The social and family development minister of Morocco spoke on Saturday about the government's intention to change the laws regarding abortion. Despite being illegal in the country, it is estimated that up to a thousand clandestine abortions take place in Morocco every day, many of them without proper medical precautions. The minister stated that abortion would be legalized only in cases of incest, rape or seriously malformed fetus, and that this change in the legislation would be made in order to prevent women with dramatic pregnancy circumstances from putting their lives at risk by aborting illegally.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Even though abortion is always a sensible topic, it should never be considered taboo. In my opinion, and keeping in mind everything that the article talks about, the changes that the government of Morocco wants to implement as regards to abortion are pretty sensible and positive ones. Legal abortion only in extreme cases -when the negative physical and mental consequences of pregnancy result from factors that are out of the woman's control- is a right that should be included in every modern country's legislation, because it gives many women the possibility to choose over their own lives and to have a better future without having to go against the law or to even risk their health. Unfortunately this right is sometimes misinterpreted by both conservatives and liberals; the former saying that -no matter what the circumstances are- abortion is murder, the latter seeing abortion as freedom to regret when it is too late -totally disregarding its consequences.
Source: http://moroccoworldnews.com/2011/10/abortion-in-‘extreme-cases’-should-be-legal-says-morocco-minister-2/
Diego I completely agree with you. Abortion should not be considered taboo and I think it is a progress the fact that Morocco decides to talk about it. Banning things is not always the solution and your article shows it. Even if Morocco banned abortion, there were still thousand clandestine abortions. I think Morocco did it well legalizing it (even if it is only legal for extreme cases) because it shows a more tolerant and comprehensive way of thinking. And the government can control it without putting any live at risk.
ReplyDeleteIn the health field it is clearly a huge progress. But the decision is also favourable to the conquest of the autonomy of women in making their own decisions.
I think this article is really interesting, and i agree with your comments, Diego.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely believe that abortion should only be legal in extreme cases. However it is still an extremely controversial topic, because who is going to decide when it is an extreme situation or when it is not? And who is going to be the doctor in charge of putting this new law in practice?I also believe it is a very sensible topic and this is the reason why it is so difficult to meassure with law.
Abortion is a really complicated topic because from my point of view it cannot be legal in all cases, but for a government, I understand that it is too dificult to put limits and say in what cases people can abort under the law, or not. I think also, that in anyway,there will be still clandestines abotions.
ReplyDelete