Introduction
The issue of abortion as addressed in the article “between a woman and her doctor” composed by Martha Mendoza raises different reactions from different people. The controversy surrounding the issue is because some people show full support of abortion while others discourage the practice claiming that it disobeys the Godly ways. Before getting to the main discussion concerning abortion, an overview of the practice serves great importance since through it; A reader can understand the underlying controversy between the issues. Abortion refers to the premature termination of a pregnancy by removing a fetus or embryo before it can independently survive outside the uterus. There are two ways in which a pregnancy can be terminated. The first way is through natural or biological causes without it being triggered by individuals. In m
...ost cases, this type of abortion occurs spontaneously and is known as miscarriage. On the other hand, when a pregnancy is terminated with a purpose this is called induced abortion.
The second type of abortion is what catches the interests of many people since the reasons for ending a pregnancy are unclear to many. Christians argue that no one has a right to the life of another person. The argument comes in because doctors claim that when a pregnancy poses any danger to the mother and the unborn, it serves justice to terminate the pregnancy. From the described definition the controversy surrounding the issue of abortion comes in when abortion is viewed from scientific and Christianity basis. A deeper focus on the issue depicts that both parties disagreeing about the issues of abortion do this since both of them are aiming at safeguarding the life of
people involved. Thus even though the parties disagree on the issue of abortion, they both have shared goal in that those opposing abortion are aiming at ensuring the life of the unborn while those encouraging it to aim at ensuring the survival of the mother especially when the pregnancy endangers the mother's life.
Body
After having understood the issues that raise the controversy in abortion, this section addresses the reasons as to why abortion is considered not a safe practice though beneficial to some women. As indicated in Martha’s article, the biggest drawback that many women who want to abort face are the limitation to gain access to safe abortion. Due to lack of safe procedures of abortion, abortions have taken away some lives of women across the world. The primary drawback that causes limitation of up to standard abortion is inadequate clinical care and unsafe non-clinical procedures of inducing abortion (Rooney, Kathleen A., et al, p. 404).
In addition to the mentioned hindrance to safe abortion, anti-choice legislation presents a significant challenge proper procedure of abortion. Due to this problem, there is limited ability of women and doctors to carry out second – and- third-trimester dilation and evacuations especially for women who fetuses are not alive. According to a report of the in “American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, in 2002, dilation and evacuation are the safest means of extracting a larger fetus from a lady’s body. According to the journals, a percentage of twenty women who undergo through labor and delivery abortions in their second and third trimesters developed complications. On the other hand, only four rates of those who used dilation and evacuation developed complications.
However save abortion carried out through dilation and evacuation may seem, doctors capable of performing the procedures are few. Thus, the medical community is unprepared for such situations.
Following the complexity associated with abortion cases, many doctors do not decide on the type of abortion that a particular client would carry out. What the doctors only give an insight to their customers on the associated with each method of abortion. Considering the case in which Mendoza visited her doctor claiming individuals fetus aged 19 weeks was dead, the doctor provided the woman with two options in which she could terminate her pregnancy (Martha, n.p). After choosing the dilation and evacuation method, Mendoza had to wait for the considerable long time before her scheduled D& E (dilation and evacuation) time. Mendoza felt that the wait time was too long, and she decided to seek other alternatives to induce an abortion, but she did succeed. The woman was ready to cause the abortion through chemical method nobody was willing to help her. She, at last, delivered a healthy baby through dilation and evacuation procedure.
Following Mendoza’s case study, it is a fact that though some people object abortion at some instances and abortion plays a significant role in ensuring good health of the mother and in some cases saves the life of the unborn child especially when the child is larger than the mother’s delivery path. The only drawback affecting safe abortion is the lack of qualified practitioners to carry out the procedures of safe abortion that are dilation and evacuation (York, Sloane L., et al., p. 546). Due to the lack these procedures lives of many women and
their reproductive health is under serious threat. Following this fact, laws that prevent abortion in an intrusive way act as a threat to the woman in need of D& E services irrespective of the whether their fetus is alive or not.
Conclusion
With the facts provided in Mendoza’s case, an overlap of views regarding abortion can be deduced with some majority of the views showing support of abortion. It can, however, be noted that support given to abortion comes with specific medical conditions and procedure in which abortion is carried out. To start with, abortion done with the right method should be embraced since it beneficial to both the mother and the child. The fraction of those who support abortion argues that if only intensive laws do not prohibit abortion, then women’s health cannot be comprised by the hazardous ways in which abortion is carried out. In right of Mendoza’s case, the abortion that the individual made ensured the survival of her child.
On the other hand, even though abortion through D& Es is considered safe, no one guarantees its outcome. By saying, this discussion implies that chances of coming out of the operation involving dilation and evacuation procedures are not hundred percentage. Use of chemical procedures worsens abortion the most since it requires the killing of the fetus then inducing the birth of the already dead child. No matter the controversy between the sides opposing and supposing abortion the two groups displays similar outcome in that they both aim at safeguarding the life of the unborn child and that of the mother. For the two sides to arrive at a beneficial compromise of controversy in abortion, abortion
should be legalized only under the medical conditions.
Works Cited
- Greenhouse, Linda. "The Facts About Abortion Rights." The New York Times 2016: 1. Academic OneFile. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
- Martha Mendoza. “Between a Woman and Her Doctor” Ms. Magazine
September 16, 2004
http://www.utne.com/community/betweenawomanandherdoctor?pageid=1#PageContent1 - Rooney, Kathleen A., et al. "Original Research Article: LARC Utilization Based On Type Of Medical Abortion Follow-Up At An Academic Center." Contraception 91.(2015): 403- 405. ScienceDirect. Web. 4 Dec. 2016
- York, Sloane L., et al. "Original Research Article: Implementation And Evaluation Of A Dilation And Evacuation Simulation Training Curriculum." Contraception 93.(2016): 545-550. ScienceDirect. Web. 4 Dec. 2016.
