By Annabelle (Midwifery Student)
Lydia Mainey, CQUniversity researcher, recently published ‘The role of nurses and midwives in the provision of abortion care’, a review calling for the scope of nurses and midwives to be extended to include abortion procedures.
However, Mainey’s claims raise a number of issues for healthcare professionals, women and the unborn children in their care. The most prominent of these is safety.
Medical abortions carry significant risks to the woman undergoing this procedure, including; excessive bleeding or haemorrhaging, retained tissues from the baby or placenta and infection. Surgical abortions carry these and other risks such as damage to the cervix or perforation of the uterus.
Needless to say, these procedures also spell out the end of life for the unborn child.
Ultimately, expanding the accessibility of these abortion procedures bear life-threatening risks.
Abortion ends the life of a young human, and may impose serious physical and mental risks to the mother.
Is this really ‘caring’ for a woman and her baby?
Asking healthcare professionals to take the life of innocent human beings goes against the fundamental principles of care.
Mainey’s review needs serious assessment in regards to the true extent of care the recommendations would provide for women, and basic human rights – most crucially the right to life.