Ethical aspects of legal abortion from the viewpoint of pregnant women referring to the forensic medicine center in Iran (original) (raw)
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BMC Research Notes
Objective The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and the reasons of issuing permission for therapeutic abortion in department of forensic medicine, Kermanshah-Iran. Results There were a total number of 428 applications for issuing permits. The most common reasons of issuing permit for therapeutic abortion were fetal and maternal problems, specifically cerebral abnormalities (70.8%), and anencephaly (30.3%). Furthermore, 354 (82/7%) out of 428 applications were able to get the legal permit and 17.3% of the applications did not receive permission, which was mainly due to “the lack of maternal indication”. Increased knowledge of physicians and clinical personnel on indications of therapeutic abortions and related regulations would lead to the implementation of strategies which prevent void referrals to the department of forensic medicine and a better execution of therapeutic abortion law. By improving the health condition of pregnant women who seek pregnancy termination,...
Copyright© Abortion in Iranian Legal System Corresponding Author
Abortion traditionally means miscarriage and is still known as a problem, which societies have been trying to reduce its rate by using legal means. Despite the fact that pregnant women and fetuses have been historically supported; abortion was firstly criminalized in 1926 in Iran, 20 years after establishment of modern legal system. During next 53 years this situation changed dramatically, thus in 1979, the time of Islamic Revolution, aborting fetuses up to 12 weeks of conception and therapeutic abortion (TA) during the entire period of pregnancy were legitimated, based on regulations that used medical justifications. After 1979 the situation changed into a totally conservative and restrictive approach and new Islamic concepts as "Blood Money" and "Ensoulment" entered the legal debates around abortion. During next 33 years, again a trend of decriminalization for the act of abortion has been continued.
Triangular Assessment of the Etiology of Induced Abortion in Iran: A Qualitative Study
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 2013
Background: About 46 million induced abortions occur in the world annually. The studies have reported 80000 cases of induced abortions in Iran annually. Objectives: This qualitative study was conducted to identify the causes of unsafe abortion in Iran from the standpoint of three groups of experts, women with a history of abortion or unwanted pregnancy and service providers. Patients and Methods: A total of 72 in-depth semi structured interviews were conducted in 2012 in Tehran and Shahroud. After coordination with 8 experts, sampling from them was done using the Snowballing method in their offices. Sampling from 28 married and 10 engaged women with a history of unwanted pregnancy or unsafe abortion and 12 providers was done in health care centers and a in number of gynecologists' and midwives' offices. Sampling from women with a history of unwanted pregnancy or unsafe abortion such as single women, HIV positive women and drug users, and women who had sexual intercourse for money was started by referring to the social rehabilitation center for women and continued using the snowballing method due to difficulties in accessing them. Participants were from different ethnic groups including Fars, Gilaki, Mazandarani, Arab, Azerbaijani, and Lor. Content analysis was performed on collected data. Results: Based on the results of the interviews, participants have abortion for following reasons: 1. Wanted pregnancy (sub categories: fetal abnormalities, Concern about fetal health and lack of trust to prenatal diagnostic methods, Fetal sex, Lack of independent and free decision making regarding pregnancy in women, 2. Unwanted pregnancy (sub-categories: Socioeconomic factors, Beliefs and feelings, Lack of information about family planning) 3. Predisposing factors (sub-categories: Lack of information on religious aspects of abortion, Easy access to easy abortion methods). Some people, despite having unwanted pregnancy due to social, economic, cultural and family grounds, continued their pregnancy and did not have an abortion for the following reasons: Religious beliefs, Beliefs (fear of punishment in the afterlife and believing in fate) , Attachment to the unborn baby, Influence of the other people's opinions (physician, mother or spouse) Late diagnosis of pregnancy, Unsuccessful abortion attempts (Self-treatment, Unsuccessful medical abortion), Economic weakness and arbitrary treatment. Conclusions: In the present study, women who continued their pregnancy despite being unwanted were also interviewed. Although they had the same social, economic, cultural, and family problems as women with a history of unsafe abortion and had easy access to abortion, analysis showed that the difference in religious beliefs between the two groups was the most important factor that led women to choose two different approaches. The authors believe that in-depth analysis of people's beliefs and opinions in this regard and correction of false beliefs plays a crucial role in decreasing the rate of unsafe abortion.
Life Science Journal, 2013
Abstract: Background: Abortion is termination of pregnancy by any means so that the fetus lacks the ability to live outside the uterus. The aim of this descriptive study was to assess the causes of legal abortion in pregnant women referred to a central women’s hospital in south of Iran. Methods: In this descriptive retrospective study, all the records of therapeutic abortions from 2009 till 2012 which were approved by forensic specialist were included. A total of 176 records were included and the extracted data were analysed by SPSS software. Results: Most cases were in 2010 (35.2%), and the fewest cases were in 2009 (13.1%). The mean age of the women was (26.6±6.1). In most cases (87.5%) the legal abortions had fetal causes and 12.5% had maternal causes. The most prevalent fetal cause of abortion was due to thalassemia (41.5%), and anencephaly (18.2%), while the most prevalent maternal causes of abortion were cardiovascular diseases (6.3%). Conclusion: Present study shows fetal abnormalities are increasing, and it seems that educating people and increasing their awareness about fetal anomalies and also contraception in women with cardiovascular diseases could be an effective way to decrease the rate of abortion.
Abortion in Iranian legal system: a review
Iranian journal of allergy, asthma, and immunology, 2014
Abortion traditionally means, "to miscarry" and is still known as a problem which societies has been trying to reduce its rate by using legal means. Despite the pregnant women and fetuses have being historically supported; abortion was firstly criminalized in 1926 in Iran, 20 years after establishment of modern legal system. During next 53 years this situation changed dramatically, so in 1979, the time of Islamic Revolution, aborting fetuses before 12 weeks and therapeutic abortion (TA) during all the pregnancy length was legitimate, based on regulations that used medical justification. After 1979 the situation changed into a totally conservative and restrictive approach and new Islamic concepts as "Blood Money" and "Ensoulment" entered the legal debates around abortion. During the next 33 years, again a trend of decriminalization for the act of abortion has been continuing. Reduction of punishments and omitting retaliation for criminal abortions, recog...
Journal of Womens Health Care, 2015
Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the perception regarding induced abortion. Method: This descriptive study was conducted in 1-15 October 2011. A questionnaire was applied to 419 married women by educated midwives/nurses. Results: The mean age of the women was 34.0 ± 7.7 years. 45.3% of them stated that the ideal number of children for a family as three. 80.7% believe that induced abortion is a sin and 74.9% had stated that it was a kind of murder, therefore was forbidden by religion. Also the irreversible modern methods of contraception, such as tubal ligation (24.1% of the women, and 17.2% of the spouses), and vasectomy (25.5% of the women, and 17.4% of the spouses) were perceived as a sin. 31.3% thought "induced abortion was not a sin in the case of a handicapped fetus", 53.5% thought "it wasn't a sin if the pregnancy was endangering maternal health" and 41.8% thought "it wasn't a sin if the pregnancy was the result of rape". Out of 419 women 58 (12.7%) had an induced abortion. Conclusion: One woman out of four thinks that irreversible contraceptive methods are a sin.
Knowledge and Attitudes of a Number of Iranian Policy-makers towards Abortion
2010
Introduction Unsafe and illegal abortions are the third leading cause of maternal death. It affects physical, emotional and social health of women and their families. Abortion is a multi-dimensional phenomenon with several social, legal, and religious implications. The views of policy-makers affect the approach to abortion in every society. Understanding the attitudes and knowledge of high-ranking decision makers towards abortion was the purpose of this study. Materials and Methods A qualitative research was implemented by carrying out individual interviews with 29 out of a selection of 80 presidents of medical sciences universities, senior executive managers in the legal system, forensic medicine and decision-makers in the health system and a number of top Muslim clerics, using a semi-structured questionnaire for data gathering. Content analysis revealed the results. Results There were considerable unwillingness and reluctance among the interviewees to participate in the study. The...
Attitude of Reproductive Age Women towards Factors Affecting Induced Abortion in Hamedan, Iran
Journal of midwifery and reproductive health, 2016
Background & aim: Abortion is the third leading cause of maternal mortality. The attitude of women towards abortion is one of the most important factors involved in this issue. This study aimed to evaluate the attitude of women of reproductive age towards induced abortion. Methods This cross-sectional study was performed on 450 women of reproductive age in Fatemieh Hospital in Hamedan, Iran in 2014. Data was collected using abortion attitude scale consisting of five sections: socioeconomic status, family status, maternal and fetal health status, psycho -cultural background, and fertility status. Mean score less than three in each domain was considered as negative attitude, while scores higher or equal to three indicated positive attitude towards induced abortion. To analyze the data, logistic regression analysis, Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests were performed using SPSS version 21. P value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In this study, in...
Complications of illegal abortion in the suburbs of Tehran: A 9-year cross-sectional study
In countries with restricted abortion laws, unintended pregnancy leads to increased tendency to unsafe abortion. Illegal or unsafe abortions could be an important cause of maternal mortality and morbidity. [8,9] In Iran, similar to other developing countries, complications of illegal abortion are more prevalent as compared to developed countries. [10,11] Selective abortion is beyond a medical issue for the mother and the fetus;, it is an important topic for theoretical debate. However, the objective existence of the mother is faded out or even dismissed in theoretical sciences; most of the discussions are about personhood, soul of the fetus, and eventually defense of the fetus.