Here's some appalling statistics for you.
Women who are 15 years old in 2014 face a lifetime risk of dying of 1 in
2,400, up from 1 in 3,700 for women who were 15 in the year 2000,
according to the report from the charity organization Save the Children.
That means that in 2014, a woman in America has the same lifetime risk
of pregnancy-related death as a woman in Iran or Romania, the report said.
Of course, don't tell the anti-abortion crowd that. While
some of them, with enough prodding, will be honest enough to admit that they would see a pregnant woman's health and life ruined to preserve her pregnancy, this is most often not the case. Pregnancy related risks are downplayed -- and
even denied altogether -- by people either ignorant of such a basic biological fact (pregnancy carries risks to a woman's health & life) or else clever enough to prevaricate on the issue (recognizing that it's impolitic to declare that women should be denied life and health saving care because they're pregnant).
It's worth noting that, despite the anti-choice crowd's pretense that pregnancy, even rape pregnancy, is a perfect
gift from God, the best and most natural thing for a pregnant woman, 1 in 2,400 is a much higher rate of death than the
risk associated with the most dangerous period for abortion (after 21 weeks), of 1 death in 11,000 abortions. (On the other end of the scale, with early abortions -- prior to eight weeks -- the risk drops astronomically, to 1 death in 1,000,000 abortions).
The simple fact -- a fact utterly disregarded by the anti-choice crowd -- is that choosing to be a parent is no small undertaking. There are real life health consequences -- up to and including death -- involved. No one --
no one -- but the woman whose life and health will be so profoundly impacted has the right to make that decision for her.
Originally posted at Rachel's Hobbit Hole