Page 11 - Aruba Today

WORLD NEWS A11
Friday 29 January 2016

In face of Zika virus, women ponder abortion, childlessness

A woman covers her mouth as she stands outside her home U.S.-based nonprofit that editorial that Zika raises a although Dr. Jeffrey Ecker,
while city workers fumigate to combat the Aedes Aegypti mos- promotes reproductive need to discuss decriminal- a maternal-fetal medicine
quitoes that transmit the Zika virus, at the San Judas Community health rights. ization of abortion. specialist at Massachusetts
in San Salvador, El Salvador. Worries about the rapid spread of “When women are des- Microcephaly usually oc- General Hospital, said it
Zika through the hemisphere has prompted officials in El Salva- perate ... they will seek out curs because of abnormal sometimes may be detect-
dor, Colombia and Brazil to suggest women stop getting preg- their own solutions,” said brain development that ed in the second trimester.
nant until the crisis has passed. Carmen Barroso, Western numerous conditions can “We don’t know as much
Hemisphere director for trigger: genetic abnormali- as we would like,” Ecker
(AP Photo/Salvador Melendez) the International Planned ties, disorders such as Down said. “That’s the caveat
Parenthood Federation. In syndrome, drug or alcohol that hangs over all of this.”
CHRIS SHERMAN ting religious beliefs about El Salvador, she said, half use, other infections such In the United States, if
MARCOS ALEMAN abortion against the risk of all pregnancies are un- as cytomegalovirus or even there’s concern that a
Associated Press that their babies could be planned. serious nutritional problems. pregnant woman may
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador born with abnormally small So far, only Brazil has seen a WHO officials say it may be have been infected by Zika
(AP) — Maria Erlinda Guz- heads and a short life ex- sharp rise in microcephaly six to nine months before a while traveling abroad, the
man desperately wants a pectancy. cases suspected of a link to link between Zika and mi- American College of Ob-
baby, and has been under- World Health Organization Zika. crocephaly is established stetricians and Gynecolo-
going fertility treatments at officials said Thursday the Abortion is illegal in Brazil or dismissed. gists is recommending ultra-
El Salvador’s largest wom- virus is “spreading explo- except in cases of rape, Complicating the mystery is sound exams every three to
en’s hospital. But now, she sively” and the Americas danger to the mother’s life how to detect which preg- four weeks to evaluate the
fears her dream of mother- could see up to 4 million or anencephaly, another nancies really may be at fetus.
hood may be dashed by cases of Zika in the next birth defect involving the risk. Microcephaly typically Moreover, about 80 per-
Zika. year. And as it expands to brain. Authorities have said has not been diagnosed cent of those infected with
After her country took the countries where abortion is they don’t plan to add a in early pregnancy. One Zika present no symptoms,
extraordinary step of ad- strictly limited or outlawed microcephaly exception, study published in 2000 according to the U.S. Cen-
vising women to avoid altogether, doctors and though the Folha de S. Pau- found it was diagnosed ters for Disease Control and
pregnancies for two years health advocates fear that lo newspaper argued in an on average at 28 weeks, Prevention.q
due to concerns about the many women could resort
rapidly spreading virus, the to back-alley procedures
34-year-old now plans to that imperil their health.
start using contraception. “What happens in a coun-
She worries that she may try where abortion is com-
be too old to conceive by pletely illegal?” said An-
the time it is considered gelica Rivas of Acdatee, a
safe to do so. Salvadoran nonprofit that
“I’m going to be left child- advocates for decriminal-
less,” Guzman said. ization of the procedure.
While Zika’s exact link to “What can be expected
the rare birth defect known is an increase in the rates
as microcephaly is still un- of illegal abortions, unsafe
clear, warnings from El abortions and a mental
Salvador, at least six other health issue for women.”
countries and health of- At least 4.4 million pregnan-
ficials across the Ameri- cies were aborted in 2008
cas are raising anxiety for in Latin America, about 95
millions of would-be and percent of them clandes-
could-be mothers in affect- tinely and in unsafe con-
ed areas. ditions, according to the
For some it’s a dilemma pit- Guttmacher Institute, a