A shocking statistic has revealed that in the United States alone 3,000 pregnancies are terminated every single day. That is an astounding 4 abortions for every 10 pregnancies. An even more appalling recently surfaced statistic is that nearly half of all pregnancies in the US are unintended. But even worse, this problem is not only contained within the United States. According to the World Health Organization every year there are 40 to 50 million abortions worldwide. That is approximately 125,000 abortions a day. Abortion, a heinous crime, violates the right to life, harms the economy, and causes substantial adverse effects to the women who suffer through this procedure.
One thing many women do not consider prior to getting an abortion is the adverse effects it can have on them psychologically and physically. Over 10% of women who get an abortion suffer immediate complications and one fifth of these complications are deemed major. A 1997 government funded study in Finland found, “women who abort are approximately four times more likely to die in the following year than women who carry their pregnancies to term.” The leading cause of these women’s deaths post abortion were hemorrhage, infection, embolism, anesthesia complications, and undiagnosed ectopic pregnancies.
Additionally, a study in Denmark published in 2012 found, “that the risk of death increases with each abortion, 45% after one abortion, 114% after two abortions, and 192% after three or more abortions.” Abortions not only carry short term problems, but long term ones as well. Women who have had one abortion have a 2.3 times higher chance of having cervical cancer and those who have had 2 or more abortions have a 4.92 times higher chance. Abortions also increase a women’s risk of getting ovarian and liver cancer later in life due to unnatural hormonal disruptions linked with terminating a pregnancy.
127 our experts are availableright now
Some women also suffer uterine perforations during an abortion that go undiagnosed for many years. These perforations can hinder their ability to conceive again and often result in hysterectomies. Abortions can also result in placenta previa, a condition where the placenta covers the opening of the mother’s cervix, which is life threatening for the women. Other conditions such as ectopic pregnancy, endotoxic shock, endometritis, and pelvic inflammatory disease can be the result of an abortion and are often fatal.
Along with these physical side effects many women experience horrific psychological problems following an abortion. A study of the medical records of 56,741 California medicaid patients revealed that those who had an abortion were 160% more likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment in 90 days following termination than women who carried to term. Another study found that 8 weeks after an abortion 44% of women developed nervous disorders, 36% had experienced sleep disturbances, 31% had regrets about their decision, and 11% had been prescribed psychotropic medicine.
A Canadian study discovered that women who had abortions were 22% more likely to make visits to a physiatrist than those who hadn’t. Also, since most of those who abort are in high risk groups, such as teengaers, divorced, and separated women, they have a higher chance of negative physiological effects. Along with conditions like anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders many women who have abortions attempt or commit suicide. 60% of post abortion women report suicidal thoughts while 28% attempt it. Of this 28% one half of these women attempt suicide two or more times.
Researchers in Finland found that, “the mean annual suicide rate for all women was 11.3 per 100,000 but the rate for women following abortion was 34.7 per 100,000 [which is] three times higher.” There also is a link between abortions and dangerous behaviors. At least 20 different studies have linked abortion to a increased rate of drug and alcohol use. Additionally, abortions have been found to result in eating disorders, an aversion to sex and males in general, development of a promiscuous life-style, child neglect or abuse, increased smoking, divorce, and relationship problems.
Also 600,000 abortions every year result in the woman developing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is defined as, “a psychological dysfunction which results from a traumatic experience which overwhelms a person’s normal defense mechanisms resulting in intense fear, feelings of helplessness or being trapped, or loss of control.” Abortions often lead to PTSD when a woman is forced into it by a husband or boyfriend, have been raped, or have experience prior sexual abuse. Many women get an abortion before informing themself on the effect it will have on their body and emotions.
Abortions are not only harmful to the mother, they are also a violation of the human right to life. The 14th amendment declares, “that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.’ Outside of the US, the United Nations Human Rights Declaration Article 3 states that, “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” One can argue that a unborn baby is not protected under these laws but that would entail that a person is not a human being while they are in the womb.
However, when a pregnant woman is murdered the killer is often charged with two counts of murder therefore in law an unborn child is considered a person at the moment of conception. Additionally, defining the unborn as not human violates the Law of Biogenesis. This law states that every species produces more of their own kind. Therefore a human produces another human and that is defined as such in the womb. By legalizing abortions it is a violation of the 14th amendment and identifies the unborn as not human.
Furthermore, many women use abortion as a security blanket to have unprotected sex. They may engage in unprotected sex thinking that if they do get pregnant they could just have an abortion. This is irresponsible behavior as there are many other forms of contraception available to prevent unwanted pregnancies and, in turn, abortions. There are about 15 different types of contraceptives which allow you to enjoy sex without the risk of getting pregnant. Condoms prevent sperm from ever reaching the egg as well as the bonus of protecting against STDs. Hormonal contraception methods such as intrauterine devices, contraceptive pills, and the morning after pill prevent a woman’s body from releasing an egg into the uterus.
Some hormonal contraceptive also prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterine wall. However, despite all these options many women still engage in unprotected sex and it’s not only adults. Studies show 40% of high school students have had sex at least once and 60% of these students did not use any method to prevent pregnancy. Because of this 210,000 babies were born to 15 to 19 year old girls in 2016 and thousands more were aborted. Having the option of an abortion allows women to engaged in careless and unprotected sex with little fear of the consequences.
Abortion also increases discrimination against the mentally ill. Many women abort babies who are suspected to have a mental illness so they do not have to deal with it. Since the 1970s prenatal screening has been able to identify if an unborn child has down syndrome. However, these tests used invasive methods like amniocentesis that put the child at risk. Recently, a simpler and less harmful blood test surfaced allowing parents to easily know if their baby was at risk. Down syndrome currently affects about 1 in 800 unborn babies but that number is much lower by birth. This is because many parents choose to abort children who test positive for down syndrome.
By allowing abortions, discrimination against those with mental illnesses, such as down syndrome, is increased and will continue. However many suspect in the future abortions could be used as a way to create what are known as designer babies. A designer baby is defined as, “a baby whose genetic makeup has been selected in order to eradicate a particular defect, or to ensure that a particular gene is present.” By allowing mothers to abort babies who may have a certain defect or mental illness we allow a gateway into bigger things such as parents aborting children who don’t exhibit certain desirable genes.
Mental illness is not the only discrimination associated with abortions. There is also sex-selective abortions in which a couple aborts a baby who is not the prefferred sex. While ultrasounds allow doctors to check on a baby they also inhibit sex-selective abortions. It has been seen that female fetuses are more likely to be terminated for these reasons than males. In some countries this is even the reason for notable gaps in population between males and females. In Taiwan, South Korea, India, and China there is a high preference for male children.
As a result there are 117 million young girls missing around the world. While many girls have been killed, abandoned, drowned, and maimed even more were aborted before they could join this statistic. In China especially, the one-child policy, which was enacted in 1979, has caused an extreme increase in sex-selective abortion. China’s yearly average for sex selective abortion is extremely high at 641,058 which is about 1,757 per day. In India this number is even higher at 851,403 a year and 2,333 per day.
While China and India are the biggest contributors, many smaller and lesser known countries also have a sky rocketing number of sex selective abortions. Albania, Grenada, Kosovo, Malaysia, Bosnia and Herzegovina are just a few of this countries. Worldwide 1,670,079 female babies a year are aborted similar because they are girls. By allowing mothers to abort children without any reasonable cause countries in turn allow the gap between the male and female populations to grow.
Allowing, and funding, abortions also hurts a country’s economy. In the US, the 400,000 babies aborted a year leads to a decline in what could have been active, working members of society. Over the past 40 years, 15 million people have been lost due to the legalization of abortions. Over the last two decades it has been found that about two thirds of the United States population are laborers. This means that as many as 10 million of these 15 million aborted would have one day been working and improving our economy.
From this 10 million approximately 5 million would be working age today. Since the current labor force consists of about 150 million workers this is quite a substantial portion. If it is assumed that each aborted worker would have earned between $14,000 and $27,000 per year, we would find that the 5 million aborted workers would currently be giving $70 billion to $135 billion a year in valued economic activities. This is quite a big chunk of economic activity lost to the legalization of abortions. However this does not even include the government funding that goes towards organizations such as Planned Parenthood that perform abortions. It was found that from 2013 to 2015 Planned Parenthood spent $1.5 billion in funds raised from taxpayers who are most likely not even using these services.
Additionally the organization and its affiliates spent over $288 million in federal funds as well as $1.2 billion in Medicaid funding. Even worse, while their funding increased it was found that Planned Parenthood provided services to 100,000 less women in 2015 to 2016 than in 2014 to 2015. They also did less cancer screenings, HPV vaccinations, breast examinations, and prenatal services than prior years despite performing a higher number of abortions. In 2015 they preformed 323,999 abortions but a year later increased that number greatly to 328,348 abortions performed. The organization also performed 83 abortions for everyone adoption referral. The government’s allowance and public’s acceptance of abortions is increasing both the money spent on them and the number of them over the years. This trend will continue in the years to come unless abortion is made illegal.
In final analysis, abortions have many harmful effect on women, countries, and their economies. The soaring number of abortions worldwide is atrocious and many are for discriminatory or invalid reasons. Abortions adverse affects on women and unborn children are often overlooked and in many cases the public is uninformed about then. Also, in many cases, laws on the rights of the unborn are in a fuzzy gray area of government. To resolve these issue these laws need to be sharpened up and the brutal details of what an abortion entails much be shared women everywhere.
