Medical / Surgical Termination of Pregnancy might well be one of the most and hotly debated questions in history. Personally I think this should be classified in two categories: the unmarried young woman and the married mother.
The unmarried young woman presents the more heart-wrenching subject. I respect life. I did not and cannot create life and so I do not have authority to destroy it. I believe life is created the time the sperm and ova unite and form the unicellular zygote. This single cell comes with the blue print of life for the future individual. This one cell holds the key of life, or better still, is life.
Yet when a young woman walks into your OP pregnant, says she cannot be married for some reason, what do you do? If you don't do it, she is going to get it done anyway. She may go to a qualified practitioner (hopefully) of she may end up on a quack's table which may turn out catastrophic for the life of the young girl.
One bright morning, a girl of about 14 walked into my OP accompanied by a middle-aged man who introduced himself as her 'uncle'. She complained of 'abdominal pain'. On examining, she was obviously with child, the fundus about 20 to 24 weeks. I could hear the fetal heart. The child refused to open her mouth except to say she had 'abdodminal pain', refused to even accept there was a baby within her! The 'uncle' was in top hurry to get rid of the unwanted baggage. Much as I wept within for this little girl who was in no way prepared to be a mother, I could not bring myself to do an MTP. So finally I sent them away.
I know my hand would simply not have been able to insert that tablet of misoprost into her vagina. Even if she had come in the first trimester, I know I couldn't have done it, but I just cannot forget the girl or the blank look on her face. I do not know what became of her...
There were numerous married ladies who came in seeking MTP since either their career was peaking or they just could not afford one more, etc, etc. These I strived to convince. I drew pictures, showed posters and carefully preserved abortus specimen from naturally terminated pregnancies. Happily, a good many of them carried to term and went in for a good method of contraceptive after the delivery.
According to the NEJM: 30 March 2000 Volume 342:946-956, 'an estimated 26 million pregnancies are terminated legally each year throughout the world, and 20 million are terminated illegally, with more than 78,000 deaths.'
I hope that raw 14 year old was not one of them. I know I can still not go ahead with an MTP except if its medically indicated. I don't know which is the harder burden to carry in my soul: the life of the young mother or that of her unborn child.
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Rufus said...
A thought provoking post... It leaves much to be debated on whether MTPs are here to stay... As long as awareness is not brought about in the minds of the young pillars of society, as long as the vast educated fraternity remains in apathy to this abominable practice, as long as the rural populace remains in the lurch, the fact remains - that MTPs are a "necessary evil...!"
January 15, 2008 10:16 PM
Sudhanthira said...
Dennissa
I just happenned to find ur blog and saw this post about abortion. I was wondering(and pardon me, maybe even seething)to see the usual reference to only women when the topic is abortion. Why is it that abortion by itself and the big deal that it creates always concern women and their morality?? The umarried young woman or the married mother or the girl child (14yrs is reaaallly young) have obviously been made pregnant by a male right? where the hell is he? If men were responsible enough to wear condoms and take the intiative towards precautions why should the woman go through such terrible mental and physical torment? Why are we teaching only our women ethics with respect to life and childbirth? i think it would do good if we talk about abortions and the torture attached to it, to men..to those irresponsible playboys...to those child abusing uncles and mentors...rather than show women the pictures and make them feel like they are committing a massacare! U know, i am not really for abortion. I do realise that it is life..but u know what that really hits me? the anti-woman stand when we are pro-life! We dont do a thing about unprotected sex, we dont arrest those uncles, we dont care a damn about what the woman will go through if the abortion happens or not! But the moment it happens...we are there at the street corners calling all those women murderers..and choose to send that child away!
I am sorry..i know i sound harsh..But i ma hoping u will see the anger in me! I personally know quite a number of them who have gone through absolute torture because of abortion and the 'moral' stand that we take just because we have to be so called self-righteously right in the sight of God!
Christina
Dear Christina,
Welcome to the site!
I do appreciate your passionate comments!
The first and foremost thing is to not stand in judgement of anyone. The un-wed mothers forced to undergo MTP are often very, very emotionally upset. They are rejected by society and labelled for a mistake most would not given a second chance. I would not call them murderers.
Neither do I wish to label doctors who perform MTP on such mothers that way. I know many do because they strongly believe by doing so they are saving the life of the young mother who might have otherwise bled to her death on a quack's table.
I would not point fingers at most married women either. Many appear to believe life is formed when they feel the first fetal movements. Anything done before this is simply thwarting the formation of life, in their mind. Once they understand this, their perspective changes.
There are many who think of MTP as another form of contraception. This is dangerous to the mother as well as even in a good set up, it is fraught with its own complications.
Married women are usually accompanied by their husband when they come for an OP visit. So both are explained. Both need to agree on the path to go ahead.
Yes, definitely men should be more responsible in such cases. Those who are responsible for putting un-wed mothers in that situation and then leave them in the lurch are deplorable. So are those who want their wives to abort if they find out she is carrying a girl. This is something that can never be condoned.
Finally, it is the woman's body and she is the one who is most affected by this. So she must be enlightened and emboldened first.
We must try to bring about a change in all ways we can, but that can only begin when we work together.
There are many men who sincerely regret and stand by their women in whatever way they can.
We are all human which simply means we are all prone to mistakes. The courage to recognize and rectify is what will make the difference.
Not all women are victims or saints simply by virtue of being a woman and not all men are barbarious criminals simply by virtue of being men!
Dennisa
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