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I just came back from a visit to a Catholic Latin American country where abortion is illegal. Women and girls there have died from childbirth complications where an abortion would have saved at least one of the lives involved.

I know older women there who have had 12-14 pregnancies, with 8-10 living children. Some of these women have been pregnant nearly every year of their fertile lives-- they describe that as having "all their children", meaning they had all the children god saw fit to send them. Clearly, those women had no possibilities of education past 6th or 8th grade, or jobs outside the home that paid decent money.

Nowadays hardly any woman there wants to have "all their children". They don't want more than 2-3 children, because they want to have better lives than their mothers and grandmothers. They are trying to earn enough money to send their kids to college. They use birth control. And, of course there are abortions, but women have to take their chances with doctors willing to break the law. And not all of these are back alley operations-- they are legit doctors who do abortions secretly after hours in their offices. They are not getting rich from this work, because most of their patients are poor women. Rich women can get around the law easier.

I admire many of these medical people, because they are going against cultural rules to help women and are taking their chances with the law. And jail in that country is no picnic--prisons are packed, your relatives have to bring you food and the smell of urine everywhere is so strong it makes your eyes burn. (Don't ask me how I know this!)

I asked one doctor about the religious ramifications of doing illegal abortions. He said he did what he thought was best for his patients and would have to face god's judgment when he died. That's a brave man.
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