Abortion views on campus

Abortion:

Pro-life or Pro-choice where do you stand?

Pro-choice: Molly Roberts, president of University of Canterbury Pro-choice.

Hello friends, please be aware that in my fight for freedom and women rights below I make reference to some topics that may be upsetting to some. If any of the following could be triggering for you please feel free to skip the page to the next bit of Yo, Vocal and please reach out to a friend or one of the contacts listed below. 

Contains: abortion, rape, incest, abuse, addiction, miscarriages and paedophilia. 

*woman/women in this context referring to people with a uterus.

As a pro-choice woman I am committed to equality and empowering women to take charge over their own bodies. I am supportive of my friends and other women around me who make decisions about their own uteruses and am thankful for my friends and other women around me who realise my uterus is nobody’s business but my own. Being pro-choice isn’t about shoving an agenda down a women’s throat (or uterus), albeit to have an abortion or not, but about allowing women to make that important decision on their own terms and in a safe environment. Being pro-choice isn’t about being pro-abortion, it’s about being pro-autonomy and having the power to make your own choices. 

In the ‘debate’ over whether women should have access to the reproductive health procedure of abortion there is a plethora of propaganda and manipulative language to confuse people and conceal messages that have a sexist agenda. For instance without the connotations created by the group against abortion access for women, I would consider myself ‘pro-life’ in the real sense of the words. However in reality the term cannot be taken at face value at all, and perhaps should instead be called ‘pro-cells’ or ‘anti-women’s rights’.This confusion is problematic, and it concerns me that women may misalign themselves in a debate where the consequences are immense. 

With the access to internet and social platforms these days it is not difficult to find a courageous and often heartbreaking woman’s story from their experience with abortion. These brave women may have been survivors of rape, incestual rape, absusive relationships, financial hardship, struggling with addiction, had a history of miscarriages and a surplus more of devastating reasons. The women who go through these experiences and furthermore share their stories fill me with admiration of their strength and vulnerabiltiy but requiring women who have an unwanted to pregnancy to prove a “good reason” to anyone, is requiring women to prove they deserve human rights and personal autonomy. 

With the gross intrusion on women’s access to reproductive health care happening in the United States at the moment, even the pro-lifers were shocked when it was revealed that under Alabama laws, a 11-year-old rape survivor would be forced to carry out a pregnancy full term. This should shock and upset people. This is fucked up. 

However what shocks and upsets me even further is that if you ask a pro-lifer what they think about that they will often reply some bullshit along the lines of ‘oh but that’s different’ or ‘of course their should be exceptions for that’ (even Trump himself thinks there should be exceptions for incest or rape survivors, praised be). Following this logic that abortion should be illegal except for these circumstances is to say that the ‘sanctity’ of life should only be perserved where the pregnant woman has suffered in some form but most importantly did not just have sex because God forbid she felt like it. Or in other words, a woman’s life is more important than a cluster of cells where she has suffered; but where a woman has had a consensual sexual encounter for pleasure she is not. 

The hypocricies in the pro-life arguments are not in shortage, however the distinction the group make in the above example is important for people to understand as sexuality has been one of the most successful ways of controlling women’s autonomy throughout history and taking away a women’s control over her own uterus is a sexism101. 

Currently in New Zealand it is illegal as per the Crimes Act 1961(s 182) to have an abortion, and accordingly women wanting an abortion need two medical certificates from medical professionals stating that the continuation of the pregnancy would be detrimental to the to their pyshical or mental health. This is a gross infringment on women’s rights and I literally beg you to join me in demanding more for women in Aotearoa by demanding reform and making New Zealand a safe place for women to exist freely. 

If you are looking to be referred to an abortion provider you can visit your GP or Family Planning.

Youthline is a helpline for young New Zealanders. You can phone 0800 37 66 33, send a free text to 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz.

Pro-life: Renée Posthuma, University of Canterbury Pro-life member

* This article was written by an individual member from ProLife UC and doesn’t necessarily represent the opinion/position or response of the club collectively

In May, the southern US state of Alabama passed one of the most profoundly pro-life bills in the nation's history. This law was covered widely, including by our own media. The media saw this as an opportune time to push a multitude of abortion-advocating articles here, in the hope that our own government would get on with abortion liberalisation. Notably, the media failed to conduct basic fact-checks. As outlined by Section 5 in the law, women are not criminally liable for abortion in Alabama in any circumstances. Pro-life legalisation does not target mothers, as the pro-life movement has always committed itself to support and advocate for BOTH the mother and child. ProLife UC is committed to supporting women who are pregnant, and this includes by connecting them with various support services. 

It’s important to deal with extreme cases in this response, this includes, in the cases where the mother’s life is at risk, and in the cases of rape and incest. In the first case, an exception needs to be made to preserve the life of the mother. This is allowed for in every pro-life legalisation that has been passed. In the cases of rape; what do women who are victims of rape themselves say? Studies show that 3⁄4 of rape victims who are pregnant choose to give birth (Mahkorn, 1979), with 94% of women who gave birth indicating that they don’t believe abortion was a solution to pregnancy that has resulted from rape (Reardon et al., 2000). Of the minority of women who ended up having an abortion, the vast majority ended up regretting it, with as high as 93% indicating it was not a good solution, and nearly half of them reporting that they had an abortion from the demands or pressure of others (Reardon et al., 2000). In other words, women who have been in these situations overwhelmingly reject abortion and do not see it as a solution. 

A young woman recently contacted our parent organisation and told us she was being pressured by her boyfriend to have an abortion. She was unemployed, far away from her family and friends, and felt both hopeless and alone. A society that advocates abortion as a solution for this woman is a society which has both betrayed and failed women. Pregnant women need access to better support services and to alternatives, including adoption where necessary. The pro-life movement already supports and funds many of these services, and notably, the pro-life state of Alabama practices what it preaches as it has set the national record for adoptions from the foster care system. 

There is no question that abortion takes the life of a living human being that is genetically distinct from conception. Legalising or liberalising abortion, therefore, has significant bioethical implications, and any debate around abortion law needs to reflect that. Anything less than that is intellectually dishonest and does a considerable disservice to any supposed civilised society committed to human rights. 

As our attention is on the abortion ‘culture war’ occurring in the United States, it is our hope that any debate New Zealand has on abortion is centred on a commitment to supporting pregnant mothers, and is informed by bioethics and science. Abortion claims more than 14,000 lives every year in New Zealand, and that’s an absolute tragedy.