Lately, some messages from people talking about women who use the abortion almost like a contraceptive method. “I know women who, at the age of 35, have already had abortions 10 times.” Logically, these types of publications, which can be read mostly on X (formerly Twitter), have generated a great stir among detractors and defenders of abortion. The former use these messages as an example of the risks of leaving women abort freely. On the other hand, the latter warn that these publications are false. Who is right?
In reality, regardless of the opinion of the person writing this article, the figures are what they are. Is it true that there are people who have abortions many times throughout their lives? Well, some of these publications come from Latin American countries, in some of which abortion is not not even legal. This makes it even more difficult for someone to have abortions so many times. Therefore, we are going to focus on the data from Spain.
We will also see how abortions are performed and what are the consequences those who make the decision deal with. Because no, it is generally not a whim, no matter how much people who are against abortion insist on making it seem that way.
Recent changes in Spain
In Spain, the abortion law of 2023 has added some changes to 2010. These facilitate access to abortion, but that does not make it an easy decision.
Among the most important changes are age and days of reflection. On the one hand, although previously minors had to abort with the authorization of their guardians, in the last modification this was changed to minors. 16 years. On the other hand, previously women who were going to have an abortion had to receive information, not only about existing abortion methods. Also about aid for family planning. Once this was done, they were left three days of reflectionto ensure that they really wanted to terminate the pregnancy.
All this has been modified, so that now the information is purely medical. If the patient would like more information, she must request it. And reflection is not necessary. That being said, what are the steps to abort?
In our country, if there is no malformation of the fetus, an abortion can be done up to week 14 of gestation. If you go to the clinic before week 7, you can opt for a pharmacological abortion. This consists of the administration of two pills, mifepristone and misoprostol. The first is responsible for blocking the action of the hormone progesterone, so important in pregnancy, and causing dilation of the cervix. As for the second, it causes uterine contractions that help remove any cellular debris that may remain.
After week 7, the option of abortion is already surgical. Generally a curettage is performed by manual aspiration, with anesthesia or sedation of the patient. In both cases, subsequent side effects are usually vaginal bleeding, dizziness, abdominal pain, tiredness and nausea. All this without counting the psychological consequences. There may be, for example, cases of reactive depression, anxiety or eating disorders. And, no matter how voluntary the decision was, it is still very difficult to make.
An unknown psychological part
In 2005, a team of scientists from the University of Oslo, Norway, carried out a study in which the psychological consequences of natural abortion or voluntary termination of pregnancy were compared. It was seen that, with the abortion still recent, 47.5% of the women who would have suffered a spontaneous abortion They reported some type of trauma or emotional pain. In the case of the voluntary abortionsonly occurred with 30% of women.
However, after a 5 year follow-up, it was observed that, while 20% of women who voluntarily aborted were still distressed, those who suffered spontaneous abortions were only distressed in 2.6% of cases. This refers to spontaneous abortions in the early stages of pregnancy. Cases of perinatal death or abortions in late pregnancies are very different, of course.
From all this it follows that voluntarily aborting It’s not an easy decision. Going ahead with an unwanted pregnancy is psychologically hard, but making the decision to terminate it is also hard. Would someone freely choose to go through bleeding, pain and serious psychological consequences several times throughout their life? It’s hard to imagine.
Pregnancy figures in Spain
In 2022, They terminated their pregnancy voluntarily in Spain a total of 98,316 women. More than a third had had unprotected sex, it’s true. However, 26.4% had used barrier methods, such as condoms, and 16.9% some hormonal method. This clearly indicates that a good part of the women who abort do not do so as a contraceptive method. It’s not about “let’s do it anyway and if I get pregnant I’ll have an abortion.” There are accidents. Even for those who did not use any method, they would probably believe that they would not get pregnant. It is not done lightly and therefore it is not easily done. repeatedly.
In fact, In that same year, only ⅖ parts of women who had abortions They had undergone a previous abortion. And only one 0.79% I had aborted more than 5 times. It would be necessary to know her circumstances, but most likely it is not simple indifference.
In any case, what is clear is that in Spain, as in many other countries, a lot of sexual education is still needed. It is necessary to debunk myths and inform about contraceptive methods. For this, the sex education It is vital from school. The people who complain about giving these types of workshops to their children are the same ones who later complain about abortions. But, in reality, the first avoids the second. It is incoherent to be against the solution to what they consider the problem. Of course, it is something that many people should meditate on.