After having read an article this morning in The Independent about a suicidal woman forced to have a caesarean after having been denied an abortion in Ireland. This is eerily similar to the case in 2012 when an Indian dentist, Savita Halappanavar, was refused a life saving abortion because "Ireland is a Catholic country". Then, Dr Peter Boyle, leading obstetrician in Ireland, said that it's highly likely that Mrs Halappanavar would have will been alive if the termination was granted. Too little, too late, doc.
It saddens me that in 2014 women are denied the right an abortion. Even if Ireland is a Catholic country, there is the doctrine of double effect, where an abortion can be granted if the life of the mother is endangered, so incidents like these push religion further down into the abyss of rejection and the secular society throws tomatoes and spires at it relentlessly, even though religion isn't the bad guy.
There has been a recent sexual liberation for women. With the introduction of the pill and other forms of female contraception women can finally have a similar amount of control to men when it comes to conception. Abortion is a last resort in all cases. No woman wants an abortion and no woman should be forced to have one or to not have one.
But here we are still dictating what women should do with their own wombs as if abortion is a walk in the park. If a woman requests an abortion, she has not made the choice uninformed. It is her body, thus her choice. Some may debate that abortion is a breach of civil rights on the foetus' behalf but how is it logical to assume that the foetus' rights come before a living woman's? A foetus is not the same as a baby and it is time people realised that.
When it comes to some "religious" people are concerned (I won't use the term "religion" itself as it is too general and religion would generally oppose things that a lot of people do in the name of religion), they are no saints. In America some pro life protestors have been known to hurl eggs at women coming out of abortion clinics. In Australia there are fake abortion clinics set up by the "religious" that shows women the stages of abortion and encourages other routes of action in order to put them off having an abortion.
This is wrong. Although our society is majorly secular, there is very little people can do to change pro life ideologies but for any woman who has faced an abortion or might have to face one one day, as long as you you didn't let anyone tell you what to do, whether it was something you had to do due to financial situations, family situations or health risks or whether it was something you wanted to do i.e you wanted to focus on your career, you didn't want to raise a child in your current relationship, wanted to wait until you married etc. You are all strong women and if you don't get an abortion when someone was forcing it upon you, you are still a strong woman. Don't let anyone tell you you didn't love that foetus if you did the best thing for it.
To sum up, we are not killing a baby, we're terminating a pregnancy. If we delete abortion, we kill women's rights, we kill women's hope and we may be killing babies if the baby is born into an unready family.
Article from The Independent surrounding abortion in Ireland
False Abortion Clinics in Australia
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