INTRODUCTION

The aim of writing this article is to encourage the long standing pro-life battle against abortion and protecting the rights of unborn babies to experience life on earth as nature permit it to be. Thousands of unborn babies are being aborted in Belgium by wicked mothers just by convincing the physician with any of those reason covered by the laws of which a woman can abort without facing any criminal charges. These laws have now given women the power and the licence to kill. Belgium is a small country of about ten million inhabitants, yet they make liberal laws that legalize the evil act of abortion to any woman whosoever desire to terminate her pregnancy. This is not family planning or birth control. In this article, I will like to define the term abortion in my words and understanding as a non-medical official.

ABORTION: Abortion is a cruel, immoral and unacceptable act of procedure by killing an unborn baby in the womb of a woman with the aid of conscienceless medical professionals and other individuals including the woman herself, preventing the unborn baby from coming into the world on time, alive and by birth.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ABORTION LAWS IN BELGIUM

Abortion laws in Belgium were significantly liberalized on the 3rd of April 1990, when the Belgian parliament approved a law amending the 1861 penal code. Under the abortion provisions of that code, which where based on the Napoleonic penal code of 1810, adopted by Belgium upon independence, no stated exceptions to a general prohibition of the performance of abortions where included, although the general principle of criminal legislation allowed abortion to be performed to save life of pregnant woman and the grounds of necessity. In such case, the medical code required that three physicians agree that a state of necessity existed and that the abortion be performed in an approved institution or hospital with informed consent of the pregnant woman.

Transgression of the law was severely punished. An additional law enacted in 1923 added language to the penal code prohibiting the provision of information concerning abortion. Attempts to liberalize the abortion law in Belgium began in 1971. From that time until the law of April 1990 was enacted, dozens of legislative proposals permitting abortion to be performed under various circumstances were introduced, always to be rejected or allowed to expire. Although the law remains unchanged prosecution was rare and those prosecuted were given short or suspended sentences or in some cases acquitted.

The 1990 law permit abortion to be performed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy when a woman who is in a state of distress as a result of her situation requests a physician to terminate her pregnancy. The woman is the sole judge of whether she is distressed or not. Aside from informing the woman as to the risk of undergoing the procedure and various possibilities for caring of the child if born, the physician only needs to be convinced by the pregnant womans determination to terminate her pregnancy.

After 12 weeks pregnancy, an abortion may be performed if only two physicians agree that the continuance of the pregnancy would gravely endanger the womans health or when it is certain that the child, if born, would be affected by a particular serious pathological condition, recognized as incurable at the time of diagnosis. All abortions must be performed by a physician under good medical conditions, in a health-care establishment that has an information department that provides the woman seeking abortion with detailed information regarding the rights and benefits guaranteed by the law to families, unmarried and married mothers and their children, as well as the possibilities offered by adoption of the child if born.

Abortion may be performed 6 days following the womans counselling, at the earliest. She must certify in writing, on the date of the intervention, that she is determined to terminate her pregnancy. Anyone performing illegal abortion is subjected to imprisonment for 3 months to 1 year and pay a fine of 200 to 500 Belgian Francs which is about 12 maximum in Belgium today, under section 350 of the penal code. A woman voluntarily obtaining an illegal abortion is subjected for 1 to 12 months imprisonment and pay the fine of 50 to 200 Belgian Francs which is about 4.50 maximum (section 351). If the illegal abortion results to a womans death, the person performing the abortion is subjected to solitary confinement if the woman consented and 10 to 15 years with forced labour if the woman did not. (U.N., 2002)

GROUNDS ON WHICH ABORTION IS PERMITED IN BELGIUM

1) To save the life of the pregnant woman
2) To preserve physical health
3) To preserve mental health
4) When pregnancy occurs during rape or incest
5) Foetal impairment
6) Economic or social reason
7) Available on request (U.N., 2002)

The Belgian law on abortion is too liberal, and the punishment for performing illegal abortion is not worth the crime except if the woman dies during the process. I think that there are psychologists who can determine if a pregnant woman is distressed or not. Committing a sinful act by aborting an unborn baby with reasons such as: (a)economic or social reasons (b) available on the womans request and (c) distress, is to my view bullshit.

In the year 2001, there were 14,775 so called legal abortions, which sum to 11.3% nation wide (Johnston, 2004). Can you imagine thousands of unborn babies being destroyed just by requests from the women and with the help of professional medical doctors? Is this not pure wickedness towards mankind? Of course it is!

According to the United Nations Population Division, department of economics and social affairs report in the year 2002, Belgium government does not even have an official document in their view of the fertility level and no interventions concerning fertility. The total fertility rate in Belgium from 1995 to 2000 was only 1.6% and the government policy on contraceptive use provided is only being supported indirectly. Yet law makers will congratulate themselves at the parliament for jobs well done.

The 1993 Polish law on family planning enforced from March 16, 1993 on human embryo protection and condition of legal abortion which some people criticised Poland, saying it is an anti abortion law. I find this law a very good law that only permits abortion due to the following cases:

1) When pregnancy constitutes a threat to life or a serious threat to the health of the mother, which is confirmed by two doctors other than the doctor involved in the abortion.

2) When there is justified suspicion, confirmed by a prosecutor that the pregnancy is as a result of an illegal act.

3) When prenatal examination, confirmed by two doctors other than the doctor involved in the abortion indicate grave irreversible damage of the embryo.

4) A doctor who performs an illegal abortion is subjected to 2 years of imprisonment, and any abortion should be performed in a public hospital.

Comparing the Polish law to the Belgian law on abortion, the Polish law is far better because it fights for the rights of unborn babies who are being slain every day as well as the rights to save the womans life from threatening and unhealthy situations before delivery, while the Belgian law on abortion is merely giving a woman the power to destroy the foetus according to her determination and judgment. I hope Belgian law makers will try to review this liberal law especially the law that gives a woman the right to decide or judge whether she is distressed or not. Specialized medical doctors and psychologists should conduct proper tests and interviews to determine the distress of a pregnant woman and not the woman herself.

Killing unborn babies because of economic or social reason and distress may be applied notwithstanding after deep consideration only to women in developing countries where there are no social benefits, poor leaving conditions, and not in developed countries. Belgium has a lot of social facilities including counselling services, motherless children homes and other financial and social benefits which comes from the CPAS (Centre Public dAction Sociale) to help bring up children comfortably if delivered by mothers with social and economic problems. I believe more social services should be created and financed by the government to avoid the destruction of unborn babies in the future, so that there will be no grounds for abortion due to social and economic problems.

In my country Cameroon, Ive witnessed a healthy baby delivered by a completely mad woman, and this child grew up helping her mad mother everyday for her clothing and feeding. If this could happen in a developing country without abortion, why not in Belgium? Lets narrow it down to mental health in the psychological sense as defined by the UN World Health Organisation as one of the reasons for abortion, and ask are there mental reasons for abortion? No!

THE EFFECTS OF ABORTION

I will consider the effects of abortion in two ways (1) Psychological side effects and (2) Health effect of abortion.

Psychological side effect When a woman seeks abortion because of mental health problems, she is more likely to experience post-abortion emotional and psychological problems than a more stable woman. All these support the original official statement of the World Health Organisation in 1970 stating that serious mental disorders arise more often in women with previous mental problems. Thus the very women for whom legal abortion is considered justified on psychiatric grounds are the ones who have the highest risk of post-abortion psychiatric disorders. Then is mental illness as a reason for abortion is just an excuse? Precisely. (Willke, 1998).

In a study that was conducted by Dr. Anne Speckhard at the University of Minnesota, she found out that after 5 to 10 years, 54 % of mothers choosing abortion had nightmares, 81% had pre-occupation with their aborted child, 35% had perceived visitations with their child and 96% felt they had taken a human life.

It is becoming common for people to sue public and private bodies for the psychological effects of their experiences. Cases where litigant (often successful) make claims on grounds that post-traumatic stress, or simply stress, means that compensation based on harm to our minds has taken place alongside compensation based on physical harm (Lee, 2002). The question is why do these mothers often get worried after committing abortion? They are not just worried about suing an institution and claiming compensation for the after effects, but they are worried because they have taken away human life and they cant easily walk away from the divine justice of God. So, it is just they suffer.

Health effect

(a) One of the many abortion related health problems is that of sterility. The chances of not being able to bear feature children increase after abortion. In a study performed with 252 women, the investigators concluded that the occurrence of either induced or spontaneous abortions independently and significantly increase the risk of subsequent development of secondary infertility (Tzonou et al., 1993).

(b) Abortion results to cervical damage, which results in permanent weakening of the cervix, which, in turn is unable to carry the weight of a later pregnancy. The cervix opens prematurely (Ren, 1993).

(c) The fallopian tube is a fragile organ, if infection injures it, it often seals shut. A typical infection involving this organ is the pelvic inflammatory disease (PID).This disease is difficult to manage and often leads to infertility, even with prompt treatment. Approximately 10% of women will develop tubal adhesion leading to infertility after one of PID, 30% after two episodes, and more than 60% after three episodes. (M. Spence in Sexually Transmitted Disease Bulletin, John Hopkins University).

(d) 5 to 10 % of women who abort will get sterile (Hilgers, 1976).

Health researchers are noting a dramatic rise in sterility, tubal pregnancies and placenta previa. Venderbilt University medical centre noted an increase in placenta previa, a condition in pregnancy where the placenta covers the opening of the womb. This can lead to great blood loss to the mother during labour. It can cause death to the mother and the baby. Doctors on staff looked into the increase of this condition and found its cause to be the increase of legal abortions. The study concluded that aborted women were 7 to 15 times more likely to get placenta previa in later pregnancies (Barett, 1981). Abortion also affects males because boys can be easily aborted than girls. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of males are aborted every year, the