Should abortion be legalized in Bhutan?
Adolescence is a challenging phase. Early adolescence is the transition from childhood to adolescent and predominantly comprise of puberty. Middle adolescence is about learning to cope with the physical, sexual, social and emotional changes. And having achieved all the developmental milestones, we enter the late adolescence and ultimately adulthood. Sexual maturation is limelight of these phases which give woman capacity to conceive. Reproduction is a primitive instinct and imperative in all aspects including evolution. However, pregnancy becomes beautiful only when mother is ready and contemplating. In rest of the cases, it’s a burden for her. She is not going to welcome the baby at any point of life, intrauterine or post-delivery. She will go for abortion or abandon the child after delivery.
So far, we have had several cases of infant being abandoned after birth in the capital and in other Dzongkhags as well. Some unfortunately found dead, and some in critical condition. How sad for the baby who had been living in a cozy warm womb for 9 months and first thing he experiences is being wrapped in a plastic and left to die.
But it wouldn't be fair just to condemn the woman as the only culprit. I attribute this to an abortion act of Bhutan. Section 146 of the Penal Code of Bhutan (PCB), 2004, criminalizes abortion unless the pregnancy poses risk to mother's health physically and mentally or when pregnancy is a result of rape or incest. These prerequisites might have been enough and applicable in good old days but it’s too narrow for today. It doesn’t include the most important need for abortion-mother not wanting to become pregnant. This is a human right violation. By the above law abortion is criminalized in Bhutan. Once a woman is conceived, she has no right over her pregnancy. She has to carry the pregnancy whether she likes or not. She has no choice, doesn't matter if she is a student, unmarried, broke, unemployed, or single. Isn't this unfair? Shouldn't she be allowed to decide on what happens to her body and not the law? Who will be held responsible if she can no longer take it and attempts deliberate self-harm?
Few facts about abortion and the global movement.
Legalization of abortion has been a controversial topic worldwide. Many nations have come out to consider women’s health over the emotion behind this invasive procedure and legalized abortion. Soviet Union was the first to legalize abortion as early as 1920. Other countries soon followed, including Canada, the United States, Tunisia, Denmark, Austria, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Italy, the Netherlands, and many are considering the approach. Abortion is legal in all U.S. states, and every state has at least one abortion clinic. Since 2000, twenty-nine countries have changed their abortion laws, and all expanded the legal grounds on which women can access abortion services. But most common remains the abortion on women's request.
There is evidence that legalization of abortion does not lead to more abortion. Rather restricting access to abortion simply leads to unsafe abortion with consequent death of mother or land up with complications.
Is it safe?
Yes, but only if it’s legalized because nothing done in dark is safe. No contraceptive methods work 100% in preventing pregnancy. So there will always be the need for safe abortion. Safe abortion saves mothers lives and prevents severe complications associated with the unsafe abortions. Modern methods of inducing abortion are safer than all common gynecological operations, such as sterilization and hysterectomy and there is lower risk of dying than during child birth according to Gynecology by ten teachers.
Both medical and surgical abortion are simple procedure with very low rate of complications. Indeed, the WHO advise that in the first trimester it can be safely performed by a range of health care providers, from specialist obstetrician and gynecologist to a non-specialist doctor or an appropriately trained nurse.
Abortion in Bhutan
The recent news from Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) covering about the increase in number of people looking for abortion pill in pharmacy shops in the capital is shocking. How could people seek for abortion pills in a country where abortion is illegal? This indicates the desperate nature of their situation. People were in dire need. The recent 21 days of nationwide lockdown might have contributed to this. We can call it an index for bonding and intimacy between the partners which is a good thing to witness. But what lies ahead of them is equally painful and troublesome. It's illegal to sell and purchase abortion pills. The hospital has the abortion pills but it is a controlled drug which is prescribed only upon thorough evaluation of the mother by a gynecologist. Thus, all those mothers fail to meet the criteria for the legal abortion in the hospital. This problem existed since a long time. But it was able to catch people’s attention only at this time .This is only because borders are closed following covid outbreak and people can't purchase from India which used to be the common practice earlier. I don't know what has happened to those girls seeking for abortion pills but seriously, they might not be doing well. Once they have decided to abort, I don't think they would give up easily. Some more months later in future we might get a news of abandoned baby again. Those babies will be the result of inaccessible abortion.
By legalizing abortion we are not promoting casual sex among adolescents. But it should be legal and accessible. Whether people opt for it or not should be left upon them. One might presume that it’s only happening among teenagers and spoilt youth but it’s happening at all level within reproductive age.
Even married couples who are not ready for a baby needs time and space. With conception comes a huge loads of responsibilities and the need for resources. An accidental conception shouldn't deter their lives. A pregnancy is just a phase, but what lies beyond, is difficult to manage for someone who's not contemplating a family.
What will happen if abortion is legalized?
1. A pregnant mother can simply walk in to the OPD, request for an abortion. She would be counseled on her decision and why she needs it. Then she would get herself admitted, undergo a safe abortion by trained health professionals with minimal risks. She will be monitored throughout and may be discharged in few days, as soon as she is declared safe to go.
2. There wouldn't be a fatherless child. Everyone can measure the pain to be a single parent who's unprepared at the same time.
3. Students can continue their education. When a student has to drop the school/college due to pregnancy, both schools and tertiary institutions allow the student to continue her education after giving birth. But this is impractical. Hardly a girl would choose to go to school/college with child crying at home. The embarrassment she faces is a whole different struggle.
4. Getting pregnant before marriage is considered shameful. Acceptance from parents is an issue. Same with the society. It can affect the victim mentally and physically. Law says legal abortion can be availed if the pregnancy poses risk to mother's health physically and mentally. I don't know what kind of mental illness they expect mother to have when she is already under the weather. She would not seek abortion if she was ready to have a baby. So it's pointless to talk about morals here. If she thinks abortion as a disease, treat it like it’s done for mainstream illness and send her home happy. Accessible abortion is a savior of all these problems.
5. We wouldn't see abandoned baby in future. All those babies are the consequence of unwanted pregnancies. Once a mother has decided she doesn't want to become a mother, whatever may be her reason, she is likely to end pregnancy anyway, be it after birth or abandon at any point of time. Studies show that forced pregnancy is one of the causes of post-partum psychosis. Because there's no affection which is only cultivated if mother is fond her child. So it's a wise decision to end suffering for both parties at the root level.
6. Travelling to India or elsewhere for abortion is costly as well as unsafe. Imagine a situation where a mother undergoes a surgical abortion and next day finds out one of her kidneys is missing. And she can’t claim justice legally because it’s illegal to have abortion. The court might penalize her instead.
7. Imagine waking up in the morning and find out that you are pregnant when you aren’t ready. You are in second year of college and live with distant relatives. You have exams next month. You don’t know the whereabouts of your boyfriend. You call him but he asks you to sort it out yourself. You start to panic. This anxiety attack is for real. You feel guilty. You feel its end of the world. But then you realize abortion is legalized in Bhutan. You go to hospital and request for abortion and sort everything within a week without letting others hear a bit about it. Next week, you are free of tension and you’d start your revision at full swing. It wouldn’t be as simple as this. But imagine if this kind of accessible patient friendly abortion services existed, life would have been far easier.
8. Another case study. A couple has 2 children. Husband has a decent job and wife is a housewife. Both of them are in their early thirties. The first child is 5 years old son and second child is 1 year old daughter. Wife is pregnant again and they don’t want to have third child at any cost. Husband explores possibility of seeking legal abortion but they are not eligible. Married couples who have had already three children are only eligible for abortion. Financially they could afford third child but their first child has some mental issues and second child is too young. The couple are physically and mentally unable to create space for the third child. They start to blame each other for being too careless to the extent of domestic violence. The husband looks for abortion pills in pharmacy shops but nowhere do he finds. He goes to the capital for the same, but return home helpless. The wife looks in internet for natural remedies to induce abortion. She finds out that the raw papaya cause miscarriage so eats several kilograms of papaya but that doesn’t help. The couple uses their contacts to get abortion pills from the government hospitals but all effort goes in vain. They call their parents back in the village to send them herbal medicine. Unfortunately this also does not work. Husband has learned from Google that jumping high will cause miscarriage and forces his wife to do strenuous exercise. All this methods fail. The couple fight everyday about this. They have no choice but to accept their mistake as fate. She is five month pregnant now. But they are worried about all their attempts to terminate pregnancy might have resulted in abnormalities in baby. This is how a simple medical is causing so much trouble in the family. If we go out and ask, most of the mothers have continued the pregnancy because they had no choice.
Decriminalization of abortion is a win win situation for both the parties; mother and the government. It's unfair for the fetus because it would have grown into a beautiful human. But life wouldn’t have been easier for him either.
copyright.cnn.com
Photo of women protesting for lift of abortion ban in 2018 in South Korea
In recent time, South Korea has successfully brought reform to the abortion law after 68 years of ban of abortion since 1953
No comments:
Post a Comment