How to Save a Life?

As the United States goes through a time of controversy over their abortion policies, it is prudent that the people look to how stricter abortion policies have played out around the world. The results of strict abortion policies in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, the Philippines, Egypt, Senegal, Ireland, and Poland show the negative effects of such policies and display that considering implementing these policies in the US is ludicrous. Anti-abortion policies in these countries have been shown to cause dangerous cultural stigma around abortion, put women who need abortions in danger, and in prosecuting by these laws further hurt harmless women.

            Some of the most strict abortion policies in the world are in place in El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Egypt, Senegal, and Chile where there are no circumstances in which abortion is allowed. In Ireland abortion is only allowed when it is absolutely necessary to save the woman’s life and in Poland abortion is permitted exclusively in cases of severe fetal impairment, rape, or incest (worldabortionlaws.com). These laws mandate years of prison and sometimes detrimental fines for both abortionists and in some countries, such as El Salvador, Chile, Senegal, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, the women who receive abortions (nytimes.com) (allafrica.com) (amnesty.org) (reauters.com).

            The argument is often made that legalizing abortion will make people more violent. John B. Londregan author for the Witherspoon Research Center’s Public Discourse claims that “legal support for abortion … left people more brutal” (thepublicdiscourse.com). Mr. Londregan is not alone. Many others will make the argument that legalizing abortion instigates brutality. The way many people see it, legalizing abortion is legalizing murder and outlawing abortion is preventing murder. This may sound logical; however there are fallacies with these ideas. People fail to recognize that outlawing abortion often causes much more violent methods to take the place of legal, professionally executed abortions. For example “massages” in the Philippines which involve crushing the fetus “using rough strokes and pincer-like grips on [the] belly…[and] can also involve pounding the lower abdomen to trigger a miscarriage” (reuters.com). This method would never have been brought up had abortion been legal in the Philippines. The argument is made that legalizing abortion causes brutality in people; this argument is weak however because it displays a lack of knowledge of the true repercussions and gruesome practices that come out of criminalizing safe, medical abortions.

Anti-abortion laws cause a dangerous, negative cultural stigma to develop around abortions. “Abortion is socially unacceptable in Egypt. It usually carries a negative connotation about women who request to undergo the procedure. Females who conduct abortions after engaging in premarital sex are considered sinners and are said to bring disgrace to their families” (dailynewsegypt.com). In the United States people find pride in living in a country where gender equality prevails. Anti-abortion polices often degrade gender equality by providing a basis on which a woman can become a killer by making a decision a man never could. By implementing such policies in the US the country would be accepting this risk. In addition, the stigma that anti-abortion laws create in a culture puts women in danger. They will often neglect to seek treatment after an abortion or abortion attempt gone awry. One such example also took place in the Philippines where a woman named Remy “bled for a week after her session with the hilot [this is the name for the individual who administers the “massage”], passing out with the pain. She refused to let her husband take her to the hospital because of the shame of what she had done…” (reuters.com). By risking to adopt these shame inducing laws into the US, the country is also risking the health of scared women who are already in very difficult situations by introducing societal pressures. Because of the outlawed status of abortion in countries with strict polices the women will often not inform their family members. Such was the case with Fatouma in Senegal. “It is not easy to discuss the issue of abortion in Senegal, as the practice is both taboo and illegal. Fatoumata did not tell her family or partner about her pregnancy and subsequent abortion” (allafrica.com). The stigma which anti-abortion laws introduce around abortions can be very dangerous to society and to the health of women.