labellementeuse | World Health Day: Abortion is a Health Issue, Not A Crime

Today is World Health Day.

#prochoicenz is organising a blogswarm one one theme: Abortion is a health issue, not a crime.

Abortion is in the Crimes Act in New Zealand. It shouldn't be. An abortion is a choice made by a woman about her own body. Having an abortion can save a woman's life: abortions are quite a bit safer than pregnancy, if they're performed legally. Women need to be able to make that choice for themselves - with their doctors: because abortion is a health issue.

Women who are forced into pregnancy can suffer physical and emotional complications. Forced pregnancies are bad for women, they make them unhealthy. Abortion is a health issue.

All things being equal, making it harder to get a legal abortion doesn't reduce the number of abortions in a country. It increases the number of illegal abortions in a country, which increases the number of complications from botched back-alley abortions. Abortion is a health issue.

There's one way in which abortion is related to crime, of course: making it easier to get a legal abortion reduces crime rates. When every child is a wanted child, children are better cared for. They're better educated. They're better fed. They're healthier. Because abortion is a health issue.

Abortion is a medical procedure, sometimes a surgical one. It's between a woman and her doctor and anyone else *she* wants to bring into it. Women must have choices about their own health for the same reason all people must have choices about their health: because women know best of anyone what is right for their own situation. Abortion is a health issue.