By Ashley-Kate McCann
Contributing Writer
On the issue of abortion, I remain firmly in the pro-choice camp. The fundamental reason I have chosen the pro-choice stance, is that prohibiting abortion does not stop abortion—it just stops safe abortion.
Before the case of Roe v Wade, 1973, women had no protection under the United States Constitution to an abortion; instead abortion laws were legislated by individual States. The ability of a woman to obtain an abortion, depended on her location and economic situation, the most vulnerable in society were being subjected to the worst abortion practices.
Oral testimonies in the 1992 documentary “When Abortion Was Illegal,” produced by Concentric Media, detailed what it was like for women in an era when abortion was prohibited. Both women and practitioners testify in the documentary and describe both the lengths and risks women would go to in order to obtain an abortion, often causing women severe pain and lasting damage. One man, who was in medical school in New York City at the time, spoke of how during his time working in a City Hospital in the 1950s, 20 to 30 women per day would arrive infected, bleeding and dying by self-induced abortions through various dangerous methods.
Abortion laws affect many different demographics in the Unites States. The Guttmacher Institute determined, currently in the United States, 55 percent of abortions are undertaken by women who are married and cohabiting and 61 percent of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.
In the study the reasons women gave for having an abortion, included socio-economic reasons that “underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life.” Infoplease.org suggests, in terms of contraceptive use, 54 percent of women used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Non-use of contraception is most prominent among those on the lower end of the economic scale, those that are poorly educated, unmarried and young.
According to a report on sexual and reproductive health by the World Health Organization, in developed counties legal abortion is one of the safest procedures to undertake, with less than one death per 100,000 procedures. When abortion is made legal, safe and easily accessible, women’s health rapidly improves. By contrast, women’s health deteriorates when access to safe abortion is made more difficult or illegal. Access to contraceptives does not eliminate the need for abortion, but it does reduce the demand. Even if contraceptives were consistently and correctly used six million unintended pregnancies would happen worldwide, every year.
The facts surrounding this issue clearly show that criminalizing abortion endangers women from all demographics. Abortion needs to be safe and to be safe abortion needs to be legal.
