Introduction
The right to abortion is one of a woman’s reproductive rights and is fixed at the legislative level. Numerous international human rights treaties and other legal acts at the national level throughout the world protect it. I believe that it is fair and right if a woman herself and not the state can control her abilities.
The book Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, in the chapter When Abortion Was a Crime, reveals all the causes and background of the movements that fought for abortion bans in America during the Great Depression and in the aftermath. The authors describe events and social movements from both sides and discuss how legitimate the reasons for the ban on abortion at that time were. The chapter examines many works of various scientists who wrote their research on the history of abortion in the United States. Numerous works have shown that abortion bans did not bring the desired result because many doctors continued to practice abortion underground. Thus, due to poor medical conditions, women were at increased risk during abortions.
In connection with this topic, I think that the prohibition of abortion did not make sense because many women were also in poor financial situations, and many worked under challenging conditions. Because of this, they could not afford to have more children, which forced them to resort to desperate measures by having several abortions every couple of months. Because of cases like this, doctors began to argue that abortion is an integral part of public medical practice that should exist legally because everyone has the right to quality medical care. In my opinion, this was one of the most critical steps in the history of women gaining the right to abortion, as the official confirmation by doctors of the importance of this issue prompted the public to take decisive action in the future.
At the same time, during the years of the Great Depression, due to the more significant economic recession and, as a result of the impoverishment of the population, the number of abortions increased significantly. I think there was another reason for the frequent abortions at that time. Many married women were discriminated against and not hired because they were expected to be supported by their husbands. This was why women often put off marriage to continue working and had to have abortions to not have children out of marriage. This situation turned into a demographic decline and also had a substantial impact on women’s health. This is evidenced by a study by Paul H. Gebhard, which suggests that the depression of the 1930s led to a significant increase in the number of abortions among middle-class urban women (Kerber et al., 2020, p. 393). Thus, women tried to maintain their financial situation, which would have deteriorated significantly with the advent of a child. Small communities of doctors were formed so women could choose abortion without serious complications. However, this should not have been because everyone has the right to dispose of their reproductive abilities. Today, when the issue of abortion is again acute in the United States, it is essential not to forget the old lessons of history and draw conclusions that will help avoid critical mistakes.
Today, abortion is a common phenomenon in society. However, in today’s society, there is still the problem that many women around the world live in countries without access to abortion. Less than half of women of reproductive age live in regions where it is possible to have an abortion legally. Such restrictions force women to circumvent the law, looking for illegal ways to terminate a pregnancy.
The vast majority of abortions occur due to unwanted pregnancies, which are usually the result of ineffective use or non-use of contraceptives. Some unintended pregnancies are the result of rape and incest. Other pregnancies become unwanted after a change in life circumstances or because terminating the pregnancy may have negative consequences for the woman’s health and well-being. Thus, safe abortions will always be needed.
Concept of Abortion
Abortion is the artificial termination of pregnancy. Abortion is both spontaneous in the case of a miscarriage, and artificial extraction of the fetus, an embryo that is not yet at a late stage of development. Simply put, abortion is the termination of a pregnancy during its first 22 weeks. Gestational limits determine the moment when termination of pregnancy is still permissible. Such limits are often set depending on the legal framework, including the circumstances under which termination of pregnancy is permitted. In countries that allow abortion on demand, the most common gestational age is 12 weeks. However, these countries often allow abortions under certain circumstances after this limit has passed.
Abortion can be involuntary (miscarriage) or medical, i.e., direct surgical or medical intervention. An artificial abortion is performed not only in the case of a woman’s unwillingness or inability to give birth but also in several life-threatening medical indications.
Reasons for Abortion
In my opinion, there are many important reasons why a woman may have an abortion. First, it must be allowed if a woman’s life is in danger. For example, in the case of cancer, heart disease, certain infectious and parasitic diseases, or other diseases where a woman needs medical treatment that may threaten the survival of the fetus, she has the right to request access to a safe abortion.
States should broadly apply the interpretation of threats to a woman’s life, recognizing that both medical and social conditions can pose a threat to life. Examples of such social conditions include cases where pregnancy involves an ‘infringement’ on so-called family ‘honor,’ for example, where an out-of-wedlock pregnancy may result in physical violence against the woman or her death. The vast majority of countries that allow abortion when the woman’s life is at risk also allow abortion on other grounds, such as when the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman’s health and in cases of rape or incest.
Legislation in countries that allow abortions based on health status usually refers to a woman’s physical health. However, a threat to mental health can also be included here. World medical standards have long contained an expanded definition of “health,” which goes beyond understanding the latter only as physical health and includes mental and social well-being. Also, the courts of some countries have reached decisions in which it is determined that abortions should be allowed if the pregnancy poses a risk to the mental health of the woman. For example, the Constitutional Court of Colombia issued a ground-breaking decision that recognizes the right to abortion when the pregnancy poses a risk to the physical or mental health of the woman, as well as on several other grounds. In making this decision, the Court recognized that mental health is protected as part of the right to health under domestic and international law.
As a rule, countries do not set gestational limits for termination of pregnancy when there is a threat to the life and health of the woman. I think it is right because this reflects the reality that various health risks may arise throughout pregnancy that requires medical intervention. Another reason for abortion can be social or economic reasons. Countries that allow abortion for these reasons tend to provide examples of circumstances that should be taken into account when making decisions about the termination of pregnancy.
In addition to abortions for the aforementioned reasons, they can also be performed on request. Countries that allow abortion on demand generally allow women and girls to decide whether to continue or terminate their pregnancy within a specified gestational period (primarily up to 12 weeks of pregnancy). In order to have an abortion, a woman does not need to indicate any of the reasons mentioned above, and it is enough only for the woman to contact the relevant healthcare institution. However, after the end of these 12 weeks, abortions can be allowed up to the 22nd week of pregnancy only on specific grounds such as threat to the life and/or health of the woman, rape and cases of incest. Most countries worldwide allow abortion in cases of rape and/or incest. However, in this case, there is a problem with access to abortion, which is related to the burden of proof that the pregnancy occurred precisely because of rape or as a result of incest. These requirements can lead to delays that allow women to miss the statutory gestational limits, thereby preventing them from accessing abortions in the first place. Abortion is also allowed when the fetus has certain disorders, so-called congenital malformations (for example, the congenital absence of a particular organ, fusion or fusion of organs, or even whole organisms, the presence of tissues, cells or whole organs in areas where they should not be, and other).
Current Abortion Problems in the USA
For nearly half a century, abortion has been legal nationwide, but now individual states can ban it. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that recognized the right to abortion as constitutional. In my opinion, this is a terrible mistake and proof of the bad work of the judicial system, since now the life of women who want to have an abortion is much more complicated. This is significant damage to the democratic way, which was actively built and developed in the country throughout its existence. Americans — impoverished women who face the problem of unwanted pregnancies more often because of poor access to medical services — will be forced to pay a high price for the abolition of the unrestricted right to abortion. The organization of premature termination of pregnancy will be complicated and will take more time. At the same time, the maternal mortality ratio could rise significantly. In my opinion, a good option would be to make it easier for women to access medicines for short-term abortions. Thus, every pregnant woman herself will be able to decide whether she needs an abortion without state regulation of this process. If the local regulator allows such drugs to be sold without a prescription, it will make the procedure easier and cheaper, as well as free up space in clinics where women who need surgery will be referred. This incident again intensifies the struggle for the right to dispose of one’s body and reproductive system.
Abortion is banned
In the second half of the XIX century, there was a nationwide movement in the United States to ban abortion. The leadership of the authoritative American Medical Association played the leading role in it. Based on embryological discoveries, doctors argued that the fetus is a living being from the moment of conception and not from the moment the mother feels the movements of his body (this moment was called “revival of the fetus”). Therefore, doctors insist that abortion, even at the very beginning of pregnancy, is the murder of the fetus. As a result, by 1880, abortions in the United States, if it was not about cases of saving a woman’s life, were prohibited. The laws adopted then were preserved mainly until the 1960s.
From time immemorial, abortion has been outlawed. All religious denominations forbade believers from participating in this procedure. The 20th century legalized abortion and elevated it to a cohort of family planning techniques. The emergence in the second half of the 20th century of alternative means, birth control, and a change in the cultural traditions of the world community sharpened the issue of the moral assessment of the abortion procedure. Induced abortion is more prevalent in the modern world than at any time in history. Every day, about 100 million sexual acts are performed in the world. In 910,000 cases, conception occurs, and in 10% of these cases, the pregnancy ends in an induced abortion. As noted in 1996 by the United Nations Commission on Population and Development, in many countries, both developed and developing, the public pays increased attention to the artificial termination of pregnancy. At the same time, both the medical consequences of abortion – maternal morbidity (often leading to infertility) and mortality and moral and legal – problems of its admissibility at different stages of pregnancy and legislative regulation are of concern. The situation with the inevitability of punishment was no better in other states. For example, at the beginning of the 20th century in New York, one person was condemned for 1,000 abortions.
Reasons for the Ban on Abortion
Abortion, even when performed flawlessly, entails many different consequences. In some countries, because of this, abortion is still banned despite the protests of human rights organizations. Abortions are distinguished between spontaneous (miscarriages) and artificial (surgical and other interventions). Induced abortions can be carried out at an early date. Abortion is not just about removing a fetus or embryo through medication or through scraping tools, and abortion is an effect on the entire female body. With medical abortion, there is no external intervention, and uterine damage is excluded. However, the absence of uterine trauma does not exclude the development of complications associated with the abrupt termination of pregnancy.
In some cases, medical abortion does not occur ultimately, and the remains of the fetal egg must be removed by an instrumental method. Therefore, violations of the reproductive system after medical abortion occur no less than after instrumental. The most dangerous for the body is the instrumental method of abortion. This has long been one of the reasons why abortion was banned in America during the Great Depression.
Both with the instrumental and with the vacuum method, an artificial expansion of the cervical canal initially occurs with the help of special metal instruments. The main difference is that with the instrumental method, a unique, sharp iron instrument is used, with the help of which the walls of the uterine cavity are scraped, or a plastic tube is inserted into the uterine cavity, through which the fetal egg with membranes is sucked off using vacuum suction.
A woman’s body begins a serious restructuring at all levels during pregnancy. Artificial interruption of these physiological processes leads to malfunctions in the body and, above all, of a hormonal nature. Violation of coordination in the work of the central nervous and endocrine systems leads to failures in the normal functioning of the endocrine glands (ovaries, thyroid gland, adrenal glands, pituitary gland), contributing to the appearance of various nervous disorders.
In addition, after an abortion, adverse health effects can also be observed. Inflammatory processes in some women may appear immediately after the procedure, in others after some time. As a result of the inflammatory process, not only the uterus and fallopian tubes, ovaries but also periuterine tissue, peritoneum, bladder, and rectum can be affected. During an artificial termination of pregnancy, the cervix is injured, resulting in an open gate for the infection to penetrate into the underlying tissues and the blood and lymphatic vessels.
Chronic inflammatory processes of the internal organs of the genital area of a woman with frequent exacerbations stimulate the development of irreversible changes (scars, adhesions), which worsen health and contribute to the manifestation of long-term consequences of abortion (violation of sexual, menstrual, and reproductive functions). Inflammatory processes contribute to the occurrence of ectopic pregnancy, as well as the appearance of secondary infertility. Each of the above reasons certainly makes sense, but I think that the final decision should still be left to the woman.
The History of Getting the Right to Abortion
In the United States, the right to abortion came about after the trial known in U.S. history as Roe v. Wade. Under the pseudonym Jane Roe, lawyers who wanted to achieve an abortion ban acted. The opponent was prosecutor Henry Wade. As a result, the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has the right to an abortion if the gestational age does not exceed 28 weeks. Prior to this precedent, the issue of the legality of abortion was decided at the state level, and abortion was wholly banned in 30 states, severely restricted in 16, and freely allowed in only four states. At the same time, the right to abortion in the United States is one of the most important domestic political issues. American conservatives have called and continue to call the decision in the Roe v. Wade case unconstitutional “judicial activism.” The fact that the question, as they say, is still open in the country, and the latest news testifies. As mentioned above, this decision has now been canceled.
In many countries, women fight for their rights in various ways to get what they should have on an equal footing with men. Photo 1 shows the Suffrage parade in October 1915 (Kerber et al., 2020, p. 223). Although in that case women did not advocate abortion rights, but now rallies and protests, in my opinion, are an effective way to influence decisions made by the authorities. Similar protests took place as women’s rights movements had to be activated to expand their various opportunities. The possibility of organizing such a large parade shows that many women disagreed with the state of affairs in the country, which drove them into a difficult position, forcing them to make constant concessions to society. Thus, women wanted to show that their opinion should be taken into account and expand their rights regarding reproductive functions and general social ones, such as more excellent employment opportunities.
Conclusion
Having studied many of the materials in the course, I think that abortion, although it can lead to negative consequences, should be a woman’s inalienable right. It is essential to dispose of your body completely without any restrictions. This is one of the weighty components of a free society. In my opinion, getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy is a good reason for an abortion since, in case of accidental insemination and the subsequent birth of a child, it is not always possible to keep in suitable conditions. If abortion is allowed, this drastically simplifies the consequences and prevents the suffering of the born child. After studying the book Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, one can conclude that obtaining abortion rights has a long history, from prohibitions to gradual easing. Laws that regulate and prohibit specific opportunities for women should not exist.
Bibliography
Kerber, Linda K., De Hart Jane Sherron, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, and Karissa Haugeberg, eds. Women’s America: Refocusing the Past. 9th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020