Improved information urged to reduce abortion
JAKARTA (JP): Greater access to complete, accurate information about reproductive health and the right of women to make appropriate decisions are important to help reduce cases of abortion, a reproductive health specialist said Saturday.
Lies Marcoes Natsir told participants at a seminar on Islam and Abortion that women know it is wrong to seek abortions, but they do it for economic, cultural and political reasons.
Women should have access to information concerning Islamic views on abortion, medical services and appropriate contraceptives, she said at the seminar held by the Paramadina Foundation.
Unlike the strict Catholic decree of the Vatican condemning abortion, Islamic views by ulemas concerning abortion vary.
The holy Koran does not explicitly forbid abortion, but does forbid murder, she said.
Some ulemas believe that a fetus can be aborted within 120 days of conception. Ulemas of the mazhab (school of thought, persuasion) of Shafiite, for instance, allow abortions within 40 days of conception. But others strictly forbid abortion, equating it with murder.
All ulemas agree that abortions after 120 days of pregnancy is forbidden, because, at that point, the fetus "already has a soul".
The controversy and dilemma of abortion is heightened by the Indonesian Ulemas Council, which believes life begins at conception, and therefore abortion is wrong.
Also, Article 15 Section 1 of the 1992 Health Law states that abortion is not allowed under any circumstance because it is against legal, religious, moral and appropriate behavior norms -- but in an emergency situation, a medical decision can be made to save the mother or fetus if their lives are in danger.
Lies said that most women who seek abortions were "nice", married women with husbands and families. While abortions among single women and women in open-ended relationships constituted between 16 percent to 25 percent of abortions in Indonesia.
She said reasons for "nice" women undergoing abortions included failure of contraceptives, a rigid belief in small, prosperous families, economic and health factors, as well as pregnancies from rape and incest.
Lies said abortions should be associated with granting women the right to information and the right to make a decision.
"Middle to upper-income women can access information about reproductive health more readily, but the greatest challenge lies among lower-income women who need access to information and support about reproductive health," she said.
Low-income groups still need access to information and free contraceptives, thus reducing the need to resort to abortion, she said.
Abortion methods range from the most primitive, like massage, eating certain root vegetables, unripened pineapple or yeast of fermented cassava, drinking herbal medicines, using Bodrex and alcohol, or placing a wooden stick inside the womb, to the modern method of using a curate, she said.
Lies cited from a study prepared by the director of the United Nations' Fund Population Activities (UNFPA) Nafis Sadik that a woman dies from reproductive health-related problems worldwide every minute.
She said women experience physical and emotional trauma when they seek abortions, with resulting deaths reaching 19 percent to 25 percent of the maternal mortality rate of 390 per 100,000 births in Indonesia.
Mustafa of Paramadina Foundation said that the ratio of doctors to patients in Indonesia is 25 patients to one doctor among general practitioners, while for gynecologists the ratio is 3,000 patients per doctor. (01)