Statistics of Abortion - Essay Example

Abortion Abortion is a routine medical procedure that is carried on an extensive scale every year in the United s. The number of reported casesof abortion is continuously increasing with a lot of cases being unreported because of family issues or other legal matters. Statistics have proved that roughly around 40% of all women in the world tend to terminate their pregnancy by abortion at certain stage in their reproductive lives. Therefore, abortion can be simply described as the willing termination of the pregnancy through a medicine or surgery whereby the main purpose is to remove the embryo or fetus and placenta from the uterus.

This is usually carried out by a licensed physician after consultation from the family. Since the process is a highly personal one, there is extreme involvement from the pregnant women and at times of her family. It is apparent that women of every social class seek terminations, but typically there is a classification for the type of women who go for this abortion. They can be characterized as being either young, white, unmarried, poor or over the age of 40. Globally 20-30 million legal abortions are done each year, and as discussed earlier abortion in the United States is a common scene where approximately 1.

2 million abortions are performed every year. The US Supreme Court legalized the procedure of abortion in the year 1973 and since then many pregnant women have resorted to this medically safe procedure to save themselves from the hassle of bearing a child. There are usually several reasons why women carry out abortion; some include family pressure, unmarried, financial constraints to raise a child or social forces. There might be an instance whereby unprotected sex was carried out between young teenagers and resulted in the girl becoming pregnant.

Since the girl is not married and at times that parents are not aware of the prevailing situation, so the pregnant teenage girls resort to abortion to avoid getting their family defamed in front of their relatives and the society. These abortions are mostly preformed without proper consultation from health agencies and thus can be characterized as illegal abortions. Around 10-20 million abortions are performed illegally each year which constitutes for 13% of all deaths of women due to serious complications.

Nevertheless, this kind of illegal abortion happens in countries where it is not legal yet. (Anonymous, Abortion, 2012) In a lot of poor countries abortion takes place because the families can’t bear the birth of another child due to the low income of the household. Since most of the people in Third World Countries live on less than $1.25 per day, their family size is already ranging from 6-7, so the birth of another child is seen as a burden for them. Therefore, they resort to killing the unborn child and saving themselves from the hassle of going over the difficulties.

Social pressures at times also lead to the abortion of unwanted or illegal child, where there might be instances of rape or forced sex. So to avoid embarrassment or humiliation they take this short cut and risk their lives in danger. Due to this a lot of health problems arise and the women are never able to bear children for the rest of their lives. There are different ways to carry out abortion and the procedure is based on how far a woman is into her pregnancy. It is advised that proper consultation be taken before proceeding with the procedure since it might lead to future health problems.

In UK the law has made abortion legal for up to the first 24 weeks of pregnancy given that certain conditions are met. Any abortion done after that time period is considered illegal in UK and is also medically not recommended since it might endanger the lives of the women undergoing the medical procedure. (Anonymous, 2010) Abortion is therefore a procedure that is aimed towards helping women in case they can’t bear the children due to any reason. It is also a way to keep a check on the size of population and to counter the increased growth of population which contraceptives sometimes fail to do.

Although in certain countries abortion is not legal based on religious or ethical perception but nonetheless it is a critical medical step that can help save women who are in danger because of certain reproduction problems. Chances are that women younger than 20 who get pregnant are most likely to go through abortion because of pressure from the society, therefore to tackle such issues there should be support groups that teach them how to go through it both physically and psychologically. Along with this medical staff should be given proper training in order to carry out the medical procedures so as to not risk the lives of innocent individuals.

(Suzanne R Trupin, 2012) Works Cited Anonymous. (2010). Abortion. Retrieved from NHS choices: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Abortion/Pages/Introduction.aspx Anonymous. (2012). Abortion. Retrieved from Enotes: http://www.enotes.com/abortion-article Suzanne R Trupin, M. (2012). Abortion. Retrieved from emedicine health: http://www.emedicinehealth.com/abortion/article_em.htm