I grew up in a religious household and then, when my parents divorced it wasn't as religious. But I had close friends that were religious, I mean I was from Ohio, most, but not everyone, are devoted to their churches in a conservative way. I didn't use to agree with abortion, I use to think, "Why would anyone do that?" And then I learned about human trafficking 5 years ago and realised how ignorant I was.
According to the CDC, there were 638,169 legal abortions in the United States in 2015. Worldwide, 1 in 4 girls will have an abortion in their life (Amnesty International). These statistics talks about the LEGAL abortions that have been recorded at registered clinics with doctors and registration with their governments. However, I know that not every abortion is done legally, even in the US where it is legal, I personally know that women still take the original route of unsafe abortion. There are a range of unsafe abortion methods such as using a coat hanger, using bleach, hitting the abdomen, falling, etc. Nearly, 7,000,000 unsafe abortions are performed every year and 22,000 girls die as a result of an abortion (MSJ). This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
From my own personal experience and research, I have seen a variety of reasons for abortions that include financial reasons, age, fatal abnormality of the foetus, rape, and even force by a partner, pimp (sex trafficking situations) or parent. Abortion should not be judged, a women should not be judged or shamed for getting an abortion but she should be the person that decides that she is having an abortion. She should be the one that decides that this is what she wants at that point in time and she should have access to her choice of a safe abortion.
Safe abortion method options include: a medical abortion pill or a surgical abortion. A medical abortion just involves a pill that is given to you by a doctor and they instruct you on how to take that pill to eliminate a pregnancy. While a surgical abortion is done by a qualified doctor but it is considered a minor surgery; it removes the pregnancy by gentle suction (British Pregnancy Advisory Service).
If you ever need to consider having an abortion please, find a doctor that can help you through the process. I have never personally had a safe abortion but I understand that this service is needed in every single country. Every single woman in this world should have access to safe abortion without any judgement or shame.
A great organisation that I love to follow is Women on Waves, is a team of women that travel to developing countries where women can't access abortion. They take women out into international waters without any type of governance and are able to provide women with an abortion. Furthermore, there is Planned Parenthood in the United States and Marie Stropes in Australia. There are abortion support doulas that help women after they have received abortion. There isn't a major service out there until I listened to a recent podcast that made the point that there isn't much support afterwards. An abortion doula that I follow on Instagram is radiantwoman_ (Stephanie Matthias) and this maybe helpful for some of you that need it.
I hope this helps to give a basic overview of abortion, I don't know everything about the process or experience of going through an abortion but I wanted to provide women with some basic information that need it.
Xoxo,
Moonli
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