Abortion is Murder

Image: Collected (The Standard)

Writer: Monira Nusrat Farha

Student, Department of population science

Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

Hridi was 22 when she missed her period by two months. Hailing from a middle class Muslim family, being an unmarried mother was not an option. But when she went to MMCH she was required by hospital protocol to provide her husband's name, profession and address. When she was seven weeks of pregnancy, she flatly refused. According to hospital policies, abortion or menstrual regulation is neither allowed nor they are being allowed to refer patients elsewhere or provide any kind of assistance.

She later opted for a smaller, local clinic. It was a high risk for her. 

In Bangladesh, abortion has become an unbearable and intolerable issue.

 Abortion means "Death is so final, while life is full of possibilities "

First of all, a life ends.

Second, a life long guilt ... even if not a guilt, maybe a prick in the conscience.

Third, depression (for sometime).

Abortion rates are expected to increase due to unrestrained relationships, child marriage, and unrestricted access to boys and girls. In street gates, doves and often in the neighborhood of hospital, children are seen to be part of the body of abortion, and sometimes dogs also carry those parts in their mouth. It is difficult to tolerate seeing this for a normal person by his own eyes. Abortion is counted as a murder.

Those who support the rights of abortion emphasize the right to decide on a woman's own body, and simultaneously emphasize human rights in general.

During the 1971 war of liberation, the rule of abortion is declared valid, which is still common.

Although the abortion law was temporarily waived in 1972, it is currently functioning without any changes.

Asif Bin Kamal, Barrister-at-Law and Supreme Court Advocate, explains,

"The idea of miscarriage is illegal according to section 312 to 316 of the penal code, and abortion is a punishable offense even if it is done with consent.”

There are many such untold stories of women who have suffered from last-minute abortions due to a lack of information and access. In the absence of any sex education policy, women in Bangladesh are completely at a loss on how to deal with unwanted pregnancies, and unable to find health care service providers who will advise them. Unsafe abortions are responsible for 8,000 maternal deaths and over 572,000 women suffer by complexities every year in Bangladesh. According to statistics provided by Women On Waves (Wow), a Dutch pro-choice non-profit created to bring reproductive health services to countries with restrictive abortion laws.

Under the penal code of 1860 abortion is illegal except when performed to save a woman's life. No exceptions are made to preserve a woman's physical or mental health, to deal with fetal impairment, for economic or social reasons or even for rape victims.

Awareness is a big issue abide by religious rules can reduce this practice to a great extent. we also need young people to be informed about this abortion and we should try to stop this intolerance.