Abortion issue (1)

I would like to comment on the recent and very important discussion in your pages about abortion and women's rights. Uli Aritonang expresses the view of many when she says the idea of legalizing abortion in this country scares her -- it is a serious and far-reaching decision. However, it seems to me there is one overriding reason why abortion should be legalized.

The Bali Post of Oct. 17, 1995, quotes Dr. Swiyoga, a leading obstetrician and gynecologist in Bali, as saying that it is estimated that every year in Indonesia between 10,000 and 200,000 women die because of abortions. The uncertainty of this figure as well as its size are a shocking indictment of the care and welfare of women.

Other figures of interest reported in the same paper on a different page reveal that the maternal mortality rate in Indonesia was 421 per 100,000 births in 1992, down from 500 in 1989. Causes are: hemorrhage (40 percent to 60 percent), infection (20 to 30 percent), factors relating to poisoning (20 to 30 percent).

Any and all efforts devoted to reducing the deaths of all these women must be supported and encouraged. Quite apart from the grief and suffering of the families -- parents, husbands, children, brothers and sisters, friends and relations of all these victims, there is the fact that no country can afford to lose so many of its young people when so often their deaths are avoidable.

I would also like to comment on the rape discussion, by informing your readers that, according to a report in the Bali Post on Oct. 13, 1995, the laws of Indonesia do not recognize the existence of rape in marriage, that is to say, a man cannot be held accountable for raping his wife since rape is defined as the act of forced intercourse outside marriage. This needs to be considered very carefully, as, surely, all citizens have a right to be protected from unwanted violence, whatever the relationship of the people concerned.

MARY NORTHMORE

Ubud, Bali