The "A" Issue

Anytime I think about abortion, a number of things run through my mind.  A couple of years ago it was easy for me to comment on either pro choice or anti abortion with no qualms.  As a Christian I believe whole heartedly that killing of life in whatever form or at whatever stage be it a day old foetus to a fully fledged human being is unacceptable. Now do not jump into conclusion that I belong to the anti abortion faction. I have not thought about abortion (call it termination of a pregnancy or in short <TOP> in the medical field we call that politically correct term) in a while as my field of specialty does not usually come across clients with such problems unless by some error she comes into my ward. Such a client is shuffled off to the gynaecologist as quickly as possible before disputes come as to who should manage the client especially when there is a medical diagnosis attached.

Anyway, I have not thought about this in a while until about 3 weeks ago when a discussion came up amongst some medical colleagues of mine.  For starters, these 3 doctors are professed Christians and were debating what to do if a woman comes to you and request for termination of pregnancy.  In Ghana TOP is legal when performed in an authorized hospital by authorized personnel (with some slight legalities which we can discuss later).  The law of being a medical professional requires that if you can not provide a service you must refer or direct the person to a place where such a service can be provided.  Some of my colleagues said they felt guilty when they referred clients to places where TOPs could be performed as it felt as though they had assisted in terminating a life.  I used to feel the same way when I had to do the same but then I visited the family planning services which carried out these abortions and found out that in these certified places, before you undergo the procedure, you are counseled further and when the personnel are satisfied and or convinced about your desire for the termination, then the procedure is carried out.  So at the end of the day the woman is the one who makes that choice for herself.  It is almost like saying you can force a horse to the river bank, but you cannot force it to drink water. 

One of my colleagues told of a story whereby a young lady visited a clinic and in consulting with the medical doctor, told him that she was 2 months pregnant and wanted to terminate her pregnancy.  Now the doctor who did not believe or condone abortion counseled her and tried to convince her not to terminate the pregnancy.  After about 1 hour of counseling the woman was still insistent but my colleague refused to carry it out.  Later that evening whilst on call, my colleague was called to see an emergency involving a young lady who had be brought in bleeding copiously.  He rushed to the ER only to find the young lady lying on the ER bed in a pool of blood and dying.  The lady passed away, despite all efforts to resuscitate.  The doctor was dumbfounded, and could not believe his eyes.  Now he wondered if he had done the right thing by not helping the young lady out.  She had tried to terminate the pregnancy on her own and had succeeded in doing so, but at the cost of her own life.

Thinking about this young lady makes me also remember my days as a house officer in OBGYN when in the middle of the night a teenager was brought to the ER cold and pale with evidence of severe blood loss, the people who brought her all denied knowledge of her and her condition, it took one brave young man who spoke to me after other relatives had left to tell me that the young woman had been brought to the house a few days back to terminate a pregnancy by taking some pills and herbs resulting in her bleeding to death.  No one wanted to claim responsibility for this so when the bleeding got worse it took a long time to make that decision to come to the hospital by which time it was too late.

Across the street where from the hospital I worked at in Accra, the young women know what to do, they know what drugs to take, so they would take the drugs to induce an abortion and when the bleeding starts they would head to the hospital and in order to manage the situation the medical personnel would have to terminate the pregnancy.  In effect, they knew that if they started the process, it would be completed by the hospital.

This is just one of thousands of stories which happen on a daily basis, many young women are dying through these illegal abortions.  In Ghana, many people do not know that most hospitals offer these services as part of their family planning methods, but these are not publicized for reasons which I do not know.  Perhaps we want our family planning services to focus more on preventing pregnancies rather than terminating them.

It is not an easy thing for a young person to approach a family planning unit and seek the counseling services especially when they are unmarried.  They are looked upon us immoral, however we fail to educate the young ones properly in good morals and we are not ready to support them when things go wrong and pregnancies occur.

So at the end of the day are you Pro choice or Anti Abortion? Don’t be too quick to come to conclusions and also to judge people. The question one must answer is “Whose life am I saving?”