Are girls using abortions as a form of birth control? According to writer Beezy Marsh, some young women are experiencing as many as 4 abortions by their 18th birthdays. Out of 19,000 girls who underwent an abortion procedure last year, for 1,500 of them, this was not their first. Furthermore, in an extreme case, one girl was on her 8th abortion! Due to government secrecy regarding abortion information, the exact details are often kept undocumented in public records.
Why are young girls so seemingly carefree about the idea of having an abortion? Marsh suggests that for many of these young women, abortion is not seen as a traumatic event, but rather a routine option of ridding themselves of an unplanned or unintended pregnancy. Marsh further suggests that this type of behavior is a response to the failures of contraceptive services to young people. For some young women, going on birth control is not an option and risk becoming pregnant due to unprotected sexual activities. The risks are not limited to unplanned pregnancies. For many young men and women, the risk for contracting sexually transmitted infections is present.
These girls are not the majority of women. In fact, most women who experience an abortion attempt to make sure they do not find themselves in the same situation. Suggestions that could help these young women are offered in this article such as better access to birth control and addressing other issues that may be present in the girls’ lives.
Additional sources offer a response to “abortion as birth control.” Contacept.org is an organization combating the use of abortion as a substitute for contraception. Many women are utilizing abortion in the event that they improperly used contraception or in some cases, no contraceptive use was used at all. This organization offers some statistics on women seeking abortions and birth control:
1) 46% did not use contraception during the month they became pregnant
2) 8% never used a method of birth control
3) 47% had at least one previous abortion
This website also offers reasons women give for having an abortion:
1) 75% of women said that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities
2) 75% said they cannot afford a child
3) 50% noted that they do not want to be a single parent or that they are experiencing problems with their partner
Women using abortion as a means of birth control are at risk for many other health concerns such as, reproductive tract infections, HIV/AIDS, future reproductive problems. The risks associated with abortions include: complications to cervical laceration, hemorrhaging, pain, infection, and emotional distress.
http://www.contracept.org/abortifacient.php
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I dont know if i believe the facts represented in this article, but then again abortion is kept secret quite often by young mothers. But in the town i grew up these issues were often talked about, and being such a small town everyone knew everything about everyone. Over the past five years the town has grown in extreme numbers so the atmosphere is changing, but for the most part we have kept are small town knowledge about everyone and everything. Since my freshman year in highschool in 2004 until today 21 girls in my 2007 graduating class alone have become mothers. That doesnt even count the male population who have also become fathers within this time period.
ReplyDeleteI believe abortions are looked as an option for each young individual but I also believe young women usually only resort to this action if their situations are so dire that they don't know what else to do. But with many young individuals becoming parents within the nation it seems as if parenting has become common within households. While individuals see this, they realize they can do the same, and chose to have the baby instead :).
Instead of abortion being a birth control agent we need to start making birth control more available to the younger population!