Abortion: Who has the right?

| Friday August 2, 2013 00:00

There is a 'world' out there made up of millions of crying but silent voices, who are asking a simple question to the legal experts in our world: 'Who will defend our human rights since we cannot defend ourselves, being victims of those who were expressing their human rights in the process of making their choices when they terminated our lives?'

Abortion occurs when pregnancy is ended so that it does not result in the birth of a child. Sometimes this is called termination of pregnancy. However, we must be aware of the fact that it has many side effects. An estimated 44 million abortions are performed globally each year, with slightly under half of those performed unsafely. Unsafe abortions result in approximately 70,000 maternal deaths and five million hospital admissions per year globally.The legality, prevalence, cultural and religious status of abortion varies substantially around the world, depending on specific conditions such as incest, rape, faetal defects, high risk of disability, socio-economic factors or the mother's health being at risk.

God has made His views abundantly clear and revealed to mankind His unchanging position on abortion through His pen is the Bible where it has been established that human life begins prior to birth. Since all fertilized human eggs are human, human life begins at the time of conception. The Bible also makes it clear that David, the person who wrote most of the Psalms, was inspired to show us how God was involved in the creation of man from the process that begins inside the womb of the woman. He writes: 'For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them (Psalm 139:13-16, NKJV).

It can be logically argued from these scriptures that God is responsible for giving life to man and for that reason cannot condone the killing of unborn infants. However, the pro-choice movement, made up of those who feel democracy gives the woman the right to choose whether or not to have a baby, has been fighting a vicious war on the biblical view of abortion. What they are saying is that the woman has a right to conceive and throw away the baby if she feels the circumstances are not right. As the saying goes, 'You can't have your cake and eat it too.' Engaging in sex carries the risk of pregnancy which should be considered carefully by those who want to enjoy the fun of sex. But if one wants it without being prepared to face the inevitable consequences that will follow, that may be a seriously 'irresponsible' existence the results of which will always e too ghastly to contemplate. We need to emphasize the 'right to refrain from illicit sexual activities,' 'the right to wait for a proper marital relationship before engaging in any sexual encounters with the opposite sex' and 'the right to live in godly purity.' Yes, we know that the world has entertained too much promiscuity from time immemorial and now we are reaping the fruits of our 'democratic liberalism' in the form of the rampant HIV pandemic that is wreaking havoc in our society.

Another argument offered by the pro-choice movement is that the natural monthly menstrual cycle of a non-pregnant woman results in the loss of an ovum each month. In a male, non-copulated sperm is reabsorbed.Therefore, because God designed these events, it should not be considered that human life begins prior to the joining of the sperm and the ovum as more sperm and ovum die naturally than can ever become fertilised. Abortion represents a woman's right to choose whether or not to continue a pregnancy. Many women do not feel, for whatever personal reasons or circumstances, that they are ready to provide a suitably nurturing environment in which to raise a child, which every child deserves, hence the choice to abort. This basic and important reproductive choice should not be made by the government or any other outside force against the woman's wishes but solely by the individual woman herself. Contrary to anti-choice rhetoric, abortion according to the pro-choice movement, does not kill babies or persons. Abortion is only performed before a person is formed and long before viability or any consciousness. An embryo or a foetus has no consciousness or being and is definitely not a person: it has only the potential to become a person if carried to near or full-term.

In Botswana, abortion was not allowed under the Penal Code of 1964, which was inherited from the British colonial administration. The law was amended in 1991 to accommodate exceptions that include:

*when the medical practitioner carrying out the abortion is satisfied that the pregnancy is the result of rape, defilement, or incest;

*when the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk to the life of the pregnant woman or injury to her physical or mental health; and 

* when established evidence shows that there is substantial risk that the child would suffer from or later develop such serious physical or mental abnormality or disease as to be seriously handicapped.

The abortion must be carried out within the first 16 weeks of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner in a government hospital, a registered private hospital or a clinic approved for that purpose. In the last two cases of  above practitioners must approve the abortion in writing. The same conditions apply to Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. However, in South Africa, a woman under the age of 18 is advised to consult her parents, but she can decide not to inform or consult them if she so chooses. A woman who is married or is in a life-partner relationship is advised to consult her partner, but again she can decide not to inform or consult him/her. In China, women are forced to abort a child due to its one-child policy. In India, women are force to have abortion because the child is a girl. This is called female foeticide.

There are at least seven ways that abortions are induced. Here are six of them: First, there's the suction-type abortion. This is where the unborn child is literally vacuumed from the mother's womb during the early stages of pregnancy. The currette-type abortion is where the child is cut from the mother's womb with a spoon-like object. A third type is similar to a Caesarean operation. The baby is surgically removed from the mother and allowed to suffocate because its lungs are not developed. The fourth type of abortion is the Salt Brine technique. With this method, the unborn child is literally 'pickled' to death by injection of a strong salt solution. A few days after the injection, the woman experiences what is called a 'still birth'.

There is currently much debate about partial-birth abortions. This is where a child is partially delivered, then stabbed in the skull to have his or her brains sucked out. There is also much talk about the RU-486 abortion pill from France, also called 'mifepristione' in America. This pill works by inhibiting pregnancy hormones and is normally used within seven weeks from conception. Because it can remove a fertilized egg, IUDs (intra-uterine devices) are considered to be abortion-inducing and are not considered simply as birth control by those in the Churches of God. Certain 'birth control' pills do something similar, including what has been called 'Plan B' or the 'morning after pill.'  It has been estimated that in these latter times, there are approximately 46,000,000 abortions per year.

Theoretically, the decision to abort belongs to the woman. Many people say that abortion is killing and hurting innocent unborn babies. The foetus feels pain. But the question is: how can a foetus feel pain if it is not fully developed? A foetus cannot feel pain until it has developed a nervous system. Since the nervous system is what allows a person to feel pain, then the foetus is not a person.Therefore, the right to have an abortion should remain with women. This is not only about making abortion legal but giving women their democratic right to choose. But the state has a legitimate interest seeing to it that abortion, like any other medical procedure, is performed under circumstances that ensure maximum safety for the patient. This interest obviously extends at least to the performing physician and his staff, the facilities involved, the availability of after-care, and to the adequate provision for any complication or emergency that might arise.

US President Barack Obama affirmed his support for a woman's 'right to choose' on the 36th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that led to the legalisation of abortion. For Americans, the legal right to have an abortion is linked to heir constitution and is part of a number of amendments that cover a person's right to privacy and the right to choose. This is not so for many Third World countries whose constitutions reflect the cultures and socio-political traditions of European colonising nations which were by and large anti-abortion.

The debate on abortion may have lost its meaning over time because it has been around from time immemorial but it cannot lose sight of the views of those who live in 'another world'. There is a 'world' out there made up of millions of crying but silent voices, who are asking a simple question to the legal experts in our world: 'Who will defend our human rights since we cannot defend ourselves, being victims of those who were expressing their human rights in the process of making their choices when they terminated our lives?' These are men and women who could have made great and historic contributions to this world in the form of medical discoveries, scientific inventions, moral and spiritual writings, political leadership, economic investments, academic theories and other crucial trail blazing innovations that would have made our world a better place to live in. All we can say now is: 'If we had considered otherwise, we could have, we should have, but we didn't.'

*Dr Morgen Chawawa is a Research Manager at Botho University