The title of this article rings true for me. I had absolutely no idea that contraceptives and chemical abortifacents existed long before their modern forms. I also did not realize the dangers of pregnancy. Maternal mortality is something we read about in old literature, but almost unheard of in our culture. Since this was sort of an unspoken practice, I can suppose that the general cultural consensus in Western culture was that life begins at conception.
Even if we were to assume that life began at conception, I see some major pitfalls to making abortion illegal. We would first have to establish a penalty for any woman who has an abortion, which would cause more controversy. As the article implied, women who miscarry would suffer suspicion and possibly social rejection as in Kenya. There would also be many unsafe underground abortions which would lead to more deaths. If contraceptives were to be restricted, they would probably become like other illegal drugs: still common, but only bought and sold illegally. Without making any judgement on the matter, I find it very unrealistic to outlaw abortion and birth control, as it could arguably make pregnancy as dangerous as it once was.
I agree with many of these points in this post. If we did establish a penalty for using contraception, not having many children, miscarriage, and etc., then where would it stop? Would people go as far to find women who have a miscarriage guilty of a crime? But the other thing is this something we even need to worry about? I do not see how, at least in our society we could go as far as to make miscarriage a crime. Also with all the efforts to make contraception legal and available I do not see how we could all of the sudden turn that all around and make it illegal.
ReplyDeleteI did know that for many years people have been using forms of contraception and chemical abortifacents; some being very deadly. Pregnancy itself has been something I have feared; I know how dangerous it actually can be, not just to the women giving birth but to the baby as well. My grandmother carried a baby to term and had complications resulting in a stillborn birth. Pregnancy itself is not always safe. With knowing this why would people consider contraception and chemical abortifacents a bad thing? Or is it that some to not take notice that many women die to pregnancy itself?