Rising abortion cases
One of the miracles of nature is childbirth. A sperm fertilises an egg in the fallopian tube. The fertilised egg moves to the uterus and develops for about nine months. Then from hormonal and other chemical changes, the woman begins to feel persistent contractions which becomes stronger and more regular, causing the neck of the womb to open to dilate.
Advertisement
The second stage is when the baby moves down the vagina and is born. The third stage is when the placenta is delivered. Unfortunately, not all fertilised eggs end in labour due to abortion, the process of removing pregnancy tissue, fetal or placental components, or both from the uterus (Harvard Medical School, 2019).
The rising abortion cases
One thing is certain. There is astronomical rise in abortion everywhere in the world. For example, studies show there are over 4,000 cases of surgical abortions in the United States every day.
Again, while in the past abortions were rare in Ghana, today according to research by Keogh et al. (2021), there were 30 official abortions per 1000 among young Ghanaian women aged 15 to 24. More than half of young women who had abortions used unconventional methods, and 40 per cent of those who had complications went without medical care.
Why abortion?
Financial situation: Financial concerns would lead to abortion for the majority of women who could not care for the child. A 2013 survey found that 40 per cent of women will have an abortion for financial reasons, 4 per cent indicated that not having a job affected their choice, and 0.6 per cent said they terminated their pregnancies due to not having health insurance or government assistance (Nichols, 2022).
Timing: The majority of women think they are not physically, intellectually, or emotionally ready to have or to care for a baby, while others think they are too old, too busy, or not ready yet, all of which have an impact on their decision to abort. This can be as a result of the unexpected pregnancy.
Over 20 per cent of people who seek abortions, according to Dawn (2023), fear that becoming pregnant or having a child will negatively affect their future. Women may want to delay having a baby until they are more established in their lives in order to prevent delaying their academic or professional aspirations.
Companion-related causes: Abortion is typically chosen by single women in large numbers. Data from 2019 show that unmarried women who did not wish to be single parents accounted for 85.5 per cent of abortions (Dawn, 2023). Most people who seek abortions do so because they do not have a strong or stable relationship with their partner or because their partner is not supportive. Others have partners who are abusive or may not want the child, while some people opt to be married before starting a family.
Other obligations: Some parents would be overwhelmed by another child because they are already overworked with their current children. People think that having a newborn will negatively affect their other children's lives and quality of life; not having the time or resources to care for additional children. Some also think they are through having children or would rather space them out.
Not independent or mature enough for a baby: Most women between the ages of 15 and 24 consider abortion because they lack maturity or rely on others. They are too young to have a child and are unprepared for motherhood.
Family and friends' influences: Family and friends will occasionally persuade women to seek abortion. For example, when there was a report that 15 SHS girls from a school in the Ashanti Region were found to be pregnant during reopening, most parents took their children home for abortion because they were worried that having a child would strain their future careers, relationship or that they would be looked down upon by others. Because they are too afraid to tell their parents they are pregnant, some of these teenagers choose to have abortion.
The danger
Abortion in Ghana is normally performed by surgery, pill and traditional method of taking all sorts of herbal concoctions. In all cases, abortion causes disruption of hormonal changes which accompany pregnancy. This may lead to immediate or long-term problems such as severe abdominal and back pain, cervical lacerations, placentic previa, infections, ectopic pregnancies, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory diseases (PID), infertility, lower general health and even death.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), UNFPA, and the World Bank (WHO, 2012), about 287,000 women worldwide pass away from pregnancy-related causes each year. The biggest cause of maternal mortality, according to the WHO, is unsafe abortion, which is estimated to be responsible for 47,000 of these fatalities each year.
Again, according to the Ghana Medical Association, abortion accounted for 15–30 per cent of maternal deaths, making it the major cause of maternal mortality (Rominski & Lori, 2014). According to Say et al. (2014), unsafe abortions accounted for somewhere between 4.7 and 13.2 per cent of maternal mortality each year.
In wealthy countries, there are an estimated 30 fatalities for every 100,000 unsafe abortions. According to research done in developing countries, there are 220 fatalities for every 100,000 unsafe abortions (Ganatra, Gerdts, Rossier, Johnson, Tuncalp & Assifi, 2017). Estimates from 2012 state that seven million women in developing nations need medical care each year for issues connected to risky abortions (Singh & Maddow-Zimet, 2015).
Thinking of abortion?
The fertilised egg develops into a baby. No matter your condition, give your fertilised egg the chance to live. Abortion has never been a solution but the problem because it affects you mentally, physically and spiritually. No doubt studies show 94 per cent of women who abort their pregnancies regret their action. Women who come in for counselling and decide to keep their pregnancies are happier than those who don’t.
The Catholic Church, for example, teaches that sex is a gift from God that comes with a dual purpose —pleasure and possibility of pregnancy. You don’t pick and choose. Human life must be protected and nurtured from the moment of conception because the embryo is a living person. No doubt Pope Francis refers to abortion as a ‘crime and absolutely evil’. If you are thinking of abortion, the advice is simple; don’t.