Abortion

By Tiffany Brantley, Fall 2006

Shana Ealy was only 20 years of age when she became pregnant. A sophomore at the University of Michigan, her parents had expectations, that for her, just weren’t in hindsight.

“I wanted to have fun,” said Ealy. “Who doesn’t in college?”

Unforutantely, for Ealy, life was about to change. In her sophomore year, Ealy became pregnant by another class mate.

“It was the most terrifying day of my life. I couldn’t fess up and tell my parents,” said Ealy.

So, like many others, Ealy didn’t tell anyone about the pregnancy, except for a handful of friends. Nobody knew, however, that Ealy wasn’t going to keep the baby.

This story is a common one among many women. However, abortion is still an issue that affects laws and rights in a negative light. For many years, abortion has been seen as a horrible practice. However, no matter the reason, be it rape, teen pregnancy, or even incest, all women should have a choice. Unfortunately, many social groups, politicians, and even private citizens don’t see it that way.

For some, the facts and questions surrounding this on-going debate are simple. Is abortion a good or bad option for women? Under what conditions, if any, should the government step in and veto a woman’s right and decision to have an abortion?

“Bills have been passed, but we’ve still seen no action,” said Michelle Johnson, an Eastern Michigan University (EMU) political science major. “Any women who choose an abortion should look at its current state.”

In the mid-to-late 1800s, states began passing laws that made abortion illegal. The motivations for anti-abortion laws varied from state to state. One of the reasons included fears that the population would be dominated by the children of newly arriving immigrants, whose birth rates were higher than those of native women. During the 1800s, all surgical procedures, including abortions, were extremely risky. Hospitals were not common, antiseptics were unknown, and even the most respected doctors had only primitive medical educations. Without today’s current technology, maternal and infant mortality rates during childbirth were extraordinarily high. The dangers from abortion were similar to the dangers from other surgeries that were not outlawed.

Many women died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to self-induce their abortions, and also sustained injuries when they tried to obtain abortions from untrained practitioners who performed abortions with primitive methods in unsanitary conditions. During this time, hospital emergency room staff treated thousands of women who were suffering the terrible side affects of abortions that were performed without adequate skill or care.

Some women were able to obtain relatively safer, although still illegal, abortions from private doctors. This practice remained prevalent for the first half of the twentieth century. The rate of reported abortions than began to decline, partly because doctors faced scrutiny from their peers, and also due in part to hospital administration concerns about the legality of their operations.

In 1967, the first victory of an abortion reform movement was made with the passage of liberalizing legislation in Colorado. The legislation was based on the Model Penal Code. Between 1967 and 1973, approximately one-third of the states had adopted, either in whole or in part, the Model Penal Code’s provisions, which allowed abortion in instances other than where only the mother’s life was in danger.

In 1973, the Supreme Court made it an issue of federal constitutional law by holding that abortion was a constitutional right. From then on, whether abortion was legal or not depended on the Supreme Court’s decisions as to how extensive the Roe right to abortion actually was. State legislatures continue to have a say, but only in the little room the court has left outside the cope of the abortion. Initially, the framework of Roe v. Wade was the basis by which the constitutionality of state abortion laws were determined. In recent years, however, the Supreme Court has begun to allow more restrictions on abortions.

“No one has the right to take away a woman’s right to choose,” said April Moore, a Detroit lawyer who studied abortion cases while in law school. “Most people see it as killing an unborn child, but there are so many specifics to that.”

The many specifics Moore is referring to is that there are large percentage of people who do feel that after a certain point in a fetuses’ gestation, abortion equates to murder. Since 1992, elective abortions can be banned or considered illegal after actual viability.
“
Partial-birth abortions are done with forceps. The doctor turns the baby around in the womb to be positioned feet first. The baby’s legs are pulled out into the birth canal. The baby is alive at this point,” said Dr. Polly Train, a fourth year OB/GYN resident at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI. “The abortionist delivers the baby’s entire body, except for the head, which remains inside the birth canal. The abortionist stabs the scissors into the base of the baby’s skull. The scissors are spread to enlarge the opening. The suction catheter is then inserted, and the brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. This is for the head to slide out easily.”

Partial-birth abortions have been of popular topic in the past couple of years. The procedure was banned in Nebraska, except in cases where it is necessary to save the woman’s life. The ban did not, however, provide an exception in cases where the physicians judged the procedure necessary to protect the woman’s health. An exception that, conservatives argue, devolves into abortion on demand when protection of mental health is sanctioned or a burden on a woman.
In 2003, President Bush signed a bill that would restrict partial birth abortions, saying that, “the procedure is a terrible form of violence against children who are inches from birth.” Bush stated that the American people and their government have “confronted the violence,” and “have come to the defense of the innocent child.”

“There are approximately twenty three states that have passed laws to prohibit this type of abortion,” said Moore. Included in the twenty three states are Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

“This attempt to impose Congress between the judgment of women and their doctors is dangerous and paternalistic,” Moore continued. “It unconstitutionally deprives women of autonomy over their bodies, and their ability to make medical choices. Look at cases like Stenberg v. Carhart.”

Leroy Carhart, a Nebraska physician who specialized in late-term reproductive health, brought suit against Don Stenberg, the Attorney General of Nebraska, seeking declaratory judgment that a state law banning certain forms of abortions was unconstitutional, based on the undue burden test established by Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Both a federal and district court and the US court of appeals ruled in favor of Carhart before the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.
According to Center For Bio-Ethical Reform, there are approximately 46 million abortions per year worldwide. About 26 million women obtain illegal abortions each year, while an additional 20 million abortions are obtained in countries where it is restricted or prohibited by law.

“Many women feel trapped at times,” said Train. “These options are vital to society. If you cannot make a choice on your own, what type of democracy do we have?”
In addition to feeling trapped and unable to make a decision, many women who seek abortions are also being “talked out” of their decision.

“Through these landmark cases, staff is allowed to talk a woman out of her decision,” said Moore.
A state may enact rules and regulations designed to encourage the patient to know that there are philosophic and social arguments of great weight that can be brought to bear in favor of continuing the pregnancy to full term.
Through Casey v. Planned Parenthood, the state may not only express a preference for childbirth over abortion, but it also may use its authority to persuade women to forgo abortion, as long as the persuasive techniques do not create a significant obstacle.

“I think that’s acceptable,” stated Ealy. “But who’d be responsible if there are repercussions from that choice?”

Ealy’s experience, like many others, changed her life.

“I would never do it again,” said Ealy. “I was so unstable. I can’t imagine doing it today. I am always wondering about the “what if” factor.”
In the case of abortion and the issues surrounding it, many pro-life and pro-choice advocates cannot even accurately state the other side’s position, and many people cannot even state their own position in a way that they would feel comfortable with. The pro-choice and pro-life movement has been an integral part of the issue as well.

The big debate for both pro-choices and pro-lifers remains, in that they argue whether or not the fetus has rights. In 2001, SurveyUSA polled San Francisco residents after federal lawmakers began considering a bill, called The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, that would make the fetus an independent victim, with full victim’s rights. Supports believe that the bill is designed to punish criminals who attack pregnant women. Critics say that the bill is the first step to outlawing abortion. From the survey, 50 percent of women would like to see independent rights for a fetus, while 31 percent would not. Men were evenly divided and on the whole, 48 percent of San Francisco area adults say they would support the bill, while 36 percent of adults polled say they would oppose it. 16 percent were not sure.

“Individual rights begin at birth, with the creation of a new, separate human being,” said Moore.
“Rights are a concept applicable only to individual, actual human-beings, not merely a potential one. The fetus may become a human-being, but until it is born and the umbilical cord is severed, it is part of an actual human-being: the mother.”

“By analogy, observe that an acorn is a potential oak tree, not an actual one,” Moore explained.
“You may build a house out of an oak, but not from an acorn. The actual entity has attributes that the merely potential one does not.”

The United States is not the only country where abortion remains debatable. In Canada, abortion laws were liberalized in 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that existing laws regulating abortion were unconstitutional. Government leaders tried to enact new restrictions on the procedure, but they abandoned the effort in 1991, leaving the country without a criminal code on abortion practices. Provincial health insurance plans cover the cost of abortions performed in hospitals, but do not consistently provide funding for abortions performed in free-standing clinics.

In Mexico, access to abortion services varies from state to state, despite a 1931 federal statue ostensibly banning the procedure, except when the women’s life is in danger, or in case of rape or “negligent behavior.”

Every state allows abortion in the case of rape, and to protect the life of the pregnant woman. However, according to Human Rights Watch, some local government officials discourage rape victims from seeking legal abortions, and in some cases, these women are threatened with imprisonment. Some states, however, allow abortion to protect the woman’s physical or mental health, or in cases involving fetal abnormalities.

In Latin American countries, like Venezuela, under the Criminal Code of 1964, abortion is illegal except when the woman’s life is at risk. The Code of Medical Ethics of 1971 allows for abortions for “therapeutic purposes,” but it does not define the term. A legal abortion requires the written consent of the woman or her husband or her legal representative. In 2005, some political supporters of President Hugo Chavez lobbied for the legalization of abortion in cases of rape or incest, but were unsuccessful in their attempts.

In Columbia, abortion was illegal in all circumstances until May 2006, when Columbia’s highest court ruled that the procedure can be performed when a woman’s life, physical, or mental health is in danger, and also in cases of rape, incest, or when there are certain fetal abnormalities. On August 25, 2006, the first federal abortion was performed on an 11-year-old girl who had been raped by her step-father.

In Nigeria, abortion is legal only to preserve the pregnant woman’s life, but health specialists report that the large number of procedures are performed both in the predominately Christina south, and the predominately Muslim north.
Although the fight to legalize abortion is being pushed, many people wonder what will happen to the person who was raped, or has a baby who has no chance of surviving and/or being healthy when born.

“There should be limits, but there aren’t many women who just think abortion is a quick fix for an unwanted pregnancy,” said Johnson.

Some people, however, do not agree with Johnson’s observations.

“I knew people who have had four or five abortions before they turned 18,” said Eastern Michigan University student Ashley Edwards. “People do use it as a means to save themselves.”
Women between the ages of 15 and 19 account for about 19 percent of all abortions. Women ages 20 to 24 account for another 33 percent, and approximately 25 percent of abortions are obtained by women who are 30 years of age or older.

The decision to have an abortion is rarely, if ever simple. Most women base their decision on several factors, with the most common being lack of money and/or not being prepared or ready to start or expand their families due to existing responsibilities. Many feel that the most responsible course of action is to wait until their situation is more suited for childrearing. Some women who have abortions do plan to have children when they are older, financially stable, and are in a supportive relationship with a partner so their child can have two parents.

In 2004, 26,269 abortions were performed in Michigan alone. This number dropped to 25,209 in 2005, the lowest level since detailed records were started about three decades ago.

“The issue of abortion may not be solved for many years to come,” reported the South Bend Tribune. “However, whatever the outcome, hopefully, the woman’s perspective and opinion are taken into account. It’s the woman who fuels this fire.”