January 22 was the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the U.S. The anti abortion rally in Washington was planned on January 25th and this stirred many hot discussions among the public on this issue. Pew Forum research shows that 53% of adults find that abortion is not of a big issue compared to others while there is some 29% that would like the Supreme Court overturn the pro abortion ruling.
While the arguments get heated we are left to decide for ourselves what side are we on and if this is an issue for us worth considering at all. While this matter is of utmost interest to me there are a few questions left unanswered. One question that worries me the most is the necessity of a legal system to control this part of our lives.
It is not by force that matters should be decided, although by legalizing abortion the percentage of women going for it went high enormously during the last years, but what is the focal point of this issue? Will forcing a woman to have her baby solve the issue of abortion? It is a rule of thumb that we don't do things because we are forced to, even a two year old finds hard to do what he/she is forced to, the more we are forced, the more resistant we become. It's a question of ethics or even perhaps our inner convictions about this act.
I am not trying to undermine the role of law in public life by any means here but the point is that the law has no power over this, because we don't know how many women stop their pregnancy at their homes by different means and there are no numbers that can help us out here. Even though we have numbers after abortion was legalized, for obvious reasons, we didn't have high numbers before might be because women used unconventional methods to do that outside the clinics.
The bottom line is, it is always about our values and beliefs. Do we believe that we end a human life when we abortify the unborn? If yes, then what we value most? Do we value our convenience or the fact that we are responsible for that new life that grows within? It is not only the presence or the absence of law that regulates our decisions, but a total and complete understanding, based on our deep convictions about the act we are going to commit and the consequences we are going to impose by our actions.
Whether there is a law or not, if a woman decides to do something she will find a way of doing it, whether at home, on her own or at the doctor's office. I am sure the numbers of abortion sky rocketed after it was legalized but the fact is we will never know the exact number of women who did that without medical help, so what exactly numbers can tell is a bit blurry.
In former Soviet countries abortion was a means of contraception, even though there are not specific studies to refer to here but it takes someone to grow up in there to understand what's meant by this statement. The issue of abortion has a huge impact on Armenian community, even in the U.S. today.
While volunteering in one of the organizations that helped women with pregnancy tests, I came to see number of Armenian young women wanting to do it for different reasons. One of the reasons was the fear of raising the child alone, because the husband was never around, another big one, and I mean a really big reason was extra marital sex, where women found themselves pregnant and not wanting to put their name to shame in front of society and their families, they wanted to stop the pregnancy. "My mom would kill me," sometimes is what you hear from a young Armenian women.
Unfortunately this issue among Armenian community is not addressed. There may be many reasons, perhaps shame, or not that many people are interested or it can be that we are simply not aware how to address it. That doesn't make the issue disappear though. We never may know these women who are desperately seeking help but we hear their stories. They may even go for abortion because they are hopeless and there is nobody to turn to.
I heard a story once about a woman whose parents drove her out of their home because she was pregnant and not married and god knows what happened to her. We only hear it here and there and never realize that they can be real people around us. We don't speak out for them, maybe because we don't know what to do or maybe because we also feel that self righteous ray of pride saying, "How could an Armenian woman do such a thing," (unfortunately this phrase "an Armenian Woman" is so much stereotyped, that we have this perfect idea that every woman needs to live up to, no matter how unrealistic it is, which is completely another issue) but these things happen all the time. It is better to speak out with sympathy and do something rather shut our mouths and let them suffer only to be looked down from the high pedestal of the rest of the community.
While the arguments get heated we are left to decide for ourselves what side are we on and if this is an issue for us worth considering at all. While this matter is of utmost interest to me there are a few questions left unanswered. One question that worries me the most is the necessity of a legal system to control this part of our lives.
It is not by force that matters should be decided, although by legalizing abortion the percentage of women going for it went high enormously during the last years, but what is the focal point of this issue? Will forcing a woman to have her baby solve the issue of abortion? It is a rule of thumb that we don't do things because we are forced to, even a two year old finds hard to do what he/she is forced to, the more we are forced, the more resistant we become. It's a question of ethics or even perhaps our inner convictions about this act.
I am not trying to undermine the role of law in public life by any means here but the point is that the law has no power over this, because we don't know how many women stop their pregnancy at their homes by different means and there are no numbers that can help us out here. Even though we have numbers after abortion was legalized, for obvious reasons, we didn't have high numbers before might be because women used unconventional methods to do that outside the clinics.
The bottom line is, it is always about our values and beliefs. Do we believe that we end a human life when we abortify the unborn? If yes, then what we value most? Do we value our convenience or the fact that we are responsible for that new life that grows within? It is not only the presence or the absence of law that regulates our decisions, but a total and complete understanding, based on our deep convictions about the act we are going to commit and the consequences we are going to impose by our actions.
Whether there is a law or not, if a woman decides to do something she will find a way of doing it, whether at home, on her own or at the doctor's office. I am sure the numbers of abortion sky rocketed after it was legalized but the fact is we will never know the exact number of women who did that without medical help, so what exactly numbers can tell is a bit blurry.
In former Soviet countries abortion was a means of contraception, even though there are not specific studies to refer to here but it takes someone to grow up in there to understand what's meant by this statement. The issue of abortion has a huge impact on Armenian community, even in the U.S. today.
While volunteering in one of the organizations that helped women with pregnancy tests, I came to see number of Armenian young women wanting to do it for different reasons. One of the reasons was the fear of raising the child alone, because the husband was never around, another big one, and I mean a really big reason was extra marital sex, where women found themselves pregnant and not wanting to put their name to shame in front of society and their families, they wanted to stop the pregnancy. "My mom would kill me," sometimes is what you hear from a young Armenian women.
Unfortunately this issue among Armenian community is not addressed. There may be many reasons, perhaps shame, or not that many people are interested or it can be that we are simply not aware how to address it. That doesn't make the issue disappear though. We never may know these women who are desperately seeking help but we hear their stories. They may even go for abortion because they are hopeless and there is nobody to turn to.
I heard a story once about a woman whose parents drove her out of their home because she was pregnant and not married and god knows what happened to her. We only hear it here and there and never realize that they can be real people around us. We don't speak out for them, maybe because we don't know what to do or maybe because we also feel that self righteous ray of pride saying, "How could an Armenian woman do such a thing," (unfortunately this phrase "an Armenian Woman" is so much stereotyped, that we have this perfect idea that every woman needs to live up to, no matter how unrealistic it is, which is completely another issue) but these things happen all the time. It is better to speak out with sympathy and do something rather shut our mouths and let them suffer only to be looked down from the high pedestal of the rest of the community.