No decrease in abortions when illegal - study

[mr friendly guy]

linky

No decrease in abortions when illegal - study

Bellinda Kontominas Medical Reporter
October 13, 2007

ALMOST half of all abortions worldwide are carried out by people lacking the necessary skill to perform them, or in conditions which are deemed unsafe, research shows.

Figures from international hospital data, surveys and published studies were compiled to calculate the incidence of safe and unsafe abortions - surgical and medical - across the world.

That abortion occurred at almost the same rate in countries where it was legal as it did in countries where it was legally restricted provided strong support for the procedure to be legalised across the globe, said researchers from the US and the World Health Organisation in Switzerland.

The study, published in the Lancet, found that 48 per cent of abortions were unsafe in 2003 and more than 97 per cent of unsafe abortions were in developing countries.

The lead author, Gilda Sedgh, from the Guttmacher Institute in New York, said whether an abortion was safe or unsafe was determined largely by whether it was legal or not, with a higher incidence of unsafe abortions in countries where the procedure was restricted.

She also wrote: "The findings presented here indicate that unrestrictive abortion laws do not predict a high level of abortion, and by the same token highly restrictive abortion laws are not associated with low abortion incidence."

In an accompanying commentary, Beth Frederick, from the International Women's Health Coalition in New York, said there was no doubt ensuring abortions were legal and safe saved lives.

The study also found that 20 per cent of pregnancies worldwide ended in abortion. However, the number of abortions had fallen, from 46 million in 1995 to 42 million in 2003. It found, on average, that 90 per cent of women would have one abortion in their reproductive lifetime.

Abortion rates were highest in Africa and Asia, which recorded 29 abortions per 1000 women, and lowest in Oceania, with 17 abortions per 1000 women. This did not include data from Australia or New Zealand.

Leslie Cannold, a medical ethicist at Monash University's Centre for Gender and Medicine, said women would still have abortions whether it became legal across the world or not.

"We can't stop people and we shouldn't try to stop people as it only leads to unsafe abortions."

Dr Cannold, who is president of Reproductive Choice Australia, said it was "absolutely cruel and inhuman punishment" to deny women access safe abortions.

A spokeswoman for Coalition Against Decriminalisation of Abortion, Kirsten Jack, said she did not want to see any woman die or be seriously harmed by going through an unsafe abortion. However, she said they should still be illegal. "The woman is making a conscious decision … the foetus doesn't get a choice."

So now we can say that the often used argument that abortion shouldn't be legalised / easily available because it would lead to more of it, is not only fallacious, but its not even true.

[Guardsman Bass]

It's hardly a surprise. Incidently, that woman at the end of the article is a fucking moron. Gee, women are having illegal abortions anyways, with nearly half of them being unsafe? No, we couldn't possibly legalize abortion in order to prevent them injuring themselves.

[mr friendly guy]

What these morons will say is that paedophiles, rapist and robbers are going to do it anyway, but we don't legalise those.

[Mayabird]

If anti-abortion activists REALLY wanted to reduce the number of abortions, they'd promote the widespread use of contraception to prevent the pregnancies from occurring in the first place.

[Plekhanov]

If anti-abortion activists REALLY wanted to reduce the number of abortions, they'd promote the widespread use of contraception to prevent the pregnancies from occurring in the first place.

Indeed Holland has abortion on demand and just about the lowest abortion rate in the world, far far lower than the US. The reason for this is pervasive and high quality sex ed.

The fact that 'pro-lifers' also tend to be abstinence only types who spread anti-contraception propaganda clearly demonstrates that they aren't really against abortion but sex.

[Patrick Degan]

Yes, well, don't count on these people letting facts confuse them. They've got the Word from the Invisible Cloud-Being to go by.

[ArcturusMengsk]

Has it ever occurred to anyone to inform them that the religious regulations in favor of abstinence were probably designed in the first as a means of contraception, before condoms and abortions? And that now that we have the technology to prevent unwanted pregnancies there's no longer any reason to observe them?

[Patrick Degan]

Has it ever occurred to anyone to inform them that the religious regulations in favor of abstinence were probably designed in the first as a means of contraception, before condoms and abortions? And that now that we have the technology to prevent unwanted pregnancies there's no longer any reason to observe them?

See post immediately above yours.

[CmdrWilkens]

Has it ever occurred to anyone to inform them that the religious regulations in favor of abstinence were probably designed in the first as a means of contraception, before condoms and abortions? And that now that we have the technology to prevent unwanted pregnancies there's no longer any reason to observe them?

Wait your asking for fundies to use logical reasoning to understand the motives behind scriptual commands? Would that we lived in such a world where such things could happen.