Leslie Valdiviezo

RWS 1302
Eduardo Nevarez

Abortion and the effects on womens health

Abortion. The single word sends people running as we see that this is one of the most

controversial topics we see put on display on the news, and in society as we carry within

ourselves a stigma against the topic. However, we have begun to see how this topic that has

been often swept under the rug begin to affect the lives of women as government officials

have begun to make it difficult for women to obtain safe and legal abortions, or even obtain

affordable health care to prevent a pregnancy, and while that is swept under the rug there are

new cases every month of senators trying to pass bills to make it harder for women to obtain

abortions putting womens overall health at such a high risk, it becomes difficult to

understand if it is better to not allow women to have an abortion and risk them going

elsewhere and making their health severely decline, or if it is better to simply allow them to

go through with the abortion, and keep womens health in a better state. Therefore, it is only

fair to ask how the ratification of laws prohibiting abortion and its legality affecting women

who seek abortion outside of the law.

In order to understand how the current issues are affecting women in our day and age, it

is important to first understand the history behind the legality of abortions. Starting in the

year 1973; the supreme court ruled against a state law stating that a woman could only have

an abortion to save the life of the mother by saying it was unconstitutional, under the pretense

that it is unconstitutional to prevent a woman to have an abortion or for the state to regulate

abortions within the first trimester. This was validated under the claim that the First, Fourth,

Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments protect an individual's "zone of privacy" against state
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laws and cited past cases ruling that marriage, contraception, and child rearing are activities

covered in this "zone of privacy."("The Supreme Court . Expanding Civil Rights . Landmark

Cases . Roe V. Wade (1973) | PBS") . With this it became clear that there was a separation

between healthcare and the government.

This seemed to change when the state of Texas passed the Texas Omnibus Abortion

Bill, also commonly known as HB2. The bill required that any kind of abortion (chemical or

surgical) be performed at an ambulatory surgical center. This forced many health centers that

performed abortions to close as they couldnt afford to make renovations necessary to legally

remain open. This bill was brought forward to the United States Supreme Court as it appeared

to go against the famous case Roe v. Wade causing many to believe that this would mean a

dramatic cutback on abortion rights across the country, and potentially a steppingstone toward

the reversal of Roe v. Wade as stated in the article written by Nina Totenberg. Texas

Solicitor General Scott Keller stated in an interview that he then proceeded to tell the

supreme court justices that 10 women per week visit emergency rooms for complications

from abortions, and that the ambulatory surgical center standards are necessary for dealing

with more acute emergencies, and as stated by state representative Jason Isaac this bill was

said to make abortions as safe as humanly possible. However, the medical problems some

women began to face after the bill was placed began to become more and more evident with

women in the borderland as they began to search for abortions across the border in Mexico,

and those who were not close enough to the border had to resort to travel to other cities in

order to obtain a legal abortion.

The issues only seem to continue as in the modern day there are still women being targeted

for having abortions. To bring these issues into light, it is necessary to bring forth two issues
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faced within the United States of women who were prosecuted for having abortions. With the

change in the presidency we see how many people begin to push our political leaders to listen

to us and represent us but we also see how their personal issues come along, for example,

when President Donald Trump was interviewed by MSNBC Trump claimed that there has to

be some form of punishment for women seeking abortions. setting off a trigger everywhere

for both people who were pro life and pro choice. But before anyone could do anything about

it as women began to be put on trial for having more unconventional abortions to say the

least. For instance, we see Purvi Patel, a woman from Indiana who is attempting to appeal a

30-year prison sentence for her conviction for feticide. Prosecutors found that Patel ordered

abortion pills online. However a prosecutor in Indiana who presented Patels case said that,

A more accurate title would be unlawful termination of pregnancy.However Patel suffered

severe blood loss, suffered through passing clots, and was completely unsupervised, and after

suffering all the effects of having an unlawful termination woke up in a hospital bed with

policemen at the door of her room, which as many can expect, turned into a traumatic

experience.

The second case being that of a woman in Tennessee, who at 24 weeks pregnant used a

coat hanger to try to induce an abortion and later gave birth to a living child. ("Women Are

Already Being Prosecuted For Having Abortions" MSNBC). The tennessee woman was later

charged with aggravated assault, to which she pled not guilty, only after having the court

attempt to charge her with attempted murder, the latter charge was dropped. However, this

doesnt remove the fact that what is, even initially a difficult decision, a traumatizing one.

In 2017, more issues have risen with clinics that provide abortions, such as Planned

Parenthood. According to Fivethirtyeight.com, Planned parenthood is primarily funded by

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Medicaid and provides services such as family planning, STI screenings, mammograms, and

cancer screenings. However, Medicaid does not give money towards abortions, with the

exceptions of rape, incest, and when the mothers life is put at risk due to the pregnancy. Any

other abortions must be paid for through other means. In any case we are still seeing how iowa

has developed a bill which would cut off state Medicaid funding for abortion providers, a

move clearly targeting the states 12 Planned Parenthood clinics.(Thomson-DeVeaux, 2017)

This puts the clinics at risk as without the funding women will not be able to have access to

other health care services as the providers in the clinic will not be covered as they are

considered to provide abortions, and despite the desperate need to keep Planned Parenthood

open, Senator Amy Sinclair claims that other health care sites that dont provide abortion

would be able to pick up the slack. (Thomson-DeVeaux, 2017)

In the state of Texas the majority is republican conservative, and oposes abortion.

However, this unfortunately means that in a strong conservative background it is seen that the

conservative side of Texas affects the political decisions as they try to find ways to regulate and

make abortions harder to obtain. In Texas, there is what is called a social

conservatism("Texas Politics - Texas Political Culture", 2017) which is a social structure that

favors older beliefs. Which affect how the views in the state are handled in the sense that much

of the states structure is dependant on the conservatism of those who run the systems in the

state. This makes the structure a very subjective one as it shows its based more on a matter of

personal values and not so much in an objective matter where it can be seen as what would

benefit the citizens as a whole.

Currently, women are finding ways to obtain abortions elsewhere that doesn't require

traveling long distances to find an accredited clinic. In El Paso, women have two options to
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obtain an abortion, which include traveling south of the border to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, or

traveling to New Mexico. However, in Mexico abortions are illegal with the exception of cases

of incest and rape, and even then abortions are less likely to be provided. Unfortunately,

women in El Paso come back having to look for care for infections that they develop secondary

to the abortions they have in Mexico. No matter which abortion these women obtain, they are

at a higher risk for infection because a chemical abortion requires two drugs, and in mexico

they will only sell you one of the two necessary drugs, and as stated by the NPR abortions [in

mexico are done] with misoprostol that lack the second drug, mifepristone, and also lack the

guidance and supervision by a doctor that the women would get in the U.S.("Legal Medical

Abortions Are Up In Texas, But So Are DIY Pills From Mexico", 2017)

The internet is another viable option for women to seek abortion without the

supervision of a doctor as they provide very easy step by step instructions and it is relatively

affordable. There is a website online, Safe2Choose.com, which allows you to order abortion

pills online for as low as $57.00 and even includes an option to pay what you can and will

allow the person to live chat with a person in order to come to an agreement as to what you can

pay to obtain the drugs. Once in the order option it sends you to a link in which you can

choose to have an online consultation. This system allows the user to get as far as to putting in

your nationality and where you live, before stopping you to tell you how they will contact you.

This service is a big danger to women because in their plan it shows women how to lie about

their abortion in case they have an emergency, using lines like i am bleeding but i am not too

sure what is going on and I am bleeding but this is more than my normal period. These

resources are so openly available to women, however the risks are so high that its concerning
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that women would resort to them as a last shot in order to have an abortion that they wouldn't

be able to find anywhere near a in a clinic, at a price they would be able to afford.

Womens health will be affected in a big way if abortions are banned, in the sense that,

as stated in the paragraphs above, women who search for abortion else where have a higher

chance of infection. It was also found that regardless of the situation, women who go through

with an abortion have a higher chance of developing mental health issues such as depression,

anxiety, or even gain suicidal ideations. This is due to the hormones that are affected with the

pregnancy that was lost, and the social stigma they face after having the abortion, as stated in

the British Journal of Psychology "Results indicate quite consistently that abortion is associated

with moderate to highly increased risks of psychological problems subsequent to the

procedure," (raquo;, 2017) these problems included depression, anxiety, alcohol use,

marijuana use or suicidal behavior.

It was also found that women who kept unwanted pregnancies were more likely to

abuse or neglect the children that came from said pregnancy. As it is shown in a study by the

NCBI unintended pregnancy has a major impact on numerous social, economic, and cultural

aspects of modern life. This statement is later supported as it begins talking about the maternal

demographic status in the sense of teen pregnancy, where they state births during the teenage

years are concentrated among disadvantaged groups, whose members are likely to experience

multiple disadvantages as adults. (NCBI Bookshelf, 2017) However, it is refuted under the

idea that teen pregnancy only reflects the disadvantaged background they are coming from and

is not reflecting any negative effects due to the timing of the birth itself (Luker, 1991).

Despite the situation of the birth keeping the unwanted pregnancy could lead a woman to feel
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resentment towards the child which would later become evident in cases of psychological and

emotional abuse, over cases of physical abuse.

It is also proven that teens who become pregnant are less likely to finish high school,

which leads them to be less likely to attend college which makes them less likely to aim to get

a better future for themselves or their child. It was also found that teenagers who had carried a

pregnancy are 25% more likely to have another child within 24 months of the last pregnancy,

placing the teen at risk of further falling below the line of poverty if she doesn't have the

adequate amount of support from those around her.

Abortion has always been a highly sensitive topic as it deals with peoples personal

ideas and ethics, making peoples opinions and ideas, based on something more abstract

concept instead of a solid one. In todays day in society it is seen how many people are learning

more and more about the things going on around them, and have become heavily opinionated.

And education is what society needs to keep looking forward towards bettering the health of

women, regardless of their decision.

 Leslie Valdiviezo
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Eduardo Nevarez

Works cited

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Ted Joyce
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