The Case Against Abortion
Real Choices Australia responds to 'A call for free abortions'.
Life Network Australia - Tuesday, August 07, 2012
Media Statement by Debbie Garratt, Real Choices Australia
Used with permission.
‘Call
for free abortions as needy women priced out of procedure’ says the
headline, with women’s health advocates stating that, ‘Growing numbers
of women in desperate financial straits cannot afford abortions.’ (Sydney Morning Herald, August 6)
With
up to 75% of abortion seeking women stating financial constraints as a
reason they are unable to continue their pregnancies, one has to wonder
what these ‘women’s advocates’ are doing to ensure that no woman has an
unwanted abortion when financial constraints are a primary factor.
The
cases put forward in this article of the woman with 5 children and a
domestic violence issue, a homeless mother and a mother with children in
foster care seem on the surface to be desperate cases for abortion.
However, these cases only demonstrate how miserably we are failing to
support women and children out of their dire circumstances by offering
them surgical solutions to their social problems. This kind of problem
provides abortions for the pregnant, homeless women, instead of housing
and financial support.
The
suggestion by Catherine White that the continuation of unplanned
pregnancies places a burden on child protection and welfare services is
without evidence, and is a not too cleverly disguised opinion that women
from lower socioeconomic circumstances should not be offered the
support they need to bring their children into the world. Her statement
that women adversely suffer mental health issues if they give birth
following an unplanned pregnancy is also without substantiation. In
fact, the opposite is true with international evidence demonstrating
that up to 30% of women experience serious and prolonged mental health
problems after abortion, creating an unnecessary burden on our economy,
not to mention the lives of women themselves and their families.
The
fact is that about half of all pregnancies are unintended, and about
half of these lead to abortion, with more than 95% of those being
undertaken for psychosocial reasons. These reasons are often complex and
often related to a woman’s economic situation, including worry about
employment, education, housing and withdrawal of support from partners
and family. Until we have a system where a woman’s economic and social
needs can be adequately addressed and remedied, we cannot continue to
espouse abortion as an actual choice.
When
a woman is forced to choose between her education and having her baby,
her employment and having her baby or her boyfriend/partner/husband and
having her baby this is not choice, it is coercion. When services fail
to demonstrate their willingness to meet a woman’s social and economic
needs so that she feels able to choose to continue her pregnancy, they
are contributing to this coercion.
Instead
of more discussion about increasing access to abortion, particularly
medical abortion with its much higher risk of adverse effects, we need
to be discussing the real reasons why women have abortions and offering
real solutions. Only then can we say that real choice exists.
Debbie Garratt
Executive Director
02 6059 5550
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