I thought I’d share an article I read through the New York Times this morning. We’ve discussed in class how the spread of the Zika Virus has become a pressing public health concern recently, especially in Latin America. However, even outside of this zone there are cases being documented worldwide. The major concern of this virus is not how it affects most infected individuals, given that for the vast majority there are no notable symptoms, but rather its potential to cause serious birth defects in infants born to infected mothers. As Dr. Mathews has posted on, governments such El Salvador’s, which do not provide adequate access to contraception or abortion for their country’s women, as simply encouraging them not to get pregnant rather than to save more lives through preventative initiatives.
In Colombia, women are granted access to abortion in a variety of circumstances such as pregnancies caused by rape, severe birth defects, or high risks to maternal health. Recently, the fact that 25,000 Colombians, including 3,000 pregnant women, have been infected has led to the government including microcephaly (the birth defect caused by Zika) to be included as a condition that can justify termination of a pregnancy.
This access to healthcare is relatively progressive compared to what others have been experiencing during this pandemic, but another factor that is impacting Colombian women’s choices during these pregnancies is social – here, one of the challenges of choosing to terminate a pregnancy is coming to terms with religious beliefs, as well as how others in the community will see the woman who chose to terminate it. This issue is made more complicated in the fact that not all Zika-infected mothers may have children with birth defects, as the link between the virus and microcephaly is still not clear. Thus, some mothers are choosing to heavily monitor their pregnancies before they make their choice on the pregnancy.
I chose to share this because I had not yet considered what factors outside of personal health could be impacting the way that pregnancies tied to Zika were handled. For some mothers, this virus is also threatening their social environment and their moral makeup.
Zika Virus in Colombia Presents Complicated Choice About Abortion