Safe and Legal Abortion Is a Must

Writing assignment II

Safe and legal abortion is a must

How many of you have heard about the new infectious disease outbreak that is spreading all around the world? The Zika virus has set off a worldwide furore since started to spread in South and Central America and the Caribbean last year. The Zika is a virus mainly transmitted by Aedes aegipty mosquitoes and as a growing number of infected mothers have given birth to babies with birth defects (Osterholm), it is clear that in some specific cases this infection provokes devastating consequences. But the problem does not finish here, in this tragic situation, the right to access safe and legal abortion is needed. In fact, in the vast majority of Latin American countries abortion is considered a criminal act and women cannot stop their pregnancy even if the foetus is affected and in danger of suffering numerous birth defects. For this reasons, I am going to argue that providing women the opportunity to access legal and safe abortion is a must in Latin American countries, specially if the foetus is affected by Zika.

To begin with, as mentioned from the very beginning, the most important and terrible consequence of the virus is that foetuses affected by it are directly born with birth defects. In agreement with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, these birth defects are known as microcephaly, which is a condition where “a baby’s head is much smaller that expected and the brain does not develop any more” (CDC). At the moment, the spread of the virus is very expanded, there is no vaccine and consequently, the chances of being infected are extremely high. Children who are born with these problems need special care even when they grow up and this implies effort, sacrifice and continuous support from the people around them. Finding yourself in a situation in which a member of the family suffers from such an unmanageable disorder, makes it difficult to go ahead and continue a normal life. Moreover, the situation would be complicated for the affected person too, not being able to live on your own and without any help is not so simple. Accordingly, it is extremely clear that legal and safe abortion is necessary, the governments need to protect these influenced women and support them.

Related to the idea of the virus being the cause of microcephaly in babies, we cannot forget that there are a few people who do not share this notion. The “opponents of abortion argue that there is still not enough proof the virus causes birth defects and they want to determine whether Zika is really to blame for the recent increase in abnormalities in newborns” (Simmons). But who opposes to this idea? “The Catholic Church, which holds great influence in the region, has made it clear that abortion, even in this case, is not an option within their institution” (Román). Therefore, as we can see, the presence of the Catholic Church makes the situation much more difficult and the legalisation of abortion might take longer. But when we are dealing with medicine, science and technology, the Church should take no decisions; health, safety and well-being should be left in hands of those who are experts in the field. Lamentably, they do not realize that stopping bringing children into the world in such a difficult situation is nearly impossible.

In the same manner, contraception is another big problem connected to abortion. Governments are constantly giving advice to women in order to prevent getting pregnant, but what they are not aware of, is the situation their citizens are facing regarding this prevention. In almost all Latin American countries birth control is hard to reach for the reason that “millions of women lack access to medical care and education they need to control when they get pregnant” (Katz). Women and especially teenage girls find it impossible to protect themselves as the environment they live in does not allow them to do so. “It isn’t fair to say `don’t get pregnant´ when there is no sexual education program in schools,” said Dr. Guillermo Antonio Ortiz (Katz). Consequently, this would be another of the big reasons why safe abortion should be legal. In a country where there is an enormous lack of information and help from the government in relation to such a problematic subject, they cannot ask women just the opposite. Furthermore, as soon as women know they are gravid and the foetus is affected by the virus, they will tend to find an alternative to solve the problem.

Undoubtedly, it is clear that this revolting situation has its direct consequences. This means that all these restrictions force women go through dangerous and clandestine abortions. Due to this emergency, women will try to find any way of having an abortion even if they know the risk they are facing is tremendous. This moments of panic lead women to very serious and life-threating circumstances and they risk their lives accessing abortions performed by nonprofessional people. “Unsafe abortions lead to injury, lead to death, lead to women having unspeakable horror inflicted on them” (Bassett). Being pregnant and all the pregnancy complications related to this, take part of the health care system of a country, and hospitals should be prepared to provide immediate help. Thousands of women are loosing their lives as a result of the little support they receive from the authorities and it becomes necessary to appeal to secret and hidden ways of abortion. Hence, since every year about 47,000 women die from unsafe abortion difficulties (Bassett), we could say that safe abortion is an urgent public health necessity. Governments should include legal abortion in their health programs and they should give women the freedom to decide what to do with their babies in the case they were affected by Zika and suffered Microcephaly.