Healani Brennan
Staff Writer
There is no morality in abortion nor is it the right thing to do. That being said, women should be given the chance to receive abortions without getting negative feedback from any anti-abortionists. Whether it’s for religious reasons or because they think the doctors bloodily slaughter the fetus, there is no reason to harass physicians for providing a service.
Sometimes the reasons for aborting a child are right, such as if the baby is going to be mentally or physically disabled. Parents don’t want to bring a child in the world that will never be normal, that will never be able to function in a healthy way.
The struggles that child would have ahead of them is disheartening and a challenge for parents to go through as well. The medical bills and constant judgment the child would receive is enough justification for a parent to choose abortion rather than a hard life for the child.
The danger a mother can be put in when having a child is also reason enough. Sometimes there are issues before a child is born and doctors can tell resulting in a decision of whether to risk the mother’s life, or to just try again.
Individuals that are raped have reason to abort as well. Why birth a child that was forced on you, that was made non-consensual?
The misconception that abortions are dangerous or requires the doctor to “murder” the child is all wrong. In first trimester abortions patients are given a pill or shot to dilate their cervix. After dilation, doctors can perform a vacuum abortion.
In this procedure, the embryo, placenta, and extra substances in the uterus are sucked into a vacuum. This is not painful, harmful, or bloody. Some patients experience bleeding after a couple of days, this is a good sign and is actually the menstrual cycle. The baby is not even formed at this point, it has no heart, no nerves to feel, or any sense of being.
Ninety percent of abortions performed after the first trimesters are due to medical reasons mentioned earlier. Some babies die in the womb so the mothers are forced to receive an abortion after the point where it is more moral to do so.
Doctors that perform abortions face unnecessary daily struggles with anti-abortionists. Susan Wicklund, an author and female reproductive doctor, is an example of this. She was forced to hire a bodyguard, buy disguises and wigs, and take multiple routes sometimes driving around and out of her way just to get to her clinics. Along with multiple death threats and house break ins, and a time when protesters camped outside of her house making her daughter be escorted by police to school just to stay safe. No person should have to live like this.
Her prime reason for becoming a doctor was to help women and keep them safe. These doctors don’t just perform these procedures willy nilly, but make patients go through certain counseling and won’t let the patient go through until therapists and the doctors themselves have cleared the patient.
Any doctor that goes to that extent should be fully trusted, and the women who need abortions need to be given the right to a choice without facing criticism and shame.
