Mothers everywhere need to be for abortion care in their state. They need to be for abortion care for two main reasons, one, it is life-saving care. Two, it is essential for the health and safety of born children. When a woman is forced to give birth and raise a child, there is a higher risk that child ends up unsupported, neglected, or even abused.
After all, abortion restrictions did not come alongside heavy reforms to child support. The states implementing extreme abortion restrictions have not simultaneously increased childcare support, made daycare free, or invested heavily in after-school programs to help lower-income children get the best shot at life. Instead, they put all the emotional and financial burden on women and women alone.
Abortion is already a lengthy process, and is never done lightly. If that isn’t enough to convince you of why mothers need to actively advocate for abortion care, then look at these top five reasons:
1. Not All Pregnancies are Viable
There are so many reasons why women need to support women, and why all women (including mothers) need to advocate to expand abortion access in their state to reflect either safe haven states’ approach, or pro-abortion countries like Australia. In Australia, for example, abortion clinics are available in every major city. The provider changes per state, but the availability of abortion is universal across the country.
Not all pregnancies are viable. Fetuses can grow without essential organs like their brain, but because they still have a heart beat (kept up due to the mother), abortion is not legal. This means that women are forced to give birth and endure all that trauma and pain, only for their baby to die immediately, if it wasn’t stillborn.
2. It Can Save a Woman’s Life
The case that changed Northern Ireland’s stance on abortion was completely tragic and avoidable. This case? Dr. Savita Halappanavar, a dentist, was refused a medically-essential abortion because her fetus had a heartbeat, and medical providers could have been prosecuted. She later died due to sepsis because that abortion was denied to her. Ectopic pregnancies, where the fetus grows anywhere outside of the uterus, are almost always fatal. When near-total bans are introduced like those that existed in Northern Ireland, mother mortalities increase.
3. It Gives Women Control Over Their Body
A fetus cannot exist without its mother. When abortion restricts access to abortion care, it essentially tells women everywhere that their life is second to the cells growing in their womb. A woman absolutely has rights over her body and what is done to it. When you restrict abortion, you essentially tell her that her life is second to that fetus.
4. It Prevents Backyard Abortions
Abortion access restrictions only prevent safe abortions. When you restrict them, desperate women (and men) will do desperate things. Whether this is a “coat hanger abortion” or domestic violence, the end result is the same: the woman’s life is in danger.
5. It Is Completely Safe and In Many Places, Legal
Abortion is completely safe, and very rarely will a late-term abortion ever be conducted. In most instances, abortion is restricted after 24 weeks. After those 24 weeks, only medical reasons or other circumstances (such as rape or incest) are considered.