Right to life- for the unborn

I went to Hawassa recently to direct a documentary video production. Part of the shooting involved abortion clients in a hospital. We found a volunteer who was willing to be video-taped while she was having a counseling session with the nurse. The girl, who is in her early twenties, came to the hospital for an abortion accompanied by her mother. They both look nervous and at the same time there is so much strength about them. The girl tells the nurse that she is a university student who currently got raped in the university compound by two guys & she thinks she is pregnant. The nurse asked the girl when she last had her period, when she last had HIV test, what kind of contraceptives she used and so on. It is obvious why the girl visited the hospital, and specifically why she visited this nurse, it is to have abortion. 

In my personal definition abortion is the killing of babies, nothing more nothing less! So it was painful for me to hear the conversation between the girl and the nurse. At some point all I wanted was to reach out to the girl and hug her  that would be weird though. At the same time my heart was groaning for the baby inside her.

When I was in high school I remember a group who came to our school and taught about sexuality. Most of all I remember the video they showed us about abortion which has always stuck in my mind. The video shows the various ways of abortion. One of the things that always stuck in my mind is a garbage can in hospital with little hands, legs, heads of babies aborted. That set up my views about abortion once and for all. 

As I was standing and listening to the conversation between the girl and the nurse, my eyes fells on  this piece of paper on the wall which has a text from the constitution of Ethiopia on abortion; 

1.When the pregnancy results from rape or incest; 

2. When continuance of the pregnancy endangers the health or life of the woman 

or the fetus; 

3. In cases of fetal abnormalities; 

4. Women with physical or mental disabilities; 

5. For minors who are physically or psychologically unprepared to raise a child; 

6. In the case of grave and imminent danger that can be averted only through 

immediate pregnancy termination

Till recently this is Ethiopia's law on abortion. Any girl can have an abortion if she got pregnant due to the six reasons above. No proof is required beyond the woman’s statement that it has occurred. This means the girl I mentioned earlier might not even be rapped. I believe, this is the kind of law that doesn't forbid the thing but makes it seem as though it is forbidden, because Ethiopia is a religious and culturally strict country with people who will not accept legalization of things like abortion.

I remember the controversy, the various appeals made by different organizations some years back when the constitution legalized abortion, if for the aforementioned six reasons.

Later I talk to the nurse; there is no way she believes this girl is raped. She even made jocks that she has the physical strength to rape others let alone be raped. She then told me there are a minimum of 30 clients who come to her every month for abortions. Most of the clients are high school and university students. This is like one abortion, by one nurse every single day and just in one hospital in Hawassa. Imagine how many abortions are done daily throughout Ethiopian hospitals, and there are so much more abortions done by traditional midwives every day, that puts even the mother’s life at risk. 

After drafting this, I was talking with a friend and she told me the constitution of Ethiopia now totally legalized abortion, that they just keep it quite because of how people and certain organizations would react. I know one in seven women die from pregnancy-related causes in Ethiopia, and unsafe abortion causes more than half of the 20,000 maternal deaths that occur annually. I only wish we worked more on contraceptives to avoid unwanted pregnancies, and on physiological and financial support on mothers who got pregnant due to rape, incest, also in cases of women with physical and mental disabilities, for minors who are physically or physiologically unprepared to raise a child.... after all it is a baby that is inside these mothers, a precious life, a great potential, not just a fetus!!

http://www.lwym.org/pure/2012/10/24/what-really-happens-
to-the-baby-during-an-abortion-this-will-shock-you/

"Words are things; and a small drop of ink,

Falling like dew upon a thought, produces

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

- Lord Byron (1788-1824), from "Don Juan"

"Lord Byron never finished his masterpiece, the epic poem "Don Juan," but he might never have begun it had he been conceived today. For Byron was born with a slight deformity - a clubfoot - that nonetheless left intact ...." (Read more on Famous people who would have been aborted http://facta-non-verba.blogspot.com/search/label/beethoven)

Let me just leave you with few list of famous people who would have been aborted but survived and greatly contributed in changing the world.

Could you please do me a favor, whether you agree on what I am saying or not in this article, if you recognize any of the following names, please copy and paste their name under Comments, you can also do this on the shared link on facebook or twitter. Thanks!

Andy Berlin 

Anthony Williams 

Aristotle 

Art Linkletter 

Beethoven

Bo Diddley 

Buffy Sainte-Marie 

Carl-Theodor Dreyer 

Charlotte Anne Lopez 

Christina Crawford 

Clarissa Pinkola Estes 

Crazy Horse 

Dan O'Brien 

Daunte Culpepper 

Dave Thomas 

Da Vinci

Debbie Harry 

D.M.C. 

Edgar Allan Poe 

Edward Albee 

Eleanor Roosevelt 

Eric Dickerson 

Faith Daniels 

Faith Hill 

Freddie Bartholomew  

George Washington Carver 

Greg Louganis 

James MacArthur 

James Michener 

Jean Jacques Rousseau 

Jesse Jackson 

Jett Williams 

Jim Palmer 

John J. Audubon 

John Hancock 

John Lennon 

Langston Hughes 

Larry Ellison 

Lee Majors 

Leo Tolstoy 

Les Brown 

Lynnette Cole 

Malcolm X 

Mark Acre 

Matthew Laborteaux 

Melissa Gilbert 

Michael Reagan 

Moses 

Nancy Reagan 

Nat King Cole 

Nelson Mandela 

Patrick Labyorteaux 

Peter and Kitty Carruthers 

President Gerald Ford 

President William Clinton 

Priscilla Presley 

Ray Liotta 

Reno 

Sarah McLachlan 

Scott Hamilton 

Sen. Paull H. Shin 

Sen. Robert Byrd 

Steve Jobs 

Surya Bonaly 

Tim Green 

Tim McGraw 

Tom Monaghan 

Tommy Davidson 

Victoria Rowell 

Wilson Riles

Recommended reading:

http://www.lwym.org/pure/2012/10/24/what-really-happens-to-the-baby-during-an-abortion-this-will-shock-you/

http://www.catholic-convert.com/wp-content/uploads/Documents/AbortionDecide.pdf

http://www.bible.ca/s-Abortion.htm#hands

http://www.bible.ca/s-Abortion.htm