Lately the GOP has been busy passing laws in various states (Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin) restricting abortion rights while claiming it’s all in the name of women’s health.
Most of these laws have several things in common: Restricting when (during the pregnancy) an abortion can be performed, dictating procedures to be taken before performing the abortion to complicate the process, and restricting where abortions can be performed either through funding cuts or strict regulations.
“Fifty-eight percent of abortion patients say they would have liked to have had their abortion earlier. Nearly 60% of women who experienced a delay in obtaining an abortion cite the time it took to make arrangements and raise money.”
The abortion debate is too often portrayed as a black and white issue, when there’s really a large gray area. I’m an abortion access supporter (pro-choice), but I can completely understand where people who see abortion as wrong are coming from. It’s a despicable procedure sometimes necessitated by despicable circumstances. I believe that elective abortions should only be allowed in the first trimester. If the procedure needs to be done in the second trimester it should only be as a life saving treatment. Late-term abortions are most reprehensible, so by the third trimester every effort should be made to save the child. Anyone who has carried to this stage should be required to carry to term, or, if medical concerns determine that the child must be removed from the womb, then a caesarean or induced labor should be the preferred course of action, and the child treated as any other premature birth.
The problem with the GOP’s arguments is that they want to limit when an abortion can take place while also making it nearly impossible to get one within their dictated time frame. By enacting procedures that may be uncomfortable or embarrassing for the woman, limiting access to clinics, or outright closing abortion clinics, they are making it difficult for someone to obtain the procedure in a timely manner. If the GOP were genuinely concerned about women’s health, they would make the procedure more accessible, not less so.
“Abortions performed in the first trimester pose virtually no long-term risk of such problems as infertility, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion (miscarriage) or birth defect, and little or no risk of preterm or low-birth-weight deliveries.”
“The risk of death associated with abortion increases with the length of pregnancy, from one death for every one million abortions at or before eight weeks to one per 29,000 at 16–20 weeks—and one per 11,000 at 21 or more weeks.”
The way the GOP is focusing on this, one would think that there is an epidemic of abortions happening throughout the country, when really it’s something that most people do quietly and without fanfare. They’re never proud of doing it, and while some may regret having had to do it, they may not necessarily regret having done it.
“In repeated studies since the early 1980s, leading experts have concluded that abortion does not pose a hazard to women’s mental health.”
The other problem with the GOP’s position is that they are also largely opposed to any kind of funding for birth control, Plan B or sex ed, all of which are proven to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
“The typical woman spends five years pregnant, postpartum or trying to get pregnant and 30 years avoiding pregnancy.”
✧ ✧ MidWestMyers ✧ ✧ 