Termination of Pregnancy: Multiple Abortion Complications and Consequences

Throughout history, abortion has been a frequent subject of controversy in the moral, ethical, and social standards. Abortion has been restricted or prohibited in diverse societies, but then also abortions are still common even where law and social pressure oppose them. When we think about the possibility of abortion, we usually take it too lightly without considering the serious consequences that can affect other people besides the mother and child. We think mother and baby are the only ones involved in this great problem, but if we look more thoroughly, we realize the true fact that abortion not only affects the persons going through this trauma but also those around them as they are unconsciously or consciously involved in taking this terrible decision of abortion. Nowadays, adolescent women get engaged in premarital affairs and undergo multiple abortions. Some married women also undergo abortions just because of one stupid mistake of not using protection. These people do not even understand that they have given birth to one life and by aborting they are going to kill that life. Why they do this and don’t use protections at the time of engaging in love has been a controversial question which has remained unanswered for many.

When we have all sorts of precautions available than why should we take chances? Abortion looks like a simple medical procedure but if done due to some stupid mistakes, it is a shame. Sometimes, pregnant women and their fetus get involved in some medical problems and it becomes necessary to do abortion and if this is the case, then it is fine because the doctor has to save one’s life, either mother or baby. Abortion, legal or illegal, is psychologically and physically damaging to women and can even cause death of mother. The pro-abortion propaganda continually proclaims the lie that legal abortion is medically “safe” and that it is necessary to legalize or decriminalize due to the large number of maternal deaths caused by illegal abortion. This strategy to legalize abortion misleadingly is called “Safe Motherhood”. Statistically speaking, it is estimated that the immediate risk of such complications is 10%, but the long-term complications is between 20% and 50%. In addition to physical complications due to abortion, women suffer spiritually and emotionally from what has already been identified as the “post-abortion syndrome”.

Definition of Abortion - According to WHO, abortion means spontaneous or induced termination of pregnancy before the twentieth week counting from the first day of the last normal menstrual period, when the fetus can not survive outside the womb. By this time, the fetus weighs at least 500 grams and a total measurement of up to 20 cm and the measurement of crown to rump is approximately 16.5 cm. From the medical point of view, it is considered that the word abortion involves the termination of pregnancy or aborted pregnancy after the blastocyst has implanted in the endometrium and before the fetus reaches viability. In simple words, abortion is the death of a child in the womb produced during any stage ranging from fertilization (union of egg and sperm) until after birth.

In our country India, it is important to recognize that abortion complications that cause most maternal deaths are related to extra marital affairs involving secret unsafe procedures done by an inexperienced doctor and due to ignorance, lack of education, and rapes. In India, it has been estimated that more than 30000 pregnancies end in abortion and 20% of them are unmarried teenagers constituting a major cause of maternal mortality. Unwanted pregnancy in teenagers is associated with no or poor sex education, early exercise of sexuality with little clarity about the reproductive risks, and over-valuation of motherhood. So this was something about abortion in general, its complications and consequences and in my upcoming hub, I will talk about types of abortions and how they occur.