Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
Many Malaysians grew up in religious households, which taught us a religious perspective rather than a factual or scientific one. Among the teachings we absorbed is: abortion is the murder of an unborn life.
Much like the law criminalising homosexuality, our laws regarding abortion actually stems from British colonisation. But like other outdated laws, this ban against abortion has cruel consequences.
Here are the reasons why all Malaysians (regardless of gender) need abortions to be legal and accessible:
1. We are forcing women and girls to become mothers before they are ready
Parenthood is tough – and not always right. There are many girls (not even women!) who are forced into this role, long before they have truly left childhood behind themselves.
Source: Elijah Nouvelage (Getty Images)
Recently, there was a case of a 15 year old rape victim who had murdered her baby. This would have easily been avoided if she had access to an abortion. What is the sense in making a young teenager who was raped have a child? Imagine the depths of her trauma!
Besides rape victims, women who are not sexual assault survivors should also have the right to abortion. Many women choose to get abortions because they do not want a child. It is simply unfair and unjust to push women towards a decision they have little choice in.
2. Connected to the issue of baby dumping
One of the saddest social issues that Malaysia suffers from is that of baby dumping. Babies have been found in numerous places like toilets or garbage disposal areas, all abandoned by their biological parents.
Of course, the larger issue is that we lack a system of comprehensive sex education here. But beyond that, the procedure to qualify for an abortion is bureaucratic – it involves proof that carrying the pregnancy would endanger the mother’s health or life.
Forced to carry a child to term, what other choices have we given mothers?
I’m not saying that baby dumping is reasonable in any sense, but that women deserve the right to terminate their pregnancy for whatever reason.
3. Pro-life arguments are based on the life of the unborn rather than the lives of the living
Although it is primarily the mother whose life will be upended by having a child, there are many others who will be affected as well. Pregnancy is a community issue, as a woman who is pregnant is limited in the things that she can do and will require community support – be it her partner, family, friends, or even neighbours.
For those with stable finances, the cost of a pregnancy is still severe: another person to clothe and feed, who will be unable to care for themselves for many years. But what about those who come from a lower socioeconomic class?
The toll of pregnancy is a high one.
4. The lack of rights to abortion punishes women for having sex
Many say that “if you don’t want a child, then don’t have sex” but that’s a lot like saying “if you don’t want to get into an accident, then don’t drive a car”. That argument makes little sense because it’s rarely the man who has to face the stigma and burden of pregnancy – the punishment for having sex is disproportionately borne by the woman.
This idea of punishment is not just an analogy though: Malaysian law criminalises abortion.
Nepalese migrant worker Nirmala Thapa was tried and convicted of abortion. – Starpic Mustafa Ahmad (30/06/2015).
In a country where sex education consists of “just don’t have sex until you’re married”, the situation is created in which people are sexually irresponsible. We don’t even talk about STI tests, so how are Malaysians supposed to cope with the concept of responsibility over reproductive health?
Instead, the lack of rights to abortion in combination with poor sex awareness means that the sexually curious are punished for just one mistake or accident.
5. Not giving women the right to abortions restricts the rights of women over their own body
There’s this joke that if men were the ones who got pregnant, they’d be able to get an abortion from a vending machine.
Yet the truth stands: the reproductive health of women is rarely dictated by women. Malaysian women already face issues with medical professionals who believe that pap smears are for married women only.
Malaysian women have always been treated as second class citizens, compared to Malaysian men. Take the case of the government filing an appeal against the court decision to provide the foreign born children of Malaysian women with the citizenship already available to the foreign born children of Malaysian men.
Malaysian women have little rights in general – and abortion is one of those that we are prevented from having.
6. Condemns unborn children to potentially miserable lives
Without the surety of being able to terminate a pregnancy, women must see the pregnancy all the way to the birth of a child. How would you imagine such a mother would feel towards this child?
At best, there will be plenty of resentment for an unwanted child that has burdened their parents with the responsibility of parenthood. At worst? The child could be born into poverty or abuse – just another burden on an already struggling household.
Not giving women access to abortion causes a new generation of children who grow up wishing that they were never born.
7. Force women to resort to desperate measures
I know people who have had abortions, ones that were probably unsafe. Without access to safe and legal abortions, the only choice given to women is to seek out other ways to terminate the pregnancy.
Motherhood is for life, a commitment that is not only expensive but requires you to place the needs of your child above your own.
It is not for everyone.
Without the ability to have an abortion safely, women end up doing it unsafely instead. Outlawing abortion does not regulate it – neither does it prevent people from seeking it out.
It just makes it more dangerous.
Malaysians deserve the right to the medical procedure of abortion
Not only will it help women live their fullest lives without care or worry, but it will also mean that every child a Malaysian has is a child that is wanted – a child whose arrival has been prepared for.
Abortion rights allow people to make mistakes and learn from them the easy way. Malaysian women also need the right to make their own decisions regarding their health and body.
When you really think about it, it’s sickening how many women have been lost to unwanted pregnancies. Without abortion, we end the lives of the living before they can really begin.
For more stories like this, read: Malaccan State Government Post About Husbands Stressed Over Breadwinner Wife Shows That Misogyny Is Still A Huge Malaysian Problem, I’m A Malaysian Woman Who Loves Sex – Here’s Why It Should Be Destigmatised, and I Was Sexually Assaulted By A Lecturer In A Malaysian Private University.
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