In 2021 a young Polish woman, Izabela, was admitted to the hospital due to pregnancy complications. Her fetus had many problems and disorders and could not survive. But doctors were hesitant to operate on her because of a new law in Poland that bans abortion except in cases of incest and rape. Isabella’s condition worsened. She texted her mother: “my temperature is rising, I don’t think they will operate on me until the fetus’s heart is beating, and by then I could get sepsis.” She died a few hours later. Tens of thousands of Polish men and women protested after that, with the slogan “none more” – so that no more women die because of such a strict law.

In Serbia, the law on abortion is much milder than in Poland. But there are more and more people who would like to change that law and ban abortion. Let’s ask ourselves if this is really good and right, before some young women in Serbia start dying in our hospitals.

The first and main reason why it is necessary for abortion to be allowed is – a woman has the right  to make decisions about her body; a woman is no one’s property, the only owner of a woman’s body is herself. It is a legacy of civilization and a prerequisite for women to have not only an equal position, but a basic right to life and disposal of their body and destiny. Therefore, no one, neither the state, nor the husband, nor the partner, should be in a position to force a woman to do something with her body that she does not want, including the right to give birth. No one has the right to make that decision for her.

Related to this is another reason why women’s right to abortion is recognized – the decision to give birth is of such great and fateful importance in a woman’s life that no one has the right to make that decision for her. The key event here was the ruling of the US Supreme Court in the case of Roe v. Wade from 1973, which read – childbirth and motherhood so fundamentally affect a woman, her destiny, life, work, career, quality of life, that no one but her has the right to make that decision. In other words, when a woman gives birth to a child, her life changes so much, and becomes so connected to the fact that she is a mother, that no one has the right to force her to do that – it is one of the key decisions and changes in her life, and that’s why it must be solely her decision and her choice.

This case represented a historic event in the early seventies of the last century and marked the acceptance of the right of women to decide on their bodies, lives and offspring. Before women were given this right, many feminists who advocated for the recognition of the right to abortion pointed out that if they were not allowed, many women would die because abortions would be performed illegally, outside hospitals and in unsanitary conditions. According to the official data of the World Health Organization, every year about 7 million women in poor countries alone end up in the hospital due to the consequences of unsafe and unofficial abortions, and between 5 and 13% of all women who die during pregnancy die as a result of these abortions performed in unsafe and unofficial conditions. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of women die every year because they do not have the right to an abortion and the basic conditions to perform it in a medically adequate manner.

Furthermore, what kind of society is it that will force a woman who has become pregnant by being raped, or by being sexually abused to give birth? She suffered a terrible trauma, from which she may never recover. And even if she has to give birth and raise that child that is the result of a crime, that is inadmissible. According to the American FBI, about 9,000 women in the US become pregnant each year as a result of rape, and at least 100,000 cases of incest occur each year in this country. No one has the right to force thousands and thousands of women to give birth to a child conceived in that way.

Finally, there are hundreds of genetic diseases, disorders or deformities that unfortunately affect the fetus. Modern medicine has many quick and easy tests that can detect such disorders very early, even in early pregnancy. Children with Down syndrome, children who have no chance of surviving long after birth, with congenital incurable diseases – forcing women to continue such pregnancies and watch the unbearable suffering of their children is a crime and must not be allowed.

One of the most common is the problem of mass abortions and white plague in Serbia – Serbia loses about 50,000 inhabitants annually, and at the same time, about 250,000 abortions are performed every year. So, if all those children were born, Serbia would have 200,000 more inhabitants every year. However, the main problem here is not to ban abortion, but that abortion is used as contraception – people do not take into account whether they will get pregnant or not, and then when they do, they decide to have an abortion. Abortion must not be a means of contraception, so awareness should be raised about childbirth, about protection against unwanted pregnancy, and the population should be educated so that such a large number of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies do not occur. In this way, the number of abortions in Serbia will be properly and justifiably reduced. In addition, those who think that the white plague should be fought, should be told that the white plague is not solved by forcing women who do not want to give birth to have to give birth to a child, but by providing greater benefits and incentives from the state and municipalities for those who give birth, to improve society so that when women return to work they have the same rights and chances for advancement as before pregnancy. Also, there are tens of thousands of women in Serbia who are trying to get pregnant, which is often too expensive and unaffordable for many women and couples – we should enable them to get free and quality medical care and the conditions to have the child they want.

Throughout history, women were in a subordinate position and did not have the right to decide about their bodies and their fate. This led, and in some parts of the world it still leads to mass deaths of women who undergo illegal abortions and die in unhygienic conditions. Today, however, civilized and educated people agree that women should have equal rights, and one of the basic rights is a woman’s right to decide about her body and her destiny. One of those fundamental rights is the right of a woman to decide whether or not to give birth to a child, because that decision belongs to her, and her life and her destiny depend on her. We must strive for a society that is civilized and in which women have their rights, and that means a society that encourages women to progress, to develop, to improve their destiny and lead dignified lives, and that means above all that they decide when and how many children they want to have. Otherwise, we will have a society in which young women, like the Polish woman Izabela at the beginning of this story, die in agony because society denies them even basic health care at the moment when their lives hang in the balance.