Introduction
An abortion is the removal of an embryo or a fetus. In countries like Pakistan the issue of abortion is yet to be acknowledged like it should be considering the country has one of the highest rates of abortions in the world. About 890,000 abortions take place in Pakistan annually. The abortion rate in Pakistan is about 29 per 1000 women. The abortion rate in Pakistan is much higher than that of USA which is about 13.5 abortions per 1000 women while 620,000 abortions per year. In Pakistan legal abortion services are difficult to obtain so many women must resort to unsafe means. Then there are also cases of forced abortions that are also happening throughout the country (Sathar, Singh, & Fikree, 2007).
Unsafe and Forced abortions in Pakistan can be said are due to Patriarchy, Economic Weakness of Parents, The role of religion, lack of family planning. Due to Unsafe and Forced abortions the question of bodily autonomy for women arises and leads to issues such as femicide and infanticide throughout the country.
Abortion; Causes and Their Implications
A Patriarchal system is a system which is heavily dominated by men and women are excluded from the process of decision making. Even when the decisions made are directly affecting the women. Pakistan is a patriarchal society. In Pakistan abortions are widely spread throughout the country, although many of these abortions are forced. Women are forced to undergo these abortions. Many of these abortions are carried out only due to having a fear of a girl. For example, A girl Mehnaz (Mehnaz is not her real name she hid it) in Abbottabad became pregnant for the 5th time when she was 19, she already had 4 daughters and her husband was threatening to throw her out if she had another girl.
Mehnaz felt trapped and did what thousands of Pakistani women do, she had an abortion. Mehnaz did not really have a choice whether she wanted to have that kid or not, because if that kid was a girl, she would have been left homeless, she didn’t have a choice in making a decision. Mehnaz’s bodily autonomy was taken from her by the threat her husband gave her.
Due to patriarchy her husband was able to give her that threat because he knew Mehnaz was dependent on him, Mehnaz was dependent on her husband because she was not provided with the agency that would help her become independent (“Why The Abortion Rate In Pakistan Is One Of The World’s Highest : Goats and Soda : NPR,” n.d.).
Lack of family Planning also contributes to the abortions happening in Pakistan. Most women having these abortions are married have 3 or more than 3 children. Unintended pregnancies lead to abortions. Parents who are already not economically strong are forced to abort their children.
Abortion is legal in Pakistan but only in certain circumstances. The circumstances being that the life of women is threatened by having the baby . Now these parents who are economically weak they are forced to visit traditional practitioners who generally perform unsafe abortions. Many parents must go to traditional practitioners also because many doctors believe that it is unislamic to perform abortions in any case, these parents are again forced. The problem with these unsafe and traditional abortions is that they can lead to illness and death. The implications of unsafe abortions are dire which include hemorrhage, excessive bleeding, perforations, and lacerations may occur, septicemia and kidney failure among other things (“Unintended Pregnancy and Induced Abortion In Pakistan | Guttmacher Institute,” n.d.) (“Abortion in Pakistan | Guttmacher Institute,” n.d.).
An example of Unsafe abortions can be found in the story of Mehnaz. Mehnaz did not just have forced abortions but had unsafe abortions too. According to Mehnaz when she became pregnant the fifth time, she started to take every kind of pill to make her sick so the fetus would die. She started lifted heavy things.
A traditional way is drinking drew of boiled dates which she came to know about, and she did drink them, many people believe that this beverage triggers labor irrespective of the time period the woman has been pregnant. After doing these things Mehnaz felt an intense pain in her stomach and she went to a midwife. The midwife told her that the baby was dead and then gave her injections and the baby was delivered.
Since then, she had two more abortions, each time because she feared of having a girl. Mehnaz had to go through intense pain and suffering and had to deliver a dead baby only because her bodily autonomy was taken, she was not provided basic healthcare, she was not independent in her decisions, she was not provided with the agency to make her independent, because her husband had no concept of family planning. She was forced with this because of wrong interpretation of Islam her husband won’t use contraceptives because he believes it’s a sin.
Mehnaz was forced to do this because she was a woman who might give birth to a woman. Considering how many babies are aborted in Pakistan just for being a girl or just for maybe being a girl it can be said that there is a femicide going on in Pakistan. Femicide can be said is going in Pakistan also since when women like Mehnaz are forced to get unsafe abortions, it can easily result into death. It can also be called an infanticide since babies are being killed based on what their gender could be. There are two victims present here which are babies and girls. Considering how widespread abortions are in Pakistan its surprising that there is very little debate around it.
A few statistics are provided so the reader can understand the graveness of the problem.
The common misconception that people who are not married and engage in sexual intercourse are having abortions is also fictitious. Most of the abortions in Pakistan are being done by married couples. Most of these abortions are unsafe and lot of them are forced. The topic about abortions may seem to be not related with the politics of South Asia but abortions are related to gender, to the role of religion, to the lack of family planning, to the economic weakness of the people living here. These are all major issues of South Asia, and they are also the ones who give birth to the issue of abortions too.
Policy Recommendations
1. The state needs to act. People need awareness. Foremost, the problem of unsafe and forced abortions should be acknowledged. The fact that the rate of abortions in Pakistan is higher than US is alarming since unlike Pakistan abortion is promoted in multiple states of US and their population is about 329 million which is a lot more than Pakistan even though their abortion rate is lesser than us. The people of Pakistan must know that this issue exists in Pakistan because most of us are not informed on this topic.
2. As for the doctors who do not provide abortions even to women whose lives are in danger due to pregnancies, medical colleges should teach them about the laws of Pakistan and Islam. Abortion is legal in Islam too when it comes to saving the life a person. The fact that many people in our country have confused religion with culture is one of the reasons why women resort to unsafe abortions.
3. Promote family planning at the state level. It can be done through ads rather than showing those stupid and old ads on national television, the ads could be promoting family planning and the use of contraceptives, so the married couples do not have to go through the pain of having an unsafe abortion. Use of contraceptives should be promoted one of the reasons of Mehnaz’s sufferings was the fact that her husband thought it was a sin which it isn’t. It’s not like there have not been ads about family planning in Pakistan but they have yet to be shown on mainstream television. An example of them is given:
Such Ads can make a huge impact on our society by promoting family planning, although they are yet to make their way on mainstream channels.
4. The importance of providing women with agency from which they can become independent, we as a state need to collectively work to make our women independent, to break the chains of patriarchy. So, they will not be threatened by the males of their families. When they become independent their bodily autonomies will be returned to them. The role of education is again crucial, here these are the things that should be taught at a young age to both boys and girls. Women especially young girls should know their rights and boys should know their limits.
5. The state also needs to deal with the places which provide unsafe abortions with an iron hand. These places should be shut down as soon as possible. If not, then we as a state will be ignoring the femicide happening in our country. It is a femicide because the women who were forced to get unsafe abortions are sometimes killed by the humans who force them. These women were killed just because they were women, and they might be having a girl. If Pakistan as a state cannot tackle the infanticide and femicide going on throughout the country, then Pakistan will fail as a state.
6. The problem of unsafe and forced abortions should be dealt quickly and swiftly. When we talk about international relations, we always talk about the role of INGOs, NGOs and a state’s image in the international world. These abortions are a human rights violation. These abortions may not be acknowledged by us but can be acknowledge by international world which will ruin Pakistan’s image. Pakistan already ranks at 153 out 156 nations right on top of war-torn Iraq when it comes to the gender gap in enrolment in Pakistan’s education system.
The author is an undergraduate student of Bachelors in International Relations At National Defence University, Islamabad.