The truth about abortion
LETTER TO THE EDITOR, May 6, 2004
Dear Editor:
A recent demonstration by anti-choice activists here at IVCC made me angry. Of course as a pro-choice woman, these people make me angry no matter what, but I found this group particularly offensive because of the misleading and incomplete information they were providing as fact.
To set the record straight, I have compiled some data about abortion that is accepted fact among people in the medical community.
Legal surgical abortion is one of the safest types of medical procedures. Complications from having a first trimester abortion are minimal. Death occurs in one of 100,000 abortions. Childbirth carries seven times more risk.
However, abortion has not always been so safe. When abortion was illegal many women died or had serious medical problems as a result. Women suffered and died as a result of serious complications including perforations of the uterus, retained placentas, severe bleeding, cervical wounds, rampant infections, poisoning, shock, and gangrene.
Around the world in countries where abortion is illegal, it remains a leading cause of maternal death. An estimated 78,000 women worldwide die each year from unsafe abortions.
Pregnancy can be a wonderful thing, if you want to be pregnant.
But for the over 1 million women and girls who accidentally become pregnant every year for whatever reason, be it rape, lack of access to affordable birth control, or misinformation about the effective use of birth control, it can be a nightmare.
Pregnancy is hard on a woman’s body and can lead to life threatening illnesses such as gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and severe blood loss, to name just a few. No one should be forced to put their life or health in danger unless they choose to do so. That’s what being pro-choice is all about.
The facts about abortion are simple; the choice to have an abortion is not. I hope for the sake of future generations of women and girls that the choice continues to remain theirs to make.
Leslie Englehaupt
IVCC Student
Mother of Two by Choice