REFLECTION

Abortion is a topic that arouses intense emotions and divides our

modern community. Morals are dictated by the beliefs of society.
Society today views life as being precious, and as being something
that should be protected. Polls show that most people think that
abortion is wrong in the way it is legal today. Leaders from every
political angle have spoken out against the atrocity. Religions that
dominate culture have denounced the practice. Abortion is morally
wrong.

Laws contradict themselves by allowing abortion to remain legal. Many

laws have been enacted to protect the right of all: life. Even the
Supreme Court ruled that a fetus have the right to life when the
suggestions of "personhood" is made. How can a fetus not have
personhood after viability, when the fetus is independent of its
mother, 25 weeks before birth? Abortion is legally wrong, and needs to
become illegal.

Religious Leaders- "You shall not slay the child by abortion"

Excommunication of women committing abortion after adultery
Condemnation of abortion for any and all reasons " he or she was
deemed dignified and developed enough to be the possessor of an
immortal soul.."
The Bible- " Can a woman forget her infant, or be without tenderness
for the child in her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget
thee"--- Isaiah 49:15
"But when God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace" ---- Galatians 1:15

The pro-life movement exists to contend for the reality that every
life matters, that every person is a person, and that the right to
life is fundamental. Christians have found ourselves at home in the
pro-life movement because we know that every person bears the image of
God (Gen. 1:27). As an image-bearer, each person is accorded with
intrinsic worth and dignity, fully deserving of the rights and
liberties afforded to every other person.

 Pro-life or pro-choice? Pro-rights
Published on 5 December 2018

With the recent passing of an abortion bill in the state of Ohio’s

House of Representatives, and the imposition of the Global Gag Rule in
2017 which stopped funding for services providing abortion advice and
care overseas, the US is undermining women’s rights both at home and
abroad. Debates around abortion have been characterised by pro-life vs
pro-choice arguments. Yet, these are fundamentally questions of
rights, as countries such as Ireland and Canada have underlined in
their approaches to abortion.

Restrictive abortion laws

One of the potential impacts of the new abortion bill is that in the
American state of Ohio, a woman could be punished with a fifth degree
felony and $2,500 fine if her foetus’ heartbeat can be heard by a
doctor after six weeks—an amount of time so short that she likely
doesn’t even know about her pregnancy. Despite medical professionals
traditionally being protected, the administering doctor can now also
be penalised and there are no exceptions for rape or incest.
Yet there is political and popular support for the bill as indicated
by the new governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, in The New York Times who
said: “I will sign the bill, […] I believe that the essential function
of government is to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
That includes the unborn.”

However, particularly given that maternal death rates are record-high

in the US, what about the rights of vulnerable women?
There are also concerns about the impact of the ‘Gag’ rule on human
rights globally. Out of the 22,800–31,000 lives unnecessarily lost
each year, the highest “case fatality rate” is in Africa (Guttmacher
Institute 2017). Under the current conservative regime in the US, this
disregard for women’s lives has expanded into our development funding
with the extension of the rule and again, ‘the world’s most vulnerable
women will suffer’. Dangerously, when more restrictions are placed on
abortion rights, more unsafe abortions are had.

In August 2017, the United Nations Committee against Torture found

that in Ireland, severe physical and mental anguish and distress was
brought upon women and girls due to the country’s restrictive abortion
laws. Specifically, a woman’s human rights were violated: her right to
be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment; her rights to
privacy; and her right to non-discrimination.
Human Rights Watch argued this year that the right to be free from
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; the right to decide the number
and spacing of children; and the right to liberty are all examples of
human rights that “may be at risk” when abortion is restricted.
Women’s human rights are at risk as seen by the increase in unsafe
abortions due to restrictive laws.
The US withdrew from the United Nations Human Rights Council, (I could
write a whole other blog post about this disastrous decision) however,
it is still a member of several committees which demand access to safe
and legal abortions, such as the Committee on the Elimination on All
Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the
Rights of the Child. CEDAW specifically states:

‘In 1999, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against

Women (CEDAW Committee) recognized “laws that criminalize medical
procedures only needed by women and that punish women who undergo
those procedures” as a barrier to women’s access to appropriate health
care.’ –Center for Reproductive Rights, October 2011
Punishing women in the state of Ohio with a fine and prison time is in
direct violation of CEDAW to which the US is a signing member.
The US should look to the European Court of Human Rights where in the
case of Vo v. France it found that: ‘it is neither desirable, nor even
possible as matters stand, to answer in the abstract the question
whether the unborn child is a person for the purpose of Article 2 of
the Convention …” (providing that “everyone’s right to life shall be
protected by law”).’ The court denied a ruling that would’ve distorted
the meaning of the right to life.

Meanwhile, in the US, ‘pro-life’ groups continue to construct their

own meaning of this international right, i.e. the right to life; and
are obstructing justice for those women who are most certainly alive
in the process. That is, until they die.

There is hope. We can look at Ireland’s transformative policy stance

on abortion as an example of progress. The country recently revoked
its ban on abortion and made the procedure free of charge to all
women. Canada is also a leader with the Minister of Status of Women
declaring the denial of an abortion as a form of gender-based violence
(GBV). This means that the conversation will shift from that of simply
a ‘woman’s health issue’ to one of a woman’s right to be free from all
forms of violence, including forced motherhood.