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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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Abortion: Another method of family planning by Carol Aloysius Illegal, performed under clandestine and precarious conditions, and
often resulting in death or long-term suffering, abortion is still the In Sri Lanka the number of illegal abortions is equally mind boggling, varying from between 1000 cases a day to 150,000 cases according to rough estimates. A very recent report on Safe Motherhood and Infant Care compiled by the Population Division of the Ministry of Health reveals that induced abortion now ranks as the third highest contributor of all maternal deaths in this country, preceded only by Postpartum haemorrhage and hypertensive disorders in pregnancy listed as the first and second cause of maternal death respectively. Ironically, many of these abortions (three fourths states the report) are by married women and only one quarter of the number is by adolescents and unmarried women. Why do these women opt for this risky `operation' which being illegal in this country, prevents them from access to safe hygienic procedures within a hospital environment? How do they react after an abortion? Are they relieved? Happy? or sad? Do they experience grief, guilt and a sense of remorse? According to the Population Division Report, high number of married women who have abortions are those who continue to use traditional family planning methods - a high of 21.3 per cent this, in spite of the availability of more scientific methods. The study showed that 45 percent of those seeking abortion were using a traditional method at the time of pregnancy", states the report, which cites the failure of these traditional methods and non use of contraception as leading to unintended pregnancy and abortion. The answers to the rest of the questions that this writer has posed are given by a consultant psychiatrist Dr. R.A.R. Perera who did a questionnaire survey of women who had undergone abortions and has come up with the following interesting conclusions. The survey incidentally covered teenage groups up to the age of 29 years, of whom 52 percent were married. Many of them knew about the Pill, the condom, male and female sterilisations and other family planning methods. The majority of them had not had previous abortions. Citing figures, he states that only 25 per cent of women admitted to feelings of grief and a sense of loss after an abortion, while 45 per cent said they did not feel any grief and 30 per cent admitted they were not "sure". Asked if they thought they had destroyed a potential life, 55 percent of the women had answered in the negative while 16 per cent said they were not sure. On questions relating to anger and resentment at getting themselves into such a situation for having" got into this mess" while the rest were "not sure". Only 25 per cent of the women felt they were "unworthy" because of the act of abortion. Fifty five per cent said they did not feel any sense of unworthiness while 20 per cent said they were "not sure". "This shows that the majority of these women were not unduly upset after the abortion. Their fears were much more before the abortion than afterwards", he states. Asked if they thought that the abortion could harm their health or lead to future complications in child birth such as infertility, 63 per cent had responded in the negative while 24 per cent had said they were "not sure". Dr. Perera's study also noted that 73 per cent of the women who came for these abortions were less than six weeks pregnant. "Generally they wait for their menstrual period and when they do not get it, they wait for another month. When they don't get their periods in the second month, they undergo a urine test, and come for an abortion if this turns out to be positive. On partner awareness, he states that although 65 per cent of the partners were aware of the pregnancy, only 35 per cent came accompanied by their partners for the abortion. The overall conclusion was that the majority of women who had undergone an abortion (60 per cent) felt they had taken the right decision in terminating their pregnancy. He thus concludes that abortion has become another family planning method because of the easy accessibility of illegal abortion clinics. "The women who undergo an abortion for the first time and comes out of it without much complications, and without the law swooping down on them encourages other women to follow suit. This is why these women have less psychological problems after an abortion at these centres", he concludes. These findings are another reminder that the time has come for our policy makers to review the current abortion law which only allows a pregnant woman to have an abortion if the pregnancy poses a risk to her life. The most obvious factor about abortion is the low use of contraceptives. Till then, motivating women to use contraceptives and men to use condoms will continue to be the only answer. |
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choice of the vast majority of women around the world, and is responsible
for the death of thousands upon thousands of women around the world.
Globally an estimated 150,000 women have an induced abortion every day.
