Make Abortions Less Easily Available

This appeared in the Straits Times

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Review - Others
Make abortions less easily available
Nick Chui, For The Straits Times
675 words
19 July 2008
Straits Times
English
(c) 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
IN CONSIDERING the declining birth rate, one statistic seems to have slipped under the radar screen: In 2006, one in four pregnancies here was terminated. That simply means too many babies lost.
And these terminations were not mostly limited to teenagers or unmarried women either. In fact, a 2002 National University of Singapore study reported that up to 75 per cent of such women were married. Thus, what used to be considered a desperate measure has transmuted into just another mainstream method of birth control. Surely, given our baby dearth, we need to grapple with this abortion conundrum urgently.
The fact that abortions are being used in this manner masks a problem that we may have with the notion of contraception per se. In fact, in May, the medical profession urged that there be more education about contraception here. This came after surveys revealed that Singaporeans are not warming up to the various contraceptive methods available, opting for abortions instead if and when the need arises.
This means that, for many, procreation has become a regrettable accident most of the time, which is why abortion is seen as the logical solution. What can be done to change this mentality?
First, we could start restricting the availability of abortions. Currently, they are available on demand for up to 24 weeks of pregnancy for any reason ranging from the tragic to the frivolous.
Note that when compulsory counselling and the lifting of subsidies for abortion were introduced in 1986, the number of pregnancies terminated fell from a high of 35.5 per cent to 25 per cent, which is still true today.
How and when to restrict abortion as a reproductive choice will have to be debated fully before legislating it. But it must be done soon.
Second, let us begin vigorous campaigns to help parents accept their 'accidental' children rather than choose to abort such pregnancies. We can change minds so they see that having children actually enhances marital bliss.
To do this, we must put front and centre the 9 per cent of Singaporeans who have five or more children. The media should lionise these folk. Media coverage could explain in fine-grain detail how they, in their fecund circumstances with their big families, cope ably with the same worries the average Singaporean has about work-life balance, finances, education for children, and so on.
Third, we should create wider awareness about natural methods of fertility management. For example, the Billings Ovulation Method has been certified by the World Health Organisation as being 99 per cent effective in avoiding pregnancies.
In our context, what is even more important is that the use of this method cultivates an awareness of the woman's fertility cycle and planning for a child is made much easier. Considering the significant number of couples who are having difficulty conceiving, being aware of the periods when the woman is most fertile can only help matters.
Furthermore, couples who use natural methods of fertility management attest to the fact that they find their sex lives very satisfying. A mother of six has even blogged about her experience at http://fohl.blogspot.com, though her ardent comments cannot be repeated in a family newspaper like The Straits Times.
Suffice to say that the periods of abstinence these methods require of the couple can help them demonstrate to each other that they are master and mistress of their passions. Such 'organic sex' immediately takes on a deeper meaning rather than a perfunctory satisfaction of salacious urges.
These measures may seem like bitter medicine but our national fertility rate has seen an unchecked downtrend for 32 years now. It is high time we did something new to arrest and reverse this pernicious trend. Let us limit abortions now.
The writer is a family life educator. These are his personal opinions only.