The Differences: Unwanted Pregnancies In Iran And In Belgium

Many women throughout their life cycle, experience unwanted pregnancies along with the consequences it may have from it. Nevertheless, the perception of women about this occurrence varies from country to country related to many factors caused from their mentality of how to manage their situation. The main purpose of this essay is to examine and compare the manner in which women of two countries like Belgium and Iran are dealing with.

First, it is very important to notice that we have to deal with two dynamic places that are very unlikely from their point of view. About 98% of Iranians are Muslims, mainly Shiites. In Islamic jurisprudence, induced abortion has been prohibited; accordingly, induced abortion is clearly illegal in Iran. Islamic scholars have offered different jurisprudential theories regarding abortion by using verses and narratives. Abortion is forbidden in Islam. This is an obvious verdict in the Shiite jurisprudence and there is no disagreement regarding certain prohibition of abortion whether before or after soul creation. However, since 2003, severely high-risk pregnancies have been allowed to be terminated before the ensoulment of the fetus. As we can see Women of Iran has very poorly known phenomena like the social taboo of abortion, social deprivation, infringing belief and value of system, fear of difficulty and adverse effects of abortion.

The main reason for such fears is probably women's lack of health information as well as their limited access to modern screening tools for identifying birth defects in developing countries. On the other hand, Belgium is a diverse mix of local governments, languages and population groups where abortion is not forbidden and all women have their ability to access safe and legal abortions or use other ways to deal that are restricted in law or in practice.

For this reason women nowadays have more access and information about their health issues or finding methods on how to cope with unwanted pregnancies. A health study in Belgium shows that Three quarters of women use a method to avoid an undesirable pregnancy, for example:60% chose the pill, 13% an intra uterine device, 8% a barrier method (a diaphragm, a spermicidal substance, a condom) and 12% sterilization. Other, less frequent, methods were patch or vaginal ring (2. 1%), a stick or a puncture pill (0. 8%), the morning after pill (0. 2%) or another method (periodic abstention, withdrawal) (1. 9%). Nevertheless it is alarming that 16% of the young, but sexually active girls, indicate that they don’t use a method to avoid a (unwanted) pregnancy.

In the final conclusion, we could say that we are not in equal conditions of comparison as long as we are dealing with two related clauses such as a country that has restrictive abortion policies and the other one with liberal abortion policies. According to a 2014 UN report, “The average unsafe abortion rate was more than four times greater in countries with restrictive abortion policies in 2011 (26. 7 unsafe abortions per 1, 000 women aged 15 to 44 years) than in countries with liberal abortion policies (6. 1 unsafe abortions per 1, 000 women aged 15 to 44 years). ” Women in Belgium are more protected by law because their identity as a female is highly respected. They have more information and are free without being influenced by anything to choose what is best for their health and life. The same thing cannot be said for Iranian women that live in a religious community that does not give access to healthcare providers because the mentality is very cruel and female dignity is seen as something only to serve to god and give birth to children.

For this reason, unsafe illegal abortion is very common and have potentially life-threatening complications. To cope with such a situation, women need strong social support and a strengthening of the policy-makers is highly recommended.