Abortion, despite being an essential health service, is treated as a taboo in most societies. The source of this stigma is often our immediate surroundings—families, friends, and the media. As part of The YP Foundation’s commitment to tackling the stigma around abortion, we asked young people in our network to describe the first time they heard the word “abortion”. Here’s what we got!
I must’ve been in the 5th Standard, about 11 years old when I overheard a distant relative who said, and I quote, “Teesri beti aa gayi thi garbh mein, humne toh doctor ke assistant ko paise dekar baccha girwa diya”, which on simple translation means that they opted for illegal abortion by an unqualified assistant of a doctor because they had found out that they had a female fetus.
Back then, I had no idea about anything of that sort, and none of it made sense to me. However, it wasn’t long after the incident that my immature self realized that the world wasn’t a fairytale. It was already an unimaginable amount of pressure to accept that a man could terminate the life of a creature handcrafted by God.
Along with that, to be introduced to the concept of female feticide, the whole idea of killing an unborn soul just because it is of a certain gender was a reality check my tender mind was not ready for. So, that’s how I was introduced to the concept of abortion. For me, it wasn’t just abortion that I had understood; it was illegal abortion and female feticide that I had been introduced to.
It has been 10 years to that, and now, I am a medical student and an SRHR activist. My take on abortion has changed since then—I understand more about things like human rights, genetic fetal abnormalities, maternal mortalities, and my ideas aren’t just restricted to destroying God’s creation.
The right to safe abortion includes within itself a spectrum of other human rights including the right to life, liberty, privacy, equality, non-discrimination, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
However, in a nation like ours where medical termination of pregnancy is legalized under a blanket of circumstances, maternal mortality due to unsafe abortions is a leading cause of death amongst women. It is important to understand what allures women into taking the illegal, unsafe path to abortions rather than the legal path. The scenarios differ greatly for married women on one hand and for unmarried adult women, minor girls, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and for women who conceive as a result of sexual assault on the other hand.
For married women, excessive gender-based violence and the apprehension to the usage of barrier contraceptives by their male counterparts, and in many cases the unaffordability of oral contraceptives along with minimal knowledge about these prospects, forces women to undergo multiple abortions secretively, mostly on medication advices by chemists or nurses without any professional consultation.
In the other case which involves unmarried adult women, minor girls, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and women who conceive as a result of sexual assault, the stigma associated with sexual intercourse outside marriage in a conservative setting like ours often keeps these people away from realizing and enjoying their reproductive rights.
Hostile treatment at healthcare facilities and the trauma and humiliation faced by sex workers when they approach healthcare facilities, along with the misinformation that is provided, makes it an easy choice for them to access abortion outside the legal framework.
The other great problem in this scenario is that women often realize that they are pregnant after a considerable amount of time or keep delaying disclosing the information because of fear, which makes it more difficult to legally access the service. All these conditions tend to drive women to take the illegal path which promises secretive services.
It is funny how at one end, the society validates bestowing sexual prowess within the hands of often irresponsible male counterparts who in most cases remain aloof to the difficulties faced by women due to an unwanted pregnancy and how at the other, makes it utterly difficult for women to access rights to their own bodies and make decisions regarding the same.
Until and unless we make the communication easier and introduce the right sources of information to educate both women and men, this vicious cycle of oppression would never seize.
This story is one of many submissions that we received. The YP Foundation’s Abortion Campaign works towards destigmatising abortion and increasing access to safe and comprehensive abortion care services. We engage with young people to advocate for abortion as a reproductive right, especially among marine fisherfolk in Kerala and tea plantation labourers in Assam.
Want to join the conversation? Send in your experiences of hearing about abortion for the first time to ipsa@theypfoundation.org. Read all the stories in the campaign here and follow us as we strive towards destigmatising abortion!