In this blog post, we will examine the issues surrounding abortion from various perspectives, including bioethics, religion, and women’s right to choose.
Abortion refers to the act of artificially removing a fetus from the womb before the natural birth process, or killing it inside the womb. There are two types of abortion. The first is a natural abortion, and the second is an induced abortion. This essay deals with induced abortion, not natural abortion. The method of induced abortion varies depending on the stage of pregnancy. Pregnancy is divided into three stages: the first trimester, the second trimester, and the third trimester. Each trimester is three months long.
The first three months of pregnancy are much more stable than the second and last three months because the fetus is small. There are two methods of abortion in the first three months. The first is suction-aspiration and dilation and curettage (D&C), and the second is the medical method. In the D&C method, the cervix is numbed, and then a doctor opens the cervix and inserts a round plastic instrument (with a knife-like tip) into the uterus to suck out the baby’s body. During this process, the baby’s body and the placenta attached to the uterine wall are forcibly removed. The suction method involves scraping the uterine wall with a curette.
Nowadays, medical methods are mainly used during the first three months of pregnancy. Two drugs are used in medical methods: Methotrexate and Mifepristone (RU-486). These drugs are always used in combination with prostaglandin. Mifepristone is the first antiprogestin developed and is used during the 7th to 9th week of pregnancy. Methotrexate is used in combination with Misoprostol up to the 7th week of pregnancy. Methotrexate can cause serious side effects and requires a doctor’s prescription. Mifepristone, on the other hand, is more effective than Methotrexate and has fewer side effects. When comparing medical and surgical methods, the medical method results in 0.1% to 1.4% of pregnancies continuing, while the surgical method results in 0.23% of pregnancies continuing. Therefore, the medical method is more effective than the surgical method in the first three months.
In the fourth to sixth month of pregnancy, abortion can be performed using medical methods, but surgical methods are safer. This surgical method is similar to D&C and is called D&E (dilation and evacuation). During this period, the fetus and uterus are larger, so the D&E method requires widening the cervix more than D&C. In the D&E method, the doctor extracts the fetus in its original size, then crushes the skull or extracts the brain to complete the abortion procedure. This method is mainly used in the fourth to sixth months of pregnancy.
At 7-9 months of pregnancy, abortion is not called “abortion” but “termination of pregnancy” or “miscarriage.” At this stage, abortion is difficult and dangerous, so it is only possible in certain cases (e.g., when the fetus has no brain or a fatal chromosomal abnormality). At this stage, abortion can be performed by IDX (intact dilation and extraction) or hysterotomy. IDX is a method of removing the fetus by decompressing its head, and has been banned in the United States. Hysterotomy is similar to a cesarean section, but the fetus is removed through a small incision. This method is performed under general anesthesia and is more dangerous than other abortion methods and can cause many complications.
Both surgical and medical methods of abortion have side effects. The severity of side effects varies depending on the woman’s condition and the method used. Excessive bleeding, difficulty in becoming pregnant, damage to the cervix or uterus, and even death can occur. Abortion in the later stages of pregnancy can have a psychological impact. Support from family and friends is important after an abortion.
In some countries, abortion is illegal, but there are still various reasons for having an abortion. First, to postpone or stop childbirth; second, for economic reasons; third, due to population control policies; fourth, due to pregnancy resulting from rape or incest; fifth, for the health of the pregnant woman or fetus; and sixth, due to illness such as cancer. For these reasons, women want to have abortions, but society condemns them.
The debate over whether abortion is murder can vary from a religious or biological perspective. Most religions consider killing a person to be a sin, but this is interpreted differently depending on the situation. Buddhism views abortion negatively, but allows it when it poses a threat to health. Early Christian scholars viewed abortion as a sin. Hinduism prohibits abortion in classical texts, but allows it for health reasons. Islam prohibits abortion after 120 days because the fetus is believed to have a human mind at that point. Traditional Judaism allows abortion to protect the health of the mother. From a biological perspective, there is also debate about when a fetus is considered a human being. Some view the fetus as a complete human being and therefore consider abortion to be murder. Others argue that abortion is not murder because the fetus is not considered a human being.
Some argue that abortion is a woman’s right. They believe that women should have control over their own bodies. Margaret Sanger said that women cannot be free unless they have control over their own bodies. Some argue that women should be free to choose abortion because a woman’s body is her right. However, women’s rights groups oppose this, saying that abortion exempts men from responsibility. Women have rights over their own bodies, and fetuses are dependent on women’s bodies. I agree with abortion during the first three months of pregnancy because it is safe and has few side effects, but abortion after that is dangerous and has more side effects. I believe that fetuses depend on women’s bodies and that fetuses and children are different. Fetuses live inside women’s bodies and depend entirely on them, but children can depend on other people as well. The abortion debate is still ongoing, but some countries have made abortion illegal.
