With the Preliminary draft law on the protection of conceived life and the rights of pregnant women just announced, and seeing that abortion rates will remain similar, but with a new problem, such as the increase in maternal mortality, it seems clear that a solution should be found that would allow abortion rates to be reduced without prohibiting it.
So yesterday we were Miriam, my wife, and I, talking for a while on this subject, just as the majority of the Spanish population has been doing, in their homes, on the street, at work, in social networks , and between the two we try to find how to reduce abortion rates without prohibiting it.
We try to find that solution because abortion, I think we all agree on it, It is a "solution-problem". It is "solution" because it is an act that fixes a problem, such as the arrival of a baby according to what families, moments and situations and it is "problem" because many people consider it unethical and because abortion involves some repercussions, especially psychological, that you drag all your life. Before it was a right, and that was a problem for many people because the "solution" part was taken into account, without solving the "problem" part too much and now the thing has not improved because now it is a crime, and with the new law the part of the "problem" is fixed, leaving the mothers unable to carry out the "solution".
My position before abortion
Before going on I tell you what I think about abortion, so you can see where I am from. I I'm not pro-abortion, but I'm not anti-abortion. I would never have an abortion, I wouldn't do it, and that's why we never did the screening tests for the second trimester, but I think a woman, a couple, has to be able to abort if she thinks she needs to do it, without being considered criminals for this reason (it is a crime ... it is true that the penalty would not fall on the woman, but on the doctor who performs the abortion, but it is also a crime) and without having to do it in a clandestine way putting her life at risk.
First, anonymous birth
Following the publication of the draft abortion bill, criticism has not taken long to arrive from the rest of Europe, for moving away from the position of the European community. The government, far from looking at the navel, chooses to act in Spanish, that is, believing itself better than all the others, and has decided not to move a comma, with the opinion that, once the law is imposed, the rest of Europe will reflect and provoke the rapprochement with Spain creating more restrictive laws (This in my house is defined as "pa'mear and not drop").
However, there are many of us who are with the rest of Europe, almost admiring the most liberal policies of other countries, and that is why the first thing that should be done is to adopt the measures of anonymous birth. This is to be able to give birth in a hospital without giving your information if the baby you are going to give birth will not go with you. You give birth, nobody asks questions, the baby stays in the hospital and you leave when you are well.
The second, the baby mailboxes
The second measure that should be implemented is the creation of baby mailboxes. In countries like Austria they have been running for more than ten years and it is a more than valid option for those mothers who, with their baby in their arms, born in a hospital or born at home, decide that they do not want to raise him. The mailbox is a room in a hospital that can be opened from the outside, leaving the baby in a heated crib, in exchange for documentation that will help the mother to claim the baby if she later wants to recover it. Once the baby is opened and left inside, it cannot be reopened from the outside, and an alarm alerts hospital staff that a baby has been left in the crib.
At the same time, a fast and efficient adoption system
In addition to promoting anonymous childbirth and the baby mailbox must be created, or rather improve the adoption system so that it is fast and effective. Adopting a Spanish child is currently free (it must remain that way), but you can be waiting for up to four years (if not more, than a few years ago it took almost 10 years). This is a handicap for couples who want to adopt, who have to end up looking for faster international solutions, but paying for it (between 10,000 and 18,000 euros on average depending on the country of origin).
Well no, if this is solved, if the system is fast, babies delivered by mothers who do not want or cannot take care of them may be right away with families that can take care of them.
Back to help the population
Many of the abortions that occur today happen for economic reasons. Parents have no means to take care of a baby (or another baby) and choose to abort so they don't have to keep it later. It is illogical that a government that is drowning its population, which has removed all help or benefit for a child, creates a law that does not allow abortion. It is true that abortion is not a contraceptive method and that the measures must have been taken previously, but these things happen, even in the best families, and a couple cannot be forced to have a baby that they cannot feed later.
Yes, but ... who is going to be with his belly for nine months and then have no baby to show?
A problem arose in our dissertation. We know women who became pregnant without wanting that baby who chose to abort. Officially there was no pregnancy, there was no belly and obviously, there was no abortion. No one found out about it. If it is promoted to continue with the pregnancy, give birth, and then be able to deliver the baby for adoption, people will see pregnancy, will see belly and then, nine months later, will see a woman without a belly and without a baby. The "what will they say" still weighs heavily on our culture, and the "you have to get attached to your children, because you are the mother", I don't even tell you, so the problem is there: nobody is going to want to explain why she was pregnant And there is no baby anymore.
And this is where we saw that we must change, all. The previous government said "nothing happens, abortions and go", but this measure does not like everyone and, as we said, you do not think enough that an abortion is for a lifetime, because although there are women who do not they are affected by it, many remember the moment and even regret it. The current government says "no, you do not abort, you have it and you are sorry," which obviously is not the solution either, because we put babies at risk, which could certainly not be cared for as they deserve (or abandoned) and put mothers at risk , if they decide to abort on their own. This is where we said: the world must change.
Let's stop judging, stop talking so much about others, believe ourselves better people by giving birth and raising our children, stop comparing ourselves to feel better and open our eyes to a reality: Not all women who become pregnant want or can have their children. Let us then manage their babies and allow, without looking at them with a disgusted face and "I don't understand you" to tell us "yes, I am pregnant, but we cannot take care of him and we will give him up for adoption" or "yes, I'm pregnant, but we don't want a baby right now, so we're going to give it up for adoption. " Let's all assume that the best ending for the mother and the baby could be that, gestate it, give birth to it and deliver it.
Yes, it would be a revolution. Yes it would be move forward as a society and that would be progress. Abortion rates would decrease, embryos, that no one agrees on when to consider them living beings, would not be "killed" (in between because there are those who equate abortion with murder) and mothers would not live the rest of their lives thinking about The baby that could be and was not. Maybe there are better solutions and maybe these proposals deserve a lot of criticism, but to me, that I am not a minister (or desire) I think a much more logical solution than the law that will soon be passed, which seems more designed for our mothers and our grandmothers in their time than for us today.
Photos | Joelle Inge-Messerschmidt, Tarale on Flickr In Babies and more | More than 750 women aborted in 2010 for the sixth time, Mothers in England abort a twin to give birth to a single baby, Do not reveal the sex of the baby to avoid selective abortions
