Abortion and Its Side Effects in the United States

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Table of Contents

Incidents
Abortion safety
Policy Regulations
Public Funding
How many perform Abortions?
Training
Conclusion
References

Incidents

Abortion accounts for about 49 % of unsuccessful pregnancies which are usually terminated in the United States. The main reason for terminating these pregnancies is that they are usually not intended (Krieg 6). An approximated 1.31 million incidents of abortion were carried out in 2000. Although the number seems to be alarmingly huge, it was a significant drop from 1.36 million cases reported four years earlier.

Many of the abortions which are conducted are legal. For instance, slightly over 39 million incidents of legal abortion took place since 1973 up to the advent of the new millennium (Reagan 155). Moreover, an estimated 2 % of females between the age of 15 and 44 have gone through an abortion experience. Out of this figure, about 49 % have carried out one abortion to the least while 60 % have had successful birth in the past (McBride 3). Before approaching the age of 45 years, about 43 % of females are more likely to conduct an abortion. These are alarming figures on the extent abortion is carried out in the United States in spite of relentless attempts by various pressure groups to illegalize the act.

Abortion safety

In most of the abortion cases carried out, there are very minimal complications unless serious medical conditions such as infection of the pelvic and hemorrhage are encountered. Such conditions may easily call for the need of carrying out a major surgery operation. Besides, problems related to childbearing are not common and hardly recorded in healthcare institutions (McBride 73). In most cases, safe abortions are carried out when the pregnancy is about 12 weeks or less and which also costs less. However, there are incidences when abortion has been delayed up to 26 weeks. In such cases, only a few medical practitioners may take the risk of carrying out the abortion procedure due to the high risks involved. On the same note, it becomes more costly to procure an abortion at a later stage of pregnancy. For example, an eight week pregnancy has a probability of one death out of each half a million abortions carried out.

Policy Regulations

The liberty for women to procure an abortion at the early developmental stages of pregnancy was given a go ahead by the Supreme Court in 1973 (Roe v Wade case). The court decision argued out that so long the pregnant woman was in agreement with a physician, an abortion could be legally carried out without the interference of the state (Reagan 32).

In a Planned v Casey case of 1992, the Supreme Court maintained that women had the right to procure an abortion. The legal protections which had been previously enacted by the court regarding abortion were rather weakened. Each state was given the mandate to enact some legislation which would not “burden” women interested in carrying out abortion. One of the most dominant restrictions in the 1992 ruling is that parents are supposed to be involved in the decision making platform before an abortion can be carried out. In addition, the victim is supposed to go through compulsory counseling sessions besides the waiting period. Furthermore, public funds are not supposed to be used anyhow in the procurement of abortion and so there are restrictions towards offsetting budgetary costs on abortion from the public coffers. Those minors who need to procure an abortion are now required by law to seek parental consent. This is taking place in about 32 states. Over and above parental involvement, minors also have the option of obtaining orders from the court to authorize them go on with the procurement of abortion. Hence, they are not limited by parental control especially if they feel that abortion is the best choice for the moment.

Statistics reveal that an estimated 45 percent of juniors who opt for abortion at least seek the approval or notification from their parents. On the same note, one of the parents is usually aware that their child is carrying out an abortion among the 61 percent of minors who engage in the act. Moreover, it is evident that even after being consulted by their daughters, most parents do not object to the decision and hence seeking approval from the courts is not common (Reagan 164).

Abortion in the United States received a legislative support in 2000 when mifepristone, an abortion pill, was permitted by the U.S Food and Drug Administration to be sold in the markets so that it could serve as an alternative to abortion carried out using surgery

Public Funding

The use of public finds in procuring an abortion has been largely restricted by the U.S Congress. The Medicaid fund is only supposed to cater for emergency cases involving women who are at their full term pregnancy and are experiencing delivery problems or those who have been raped or pregnancies resulting from cases of incest. When this restriction is put into practice, it accounts for only 14 percent of abortions in United States which is catered for by the Medicaid Funds.

How many perform Abortions?

Although women have the constitutional right to procure abortion at will, experts argue that the number of those who perform abortion is still very low. This has been attributed to the fact that most women who would like to carry out abortion do not have the access to facilities or institutions which carry out abortion. As a result, the number of women who cannot access healthcare institutions is on the rise since the team of healthcare experts who can perform abortion in addition to the clinics and hospitals are shrinking each day (Lewin 2).Furthermore, the poor women within the states have been locked out of abortion services for the past three decades when restrictions were imposed on the spending of Medicaid Funds for abortions.

Worse still, the recent recession and world economic meltdown has intensified the ordeal; there are quite a number of abortion clinics which have procured the second-trimester abortions owing to the fact that the pregnant females take considerably long period of time to seek alternative ways of funding the procedure (Reagan 49). A case look of rural women further reveals that they have to traverse long distances seeking for abortion services. There are quite a sizeable number of these pregnant women who may not be in a financial position to cater for their transportation, boarding and lodging costs even as they travel far in search of abortion services.

Training

The training capacity of specialized doctors who are supposed to procure abortions is still very low. There are those doctors who in spite of training, are opposed to the entire idea and practice of abortion due to their religious or personal convictions that the act is utterly wrong (Reagan 69). There are those categories of doctors who argue that they are not comfortable dealing with abortion cases due to the fear of threats and protests which emerge from opposing pressure groups like some religious organizations. Young gynecologists also maintain that abortion is not within the mainstream of healthcare services which they are supposed to cater for. Even as such arguments and unwillingness to procure the act abound, approximately 1.4 million pregnant females aborted in 1988 alone (Kolata 3). This figure must have grown significantly by the present time.

It may not be possible to accurately measure the number of women who have been barred from abortion as a result of anti-abortion protests. Nonetheless, it is evident that while abortion rights proponents may be lamenting on the pitfalls of pro-abortion crusades, the opponents of abortion have a victory to celebrate.

Recruitment of doctors who can perform the abortion procedure still remains to be one of the tough hurdles in providing abortion services for all the interested women. If abortion statistics are anything to go by, then women might still be facing innumerable difficulties. For instance, low-income women who cannot be able to cater for abortion costs are catered for by 13 states only. Besides, most of the counties (83 %) do not have specialized clinics which can provide abortion services. These counties also host an estimated 31 % of females who are the age of child bearing (Gray 4). Private doctors in these regions perform abortions to some selected women and in most cases their charges are high.

Conclusion

In summing up this paper, it is imperative to note that the number of successfully procured abortions in the United States has been continually rising since the Congress adopted legislation which allows women to undergo the procedure at will. Nonetheless, quite a significant number of women who would wish to perform abortion are not able to do so due to a myriad of reasons namely Congress restriction on the use of Medicaid, shrinking healthcare facilities which offer abortion, reluctance among healthcare professionals as well as anti-abortion campaigns which have discouraged many women from undergoing the procedure.

References

Gray, Jerry. “Issue of abortion is pushing its way to center stage”. 1995.

Kolata, Gina. As New Tactic, Do-It-Yourself Abortions Taught. 1989. Web.

Krieg, Sabine. “Abortion in the United States of America”, Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag, 1999.

Lewin Tamar. Hurdles increase for many women seeking abortions, New York Times. 1992.Web.

McBride, E. Dorothy. “Abortion in the United States: a reference handbook”, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2008.

Reagan, J. Leslie. “When abortion was a crime”. California: University of California Press, 1997.

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