For life or for a choice: What is the movement against abortion?
Movement against abortion also known as prolife (literally from the English. pro-life, that is, "for life"), successfully fits into the modern Russian conservative policy. Last week, with the help of experts, we talked about the activities of the TvoyKonsultation.rf project, which is supported by the Moscow government, and now we are telling what a pro-movement around the world and in Russia in particular is.
What are the opponents of abortion and why
The basic ethical principle of opponents of abortion is the inviolability of the life of an unborn child. Like their opponents, they refer to the Declaration of Human Rights, namely the right of every person to life. The source of the ethical conflict between opponents of abortion and their supporters is that opponents of abortion include embryos in the concept of "man", and sometimes fertilized eggs. In the world, including various confessions, today there is no single point of view on the point at which the fruit can be considered human (for example, in Judaism, only the moment of birth is considered to be the reference point). According to scientific data, the embryo cannot experience pain up to a period of 24 weeks, but opponents of abortion believe that any termination of pregnancy, even in its early stages, is murder. In some cases, they equate to abortion and the effect of emergency contraception - hormonal agents that prevent the fertilized egg from fixing on the wall of the uterus. Similar views on unborn children are also reflected in the characteristic vocabulary of the fighters against abortion: many of them reject the words embryo, fetus, or fetus in favor of such words as the “newborn child” and “prenatal child”.
From the point of view of abortion fighters, there can be no justification for abortion. Even if she came as a result of rape, or if a pregnant girl has not reached the age of majority, the child must be born - because "he is not guilty of the actions of the parents." The emphasis on the innocence of children as opposed to sinful parents is another characteristic feature of the movement of fighters with abortions. Prolifers completely impose obligations on a woman to an unborn child, also using intimidation methods - for example, pushing for harm to abortion for health and keeping silent about the fact that pregnancy can also have serious consequences. Natalya Moskvitina, the founder of the Russian movement “Women for life”, to which we turned for comment, says that the pregnancy of minors is not at all a matter of lengthy conversations. If you, as a mother and father, could not find time for a decent upbringing of your child and suddenly turned out to be a grandmother with grandpa, let these plans come true. "
The origins of the movement
The modern prolife movement originated in the 70s in the USA, right after the abortions were legalized by the decision of the Supreme Court. The first active fighters against abortions were religious and conservative groups who believed that affordable contraception and abortion were corrupting society and destroying traditional family values. Many participants of the movement were guided by their own conservative views on the family and the role of the woman in it. From this point of view, motherhood is the mission and duty of a woman, which cannot be abandoned. Today, in the United States and in other countries, many conservative politicians oppose abortion precisely from the standpoint of protecting traditional family and religious values. Often their initiatives do not look like a complete ban on abortions, but their restriction. For example, in Italy, a doctor has the right to refuse an abortion for his own ethical reasons. In practice, this law turned out that the majority of Italian doctors denied abortion to their patients - despite the fact that abortion in Italy was allowed. In the United States in recent years, medical facilities conducting abortions face an increasing number of restrictions, as a result of which many clinics are forced to close.
In Russia, the movement of fighters against abortions has been running from the 90s as a response to the state initiative on family planning. At zero, it received the support of the patriarch, coincided with a general conservative turn in society and reached its peak in legislative initiatives over the last couple of years. Nevertheless, we recall that, in accordance with the Federal Law on the Basics of Citizen Health Protection in the Russian Federation, each woman independently resolves the issue of maternity and has the full right to terminate a pregnancy for up to 12 weeks. Abortion is also permitted for social reasons with a gestation period of up to 22 weeks, and if there are medical indications and a woman’s consent, it is carried out regardless of the gestational age.
What methods are used by opponents of abortion
Opponents of abortion are often willing to use not the most ethical ways to achieve their goals: for example, to open centers of "counseling" where pregnant women are intimidated by the grave consequences of abortion, including psychological ones, cause them to feel guilty and persuade them to give birth by all means. As the investigation of Vice has shown, often the workers of these centers are not professional doctors and nurses, and their assistance to women does not go any further than the proliferation of rhetoric. The exception is consultations that collect donations for the benefit of mothers and their children and help them with things or, very rarely, with money. Some Russian fighters with abortions also offer help in caring for the child to women: for example, on the website “Let's save life together” you can find a list of shelters and help centers for pregnant women, most of them in churches. However, such organizations themselves consider themselves primarily human rights, and not charitable.
The most common argument of opponents of abortion is their detrimental effect on women's health. From the point of view of abortion fighters, any abortion causes irreparable harm to women's health, and even if a pregnant woman is a minor, childbirth is preferable because it is a "natural process." A typical point of view of the prolifera was expressed by the administrator of the “Save Life Together” page: “Pregnancy does not cripple a girl. Pregnancy is the most natural process. You cripple girls with abortions, increasing the cancer statistics !!”.
As a rule, prolife-rhetoric remains unsubstantiated: on the thematic sites one cannot find links to studies confirming such statements. Moreover, opponents of abortion often use deliberately false information, such as the correlation between cancers and abortions (this connection was denied by the US National Cancer Institute), or distort official data on the number of abortions in Russia. However, official medical statistics rarely appear on the websites of abortion fighters: many of them support the conspiracy theory that doctors all over the world get huge profits from abortions, and therefore their data should not be trusted. In addition to propaganda activities, supporters of the proliferation movement around the world regularly hold demonstrations (an interesting fact - their participants are mostly women, and not at all of the older generation), and sometimes even threaten doctors and attack clinics.
How opponents of abortion look at contraception and sex education
Opponents of abortion are often opposed to affordable contraception and sex education in schools, since they consider contraception and sex education as sinful and corrupt. In addition to the “immorality” of using contraceptives, a frequent argument is their inadequate reliability - none of them gives an absolute guarantee. Opponents of contraception believe that the protection that contraception provides is illusory and only leads to people beginning to approach sex less responsibly, which ultimately leads to an increase in the number of pregnancies and abortions.
Natalya Moskvitina, the founder of the “Women for Life” movement, shares this point of view: “Accessible contraception is a reliable way to corrupt young people and get even more pregnancies and abortions. This is what a large-scale sociological study conducted in the United States during the period from 70 90s. After this study, the Americans recognized the failure of propaganda of contraception, and this is not surprising. Telling people about the means of protection from pregnancy, artificially introducing the term "undesirable" is pregnant This way, a person is offered the path of pleasure, devoid of all meanings. And if harmony in the relationship between a man and a woman is most easily achieved through childbearing, the holiness of motherhood, through seeing oneself in his children, then by promoting contraception, the person deliberately goes beyond the family. " Natalya Moskvitina could not provide a link to this study.
Less radical groups of abortion fighters, such as "Save life together" or "Secular Pro-life", allow the use of contraception for those who do not want to have children - but still consider it their duty to warn everyone that no contraceptive does not protect against pregnancy is complete, and the only way guaranteed not to get pregnant is to completely give up sex.
Who and how opposes opponents of abortion
Pro-life movement is opposed to the pro-choice movement, that is, supporters of a woman’s right to choose and control her own body. They proceed from the fact that the fetus is not a human being, and therefore has no right to influence the choice and well-being of the mother. Their arguments are based on the fact that in the early stages of pregnancy the human fetus does not have a nervous system and heart, and therefore cannot feel pain, and its heart does not beat. It is important to understand that advocates of the right to choose women, just like prolifera, tend to reduce rather than increase the number of abortions, understanding that pregnancy and its subsequent interruption are stressful for the female body. But at the same time, they are in favor of ensuring that every woman in the world has the opportunity to terminate an unwanted pregnancy in a timely and safe manner.
“According to statistics, the number of abortions in the world is equal to the number of women living,” said Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, the organizer of the Women on Waves campaign. “This does not mean that every woman will have an abortion sooner or later - just some women have an abortion several times in their lives.” I spoke with women from countries where abortion is prohibited, for example, Chile or Morocco, and believe me, they are ready to make any sacrifices, just to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. Therefore, I am ready to send them medication for medical abortion, even in violation of the laws of their countries , because otherwise they will try to do it with the help of scrap materials, which is much more dangerous. "
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Proponents of choice point out that an abortion by a doctor is even safer than childbirth: many studies confirm this. In addition, supporters of available abortions appeal to the fact that, according to statistics, the majority of women who perform abortions already have children to take care of. The reason they go for an abortion is most often the inability to provide another child. It turns out that abortion is often used as a method of family planning, in connection with which supporters of available abortion advocate greater access to contraception, including emergency contraception.
Statistics confirm that the number of unwanted and terminated pregnancies is reduced due to the prevalence of protection, and not the criminalization of abortion. An example is Germany, where emergency contraception was released without a prescription only in March 2015. In the first three months, sales grew by 58%, and in less than a year, according to official figures, the number of abortions has decreased by 20%. Among other reasons for reducing the number of abortions, German doctors say that women are better informed. Their American colleagues agree with them: comparing the statistics of teenage pregnancies and abortions in the USA (where sex education is poorly developed) with Germany, France and Holland, they concluded that compulsory sex education in schools and the absence of rigid taboos on sex talk family generally contribute to reducing the number of pregnancies and abortions in adolescents.
What are the prohibitions of abortion and sex education?
The ban on abortion, contrary to the opinion of their opponents, does not improve demography and quality of life: in countries where abortion is illegal, women still do it - only with dangerous illegal or “popular” methods (including drinking bleach, trying to cause a miscarriage, inserting knitting needles or hangers into the vagina). According to WHO, underground abortions annually kill 47 thousand women. Women who decide to leave the child due to the inaccessibility of abortion, face no less problems, especially when it comes to very young girls. According to the information resource Girls not Brides, juvenile women in labor die more often during childbirth than adult women (according to UN statistics, childbirth is the second most common cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19) and have a high risk of giving birth to a dead child.
Women who have given birth to children at an early age need much more social support: they are less likely to finish school and find a good job, and often regret their decision to leave the child. Families where girls do not receive sex education and early become mothers and wives often remain poor for many generations, and children of such mothers are more likely to marry and give birth too early.
To date, international experience speaks in favor of the availability of abortion, coupled with contraception and sex education. Women, who have the opportunity to decide for themselves when and how many children to have, often give birth at a later age, having graduated from education and having acquired a profession, and their children, in turn, have more chances for a decent life. This year, the UN recognized the refusal to conduct an abortion as a violation of human rights, but discussions in society on this topic are still ongoing.
Photo: 1, 2 via Shutterstock, Students for Life, America, Amnesty International
