According to the GUTTMACHER Institute, estimates of the number of illegal abortions performed in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year.

Today, the topic "A 10-year-old girl in Ohio was refused an abortion" sparked a lot of discussion on Weibo.

A 10-year-old pregnant girl in Ohio was reportedly denied an abortion in the state after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade .

sources said the girl was a rape victim and was just 6 weeks and 3 days pregnant when she was diagnosed. Under Ohio's previously passed "heartbeat bill," abortion is prohibited after the first detectable fetal heartbeat, which is generally around 6 weeks after conception.

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, the law became automatic so the girl could not have an abortion in Ohio.

The 10-year-old girl has now traveled to Indiana to have an abortion. According to Reuters news, US President Biden is worried that some states will try to arrest women who cross state lines to have abortions. He will fully protect the rights of women who have abortions across state lines.

Picture source: Weibo screenshot

This situation is heartbreaking.

This ruling overturned the landmark precedent of 50 years ago, challenged the United States' reproductive autonomy, and triggered discussions and reflections on abortion and public health issues around the world.

This incident is also as the top medical journal "The Lancet" said: "Abolition of women's right to abortion will not make abortion disappear, it will only make safe abortion disappear. This is almost equivalent to sending some women to death."

Abortion Behind the ban is inequality and death

Behind the abortion ban is "human inequality."

Medicine uses bloody data to show that the abortion ban will not end the occurrence of abortion, but will only push the originally legal medical practice into illegal and dangerous.

According to the GUTTMACHER Institute, estimates of the number of illegal abortions performed in the 1950s and 1960s ranged from 200,000 to 1.2 million per year. An analysis extrapolated from North Carolina data concluded that there were an estimated 829,000 illegal or self-administered abortions in 1967.

One obvious problem caused by the prevalence of illegal abortion is death.

In 1930, abortion was listed as the official cause of death for nearly 2,700 women - almost a fifth (18%) of the maternal deaths recorded that year. By 1965, the number of deaths from illegal abortions had dropped to less than 200, but illegal abortions still accounted for 17 percent of deaths from pregnancy and childbirth that year.

Poor women and their families are disproportionately affected. A study of low-income women in New York City in the 1960s found that almost one in 10 (8%) had attempted to terminate a pregnancy through illegal abortion; nearly four in 10 (38%) said a friend, relative Or an acquaintance has attempted an abortion.

Sharp racial disparities are evident in the mortality data from illegal abortions: In New York City in the early 1960s, one in four childbirth-related deaths among white women was due to abortion; by contrast, among nonwhites and Puerto RicoAbortion accounts for one in two childbirth-related deaths among women.

Countless women have paid a high price for this "illegal" verdict.

Women with certain financial means can choose to go to other states for abortion, but at the same time they have to pay costs in terms of time, money, physical health and professional compensation. Ordinary, financially strapped women are left scrimping and may even be forced to resort to illegal underground clinics.

Abolishing the right to abortion not only deprives women of their right to control their bodies, it will also exacerbate the inequality of medical resources and even lead to an increase in maternal mortality.

The top medical journal "THE BMJ" pointed out that according to past research, if abortion is completely banned, many women with unwanted pregnancies will be forced to enter the childbirth process, and the number of related deaths is expected to increase by more than 20%.

The Lancet and the World Health Organization both found that when women with unwanted pregnancies have difficulty accessing safe and timely abortion medical services, they are often forced to choose unsafe abortion methods.

Sexual and reproductive health interventions should be a fundamental right for all women.

This is a consensus reached by global medical and health institutions, which includes comprehensive sex education ; modern contraceptive tools; safe abortion services; prevention and treatment of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases; prevention and treatment of gender-based violence, etc. wait.

And as major medical journals have said, depriving women of their right to abortion is a setback for global medical health and society.

planning and production

planning: Ta Gai, jiu | Producer: Feidi, Eric