Once
again I'm blogging
for choice, because I have faith in women and
girls to know what's best for them, whether that's
terminating an unplanned pregnancy, raising a child
or giving a baby up for adoption. Anyone who thinks
the choice is easy hasn't sat with an anguished friend
(or daughter, sister, wife or girlfriend) as they
struggled to make that decision.
Who are you or I to tell any woman what's
in her best interest? What freedom does she have without
the core right of bodily integrity? Yet many governments
feel this most personal decision isn't one a woman
should have. Several countries that consider themselves
democracies have tried to curtail choice or cut if
off completely. In the United States many individual
states have severely restricted access to abortion
procedures. In Canada, a country which currently has
no criminal law restricting abortion, the province
of Prince Edward Island refuses to provide any abortion
services, meaning women must travel to neighbouring
provinces for procedures. Abortion is legal in New
Zealand, but only if two certifying consultants agree
that a pregnancy will either physically or psychologically
endanger a woman's health.
Ireland has even less regard for its
female citizens' ability to make decisions about their
own bodies. Abortion is illegal even in cases of threatened
suicide and only permitted when a woman's life is
threatened by grievous medical risk. This has resulted
in a steady stream of Irish women (approximately
7,000 a year, the majority of whom are married and
already have children) travelling to Great Britain
for abortions.
In fact, the legal status of abortion
has little effect on the amount of women who have
abortions. A recent study
examining abortion trends from 1995-2003 found
that terminations occur at roughly the same rates
worldwide, whether abortion is legal or not. The authors
of the study noted that, “Unsafe and safe abortions
correspond in large part with illegal and legal abortions,
respectively.” Approximately 70,000 women die
every year from unsafe abortions while 5 million endure
permanent or temporary injury.
I believe Irish women shouldn't have
to travel to exercise choice. I don't believe women
anywhere should be subjected to unsafe, possibly fatal
abortions because you or I may not agree with their
choice to terminate. On this side of the Atlantic,
I hope we never see Roe
v. Wade overturned or watch Canada
abolish abortion but we can't afford to be complacent
and assume this will never happen, especially with
repressive politicians like George Bush and Stephen
Harper at the helm.
This is why it's of the utmost importance
to vote in pro-choice governments and by that I mean
governments who will support the wide availability
of emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy, comprehensive
sex education (we already know the abstinence
only variety doesn't work!), committed anti-violence
and anti-poverty strategies and access to affordable
contraception and medical treatment for all
women. We need to vote for governments that will ensure
the minimum amount of women possible suffer unwanted
pregnancies and that every woman who wishes to keep
her baby will be assured of good health care and not
be condemned to poverty by her choice.
And in the inevitable event that women
suffer unwanted pregnancies despite the implementation
of the above safeguards (because the reproductive
years are long, mistakes happen and sometimes sexual
assault denies women a choice) we need to allow women
access to safe abortions, not punish them by forcing
them to have unwanted children or in effect push them
into back alley procedures.
A vote for choice is a vote for women's
well-being and sometimes their very lives. With what's
at stake how can we possibly afford not to
vote for choice?
***
Sonya
"The Drama" Boom Renee offers one of
the best arguments for choice I've ever heard in her
2006 poetry slam What We Deserve:
Blog
For Choice 2008
