Paste your essay in here…Abortion has always been a controversial topic for several decades. In Latin America, there is approximately a triple abortion rate when compared to those who live in Western Europe (Sedgh et al., 2016). This is because of a pervasive unspoken belief, contraception and highly restrictive abortion laws (Dzuba, Winikoff and Peña, 2013). Women who resort to private and unsafe methods to end unexpected or unwanted pregnancies could expose themselves to the risk of complications and fatality ratio. The purpose of this study is to interrogate the fact that in some countries n Latin America, abortion is still prohibited in all circumstances. (even the woman's life or health is in danger). This essay will discuss the main barrier against legalising abortion in Latin America and will argue that women rights should be included in abortion rights through the first two months of pregnancy.
Abortion in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Republic of Dominican is criminalised in under all situation, even in the case of rape or when the woman's life or health is at risk. Committee against Torture (CAT) suggests that these laws are an act to against women’s fundamental rights” According to CAT(2004), the policy of Chile delays treatment to force confession(1) from women seeking “life-saving medical treatment in public hospitals after the illegal abortion procedure, rejecting private and confidential treatment for them, or using their statements against them in a proceeding constitute a violation of the Torture Convention. Women should have their freedom of abortion because it is related to human's rights and their fundamental rights.
(1) A forced confession is one made against one's free will. To determine whether a confession was made freely and voluntarily, the "totality of the circumstances" must be considered (US Legal, 2014),
In human terms, criminalising abortion is an highly costly way to resource allocation. Barreda (1991) stated that women will still have abortions regardless of no matter it is legal or not, as this choice between their life or death of these women. Also, keeping criminal abortion laws consequently increases the number of death during the procedure. Furthermore, criminalising abortion does not lower the level of abortion rates and has been proven that is is completely ineffective. In South America alone, about 30 percent women between the ages of 15 to 45 have an abortion each year. In the Netherlands, where abortion is legal, the number of abortion rates is 8 percent women. Moreover, where abortion is legal, the risk of death is less than 0.002 percent women.(Shah and Ahman, 2010). Therefore, Latin America Legislation should not make abortion illegal and Government should be provided safer treatment or use any other less harmful type of medical procedure to women.
Making abortion illegal forces women to undergo unregulated and dangerous procedures that put their lives and future reproductive health at risk. Recent research carried out by Sedgh et al. (2016) has found that during 2010–2014, an approximated 6.5 million unregulated abortions occurred every year in Latin America, up to 4.4 million during 1990–1994, and at least 10% of all maternal deaths were due to insecure abortion annually. The reason for maternal morbidity is due to abortion complications such as uterus perforation or disease of the reproductive tract, forcing women to seek for urgency medical operations at public hospital. Consequently, approximately 800,000 Latin American women have hospitalised for such complications annually. The data demonstrates that those women would not need to suffer if they had the choice of a legal and safe procedure In Latin America.
Penal laws force women to choose between an insecure abortion and enforced maternity. These laws not only disallow behaviour but also forcibly impose maternity. As Ferrajoli (2002) suggested that, prohibition of abortions and the consequence of coercive maternity impose the responsibility of being a woman, but a life upheaval of incalculable consequences. Women bear unintentional pregnancy and accouchement will push themselves to forego many life objectives to raise the child, thus entering into servitude of sorts.
Therefore, criminalising abortion is not the only issue of women's reproductive and fundamental rights. It also involves the problem of public health, social righteousness and moral principles.
Nowadays, even though thousands of people have realised the importance of decriminalising abortion, the Catholic Church has played a particularly important role in defining and enforcing the ideologies of womanhood in Latin America (GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE, 2016).
A survey carried out by Pew Research Centre (2014), show that 84% of Latin American adults reported that they are Catholic, which makes that they share a history of subjugation by conversion. They forcibly made women abide by the strict set of values that women equal mother, and a loyal mother whose life is perpetually linked to reproduction. Women who seek for abortion are seen as the evils, and those who do not choose to be a mother are considered selfish and unworthy. Several decades later, these ridiculous tenets are still in fashion. They are embodied in lots of the legislation in Latin America and are protected by a patriarchal society. Women are men's property and reproduction is of vital importance. Women should not be controlled by anyone, and they should have their own thoughts and freedom.
Moreover, in all these countries, Catholic Churches typically argue that the operation of foeticide is equivalent to murdering a human and it also against God's ethical code. Yet, this argument neglects the fact that ever since the late 19th century, many of theorists and philosophers have suggested that, “human rights are subjective granting entitlements that can only be curtailed to protect others.” Thence, human rights cannot be limited by utilitarian or consequentialist benefit or abstract values such as the concepts of "human life" or "potential human life" suggested by religious or ideological groups.
Therapeutic abortions in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Republic of Dominican, are still forbidden under all circumstances while being legal in every western country. However, women will still have the illegal procedure in these religions, and its caused Chile having the highest abortion rates with an estimated 40,000 illegal abortions carried out annually, which means that criminalising abortion does not reduce its rate. In fact, abortion rates are often the highest when the laws thoroughly forbid it (Boonstra et al. 2006). Practically 160,000 to 300,000 Chilean women undergo abortions every year with six abortions for every ten births. The number of court cases for abortion has been decreasing in Chile since the mid-1980s, but the threat of prosecution will endure as long as abortion remains prohibited (Casas-Becerra, 1997). According to Sedgh et al. (2016), in 1990, 44,500 women obtained abortion-related medical care. Nearly 60 percent of treatment involved abortion complications and 36 percent of maternal deaths are due to clandestine and unsafe abortions, making this the major cause of maternal death in this country. Thus, for safety and public resources, legalise abortion is considerably important in Latin America.
Regarding Catholic Church argues that an abortion equal to the murder of a human, but if an embryo can already be considered a human in the sense of it being a real person remains a difficult question, as the often overlapping notions of legal and moral personhood must be reconciled. Most jurisdictions are in agreement that only born individuals are persons to enjoy the subjective rights (h2ge.com., 2004). Yet it is still uncertain if the embryo can be considered a real being with sensory capability.
However, an article created by Lee at el., 2005 shown that an fertilised egg become to a fetus is a slow process. A fertilised egg is still only a group of tiny cells without a single anatomical feature of the human being it will later become. Up to about 14 days after fertilisation, no one can even tell if the embryo is going to be a single baby or twins. Yet, the boundary between a fertilised egg and a baby is still blurred. Those normally cited such as childbirth, viability, movement, these do not seem to relevant in this case. What important is that the capacity of the foetal to feel pain or the awareness of suffering. Two Pieces of research carried out by Fitzgerald (1994) and Derbyshire and Furedi (1997) demonstrated that fetuses only become capable of experiencing pain at 29 to 30 weeks because the brain structures that recognise sense stimuli are not developed yet. Pain travels through the nervous system, and the more specialised cerebral cortex is last to form. Moreover, foetal awareness of sense stimuli requires functional Thalamocortical connections. Thalamocortical fibres(2) begin to appear between 3 to 4 months of pregnancies, while electroencephalography proved that he capacity for the function of feeling pain does not exist before 29 or 30 weeks.
(2.) Thalamocortical fibres is a general term identifying nerve fibres arising from nuclei of the thalamus and projecting to, and terminating in, the cerebral cortex. Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary. (2012)
Thus, these researches show that a 12 weeks embryo is not a biological individual, much less than a person, it could be summarised to 3 aspects; First of all, it can not survived when it outside the womb; Second, at 12 weeks, brain development is in the vary first stages. Many of the functions still not developed ; Lastly, a 12 weeks embryo is unable to experiencing pain or of any others sensory perception, not to mention suffer or enjoy. As all the information I have mentioned, it seems clear that embryo technically is not as a member of the human class.
As we have seen, although most people are claiming some changes in the abortion current situation, however, politicians seem do not to be concerning and listening in Latin America. And the reason is because the conflict between constitutional recognition of rights, including women's rights, and the status law of the fetues, is not persistent with the principle that individuals are ends in themselves, it does not mean that it can be immolated or used to some other end.
Criminalise all abortion are absolutely non-fair of the pregnant woman's fundamental rights, Women should not be forced to act heroically and legislators should not regard women as a species which only for reproductions. No one, in no others situation, is forced to perform the supererogatory acts required of pregnant women. Over the past frothy years, science has confirmed that sensory capacities warranting legal consideration only appear in the last stages of pregnancy. Consequently, abortion should be decriminalised in the first two months of pregnancy and considered about human rights standards, including rape and life and health at risk. Moreover, the government should take the responsibility to provide the support of sex education and family planning in case of reducing the unnecessary abortion. In addition, penal abortion laws should also be abolition and people have to recognises that pregnancy should not strip women of their rights, liberty, or sanctity.