Abortions do not save the lives of young girls.
CW: CSA, rape, sui mention
It's a misconception that girls below teenage years can't safely carry a pregnancy to term. Provided they receive sufficient and timely maternal/prenatal care, doctors will follow the same protocols with smaller girls as they would for very short women. For some young girls it may be best that they not give vaginal birth, or that they induce when the baby is at the point of viability rather than full term, but the overall risk of harm to their bodies is mitigated by the timing and quality of their pregnancy care.
The reasons childhood pregnancies often have more complications is NOT because the bodies of young girls can't handle it. Complications commonly arise because childhood pregnancies are often discovered late (girl is too young to know signs of pregnancy and adults don't know until she starts showing), and because girls often lack access to good prenatal care (either because care is not available, or they aren't aware of the availability and necessity of such care).
(Here's a medical study backing this up. And another one. And a post about it.)
Without early pregnancy care, girls are more likely to develop preventable disease or to let treatable disease progress. Pregnancy is not disease, but disease may happen within pregnancy.
Young girls are also more likely to experience complications from abortion procedures, such as asherman's syndrome and preterm birth in later pregnancies. Some studies found girls who experience abortion to be more at risk for cancer, addiction, and death by suicide later in life. Whether a childhood pregnancy ends in abortion or childbirth, there is no option that is free from risk of further harm.
And there is no option that guarantees reduction of trauma. Additional trauma may be caused by disease and stigma, or come from parenting and adoption. Childbirth may be traumatic. Abortion may be traumatic. None of this may be traumatic. All of these traumas are separate from the initial traumas of rape and forced impregnation.
However, pregnancy itself is not inherently traumatic. Abortion is not evidence-based treatment for the trauma of CSA. Abortion is not a standard of care for the treatment of trauma. Abortion cannot undo or prevent trauma.
But abortion can, and often is, used by abusers to hide the traumatic harm they have done to a girl. Abortion clinics do not report abuse because it's bad for business; they need girls to come back for more abortions. That is their business model.
None of this is an argument for or against the morality of abortion after CSA. These are just objective facts.
Of course I don't want children to be impregnated with children. I don't want children to be forced to raise children. I also don't want children to be forced to become the parents of dead children. I want to end rape culture and rape, as this is a completely avoidable scenario.
When abortion occurs after CSA, the rapist ought to be held accountable for both the abuse of one child and the death of another. Rape destroys lives. That is truth. Abortion kills people. That is also true. Some victims feel deep relief after abortion. Some survivors find healing in keeping their babies. All of this can be true.
But don't say young girls can't survive pregnancy, so abortion saves their lives. That is objectively untrue.
If you are a CSA victim who was told you would die if you didn't get an abortion, or that you had no choice but to abort, I am so sorry that you were lied to and that you were failed by the people that should have protected you. I am so sorry you were violated and exploited. I am so sorry they hurt you and that they hurt your baby.
From one CSA survivor to another, I want you to know that you didn't deserve that. You deserved the truth, and you deserved your baby. You deserved better than abuse and abortion. It has never been your fault. We love you. The folks at supportafterabortion.com want to help you heal.
To learn about preventing CSA, to seek help for a victim, or to find support as a survivor, I highly recommend 1in6.org, regardless of your gender. Call 988 if you're in crisis. It gets better, I promise.
