Written by: ellawella, kataruh 💦, watermelonsugar, ube pandesal
Artwork by: WAP Monster, Parang Like, liBRUH
Abortion is a medical procedure that removes the embryo or fetus from the mother’s uterus and is also known as ‘termination of pregnancy’. It allows women to have the choice to end an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. There are two ways to have an abortion. The first one is via the ‘abortion pill’, which actually involves two pills and is taken depending on how far along the woman is in her pregnancy. The first one is taken up to ten weeks into the pregnancy and causes an early miscarriage (heavy bleeding, strong cramps in regions near the uterus). The second is taken between ten weeks to twenty-four weeks in and causes the mother’s body to go into early labor, pushing the fetus out of the womb. The other option for having an abortion is through a surgical procedure. There are two ways. One is vacuum aspiration, and the other is dilatation and evacuation. Vacuum aspiration can happen up to fifteen weeks into the pregnancy, and its procedure involves using gentle suction to remove the embryo from the womb. Dilatation and evacuation are done by using forceps to remove the fetus and embryo through the neck of the womb. The mother is placed under anesthesia during these surgical procedures. However, in the Philippines abortion is highly stigmatized which results in a large number of Filipino women resorting to unsafe procedures. The Catholic Church has expressed extreme opposition to this healthcare procedure which resulted in the government doing the same thing (showing minimal support for modern contraceptives). As a result, around 1,000 Filipinas die each year due to unsafe abortion methods, this number shows that abortions happen frequently in the Philippines but are in unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
Why abortion should be legalized
Abortion is a human right
From 2015 to 2019, approximately 121 million unintended pregnancies were recorded each year, 61% of which ended in abortion–that’s technically 73 million recorded abortions per year. This procedure is clearly needed by a great number of women, yet it is still illegal in most countries. This forces women to resort to unsafe and medically unsupervised measures. Abortion is a form of healthcare, and having access to a safe one is a basic human right.
Everyone has a right to health and no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment as stated in the International Human Rights Law. The right to health is inclusive of freedom and also establishes bodily autonomy, which is basically the right over one’s own body without any external coercion. That being said, it is a violation of one’s human rights to be forced to carry out pregnancy if they don’t wish to do so. Making it illegal, in itself, is also a violation for it forces a woman to go through prosecution and punishment in the form of imprisonment, which could lead to torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment. Furthermore, everyone who has the capacity to give birth has a right to have access to safe abortion, as well as post-abortion healthcare.
Mother’s choice
An unwanted pregnancy is more than just the consequence of a sexual encounter; it is a life-changing event. Whether pregnancy came as a result of consensual or non-consensual sex, whether contraception failed or was not used at all, there is no situation that justifies forcing a woman into this enormous responsibility. A mother should be the one to decide how to best deal with an unwanted pregnancy. There are many factors that influence a woman’s decision to have an abortion, such as the lack of financial support, the lack of a partner, or possible health issues that may occur with pregnancy. Some women do have support but simply feel they are unprepared to be a mother, while others choose to continue with a pregnancy and raise the child despite great socioeconomic disadvantages. Some mothers choose to carry pregnancies to full term and give their babies up for adoption. However, some women would rather terminate their pregnancies rather than place a child in the modern foster system. All of these choices are valid. Regardless of a woman’s decision, or the reasons behind it, it should ultimately be her choice.
Safety of the mother
This choice can come with grievous consequences for women in the Philippines wherein abortion under any circumstance is not only very heavily stigmatized, but completely outlawed. Women who undergo abortions may face two to six years of imprisonment while others may lose their lives.
In the eyes of the Philippine government, the criminalization of abortions is an effective means to prevent abortions. They fail to understand that this does not lessen unintended pregnancies among women, and therefore does not eradicate the need for abortions. It only makes the procedure unsafe and inaccessible. Even with such significant risks, thousands of Filipino women undergo abortions every year, often under dangerous and life-threatening conditions.
Filipino women, particularly poor women who may not have access to contraceptives to prevent unplanned pregnancies, often resort to backstreet abortions. Backstreet abortionists use outdated and barbaric methods in order to make a quick buck at the expense of women’s safety. These methods can lead to life-threatening injuries. In 2008 alone, 90,000 women experienced post-abortion complications while at least 1,000 of them passed away. Many Filipino women who seek post-abortion care for both physical and mental repercussions face hostility from healthcare workers due to the stigma surrounding the procedure. Despite the Reproductive Health Act including the provision of proper post-abortion services for Filipinos, there have been many cases of verbal and physical harassment against these women. Some healthcare workers refuse them health services and go as far as to threaten to have them arrested. The stigma surrounding abortions has very clearly seeped into and ingrained itself deep in the country’s public health system, thus further endangering the lives of women across the country.
In conclusion, stubbornly continuing to make abortions illegal does not solve any problems, but creates more that cause life-threatening complications and trample on women’s reproductive health rights. It does not address the root of the problem which essentially lies in why women in our country have the need to undergo abortions in the first place. Few people realize that this is also a socio-economic issue, most especially in a third world country like ours where there are vast gaps in financial capabilities, education levels, family planning methods, and other significant factors. For so long, abortion has been treated as a black-and-white, good-or-bad issue of rigid morality wrongfully riddled with religion, when it is in fact a multi-faceted and intersectional issue that has so many layers to dissect and tackle through the contextualized lens of the Filipina.
References:
“Dilatation and Evacuation.” BPAS, www.bpas.org/abortion-care/abortion-treatments/surgical-abortion/dilatation-and-evacuation/.
“Facts on Abortion in the Philippines: Criminalization and a General Ban on Abortions.” Center for Reproductive Rights, https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/documents/pub_fac_philippines_1%2010.pdf
Finer, Lawrence B, and Rubina Hussain. “Unintended Pregnancy and Unsafe Abortion in the Philippines: Context and Consequences.” Guttmacher Institute, Aug. 2013, www.guttmacher.org/report/unintended-pregnancy-and-unsafe-abortion-philippines-context-and-consequences.
Padilla, Clara Rita, and Minguita Padilla. “The Reality of Abortion in the Philippines.” Rappler, 12 Sept. 2015, rappler.com/voices/ispeak/reality-abortion-philippines.
“Here Are the Basic Facts about Abortion That You Should Know.” Amnesty International, www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/abortion-facts/.
“Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Worldwide.” Guttmacher Institute, 18 Aug. 2020, www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide.
“International Law.” OHCHR, www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/internationallaw.aspx.
Filipino Link: https://tinyurl.com/legalizeabortion-fil
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