Methods, Risks of Abortion, and Meaning of Birth Control
Abortion: Methods, Risks of Abortion, and Meaning of Birth Control
Abortion, normally addressed as the practice of deliberately terminating human pregnancy through the expulsion of a fetus or embryo before it is able to survive outside of the womb, has been widely recognized as one complex issue closely and consistently associated with medical and legal procedures as well as moral examinations. In a majority of occasions, due to the nature of frequently and purposefully performing an end to pregnancy, abortion has been increasingly indicated as induced abortion, rather than the spontaneous behavior generally known as miscarriage that occurs as a result of an unintentional loss. In recent decades, the rapid pace of social progress combined with the high advancement of medical science in many countries of the world has brought about a rise of abortions in each year. According to one report conducted by World Health Organization in 2012, an estimate of around 43.8 abortions took place globally in 2008, suggesting an obvious increase compared with a number of 41.6 million in 2003 (14). As the access to abortions is identified getting more convenient, there is no doubt that the trend is nowadays transforming the issue related to abortion from a case of individuals to a larger-scale social problem confronting a widening group of women and their families. What follows the expansion of tendency of resorting to surgical or medical methods for abortions is the speculation developed at a global level over whether abortion is biologically, legally and morally feasible. Besides, the question around the medical capacity and the availability of safe abortions is growing highly contentious among different interest groups and organizations possessing divergent opinions. With major concerns centering on the fundamental human right of life and the human race’s sacred mission of preventions of deaths and injuries, the debate is dramatically shaping today’s situation with one side arguing for fetal rights, while the other side advocating the right of mothers over their bodies. Bearing in mind these considerations, this paper would give a detailed examination of the practice of abortions, evidence of adverse effects on females, and significant meanings of different forms birth control. Through a review of medical and surgical interventions and induced abortions’ trend in causing biological and mental harms, with some implying a hazardous result, it describes a lack of awareness in realizing the severity of terminations of pregnancies. Further, it explores birth control’s range of benefits, first, in cutting down occurrences of abortions, and second, in reminding people of the ultimate significance of life and the terrible influence lead by the deprivation of it through restricting the access to contraception. It concludes by claiming that instead of focusing on the correctness of one’s opinions, it is urgent for individuals and organizations to exert consistent efforts to share pressures of women in pregnancy and fulfilling their responsibility for ensuring the highest degree of protections of their health and the overall life quality.
Under the condition where abortion procedures are legal and available in modern regions and countries, commonly used approaches primarily take benefits from the technological outcomes in surgical, medical, and chemical areas. Due to the fact that traditional therapies are increasingly eliminated due to their lack of scientific basis and threatening harms given by some sharp tools, the reliance of treatment, especially from the developed world, is witnessed putting on medications and surgeries as ways to counter the abortion issue (6). Of the universally employed surgical forms, suction aspiration, also referred to as vacuum aspiration, is believed to be the most frequent method of abortion, with machine vacuum being applied in the first half of the 12 weeks, and manual vacuum after the last menstrual period (7). Besides from the distinction of time, the procedure of machine vacuum is related to the usage of a hollow tube capable of offering a gentle vacuum, while the manual vacuum is conducted through a manual syringe. When some places restrict the adoption of manual vacuum aspiration in the time of early pregnancy, Dilation and curettage functions as an effective alternative surgically performed and strongly advised by many medical scientists. With the indication of the use of a curette, curettage plays its role through making clear the wall of the uterus and is proved as the valid method due to the method’s ability of inspecting signs of malignancy as well as vaginal bleeding under non-normal conditions. On the other hand, for the women who determine to terminate their pregnancies and have abortions after the first 15 weeks of gestation, the previously mentioned methods would turn out to be inadequate. According to one study, Dilation and evacuation, which requires the removal of fetal and placental tissue by incorporating instruments and suction, can be trusted till the time reaches roughly the 26th week of gestation (11). The procedure of intact dilation and extraction is another way to saving lives of mothers with its involvement with decompression of the head of the fetus in the late gestation.
Medical abortions also addressed as chemical abortions, the access of which has been recommended due to the reason of safe abortions in the global context, are the alternative procedures induced by abortifacient pharmaceuticals (6). During the early stage of the first-trimester, the scientific combination of mifepristone and a prostaglandin analog that could be misoprostol is universally seen as the most efficient and reliable medical abortion regimens. Compared with it, the result of methotrexate, through combining itself with a prostaglandin analog, is observed as less obvious or slower (5). These two medical abortion regimens are gaining popularity in many countries where women use the method during the first and second trimester. For example, a substantial amount of abortions in the United States, approximately 92%, happens during the first trimester of pregnancy (11). Many American women choose to complete their abortions by combing surgical methods with these two regimens. In addition, salt poisoning, through injecting into the amniotic fluid, and the prostaglandin abortion usually applied during the second or third trimester, are observed as workable but gradually losing favors due to the sometimes high risks of side effects and other troubles (2). In understanding the differentiation between medical and surgical means, one 2006 World Health Organization report emphasized that two methods contain reveal little difference regarding safety and efficiency, despite that only few situations would call for a preference to one method due to medical considerations (8).
It should be noticed that when induced abortions are legally protected by nations, which means that professional services related to abortions are highly ensured, and applied safely, the threat of danger that could be caused on one woman’s physical or mental health is slight. In most cases, the lack of consistency in perceptions and controversial speeches over adverse biological effects stem from problems triggered by unsafe operations of abortions. Not coincidentally, the continuation of the phenomenon of unsafety could be observed in many nations where abortion is illegal, substantially leading to the rise of risky access, occurrences of medication mistakes, and unexamined medical facilities. It adds to the formation of a major public problem in many societies anxiously concerned with the impact of health resulted from abortions. It is estimated that about 19 million unsafe abortions take place per year, of the sum, around 67,000 females ending in deaths from abortion complications and accounting for 13% of all pregnancy-related death (4). The outcome of unsafety during the termination of unwanted pregnancies is prevalent in some developing countries, especially those in a status of illegalization of abortion. When dealing with the adversity of abortions posed on women’s physical health, a number of anti-abortion advocates attempt to shape public opinions by naming common harms, such as chronic gynecological diseases, ectopic pregnancies, prolonged bleedings and infections. One factor that has significantly upgraded the long-term debate over the possibilities of harmful consequences caused by unsafe abortions emerges in the risks of maternal deaths. For those who oppose against abortions, one major argument claims that the reduction in maternal mortality rate remains challenging considering the negative reality where unsanitary equipment and low medical capacities are dominating in impoverished areas. The truth that the increase of gestational age could worsen the situation by ascending the rate of maternal mortality is another aspect that makes the argument increasingly influential.
Another reason given by the anti-abortion activists is placed on the link between induced abortions and their impact on breast cancer, one subject that has been undergoing heated discussions and thorough medical surveys. The famous proposition establishes that the procedure of the enlargement of women’s breasts, once disturbed by abortions prior to the end of the third trimester, would face a likelihood of serious vulnerability or deterioration of cells. Hence, it would invent conditions for cancerous changes that occur to these women. Despite that the theory has been investigated and explored, the association between induced abortions and cancer is still unsupported by the latest results of scientific studies. The infertility rate affected by unsafe abortions serves as another field of research currently conducted by various organizations. According to one journal titled “Pregnancy Outcome Following Abortion”, besides from adverse effects such as ectopic pregnancy, placenta praevia, preterm labor, etc., women with former experiences of induced abortions would suffer a risk of future pregnancy (12). It is contended that to cope with the risks and losses would require a proper resort to contraception methods.
In the eye of anti-abortion campaigners, induced abortion is a humanity tragedy that creates immense harms and losses to the lives of females and their families. What exposes many women to high risks to their health and happiness is not only physical consequences but also large potentials of psychological disorders as well as emotional pressures. The vast consensus that the unhealthy post-abortion psychological symptoms, like grieves, deep guilt, and fears, could extend from months to several years has strengthened determinations of many pro-life movement initiators who hold an anti-abortion position. The pervasiveness of the ill psychological conditions, usually seen as rather underestimated, functions in both the nations that have legalized abortions and other regions implementing measures of disagreement on the procedure related to it. According to the analysis of American Psychology Association in 2008, no credible proofs have been discovered as to the certainty of one single abortion’s impact on adult women’s mental health (3). Although there are studies that demonstrate some women’s emotional experience of sadness, feelings of losses, and in extreme cases, anxieties or depressions, the relationship is demanding a provision of more convincing evidence. However, one contradiction is made when an opposing voice is expressed over induced abortions’ tendency of resulting in negative mental problems, such as depressions and suicide. The philosophy applies to women who favored abortions as well as to those carried unwanted pregnancies. In countering the viewpoint made by American Psychology Association, one journal written in 2011 emphasized that women who have gone through abortion are 81% more likely to suffer depression, the impulse to suicide, and alcohol abuse (10). To add values to the statement of attaching abortions to the mental destruction, the journal borrowed the perspective of Priscilla K. Coleman of Bowling Green State University, an author who declared that a link actually exists between induced abortions and severe mental problems. Coleman pointed out that the research implemented by American Psychological Association that drew a conclusion of no health threat contains flaws (3). One similar attitude could be easily identified from opinions made public in 2014 by NRL News, which defined abortions’ adverse impacts on marriage, sexuality, and interactions with society as underpublicized (1). In addition to high rates of depressions, psychological disorders, and suicidal tendencies, adverse ramifications have touched interpersonal spheres by eroding women’s ability to maintain healthy marital relations and play social roles. Facing the prospect, women are believed to have the right to be well-informed before they make their abortion decisions (10). It is important to realize that rather than committing to one’s personal ideological positions, research institutions and other communities shoulder the responsibility of carefully evaluating all sources of published data and performing analyses based on hard facts.
As the mysterious aspects of abortions are unveiled in terms of the possible negative outcomes detected in women’s psychical and physical reactions after ending pregnancies, the acquisition of useful information and proper comprehensions over how to interrupt the linkage and minimize harms becomes crucial. Among strategies advanced to fight against high chances of series of destructive behaviors ranging from future infertility, maternal mortality, to psychiatric diseases, and obstacles of sustaining personal and social relations, birth control is perceived to be one of the most sustainable tackling methods. When given to measure up the birth control’s effectiveness in decreasing the abortion rate, Amanda Marcotte from Rewire published an opinion that sees the prevention work as “profoundly obvious,” however, sadly debated (9). In order to support the argument that granting people with the access to contraception could greatly reduce the abortion rate, Marcotte introduced one long-term experiment in St. Louis that gives the studied women birth control choices for free. Results turned out to be illustrative when a sharp contrast was revealed between 4.4 to 7.5 abortions per 1,000 women who participated in the project and an average record of approximately 20 abortions per 1,000 women nationwide. In such a clear manner, the argument proves the beneficial function of approachable contraception in lowering the happenings of abortions. Women, as observed, unjustly undergo an isolating situation as they handle unintended pregnancies and even larger pressures from dealing with the aftermath. Birth control, besides from preventing abortions, serves as one useful instrument capable of better protecting female bodies and radically countering the problem of unfairness. For women or families determined to prevent the unexpected pregnancy, options that are available and advisable in the market has a wide coverage, with each coming into effects due to different technological principles. From condoms, pills, injections, to vaginal rings, these methods are applicable either by setting barriers stopping sperms from reaching eggs, affecting the hormonal system, or purposeful planning of couples. For example, Ortho Evra patch, with a wide recognition for its efficiency of preventing pregnancy, belongs to the category of hormonal methods of birth control. Vaginal ring, also called Nuva Ring, by being inserted into the vagina, could be equally effective when used properly. Similar to pills, Depo-Provera shot is one medical way that could achieve its full function as long as the injection is given on time. Emergency contraception could also be adopted to prevent unwanted pregnancy under situations of unprotected sex, sexual violence, or failures caused by other methods. In deciding which approach should be taken, women or couples are supposed to take full account heath, age, relationship status, and economic abilities.
Of various groups of activists possessing different stances, the group who practice firm adherence to the neutral or harmless characteristics of induced abortions are undoubtedly facing an awkward dilemma between the truth of the matter and stubborn attitudes. Considering that significant amounts of in-depth reports and scientifically conducted studies have been jointly pointing fingers at damages possibly posed on post-abortive females, what remains left is the necessity for people’s quick transformation of their mentality and constructions of active countermeasures. Whether it is the popularly used surgical and medical means of controlling pregnancies, or the triggered physical and psychological difficulties, the reality of an underestimation of risks and injuries deserves a higher level of recognition from all sides involved. In the book entitled “Abortion: Medical Progress and Social Implications”, the repeatedly emphasized indication that a joint aim to a maximum extent of elimination of wastes of life could be concluded from the spokesmen launching hostility against each side during abortion debates offer us an insightful perspective on the issue (13). It is undisputable that one top priority of tasks should be placed on equipping pregnant women with the most comprehensive knowledge regarding the risks of abortions, induced one and miscarriages, on their bodily and mental states. Further, providers of immediate medical assistance, the personnel dealing with legislative studies and management, as well as political officials from governments of states, are occupying a position of significant importance to remain alert to the needs and women in pregnancy and the mission of thoughtful protections. A possession of full consciousness could contribute to the execution of most sensible solutions of aids, identification of surgical or medical resources and standards, and ideas regarding women’s physical and mental status. In this sense, birth control could be generalized as one positive and valid action that could shift the present situation shaped by widespread abortions and unskillful operations, meanwhile, mitigating the so called post-abortion syndrome by reducing the unexpected pregnancy rate. The trustworthiness of birth control also consists in its role in alleviating burdens from all governmental and non-governmental institutions as they confront the puzzle of public health, and eventually helps arrive at the most practical combination of methods against abortion-related issues.