Daily Times

Life, as we know it, is the most sacred trust God has bestowed on humanity. Disrespect for life is the most heinous crime one can imagine. However, there is many a dilemma one faces in terms of social dictums. Abortion is one such dilemma. Terminating a life within a woman’s body seems a gory predicament and it has turned into one of the biggest morality debates of recent times. It is this moral judgment — making its way into state legislatures — has legally banned this practice in most parts of the world.

We must understand what abortion is and why many women go for it in Pakistan despite knowing it is considered a moral sin and abhorred by society. Like in the rest of the world, two types of abortion take place in Pakistan: safe and unsafe. The former is conducted in a safe clinical environment with all medical protocols in place to conduct it while the latter is done in non-clinical facilities often conducted by untrained midwives, back alley doctors and quacks, putting the health of women in danger, leading to their horrific deaths in many cases. Maternal deaths stand at 20.3 percent of women of reproductive age and deaths due to unsafe abortions stand at 5.6 percent approximately.

Abortion, however, is not the use of contraceptives, as most clergy interpret it in their preaching, thus discouraging couples from using it. This trend has caused serious repercussions on family planning and population control initiatives but there are only very nominal efforts undertaken by the government to confront these clerical teachings. Furthermore, since devolution, there are no concrete steps taken at the provincial level over birth control.

In Pakistan, since 1997, abortion has been allowed in the first 120 days of conception in cases of rape, physical disability or threat to the woman’s life but this law is widely unknown to most practitioners, which leaves many women in peril and seeking abortions. In 1997, the Commission of Enquiry for Women presented three recommendations: 1) allocations to health and population sectors be increased by six percent of GDP; 2) regulations be amended to ensure women’s right to tubal ligation without husband’s permission, and 3) women’s right to obtain an abortion of her own choice within 120 days of pregnancy be unambiguously declared her absolute right. These recommendations presented by Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid were never legislated for clarity in the law.

Social factors play a pivotal role in cases of abortion. Sometimes, abortion is carried out without the will of the woman, forcing her to abort if the child she is carrying is a female. Sometimes, she is forced to keep the child against her will. Whether women are allowed total control of their bodies remains a heated debate as religious injunctions are brought in to separate the control dimension away from women. Many of the women who seek abortion belong to the poor strata of society. Because they lack the resources, they are not able to pay the private fees required for safe abortions. The services they seek through traditional dais (midwives) is a risky business but women are helpless in seeking safer options.

The accessibility of health services and refusal to provide them to women who really need them remains the biggest challenge in maternal health services. Most of the cases that reach the hospital are usually complicated due to incomplete abortions that were undertaken by midwives and back-alley doctors. Most of the cases undertaken are by the private sector healthcare providers that reach out to approximately 70 percent of the population that the public service sector cannot reach out to. However, in the private sector, the income matrix of the women seeking help is detrimental in acquiring the quality of care.

There are a number of reasons why women seek abortion, the most common being rape. Another reason is low income of the household, leading to the inability of the woman to provide for the unborn child. In fact, most women seeking abortion live under the poverty line. The circumstances under which abortion is sought should not be avoided. In fact, facilities should be made more synchronised with the local needs of the women undergoing this harrowing procedure.

The government should take into consideration various recommendations presented to it on the matter. The fact that female morbidity rate is on the rise, rapid steps need to be taken to redress the grievances of women in peril. The situation should be objectively overseen with the consideration that women will get abortions whether or not there is a ban on it. The stigmatisation of abortions should be removed first before coming to terms with a woman seeking the termination of her pregnancy. Post-abortion care should be more systemised and streamlined in order to provide easy, accessible and essential care to women seeking abortions. This should not be done until the consent and the will of the woman is made the profound basis in the conduction of abortion, and nobody else’s.

The writer is a freelance columnist and may be contacted at zeeba.hashmi@gmail.com