Abortion has been defined as the termination of pregnancy that involves doing away with an embryo or fetus before it is in a position to be able to survive outside the uterus. We have different types of abortion depending on the manner that it happens. One may choose to end the pregnancy willingly or deliberately due to medical or individual reasons. In such a scenario, the abortion is termed as induced abortion or, in other terms, induced miscarriage. We also have cases where abortion occurs in a way that one does not necessarily decide to end the pregnancy, but it just happens without any intervention. With this kind of a scenario, abortion is referred to as a miscarriage. In other cases also, it occurs that abortion occurs at a time that the fetus has developed and can survive outside the uterus. In such a situation, the abortion is said to be late termination of pregnancy or late-term abortion
In most developing countries, abortion has been the main reason for the high level of maternal death. In most of these deaths, the process of doing abortion is always unsafe and illegal to the point that one cannot seek proper medication in recognized health facilities. In other cases, in developed countries, abortion is legal, and there are set procedures to undertake the whole process. These are the reason why most developed countries report very few or no cases of maternal deaths. With the improved technology globally, they have been developed surgical procedures where one can undergo a safe abortion process, which is likely safer compared to just doing it any holly. The most common and more reliable surgical techniques that have been developed involves using suction and dilating the cervix. After the surgical procedure has been conducted, it is advisable to use prescribed birth control like pills or intrauterine devices. If legally done, the woman who undergoes the whole process of abortion reduces the risk of having long term metal problems since the process is safe, and there is reduced or no chance of facing illegal abortion or unsafe abortion issues. Globally, about 47,000 deaths and 5 million hospital admission cases are reported due to conducting the hazardous process of abortion, which involves being performed by unskilled persons and being undertaken in unsanitary facilities. All the death and hospitalized cases are a clear indication that we lose a lot of innocent people who would have been saved if safe abortion procedures could be conducted. This should also serve as a warning to all those people who, at one time or in any other way, should consider going through an unsafe abortion. The World Health Organization in the past and recent continues to advocate that safe and legal abortion should be available to all women to reduce cases of maternal deaths.
Historically, abortion has been done by the use of herbal medicines, forceful massage, sharp tools, or other methods that are considered to be traditional. The laws that have been set aside to handle the whole process of abortion differ in the perspectives of religious institutions around the world. In cases like rape, incest, problems with the fetus, and situations where the health of a woman is at risk, abortion is made legal in some places. There has been debate all over the world over the moral, legal, and ethical issues of abortion. Those who are against the whole process of abortion argue that the fetus is a developed human being, and by ending that life, then it is a violation of the human rights of reproduction. They say abortion is similar to murder and should not be legalized in any way. On the other hand, those who support the whole process maintain that it is only a woman who has the right to decide on her own body and that it should be legalized. The compare abortion as being a public health measure.
In both developing and developed countries, they continue to debate that the only way to reduce the increased case of maternal deaths caused by abortion is not legalizing it but rather making sure that there is reduced or no evidence of unwanted pregnancy. They say that is the surest way to curb abortion. They argue that the consequences of unsafe abortion are not only to women who do it, but it affects the whole society, including their families. Lack of medical officers who are qualified to provide safe abortion and weak health systems as well as a low financial status to some women are the main reasons most women find themselves doing the abortion. To curb this, the government needs to ensure that there are laws legalizing abortion and to ensure that there are qualified medical officers who can undertake the whole process safer and in sanitized health facilities. The government also needs to educate her citizens on the risks of undergoing an unsafe abortion.
Over the past years, there have been reports that indicate that, by the developing countries having laws that legalize the whole process of abortion, it has reduced death cases related to unsafe abortion. For instance, by 2002 in South Africa, cases of deaths due to unsafe abortion reduced by 50%. This is after they passed the law of legalizing safe abortion. There has been a similar case in Nepal where the Nepalese government legalized it in 2004. There was a reduced number of cases of women admitted to the hospital due to an unsafe abortion. There were also reduced deaths of women due to pregnancy complications. Despite these, it is not a sure bet that by legalizing safe abortion that there must be reduced cases of unsafe abortion deaths. Other important factors have to be considered. Factors like clean health facilities where safe abortion should be conducted is a must. To reduce cases of unsafe abortion deaths is to ensure that the medical officers who take the process are well trained and have their capacities. Also, the health facilities mandated to perform safe abortion should be legalized. Examples of countries that have legal laws on safe abortion are Zimbabwe and India. They lack other essential factors like enough medical personals to be able to handle reported cases of those women wishing to abort. The cost of conducting safe abortion is also very high, making several women who cannot afford that cost to prefer unsafe abortion. By this case of deaths continue to rise.
In the case where most women prefer to use contraceptives as a measure of preventing pregnancy, abortion can be widely available and can be rare at the same time. In western and northern Europe, there have been reported the lowest abortion rates in the world. In these areas, abortion has been legalized, and there have been high rates to access contraceptives. This is a similar case in the United States. Since it was authorized, there have been increased instances of safe abortion, resulting in reduced unsafe abortion deaths.
It is the responsibility of the government and donor organizations to ensure that women’s lives are protected against the deaths of unsafe abortion and that their health is promoted. There is an obligation of the government to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2030, which also includes a call for universal access to reproductive health services. The United States has played a more significant part, for example, to give family planning and reproductive health programmers. It is also assisting in reducing complications of unsafe abortion by supporting programs to increase access to and improve post-abortion care. These include treatment of septic abortion and also giving essential post-abortion family planning counseling and services to reduce the opportunities of unintended pregnancy.
Because of the historical leadership of the United States, it has the responsibility to ramp up her financial assistance to help women in developing countries to prevent unwanted pregnancy. It can also help mitigate the consequences of unsafe abortion and try to educate the society globally by, for example, having an organization that will have its branches in nearly all developing countries. The work of these organizations will be spreading the message against unsafe pregnancy. It also needs to support abortion cases by having global laws against an incident like incest and rape. This will be in collaboration with the amending Helms amendment law of Abortion.
Generally, it can be concluded that there are many consequences of induced abortion. Many risks are associated with unsafe abortion, and unless proper measures are put in place to help curb this thing, then we should expect more problems associates. Hazardous abortion has been investigated to have both physical and mental health risks. It can cause long term effects on the future bearing of children caused by infertility or the problem of the womb that makes it unable to hold the pregnancy. One is also exposed to a high risk of breast cancer, premature death, as well as mental health disorders. It is the responsibility of both an individual and the government to make sure that cases of unsafe pregnancy are reduced for maternal deaths associated with unsafe abortion to be curbed. Each country needs to have abortion laws that whoever is found to have violated them to be given heavy penalties. Trained personnel should be deployed to health institutions to make sure that they provide safe abortion to all women who are willing.