This month marks the 39th anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade and an opportunity to resolve to either enhance or repeal the laws that ensure a woman's right to choose, depending on which side of the issue you support. For me, it is a time of reflection, to remember the lives of women in the U.S. and in faraway places, whose courage touched my life when they came to me for help.
I am a nurse practitioner and midwife, and I have had the privilege to meet women all over the world, from San Diego, to rural Tennessee, Guatemala and Ethiopia, whose ability to access a safe abortion and/or reproductive health care changed the course of their lives, and in many cases, saved it. I've spoken with and treated women for whom pregnancy was the most joyous moment in their lives, and others for whom pregnancy was a death sentence.
I recall a female inmate here in San Diego who sobered up and detoxed while in a jail cell -- only to realize she was pregnant. The look in her eyes was desperate. She did not want to bring a child into the world under these circumstances. I recall a woman who already had a young daughter with severe birth defects, unable to eat or breathe on her own. The woman became pregnant again when her birth control failed. Upon learning that she was pregnant, her husband left the family. She came to me with the same desperate look in her eyes, facing an unimaginable dilemma -- to continue to care for the gravely ill child she already had -- or to let her die and have a healthy baby. Having both was not a possibility. Both of these women had a unique set of circumstances -- ones that led to a carefully considered decision not to have a baby. At a different time of their lives, they may have made an entirely different choice. This is an often overlooked reality about what it is to be a woman -- the same woman at age 25 makes different reproductive health and childbearing choices than she does at age 40. And no one should stand in her way when she tries to do so.
I have seen firsthand, too many times, what lack of choice and lack of health care does to women, particularly women in the developing world. I knew women in Guatemala who had such advanced tuberculosis that becoming pregnant was a death sentence for them and their babies. One woman died in the fifth month of her pregnancy. Another woman lived to deliver her baby but she was so weak, she could not breastfeed. Her only option was to give the baby unpurified water and a tiny bit of formula. Both the mother and the baby died within six months. Like many in the developing world, these women had no access to medical care. If they had received timely medical care, they would have received timely treatment. Because they were so weak and the drug regimen for TB is not recommended during pregnancy, they would have been counseled to terminate their pregnancies. What happened to them was a disaster cascade experienced by the poorest of the poor world-wide: no medical care, no contraception availability and no reproductive choices. The inherent risks of pregnancy and childbirth become a matter of life and death.
While Roe v. Wade still protects a woman's ability to access an abortion in the United States, I believe that true choice is about giving all woman access to all options to prevent, delay or terminate a pregnancy, or to have a safe delivery of a wanted baby, no matter where in the world she lives. In my current work with WomanCare Global, I'm able to help women around the world make choices about their reproductive health by providing affordable, quality products for contraception, fertility and pregnancy management. Our primary mission is to get quality products to women in developing countries where products are not always safe, accessible or affordable.
Consider this: Globally, more than 215 million women would like to be using modern methods of birth control but do not have access to those products. Every day, 1,000 women die from pregnancy related complications, and every year, more than a half a million children lose their mothers in childbirth. Access to choice for all women would prevent many of these tragedies -- unintended pregnancies would drop by more than 70 percent, and 150,000 fewer women would die in childbirth. It is heartbreaking to think of a 15-year-old girl in some parts of Africa with restrictive abortion laws who has a 1 in 22 risk that she will die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth in her lifetime. In contrast, a 15-year-old in Sweden has a 1 in 48,000 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth in her lifetime.
As we mark the 39th anniversary of Roe let us remember that choice is about all choices -- the choice to have a baby and when to have one, if ever at all. Protecting this choice is what Roe v. Wade is all about. And all women -- no matter where they live -- deserve that right.
We as a society are given much to many excuses for abortion, and few are valid. Over population, haelth problems, you name it. The reality in the U.S. is that more than half of pregnant women who recievie abortions are not ready for their bodies to change, and to give up their lifestyles.
In countries where the woman, many times girl, is starving or malnourished, I can understand not wanting that for a child. Still, I do not believe that the life of something that is NOT YOU should be entirely controlled by the mother. Many women do not do it for the right reason, if there is one. Many times, the person is rightfully plagued for the rest of their lives.
In ancient rome,often the parents of a child had around 4 years to decide whether or not to keep their child. if they killed past then, it was murder. We consider that insane, but do we really understand?
Please, women, consider your options. Adoptions vary in many different forms, and do not include your infant waiting at an orphanage as many pro-choice advocates may claim. You can CHOOSE good parents. Trust me, I know first-hand!
Please read this, and think before your do something so terrible to your child. Would death really be better than their lives? Think selflessly.
I have 2 adopted children and, yes, I'm *very* pro-adoption. But I would never want a woman to put her life at risk so that someone else could have a child.
She called me @ work and asked me to pick her up at Rose Medical Ctr (Denver) to take her home. It took 2 nurses to put my almost skeletal friend into my car. I took her to her home to await her 2 boys from school. Her husband stopped punishing her after another week and came home to let her know how disappointed he was in her for terminating the dangerous pregnancy.
Women's healthcare - women's decisions. No apologies.
No apologies for having an abortion? That's severely illogical. There are consequences for our actions and abortion is one of the worst choices a woman can make out of convenience. There is no way to justify a right out of it. Adoption is a fantastic alternative that works very well in the U.S.. Also, there are plenty of gov't driven programs aimed for mothers with kids too. Here's an idea - drop the baby off at a church - no questions no worries. Every human deserves a chance to live. Stop turning the abortion issue into a struggle for power. Pro-lifers are not about that - it's about what we value in terms of life and human decency.
"The woman became pregnant again when her birth control failed."
According to the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood's own polling center): " • Fifty-four percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant. "
Do you really think that an increase in the use of birth control will lower the rate of abortion? These statistics prove otherwise.
she lives." This sentence says it all. Although Roe v Wade protects a woman's right to access an abortion in the US, it certainly doesn't protect the availability of services within the US. Access to repoductive care is being attacked at many levels...from basic services of pap tests and mammograms through contraceptive services and onto termination of pregnancies. A law that is in force is all well and good, but, if there is no reasonable access to services, it is as if it doesn't exist. Those who are against choice for women, should be putting all of their efforts into supporting contraceptive services through planned parenthood, low cost clinics and mandatory coverage in insurance plans. The best way to prevent abortion is to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.
commentary on he issue of Women's Rights in the US, at least
as they pertain to reproduction.
I wish that you were advising the President. For now, my
meagre fan/fave will have to do as my vote for you.