Free Essays on Abortion

Argumentative Essay On Abortion

Abortion should be a decision between doctor and patient. If pregnancy is to be interrupted, then it should be carried out in hospitals with proper facilities. Since this ideal has not been achieved in the United States, the urgent question remains: How can the pregnant woman who desires abortion obtain it without risking her life? Until recently, society, including the medical profession, was unsympathetic to the needs of the woman carrying an unwanted pregnancy. If the woman lived near the southern border of the United States, she could go to Mexico for an illegal abortion. In other areas, she might learn by word of mouth of an abortionist who could be anything from a nurse's aide to a garage mechanic and who would work with varying degrees of incompetence.

abortion essay

Only the lucky few would be seen by well-trained physicians who perform abortions because they believe them to be necessary and right, or strictly for financial reasons. This haphazard system consigned many women to premature deaths or permanent sterility from bungled operations. This sad fact is testimony to the desperate woman's uncompromising need for abortion. She seeks abortion quickly and at a price she can afford. She can ask nothing more of the credentials of the operator other than his fee. One encouraging trend has been the formation of groups (often clergymen) who counsel women desiring abortion and lead them to physicians willing to undertake abortion procedures.

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Equally encouraging is a liberalized view toward abortion held in some states and in many university hospitals where abortion rates have increased dramatically. But these legal therapeutic abortions in hospitals constitute only a small number of those done in this country. A number of methods are used to perform or attempt illegal abortions. The woman who wishes to abort herself has little chance of success without risking permanent physical harm. We have seen many women who have placed tablets of potassium permanganate in their vaginas. These tablets can be obtained in any drugstore and are still popular as an abortive agent despite their universal lack of success

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Passage of rigid devices, such as coat hangers or knitting needles, into the uterus through the cervix is one of the extreme tactics women may attempt. Employment of this technique runs a high risk of infection and an even higher risk of puncture of the uterus with subsequent hemorrhage and damage to other organs. Infection is also a hazard when rubber catheters are used to stimulate abortion. A soap douche inserted into the uterus is extremely lethal with many deaths reported from blood and kidney damage from this technique. One of the patients practically destroyed both her kidneys from the chemical reaction following the use of a soap douche to cause abortion. She survived the immediate crisis but died within a year from kidney failure.

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Not much additional safety is found at the hands of the illegal abortionist with limited skills and facilities. Even under the best conditions offered in hospitals, termination of pregnancy may be a difficult procedure. Each deviation from the accepted hospital procedure increases the risk. Obviously the safest illegal abortion is done by the competent physician. However, it should be noted that even if an abortionist is a physician, there is no guarantee of skill or safety. Some physician abortionists are compelled to illegal practice by personal burdens such as drug addiction or alcoholism. Under these circumstances, how can the individual woman seek out competent care if she desires an abortion?

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We think that it is legitimate for the woman to ask her gynecologist or family physician for advice. We use the term legitimate in the ethical sense because it is still illegal for the physician to suggest an abortionist. However, one unexpected dividend of consultation with a gynecologist may reveal that the woman is not pregnant. If she is pregnant, her eligibility for a legal abortion in a hospital can be considered. Furthermore, among other possibilities, the physician may, where acceptable, counsel the unmarried pregnant girl to avoid abortion, have her baby, and give it up for adoption. If the physician is unwilling or unable to aid her in any way, he must take some of the responsibility if she seeks out unskilled help.

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Another source of help is the clergy. As mentioned earlier, some groups of clergymen have organized referral services to direct women to competent abortionists. The referral possibilities are: legal abortions in hospitals; competent physicians practicing abortion outside the law; and overseas clinics, specifically Puerto Rico, Japan, and now England.
In some hospitals, legal abortions are performed in fair numbers but for very specific indications. Certainly if the pregnant woman has a medical or psychiatric disorder, she may qualify for this treatment. Barring this, the woman should attempt to gain the names of reputable physician abortionists, either in the United States or overseas.

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Even in a well-equipped hospital, abortion done by a competent gynecologist entails some risk. The number of people who die from this type of abortion is relatively small, perhaps one in ten thousand. In some eastern European countries, tens of thousands of abortions have been done without a fatality, but some risk is always present. Every time an anesthetic is used, there is always the chance of an unusual reaction. Excessive bleeding may occur and blood transfusions may be necessary. Another hazard is the risk of inadvertently pushing an instrument through the uterus (perforation), which can occur even when the instrument is in the best of hands. Sometimes this will require surgical repair if bleeding persists and in very rare instances may call for hysterectomy.

Abortion Research Papers

These risks are associated with the traditional dilation and curettage done with the patient asleep from a general anesthetic. Normally the opening through the cervix or mouth of the womb into the uterus is no greater than the diameter of a lead pencil. In order to insert a curette, the scraping instrument, to dislodge the pregnancy, this opening must be temporarily expanded. This is accomplished by the insertion of progressively larger rod-like metal instruments called dilators. Recently, instead of scraping the pregnancy from the uterus, use has been made of a suction instrument which accomplishes the same task with greater speed and less blood loss.

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The type of operative procedure, scraping or suction, is safely performed up to the twelfth week of pregnancy. After this time, the uterus is so large and soft that the risk of uterine perforation with instruments becomes prohibitive. In the larger uterus, abortion can be induced by injection of concentrated salt or sugar solutions into the fluid-filled sac surrounding the fetus. This is done through the abdominal wall with the aid of a local anesthetic. Abortion usually occurs between twenty and forty hours after the injection. The way in which this method terminates pregnancy is unknown. The advantages of this technique over the D and C is that no general anesthesia is required and there is generally minimal bleeding.