In Poland, a young woman died from sepsis, because doctors were in no hurry to abortion, and people went outside with protests. The ban on termination of pregnancy is designed to preserve the rights of an unborn child, but at the same time he deprives the woman of the opportunity to dispose of her own body and make decisions that will affect her life.
The Polish Constitutional Court found that the provisions of the legislation allowing termination of pregnancy in the event of a serious defect or incurable fetal disease did not comply with the constitution. In January 2021, the law came into effect.
This means that abortion is now virtually prohibited in the country, even if the child is incurablely sick and doomed to torment or ambulance. A woman has the right to terminate pregnancy only if she came as a result of rape or threatens her mother’s life.
This means that residents of the country are obliged to bear and give birth not only unwanted children on whom there are no moral or material resources, but also children who may not survive (or even certainly will not survive) after the birth.
Taking a verdict, the Poland Constitutional Court referred to the fact that the protection of personality rights is impossible without protecting the right to life. However, protecting the rights of an unborn child, we forget about the rights of a woman, about her emotional and physical condition. After all, the choice is to leave or terminate the pregnancy is a difficult. And even more so when the situation is complicated by fetal disease.
It’s one thing when a person has a decision to make a believer. A religious view of the world can assume that the gestation of a child in such difficult circumstances is a kind of “cross”, a test. Vera supports a woman, allows you to find comfort in difficult moments.
But there are people who are unbelievers, for example, and among those who believe in the Higher Forces, there are many those who are bearing a child who is destined to suffer and die will cause intolerable pain. And therefore this ban indicates the complete unwillingness to notice the experiences of the other, of the desire to impose his view of the world and his will to others. It is possible that the cost of their spiritual state and well -being.
A woman who does not have the right to decide whether to give birth to her or not, loses her subjectivity and becomes an object that others, endowed with force: husband, society, state. It turns out that the woman is “obliged to give birth”. But how it affects her psyche?
“Bans leads to large losses for reproductive health and even life”
Alina Nikiforova, clinical, perinatal psychologist
Women fought for many years for the right to terminate pregnancy of their own free will and in safe conditions. To terminate pregnancy or not is a difficult choice. When making a decision, a woman, as a rule, focuses on the financial component, the presence of support from the partner, her own willingness and desire to have children. And there are no universal, ready -made solutions, as there are no people without a doubt.
However, in my practice, 90% of women who decided to abortion remain in their opinion even after consulting with a psychologist. External causes are sometimes not as significant as the causes of internal. It is difficult to encounter the torment of choice and realize your own painful feelings.
Sometimes a woman makes an abortion of fear of having children associated with her own traumatic children’s experience, fear of being pregnant and encountering bodily and psychological changes, as well as fear that pregnancy or child will take something important from her.
Some women neglect protection measures because they subconsciously want to become pregnant. Not to give birth, but to be pregnant. This condition gives them a unique experience, perhaps gives something missing and valuable, no matter how blasphemous it may sound.
Sometimes women who have interrupted pregnancies in a affective state remember this experience for many years. Memories do not let them go, return in dreams and remain a heavy emotional load, the cause of self -enforcement and self -confusion.
We know little about the psychological side of abortion. And if you resolve the issue of termination of pregnancy with hard prohibitions, nothing good will come of it. But this experience can adversely affect the reproductive and mental health of women.
In Poland, it was forbidden to interrupt pregnancy for medical reasons that relate to the fetus. But such an interruption is world practice, for this there are measures of early detection of intrauterine anomalies.
In the recent past, I was a member of the city perinatal consultation under the leadership of the chief obstetrician-gynecologist of Moscow, and I know firsthand in what depressing state pairs and women who learned about a terrible intrauterine diagnosis are found out.
This situation is a huge test for them, and if they are able to choose them, this may affect their mental health and life in general. The bearing of a deliberately doomed child can lead to an acute psychotic state in a pregnant woman, with the ensuing consequences, up to death.
In such situations, a woman experiences unbearable feelings of guilt and shame, the objective causes of what is happening are ignored, and sometimes this can lead to suicide.
By the nature of my work, I have repeatedly observed cases when a woman needed not only psychological assistance, but also the help of a psychiatrist to remove acute manifestations in such a situation. Such prohibitions are an intervention in the intimate affairs of a woman, this is the deprivation of her psychological, moral right to act with her body as she wants or as she considers possible.
If you look at this through a psychological prism, then the state in such issues performs a parental function, but imposes strict restrictions on its “children”. But we know: the more children are prohibited, the more they violate the prohibitions. It is unlikely that new norms will reduce the number of abortions – rather, they will give them a marginal character.
In my opinion, the problem of abortion requires great investments from the point of view of social support of women who are without a couple, necessary income and living conditions. And it is also necessary sexual education in schools and the distribution of protective equipment.
In our country, they try to diagnose intrauterine pathologies in time
, and if a defect, incompatible with the life and health of the fetus, is found, a woman is given a choice – to terminate the pregnancy or refuse. A system of perinatal palliative care is developing. Parents are supported by the period of bearing and allowed to say goodbye to the child after his death.Unfortunately, today and in Russia a religious lobby has been attempting to ban pregnancy at the request of a woman for several years. The topic of abortion is much wider than it sometimes seems to us. Not only medical, but also ethical, philosophical and psychological aspects are of great importance. And they must be taken into account.
Readers’ opinions
“After the birth of my son, abortion scares me. If earlier I was definitely for them and would have done without hesitation, now I would rather not do it and would not do. But I still think that this is the choice of everyone, as faith, baptism and churching-someone like this, but someone is the same. ” – Daria, 30 years old.
“Abortion is a personal matter for every woman. But I think that the ban on abortion will make women and men be more attentive to protection, ” – Ivan, 25 years old.
“We wanted a second child, I became pregnant. But after screening at 12 weeks, we were told that the child would be sick and die immediately after birth. We had to have an abortion for medical reasons. It was madly painful for me, but there was no other choice, ” – Tonya, 38 years old.
“The pregnancy was long -awaited, and I was happy with her. But the child was born sick – and the world collapsed. I quit my job and do it only. I love him, I do and I will do everything I need to make his life easier. But he suffers from pain and suffers a lot, and at such moments I suffer with him, my heart is torn. If I knew during pregnancy that he was so sick and his life would be such a torture for both of us, I would have done an abortion? I think more likely yes. No mother wants her child such suffering, ”Tamara, 39
“The husband works and constantly on business trips. We got married when I was already pregnant. My son was born, I was engaged in them, it was not easy – the boy grew up restless, I almost did not sleep at night, it was difficult. The husband came and left again. Two years later, I got pregnant again. I decided not to write to him, wait until I returned from a business trip and please. But he returned and said that he met another and leaves me. Everything broke off for me – she loved him very much and believed in a strong marriage. When he told him that we would have a child, he was cold, like a stranger, said that it was not from him. I didn’t want to live, what kind of child there … I did an abortion, ” – Katya, 36 years old.
“The ban on abortion, if the child is inconspicuously sick, is a direct violation of human rights, in my opinion. Leads to underground operations and deaths from them, as well as to the development of medical tourism to other countries, ”Tatyana, 33 years old.
“I think that this is a woman’s right to decide whether to abortion or not, especially in the case when a fetal defect was discovered. I don’t think this is a simple solution. At least not in every case. It’s scary to even imagine what a woman feels in such a situation. I do not want to renounce, but not the fact that I could decide, ” – Elena, 28 years old.