I am against abortion. However, the solution is not for the federal government to try to make it illegal. The best way to stop abortion is to educate people of the true risks and to offer better alternatives. Considering the risks and the number of people waiting to adopt children, our government should strive to make the alternatives more desirable than abortion. At the very least, women should have access to all of the information available before they make a decision.
The Real Risks
Because it is a medical procedure, the doctors performing an abortion are required to disclose the physical risks of abortion: damage to the organs, possibility of future complications with pregnancy, etc. More than half of women who have an abortion experience a physical complication, and 10% experience complications immediately after an abortion. That 10% is the same percentage of women who, according to one study, suffered from "serious psychiatric complications" after an abortion1. These are the types of issues that doctors are not required by federal law to disclose. If doctors are making money doing abortions, they will not give the patient a reason to avoid abortion unless they are required to do it.
These non-physical affects are so frequent that they have been named. The combination of postpartum depression and post traumatic stress syndrome that follow an abortion has been named post abortion stress, and men can suffer from it as well. A more complete list of risks can be found by searching for "abortion risks" on Google. Notice that physical risks are almost always listed before emotional or psychological risks. (For anyone suffering from post abortion stress, Project Rachel may be able to help you.)
Solutions
The first step to reducing abortions is to do more to prevent unwanted pregnancies. I believe that this is more of a local issue, however I would encourage better education policies on unprotected sex at all levels of government. Furthermore, if counseling were provided to women before they choose to have an abortion, they might make a different choice. This is especially true in the large number of instances where women feel pressured into an abortion. Oversight would be needed to make sure that couselors are not biased. They should not try to influence a patient's decision.
For pregnant teenagers, a program should be developed to help them communicate with their parents. Counseling should also be made available for their parents. If we can make it easier for these young women and their parents to communicate, it will help them to make an informed and rational decision. This is certainly a difficult time for a young woman, but our society should ensure that young women do not feel like abortion is the only option.
In case there is any disagreement over the severity or frequency of complications, the government needs to direct an impartial study to quiet any debate. This study would need to be conducted by a company with no bias or agenda or it would be worthless. Concrete statistics would be necessary to provide patients with complete disclosure. Some women might make a different decision if they were completely informed.
Finally, adoption should be a more reasonable alternative. I do not want to make adoption profitable for expecting mothers, but I would like to make the pregnancy easy and inexpensive for women who are planning to give a baby up for adoption (see Health Care). Also, the process of adopting children should be easier for adoptive parents. Doing whatever we can do to simplify the entire process while keeping safeguards in place for the children will benefit our entire society.
Any combination of these steps could prevent thousands of women from making a decision because of incomplete or inaccurate information. Some of these women will deal with the consequences of this decision for the rest of their lives. It is our government's responsibility to protect people who cannot protect themselves. The least of that should be giving the facts to people so they don't hurt themselves unneccesarily.
1taken from www.afterabortion.info