Читать онлайн "Natural Liberty. Rediscovering Self-induced abortion Methods" - Collective Sage-femme - RuLit

Not only do many women suffer (and die) when access to abortion is restricted, unwanted children that are born suffer as well. What happens to a child that is not wanted? Sometimes, the child is put up for adoption, or if kept, the child may or may not receive the nurturing and support needed from the parent. Studies have shown that when women are denied an abortion, they have a greater chance of resenting the child, and often do not provide the care and nurturing the child needs.[17] Orphanages, also, are often unable to provide the direct contact and nurturing children need.[18] It has been estimated that 132,000,000 children are orphaned or awaiting adoption worldwide.[19]

Side effects of lack of contact and nurturing are profound and may affect several generations. In a study of rats, researchers found that if a baby rat received too little care and nurturing from the mother, when that young rat matured, it was unable to produce normal levels of the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone that prompts the mother to nurture and care for her young. Conversely when baby rats received adequate nurturing and caretaking, they produced average oxytocin levels that caused them to display natural maternal behaviors as adults. Likewise, studies on mice have shown that mice which receive above average maternal nurturing (measured by the number of licks they receive from their mother) later produce above average amounts of oxytocin, and were able to nurture their own offspring. However, when baby mice receive less than average maternal nurturing, they are unable to produce average amounts of oxytocin as adults, and are unable to nurture their own offspring with the normal amount of licks. Mice that lack the oxytocin gene are unable to remember other mice in social interactions.[20] Studies of non-human primates show that babies of mothers who push them away or abuse them often become depressed and have been found to have a lack of oxytocin receptors, a condition which continues into adulthood. They often grow up to treat their offspring in the same manner.[21]

Oxytocin has a profound role in the functioning of all mammals.[22] Oxytocin bonds people together on a deep level. Oxytocin is the hormone released with breastfeeding, which encourages a deep bond between the mother and her baby. In adults, oxytocin is released during cuddling and after sexual orgasm. Studies have shown that oxytocin is responsible for a feeling of trust and reciprocation in human social relationships.[23] Children who grew up in orphanages have been found to have lower levels of oxytocin, and their levels of oxytocin did not rise when the children were placed in family groups.[24] Studies suggest that some human adults who are unable to trust and cooperate in a normal way have dysfunctional oxytocin receptors and thus are unable to produce normal amounts of oxytocin hormone.[25]

Lack of access to abortion services affects mother, child, and society. The human population is increasing at rates that were unprecedented before the 20^th century. The current rate of human population growth cannot continue without negative consequences to all beings inhabiting the earth. The world’s population is expected by some to reach nine billion by 2050. The earth’s ability to feed the growing population has decreased since 1994.[26] The United Nations Population Fund estimates that one quarter to one third of the 200 million pregnancies per year are unintended or ill-timed.[27] There is much political and religious argument as to whether there is a human population growth problem. Under ideal conditions perhaps food would be available for all people on earth, yet the reality of budget deficits and grain shortages has caused the United Nations World Food Program to state in 2008 that it would not have enough money to stem a coming tide of global malnutrition.[28] Child poverty has been linked to women and families having children before they have the financial means to care for them.[29] The point will be reached someday where for every baby born, a child somewhere will starve. Starvation has wide-ranging consequences, as studies link starvation to psychosis and genetic mutation, which research suggests affects survivors for multiple generations.[30]

The detriment that the State would impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether is apparent…Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it…

The states are not free, under the guise of protecting maternal health or potential life, to intimidate women into continuing pregnancies.

-Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Roe v. Wade, January 22, 1973

Studies indicate that when laws restrict access to abortion the crime rate increases.[31] Nicholae Ceauşescu, the Communist dictator of Romania, made abortion, contraception, and sexual education illegal in 1966, stating "The fetus is the property of the entire society…Anyone who avoids having children is a deserter who abandons the laws of national continuity." The birth rate went up initially, but after one year it began to go down again, reaching the 1966 level in 1983.[32] An underground abortion network became established, and women took matters into their own hands, but not without consequences. Maternal mortality went up to levels unprecedented in Europe. The rate of acute renal failure increased in women who ingested substances attempting self-induced abortion.[33] Thousands of unwanted children were placed in institutions.

Researchers have found that in the instances where abortion was forbidden or denied to a woman who wanted one, she often resented her baby and failed to provide it a good home. Children coming from homes, where they were unwanted, were at a great risk of turning to criminal behavior, as they were less likely to achieve an education and to have success in the job market.[34] The ban on abortion in Romania lasted until 1989 when Ceauşescu was violently deposed. The day after Ceauşescu was deposed; contraception and abortion were legalized again.