Current Events Unit Final Project

Robert Monteverde
Professor Katherine Luttrell

Logic and Composition 20380
7 February 2021
Opinion: Abortion Laws, No Matter How Unrestrictive, Inevitably Deny Women Sexual
and Reproductive Autonomy Through its Limitation on Access
Abortion is still punishable in most countries, albeit with exceptions. Most places where
abortion is legal have set a time limit on the number of weeks abortion is permitted. And even in
countries where there is no time limit such as Canada, for example, restrictions on access still
apply and many areas of the country do not have abortion services. Thus, abortion laws, no
matter how unrestrictive, inevitably deny women sexual and reproductive autonomy through its
limitation on access.
Every woman has the right to life and health and as long as abortion remains a crime, it
damages women who need abortions and threatens providers willing to help them. Cecilia Ousset
in Argentina, for example, faced charges for aggravated homicide by performing abortion on an
11-year-old rape victim, despite rape being one of the instances where abortion is allowed in the
said country. The advocacy campaign “Niñas, No Madres” (“Girls, Not Mothers”), which is now
supported by a Latin American-wide coalition of 45 organizations, draws on case histories of
girls aged 9–14 who have been raped by family members or acquaintances and who were denied
legal abortions (Casas 157). Their report shows that forced motherhood seriously damages the
girls’ physical, emotional, and psychological health (Casas 168). This restriction on abortion
creates an injustice that violates the girls’ rights to health, education, and information, further
burying them below the poverty line.
Although the most common reasons for wanting abortion come from a range of social
and economic reasons such as young age and being unable to support another child, many laws
on abortion allow the said procedure only if there is an immediate risk to a woman’s life, or in
the instance of rape. While having these grounds is better than having none at all, it also means
that only a small number of the women will be considered qualified for the procedure. More
often than not, women who are entitled to abortion still get denied because they seek abortion
after the legal time limit. In India, where abortion law permits abortions only up to 20 weeks of
pregnancy, many women and children who were raped do not seek help until it is too late
(Visaria 5044). Furthermore, there are doctors who still deny abortion on marital rape survivors
even if they come before the 20-week limit.
Limited grounds also mean that women have to pay a hefty sum for an abortion in a
private hospital or go through an unsafe abortion. Hence, broader legal grounds coupled with
longer time limits are needed to provide more women, especially young girls, access to safe
abortions. A World Health Organization Data Sheet shows that in developed regions,
approximately 30 women die for every 100,000 unsafe abortions (“Preventing Unsafe
Abortion”). The said number rises to 220 deaths per 100,000 unsafe abortions in developing
regions and 520 deaths for every 100,000 unsafe abortions in sub-Saharan Africa. Given the
figures mentioned, the consequences for the health and lives of a very high number of women
and girls continue to be at risk.
Sadly, countries that have decriminalized abortion continue to face challenges in its
implementation. Colombia’s Constitutional Court has approved abortion in 2006 (Casas 160).
But today, only less than 1% of abortions in Colombia are legal. As a result, activists have
proposed a total decriminalization of abortion. They draw on the concept of biolegitimacy, a
concept developed by Didier Fassin (Alexander 47). Biolegitimacy places importance not only
on women’s biological lives but also on their biographical lives, and posits that human rights
belong only to those who have been born. Decriminalizing abortion in its entirety eliminates the
stigma and can result to a normalization of abortion as a healthcare. It can then be concluded that
only when abortion as a healthcare is normalized can the sexual and reproductive autonomy of
women be truly achieved.
Works Cited
Alexander, Ronni. “Human Rights, Popoki and Bare Life.” In Factis Pax, vol. 3, no. 1, 2009, pp.
46–63, www.infactispax.org/volume3dot1/Alexander.pdf.
Casas, Ximena. “They Are Girls, Not Mothers: The Violence of Forcing Motherhood on Young
Girls in Latin America.” Health and Human Rights, vol. 21, no. 2, 2019, pp. 157–168.
JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26915385.
Ousset, Cecilia. “Opinion: Argentina Must Legalize Abortion so Doctors like Me Don’t Have to
Choose between Helping or Going to Prison.” The Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2020,
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/28/argentina-legal-abortion-senate-vote.
“Preventing Unsafe Abortion.” World Health Organization,
www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preventing-unsafe-abortion.
Visaria, Leela, et al. “Abortion in India: Emerging Issues from Qualitative Studies.” Economic
and Political Weekly, vol. 39, no. 46/47, 2004, pp. 5044–5052. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/4415809.

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Robert Monteverde

Professor Katherine Luttrell

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