Earlier this week, news broke that the US Supreme Court had done a private vote with the intention to strike down Roe vs. Wade. The 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision was one that recognized and protected a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy after decades of sterilization and deaths caused by botched abortions. This decision, however, did not stop the attacks against safe abortion access and has consistently been overturned by conservative leaders, only to be reinstated by progressive ones. This whack-a-mole approach to women’s rights makes it clearer that women and girls will continue to live in fear about their freedoms if religious conservatism continues to have space in the drafting and implementation of policies.
The clandestine nature with which this draft bill was voted upon also demonstrates the way that those in power are able to decide on the rights of millions of women and girls. While it is very easy to view this planned attack as being solely a US issue, unfortunately, US socioeconomics and geopolitics, always have a ripple effect on countries such as ours. A clear example of this was seen when the Global Gag rule was reinstated during the Trump presidency. This rule barred foreign organizations receiving U.S global health assistance, from providing any abortion services, information, referrals or even advocating for safe abortion access in their country. This also barred them from doing this even with their own money, making it incredibly difficult for reproductive health rights information and services, (which are critical to the development of any nation) to reach vulnerable populations. It not only impacts abortion services however but also curbs the capacity of health organizations to provide birth control methods, thus contributing to a rise of even more unwanted pregnancies. As a country that has become dependent on US funds, particularly in the development sector, this rule has the capacity to significantly dwindle abortion access, which could prove disastrous given that abortion services already largely remain inaccessible to many.
Guyana is one of very few countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to have a comprehensive abortion act. The 1995 Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA) provides women with the right to abort their pregnancies for any reason, ranging from a simple desire, to physical, mental and economic incapability to bring a pregnancy to full term. It also allows young girls to access abortion services without parental supervision as it recognizes the importance of bodily autonomy. A throwback into our history would demonstrate the importance of this act, and the necessity for resources to be plugged into implementing it on a wider scale.
Following reports which found that “septic and incomplete abortions accounted for the third and eighth-largest causes respectively of admission to public hospitals in Guyana,” in the early 1990s, women’s groups, health professionals and human rights activists working in collaboration with political leaders, facilitated a comprehensive debate that advocated for legislation that addressed unsafe and unregulated abortions. While passage of the MTPA allows for persons to seek abortions without cumbersome restrictions, maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortions remain an issue as abortion is still inaccessible to many, particularly those who are poor and live in outlying communities. While theoretically, the green light was given for public hospitals to provide abortion services, for years after the passage of the MTPA, they only continued treating incomplete abortions and only in 2015 began offering the service after a legal challenge was made by the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association. This inaccessibility of these services is in large part due to extremely limited government-backed resources being plugged into ensuring the provision of it across Guyana. To date, there are approximately only three public hospitals that provide this service, with two being in Region 4 and one in Region 6. So many seeking abortions are often forced to seek out and travel to private institutions where the cost to complete an abortion might be restrictive for them – or, they are forced to take matters into their own hands through unsafe methods.
The reality is that no government or institution can ever stop abortions. What they can and do stop is access to safe abortions. Women and girls who are facing the risk of a full-term pregnancy can and do find ways to terminate that pregnancy. The manner in which they do it in the face of lack of access, however, often results in sterilization and even death. If the aim is truly to preserve life, then ensuring women’s access to safe abortion and reproductive services is the way to ensure this. It has consistently been shown that countries with comprehensive reproductive and safe abortion access have lower abortion rates than those that restrict it.
