Why abortion should be legalised
Thirty years of experience of reproductive health programmes in many countries has convinced me that safe, legal abortion is necessary as a back-up to - not a substitute for - family planning services.
Its absence condemns women to needless suffering. Many, perhaps most, women who seek abortions are married. Often they are poor and have little or no choice about having sex or using contraception.
For young or single women, continuing an unwanted pregnancy may mean the end of education or a career; it may mean social ostracism or an unwelcome marriage. Some women kill themselves rather than endure the consequences. For women in Ireland, the risk of death is the only ground for abortion - but why must it come to that?
Ireland is the only country in Europe with such a restrictive law. Desperate women seek desperate remedies. The safety of abortion is a major public health issue wherever it is not legal (as would be the case in Ireland without the UK as a safety net).
Worldwide, 76,000 women each year die as a consequence of unsafe abortion, and many times that number suffer illness or injury.
Of course, legal and safe abortion is a moral as well as a public health issue.
But what moral value is served when the law makes women suffer? And why should the ‘right to life’ apply only to the unborn?
Alex Marshall
2117 Samsonville Road
Olivebridge
New York 12461
USA
