In face of Zika virus, women ponder abortion, childlessness
Source: AP
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) Maria Erlinda Guzman desperately wants a baby, and has been undergoing fertility treatments at El Salvador's largest women's hospital. But now, she fears her dream of motherhood may be dashed by Zika.
After her country took the extraordinary step of advising women to avoid pregnancies for two years due to concerns about the rapidly spreading virus, the 34-year-old now plans to start using contraception. She worries that she may be too old to conceive by the time it is considered safe to do so. "I'm going to be left childless," Guzman said.
While Zika's exact link to the rare birth defect known as microcephaly is still unclear, warnings from El Salvador, at least six other countries and health officials across the Americas are raising anxiety for millions of would-be and could-be mothers in affected areas.
For some it's a dilemma pitting religious beliefs about abortion against the risk that their babies could be born with abnormally small heads and a short life expectancy.
World Health Organization officials said Thursday the virus is "spreading explosively" and the Americas could see up to 4 million cases of Zika in the next year. And as it expands to countries where abortion is strictly limited or outlawed altogether, doctors and health advocates fear that many women could resort to back-alley procedures that imperil their health.
"What happens in a country where abortion is completely illegal?" said Angelica Rivas of Acdatee, a Salvadoran nonprofit that advocates for decriminalization of the procedure. "What can be expected is an increase in the rates of illegal abortions, unsafe abortions and a mental health issue for women." At least 4.4 million pregnancies were aborted in 2008 in Latin America, about 95 percent of them clandestinely and in unsafe conditions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a U.S.-based nonprofit that promotes reproductive health rights. "When women are desperate ... they will seek out their own solutions," said Carmen Barroso, Western Hemisphere director for the International Planned Parenthood Federation. In El Salvador, she said, half of all pregnancies are unplanned.
Read more: http://www.postbulletin.com/life/health/in-face-of-zika-virus-women-ponder-abortion-childlessness/article_182c37ac-d042-5f9d-80ea-34a6a0f2f3ad.html
Jerry442
(1,265 posts)...about contraception and abortion.
Not the way anyone would have wanted to happen.
christx30
(6,241 posts)use of DDT to control the mosquito population?
Warpy
(111,276 posts)and I'm afraid Rome runs a lot of the worst countries when it comes to bad law that punishes women.
What might happen is civil disobedience so massive that the government just gives up since there just isn't enough money to build facilities to house the majority of women in the country as prisoners.
Supposedly a vaccine is 10 years away. I hope it's expedited, Zika is coming here because the vector is already here.
forest444
(5,902 posts)Today's GOP would be right at home down there (if only the locals were whiter, and spoke something other than Spanish).
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110841793
LeftishBrit
(41,208 posts)The El Salvador government party is the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). Left-wing; at least historically, far-left. In the 80s, they were rebels against El Salvador's right-wing military rulers. American Republicans HATED them, and Reagan actively helped the rulers wage war against them.
They successfully resisted the entrenched rulers, and the powers of the Reagan administration.
But it seems that they cannot resist the pernicious power of the political pro-life movement.
Similar situation in some other Latin American countries such as Nicaragua.
skepticscott
(13,029 posts)will change their doctrine on artificial contraception to avert children being born with horrible birth defects. 'Cause that's just the kinda guys they are...
drm604
(16,230 posts)Truly terrifying.
As I understand it, this virus has almost no symptoms and won't really cause harm to infected people, unless the victim is a pregnant woman, in which case it can be devastating.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Also known as "French polio", GBS causes polio-like paralysis, usually for two or three years. Some speculate that FDR may have had GBS rather than polio.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zika_virus
Bjornsdotter
(6,123 posts)My heart goes out to them.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Of course, that opens the Pandora's box of choosing abortion because of fear of having a child with a disability, as we're already seeing with Down's syndrome.
underahedgerow
(1,232 posts)of this planet.
First, the ease with which this is transmitted is devastating, especially because it has no symptoms.
Lack of birth control options including abortion in many countries is stifling, socially and legally.
Think of the consequences of the fiscal burden of forcing women to care for a huge majority of a generation born with this crippling handicap; first in impoverished populations, secondly in any modern nation. It could be devastating in a nation like the USA who's health care network is fragile and profit-based, but even more crippling to nations whose health care is publicly supported. The economic impact could be substantial across every single population range.
I'm seeing the big, global picture, and it's pretty effing scary.
Seems to be that rapid tests to confirm the virus come first, and broad, immediate solutions to infected pregnancies be made available without barrier or question. All this while working on a cure.
Keep in mind that viruses take decades to manage... HIV is going on 30 years.
But, guess what? Thanks to men and their laws about women's reproductive rights, it will all get totally FUBAR.
I'm glad I'm long past reproducing, and that I don't place any special meaning on bearing children; I don't care if my daughter has children physically, that means nothing to me. I'm hoping she'll adopt a housefull when she's ready.
After thought.... how many of the right to lifers will take these unwanted handicapped babies into their homes? I'm guessing zero.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)If they advise against having kids for at least the next 2 or 3 years then keep making BC hard to get they r idiots. And the Zika babies that will be born will presumably be carriers as well. RWers and the Pope will have to be forced to change their minds.
moondust
(19,993 posts)is now considering overturning its ban on abortion. (Sorry, I don't remember which one.)