortion is less that one out of 100,000. On the other hand, the number of women who die during childbirth is 13.3 out of 100,000. Access to legal, professionally performed abortion reduces both injury and death caused by “back-alley” abortions. These back-alley abortions account for 68,000 maternal deaths a year in the 33 countries where abortion is either not legal, or unavailable (World Health Organization, Oct. 2006).
In this study they estimated mortality rates from 1998 to 2005. Their data was gathered from reports posted out by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System. They looked at pregnancy-related mortality, common maternal comorbidities, and the characteristics of women. The data they found was over a ratio of 100,000 births and 100,00 abortions. In the discussion part of their study and one of their recognized strengths they explain that expressing information like mortality risks into ratio format is easier to understand. Pregnant women considering their options should be entitled to have accurate information about their risk factors (Raymond & Grimes, 2012). They found that 10.4 deaths occur per 100,000 live births and 0.6 deaths occurred per 100,000 abortions. All together their results conclude that according to national data sets, legal abortion in the United States remains much safe than
Before abortion was made legal in 1973, women would seek illegal methods called “back-alley” abortions. These methods were performed at home with coat hangers and knitting needles, by medical professionals, or by the use of herbs. Health Research Funding estimates that five to ten thousand women died each year due to illegal procedures. Illegal procedure would also cause infertility among women due to the injuries sustained. Thankfully, with the passing of Roe V. Wade, abortions today are much safer. The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists stated “Abortion is one the safest medical procedures performed in the United States.” A woman’s risk of dying from a modern abortion is 0.6 in 100,000 while the risk of dying from giving birth is around 14 times higher at 8.8 in 100,000. A study by Obstetrics & Gynecology in January of 2015 reported that less than 2.5% of the 1.21 million abortions every year lead to major health
One of the nine reasons found that we should not legalize abortion is the laws against abortion kill women (Kilinger). Many women are killed each year during childbirth, but almost four times more women are killed when they have an abortion (Lowen). Women need to know the health risks involved with abortions before making that choice. Having an abortion has many long lasting effects such as: emotional disorders, blood infections, and an increase in breast cancer (Lowen). The leading causes of death for the women who had an abortion are infection, hemorrhage, bowel injuries, clotting disorders. If air was to get to the amniotic fluid, or fetal tissue to get into the woman’s blood stream they would die (Kilinger).Sometimes abortions are not effective, and
Abortion has taken the lives of more than 50 million babies since 1973 (“About Abortion”). The issue of abortion is one of the most common controversial issues in American politics and culture. In modern society, many women that have an unintended pregnancy and they result to abortion without researching other options. Abortion is not a substitute for birth control and this issue should be taken seriously. The individual woman needs to understand that by agreeing to have an abortion she is agreeing to kill an innocent fetus. Abortion rips the unborn child from his or hers right to life. Society needs to let women see through the eyes of the fetus and find alternative ways to raise the baby. Abortion should be
It is considered minimally invasion as it only local anesthesia is used to numb the cervix. Aspiration is another first trimester abortion method. This is also referred to as a D&C (dilation and curettage abortion). This procedure will not generally be done using local anesthesia alone. Medication based abortion procedures are not an option during the second trimester of pregnancy. Local anesthesia is used and either a D&C or a D&E (dilation and evacuation) method is performed. Less than ten percent of abortions are done in the second trimester. Third trimester or late term abortions are extremely rare. Third trimester abortions are no longer legal in most states, as a result of the “partial birth abortion act” except under certain extreme medical conditions. These were known as late term abortions. In the medical community the point of viability is still a grey area, but most consider the twenty-fourth week the earliest viable period. Until approximately the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy an induction abortion is used to terminate pregnancy. Previous to becoming illegal, intrauterine cranial decompression was used to end late term pregnancies. (americanpregnancy.org)
Abortion is defined as terminating a pregnancy before the fetus has been born. Abortion has been and still is very controversial and has had an increasing amount of cases all over the world. In 2000 there were over one million abortions in the United States (Harper, et al, 501). Abortion is one of the most common procedures women undergo. According to the current abortion rates about thirty percent of women will have an abortion by the age of forty-five (Jones and Kavanaugh, 2011). Most abortions are attributed to unplanned pregnancies. In 2001 half of the 6.4 million pregnancies were not planned and half of this number resulted in having an abortion (Jones and Kavanaugh, 2011). Abortion is one of the biggest aspects that healthcare faces. Although the view of abortion is very controversial there are still many aspects that people do not know about the issue.
Abortion. When we think about the word abortion we think about is it morally right or wrong to take the life of a fetus. The topic of abortion is continually debated, there are those who have a more conservative perspective, liberal view and those in between who believe only under certain circumstances should a woman be able to have an abortion. El Salvador is one of those conservative countries, who in fact, is one of seven Latin American countries that have an abortion ban law (Alvarez, 2015, p. 674). Prior to the abortion ban law, El Salvador allowed abortions under three circumstances, which includes, to save the life of the mother, pregnancy occurred as a result of rape, and fetal impairment (Alvarez, 2015, p. 678). Then, in 1998 the
Nearly all unsafe abortions (97%) are in developing countries. An estimated 68 000 women die as a result, and millions more have complications, many permanent. Important causes of death include haemorrhage, infection, and poisoning. One-third of Brazilian doctors in a 2005 survey reported having performed abortions, mostly Dilation and curettage. They have little experience with vacuum desire but they are conscious of it as a method. They a general consciousness of medical abortion using misoprostol (Cytotec) or other prostaglandins to induce abortion but less experience with it. Few know of newer and more effective regimens using with mifepristone or methotrexate. Chile Abortion is illegal without exception. The Chilean abortion law is considered one of the most restrictive policies on abortion in the world. Therapeutic abortion was permitted by the Health Code in 1931 but eliminated by the military dictatorship on September 15, 1989, disagree that due to advances in medicine it was "no longer justifiable."Before the ban, any woman whose life was in danger could ask to get an abortion, if she had the approval of two
Many women that choose to have an abortion do not realize that it is a dangerous surgery with serious side effects. These side effects are both physical and psychological. Having an abortion is unnatural and interrupts this function of the human body. “The women’s body naturally resists the abortion, causing physical and emotional problems” (“Who does Abortion Affect?”). Almost all of the women who had abortions feel that they have made the wrong decision. The women are not informed about the side effects of abortion. Many women that had abortions said their doctors gave “little or no information about the potential health risks
Statement of Problem: Abortion is defined as the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of pregnancy. Today, especially here in the United States of America, there is a growing issue and debate around the idea of abortion. There is a stigma against abortion because of the possibility of negative religious, political, medical, emotional, and mental consequences it may cause. Each year, worldwide there is an estimated 42 billion abortions that take place. This number does not include abortions that are not performed by professionals. The big issue alongside with abortion itself, is the affects it has on the mental health of females who undergo the procedure.
Although many women around the world are unable to obtain legal abortions when they need them,
According to a new study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Guttmacher Institute, up to 45% of abortions, that’s 25 million abortions, that occurred every year between 2010 and 2014, were unsafe. 97% of the unsafe abortions occurred in developing countries, mostly those in Africa, Asia and Latin America, where abortion is illegal. These statistics are proof that, legal or not, women will find a way to have an abortion, even if it means risking their
Women may have an abortion for a variety of reasons, but in general they choose abortion because a pregnancy at that time is in some way wrong for them. “Abortion is the removal of a fetus from the uterus before it is mature enough to live on its own” (Kuechler 1996). When this happens spontaneously we call it a miscarriage. Induced abortion is brought about deliberately by a medical procedure that ends pregnancy. Legal abortion, carried out by trained medical practitioners, is one of the most common and safest surgical procedures. “About 1.5 million American women choose to have induced abortions each year. Less than 1% of all abortion patients experience a major complication associated with the procedure” (Kuechler 1996).