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I work for BPAS, the UK's largest abortion provider, talking to women about and performing abortions up to the legal limit every day. I ended up being an abortion provider after caring for several women during my training who were intentionally pregnant but had complicated medical or social circumstances. These cases demonstrated that, while pregnancy can be a wonderful and exciting thing, for many women it can be a severe burden, physically, psychologically and socially. These burdens should only be borne by those who wish to do so.
Someone has written that a woman wants an abortion like an animal stuck in a trap wants to chew its leg off. While the imagery is melodramatic, it conveys the panic and stress an unplanned pregnancy can impose. Perhaps it also communicates something of the relief experienced by women after their abortion; this is one of the things that make being an abortion provider so very rewarding.
While unplanned pregnancy is disproportionately common in socially disadvantaged groups, women of all classes, cultures, religions and ages need abortions, and the circumstances are always persuasive. When women request abortion later in pregnancy there may be particularly compelling social reasons or fetal abnormalities. It is painfully ironic that these women, who one might argue are in greatest need, might be unable to have an abortion if gestational limits were lowered.
Politicians are very concerned by women who have more than one abortion. But just as every woman having an abortion is different, so are the circumstances of a particular abortion for an individual woman. Women having more than one abortion are described by the press as irresponsible or immoral; the facile pejorative characterisation of the repeat offender. Newspapers often fail to consider the notion that fluctuating, complex social circumstances which we all experience can lead anyone, including responsible, conscientious people, to need more than one abortion.
But the real people having abortions and their circumstances don't make good headlines, although if they were written about they would each make their own convincing argument for the morality and legality of abortion. The statistics, abstract philosophical arguments and outdated legal framework which are more standard media fare are of little interest to a woman who needs an abortion or the doctor who feels compelled, ethically and emotionally, to provide it for her. Sadly, this kind of discussion not only stigmatises patients and their clinicians, it distances us all from the challenging human reality of unplanned, unwanted, or abnormal pregnancies.
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Abortion | Abortion clinics | Abortion information, advice and ...
The part I dont like is abortion being carried out by for profit by private clinics. Thats just plain wrong in anybodies book.
Then you'll be pleased to learn that this rarely happens in the UK. BPAS is a not-for-profit organisation which carries out abortions on behalf of the NHS. Marie Stopes, the UK's second biggest abortion provider, similarly has charitable status. Between them, these two charitable organisations carry out well over 90% of the UK's abortions - without making a single penny of profit in the process.
So many women are caught out because there's so damn many of us! If you have a method of contraception that is 99.9% effective, then 1 woman out of every 1000 using it will fall pregnant every year. There are roughly 20 million women of childbearing age in the UK. If they all use contraception that is 99.9% effective, you can expect to see about 20,000 unwanted pregnancies per year.
Helping people at one of the most stressful and terrifying times in their lives, with no thanks from anyone, has got to be a challenge day in and day out. And that's to say nothing of the very real threats against your safety for doing your job from anti-abortion terrorist groups that governments quietly tolerate.
Helping people exercise autonomy over their bodies is always a worthwhile mission.
The only thing someone can be called who wants to control your body like that is a tyrant, in the worst possible way. If god cares about that, he doesn't deserve worship. If god doesn't care about that, then it would be wrong to abstain from that work. And if god doesn't exist at all, it doesn't matter.
No matter the case, we are free and morally responsible to ourselves to understand right and wrong independantly, even if some 2000-year old book says otherwise. If god starts damning people for doing the right thing, then choosing damnation is our highest moral obligation.
No human being has the right to take a life that is for the Diety to decide. I am sorry but after working in a place where they did roughly 10 abortions a day I feel someone has to stick up for the unborn baby. Maybe some of these women shouild sit with their legs crossed, then they won't get into trouble.
Picture this; a room full of kids, doctor comes in and announces “All those with lousy mothers stand over here, we are about to perform a favour on you.”
"Nobody ever really listens to the rants of pro-life folk who are normally deeply religious and a bit weird". Let me see: “who are normally deeply religious” Not just religious, but deeply. I’m trying to think how I can express how anti-religious I am and not be censored. Cant do it, you will have to take my word for it. As for the weird part I can wear that, but who amongst can’t.
The good doctor is like the priest and the politician, all three trades profess to look after your needs, but only if they make a big fat easy living.
If you are pro-life and you feel that abortion is not an option for you then that is your choice.
If you find yourself with an unplanned pregnancy and feel that you cannot provide a quality of life for your child (emotionally or materially) then you have the right to choose a termination.
Why should a woman feel pressured to have a child that she knows she cannot care for adequately? Surely this is irresponsible.
And before someone shoots me down with the answer " Not using contraception is more irresponsible", you cant pressume that women who seek an abortion have all been having unprotected sex. No method of contraception is 100% effective.
I am thankful that I have never been in a position to require an abortion, but I am also thankful that if my circumstances had been different; I live in a society that allows me a choice.
In which case, abortion should be legal, as we're not really taking a life if it hasn't started yet. That really is the question here, when does life begin. If it begins before it leaves the womb, then we assume women are no more then vessels. Since women are people, life begins after the womb. Done and done.
I have always been against abortion not only because of my daughter's situation but I feel very strongly that they should ONLY be carried out when the Mother or child would be in danger or if a really handicapped child was due to be born and NOTHING ELSE, otherwise it is simply murder and nothing else.
These women must realise that contraceptives come first not sex and abortion which is wrong.
If, as you claim, abortion is widely used as a form of contraception then there would be more abortions in countries where it is available on request.
Here in the EU, on request countries have an abortion rate of 11 per 1,000 women.
Countries, like the UK, that restrict access have a rate of 12.3 per 1,000 women.
The US, despite its restrictions on abortion, actually has twice as many abortions per 1,000 than the Netherlands where they have abortion on demand.
You're right that contraceptives come first, and while no form of contraception is 100% reliable, better sex education is the key to reducing the number of abortions, not silly hysteria.
If you're okay with the concept of Terminating a pregnancy in the case of a severely handicapped child, or potential thereof, you're okay with Abortion period. Who are you to decide the value or quality of someone else's existence? So it's not murder if the child might be handicapped? Nice line of thought there...
By the way, I'm totally pro-choice. The only person who has to bear the consequences of an Abortion is the woman who chooses to have one. I don't care if it's her first or eighteenth. I have NO right to tell a woman what she can or can't do with her body, and neither do you.
Also for the record, I think IVF is abhorrent. For those families unable to conceive, Adoption, particularly of all those unwanted children many people would like to force women to birth, is always an option. But like I said before, nothing to do with my body, so I have no right to judge...
Sorry but I totally disagree. Don't you think that the father of the due baby should have a say in the matter if he is on the scene that is after all he did have something to do with it so that means that it is not just her ultimate choice at all.
I do understand that in some cases abortion can be the only thing possible, but my opinion is that that should only be performed if the Mother or child are in danger, any other abortion is pure murder and nothing else.
Some women are continually getting pregnant and going having yet another abortion which in my book is wrong. This has been specifically proved that women are doing this so please don't come back saying that the numbers are small because they certainly are not.
You would think that contraceptives hadn't been invented the way some women are repeatedly having abortions, I know they aren';t 100% perfect but my guess is that quite a high percentage of abortions are not because of failed abortions but just because they couldn't be bothered at all.