Statistics and Legalization of Abortion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Statistics and Legalization of Abortion - Essay Example In very simple words, abortion is the final consequence of a woman's decision of terminating her pregnancy. However, the reasons responsible for this decision vary immensely with individuals and the circumstances they are up against. In medical terms there are two types of abortion; one is miscarriage, also called spontaneous abortion which mostly occurs in early pregnancy say due to environmental factors, the age and the health of the pregnant women. This risk of miscarriage is high among women over the age of 35 or among those who have a history of several spontaneous or induce abortion. The second type of abortion is induced abortion, and has become synonymous to the word abortion today. This form of abortion can be due to many reasons and is therefore surrounded by an intense social and moral debate. The practice of induced abortion can be traced back in to history where certain sharp tools were used for this procedure, also with the help of certain herbs and by applying abdominal pressure. However, in ancient Greece women wishing to terminate their pregnancy were advised to engage in exercise, carrying heavy objects and riding animals instead of using sharp tools for the procedure. One of the reasons for abortion is preference for a particular sex for the child and is more common in Asian countries which have a culture preference of son. Due to medical advances, it is very convenient today to determine the sex of the child before birth through ultrasound, which has led to the occurrence of sex selected abortion in many cases. For example in India and Pakistan a son is seen as a bread earner in the family and high dowry expenses are tied with the existence of a daughter, there the rate of sex targeted abortion is very high as most families already facing financial difficulties prefer sons than daughters. In India alone "researchers have asserted that between 1985 and 2005 as many as 10 million female fetuses may have been selectively aborted" (Reaney, Patricia. 2006). Another reason for sex selective abortion evident in china is due to its historic preference of sons and its one child policy, which has been implemented due to population concerns in this country. This lead to an increase in sex selective abortions and an imbalance in the ratio of male versus female population became evident, in response to which China put a ban on this type of abortion in 2002. Due to the ban on abortion in many countries, as will be discussed in detail later, and also due to lack of access to safe abortion especially in the rural areas women have turned to unsafe methods of terminating their pregnancies. "black alley abortions" is a term uses for such types of abortions which lack hygiene and proper medical skills to perform such a procedure and can even result in death of the woman. According to the estimates of The World Health Organization (WHO) as much as 19 million unsafe abortions are carried out around the world each year. And 68,000 among these result in the death of the women. "A 2007 study published in The Lancet found that, although the global rate of abortion declined from 45.6 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003, unsafe procedures still accounted for 48% of all abortions performed in 2003." (Sedgh et al. 2007) Legalization of Abortion There is no universal law which applies the legalization or ban of abortion. Currently the laws relating to this sensitive issue vary from country to country depending on the religious, moral and

Mass sterilization of women in Puerto Rico Essay

Mass sterilization of women in Puerto Rico - Essay Example In order to make achievement of aims and objectives of the operation easier, an NGO inaugurated and operated around 23 birth control clinics. In addition to this, a bill was passed through Puerto Rican parliament, which facilitated the marketing of contraceptives. In addition to this, another 159 clinics were opened in different parts of Puerto Rico by passing another legislative bill. The bill also empowered Department of Health in Puerto Rico to conduct sensitization sessions with the population, to educate them about contraceptives and where are the clinics, which may provide population, the pregnancy prevention methods. With such extensive efforts and hard work, around 33.8% of Puerto Rican women went into the sterilization process and gave up their ability to give birth (Carmen and Tietze). The type of sterilization operation that Puerto Rican women gone under was forced sterilization. These women were forced by Advocates, doctors and officials of the US government to go through sterilization operations in order to control the birth rate of the country and excel the country’s growth. Beside this forced sterilization, Puerto Rican women were also provided with birth control pills. These birth control pills proved to me more beneficial than sterilization because it was easy to use and easy to get, under the strict laws of Puerto Rico, which prevented the sale of these pills in clinics and dispensaries (Aviles and Yamila). This part of the analysis looks at the reasons why such operation was carried out in the first place. By controlling birth in Puerto Rico, United States aimed at improving the economic and financial landscape of the... The type of sterilization operation that Puerto Rican women gone under was forced sterilization. These women were forced by Advocates, doctors and officials of the US government to go through sterilization operations in order to control the birth rate of the country and excel the country’s growth. Beside this forced sterilization, Puerto Rican women were also provided with birth control pills. These birth control pills proved to me more beneficial than sterilization because it was easy to use and easy to get, under the strict laws of Puerto Rico, which prevented the sale of these pills. This part of the analysis looks at the reasons why such operation was carried out in the first place. By controlling birth in Puerto Rico, United States aimed at improving the economic and financial landscape of the country. Previously, Puerto Rico was considered as being the most densely populated area in the world. The social structure of the country was near to destruction. This is because, not all of Puerto Rican children and youth had access to quality education. Whilst, they were not getting the education, they spent most of their time roaming around in the streets and indulging into anti-social activities. On the other hand, food and water shortage was creating massive problems for the government as the increasing population resulted in increasing demand for basic necessities. People were dying on the streets due to hunger and thirst. Another worst scenario was unavailability of quality health care facilities.