Law in the Philippines reflects most anti-choice ideals: Abortion is illegal and taboo, with only very limited exceptions. And yet the Philippines has a higher abortion rate than the United States. It also has a whole lot more women who are injured and killed by abortion. Some facts:
* Women who terminate their pregnancies risk prosecution and a prison sentence of up to six years. Anyone providing or assisting in the procedure faces a similar sentence as well as the loss of any medical licence.
* Abortion may be obtained legally if it is necessary to save a woman’s life.
* In 2000, women in the Philippines were estimated to have had more than 473,000 induced abortions, translating to a rate of 27 abortions per 1,000 women. The average rate in the United States was 20.
* Most women who have abortions in the Philippines are married, Roman Catholic and mothers already with at least three children. The majority terminate their pregnancy because they cannot afford another child.
* Artificial contraceptives are not widely used in the Philippines, a largely Catholic country whose government emphasises natural methods of family planning.
* Over 50 percent of women who have had an abortion were not using any family planning. Of those who were practicing contraception, three-fourths were using natural methods such as rhythm or withdrawal.
* Only 25 percent of women who have an abortion use a surgical procedure. The rest either ingest herbs or drugs, insert catheters in their vaginas, drink alcohol, fast or get a traditional midwife to pound their lower abdomen.
* Two in three women who terminate a pregnancy experience complications such as severe pain and infection. An estimated 800 women per year die from complications.
That is what “pro-life” looks like.
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jesus, that’s brutal.
Those women are all sluts who get what they deserve, in the eyes of the “pro-life” movement.
I once read a statement by a Catholic monsignor or bishop or whatever he was, asserting, in all seriousness, that “a girl” who dies from an abortion deserves no more sympathy than “a girl” who blows herself up while making a bomb. It’s simply mind-boggling to me that anyone takes these people seriously.
No shit! In the (developed) West, apparently most catholics go on with their lives regardless of what the Magnificent Idio-I mean, the Pope says. They have the wherewithal to make up their own minds & live their own lives. They are, incidentally, also most in favor of Choice (compared to Protestants). I think though, that they have a responsibility, if they disagree so much with the higher ups, to overhaul the way their denomination is run, instead of merely doing whatever they please. Other people need them to speak up.
Abortion may be obtained legally if it is necessary to save a woman’s life.
Given the extremist backtracking the Church has done on abortion (look at the recent outcry over Amnesty’s wholly uncontroversial policy change), it’s odd but I’m actually surprised to see that. But of course, in theory, this legal concession probably means very little…women are supposed to be martyrs dying in childbirth.
err, that should be “in practice”, not “in theory”.
This guy pissed me off. Apparently there is no difference between aborting your unborn child and killing an adult. Oh and women who were raped only have abortions for convience. It’s not like there is any emotional trama from rape, the dirty whores were probably asking for it anyway.
[...] Illegal abortion killing and injuring women in the Philippines from Feministe by Jill [...]
[...] every year; hundreds of thousands more are injured. Women around the world suffer when pro-life laws rule the land. And “pro-lifers” could care less. Illegal abortion is the cause of 25% [...]