I am informed by my good friend ScrubOne that the pro-abortion lobby is planning to “hijack” World Health day with a blogswarm (profusion of posts on the same topic) using the topic “Abortion: It’s a Health Issue Not A Crime”. There is a move afoot to counter this with a blogswarm using “Abortion is NOT a health issue. Curiously, I find myself agreeing with the title of the pro-abortion lobby blogswarm, even though I don’t agree with the sentiments.
I suspect that the pro-abortionists (or “pro choice” as they like to be called) do not actually understand the meaning of the phrase “health issue”, so let me be succinct here. Abortion is solely a health issue because the only “good” reasons for aborting a foetus are strictly medical ones. There are no good social reasons and precious few good psychological ones, despite the mental health clause being cited for 99% of all abortions in New Zealand.
The reason for this is simple. Abortion is not the same as having a wart removed, as much as feminists the world over would like us to believe this to be true. Abortion has profound physical, physiological and psychological consequences for the woman and, obviously, life or death consequences for the foetus. This is true for both surgical and medical abortions. It is certainly not a benign procedure and it is most certainly not something that should be considered for casual reasons such as lifestyle and convenience. These are considerations more appropriately made when thinking about contraception, not abortion.
It is for these reasons that abortion is considered both a health issue AND a crime in this country. It is not a casual contraceptive choice and should never be seen as such. There are medical reasons for aborting a foetus, including severe maternal risk, severe foetal abnormalities and severe mental health risks. Attempting to extend the gamut of reasons to the mundane and the trivial is both irresponsible and dangerous.
The MacDoctor has a plethora of posts on this issue and invites you to browse through them here:
Additional:
I have noticed a number of pro-abortion posts complaining about the the fact that the current law “effectively requires women to declare themselves mentally ill to access a basic medical procedure“, (to quote NRT). This is the exact reversal of what should be happening. Only women who have a mental health problem, which could be exacerbated by pregnancy or motherhood, should have access to abortion. In other words, abortion is a medical procedure, performed for medical reasons. It is not a form of convenient contraception.
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Apr 8 11 6:30 pm
Yes or maybe feminists could be sensible little girls and keep their legs closed til they are ready to have children. If we are going to address the abortion issue we need to look at why women are getting an abortion in the first place: because society teaches that it is ok to have sex before marriage (“try before you buy”). In fact is is encouraged rather than discouraged. If life was truly valued, sex would be post marriage and pregnancy would be seen as a blessing and not a curse.
But is there really any mental health reasons why having a baby would be bad? I think, and I am not a doctor, that a pregnant woman who had mental health issues would be benefit from being pregnant in that having to focus on the life inside her, hearing the baby’s heart beat, seeing the ultrasounds and her own physical health -eating well and so on – would help heal her from her mental illness. Just a thought.
Apr 8 11 7:03 pm
There certainly are mental health issues that are exacerbated by pregnancy and motherhood. The most obvious ones are severe depression and bipolar disorder. Some of the more severe anxiety states, particularly the phobic ones would also qualify. Note: it is possible to manage most of these through a pregnancy, but only with a great deal of difficulty and not without placing the mother at some risk. Still, many women elect to take that risk.
What does NOT qualify is borderline personality disorder, mild to moderate depression or anxiety, “moodiness” , fear of the future or financial worries. While some of these things might well be worse during pregnancy, they are not life-threatening, by any means.
Sadly, most of these non-qualifying issues are dressed up as serious depression by the certifying doctors, despite the fact that there is considerable evidence to show that terminations of pregnancy in this group (mild mental health and social issues) can lead to more deep-seated mental health issues down the line.
Apr 8 11 10:12 pm
Women just need to know the services available to them if they have a mental illness and are struggling to cope while pregnant. Prayer also helps
I don’t believe there is any need for an abortion due to mental illness but that’s just my opinion.
Apr 9 11 10:06 pm
One thing that really annoys me is the way that certain religious groups are “fetus lovers”…. they love the unborn child but despise and put down the solo mother left to raise that child. When you and your fellow religionists are ready to step up and pay to support the children you insist should be born then maybe we will give you some credibility…until then may I suggest you stay out of other peoples lives.
Apr 10 11 12:59 am
One thing that really annoys me is the way certain pro-abortionists inculcate false motives into people who disagree with them. You do not see anything in this post nor in the comments that denigrates solo mothers but, lacking any rational counter-argument, you accuse everyone of despising solo motherhood.
Oh, and I should just point out that I DO support solo mothers and their children – it is called DPB
You are either as dumb as toast or you are a troll. Care to tell us which?