The conservative and religious sections of society vehemently oppose abortion in many countries, but the termination of pregnancies through medical menstrual regulation (MRM) is more accepted in Bangladesh than widely believed, health experts have said.
Khaleda Yasmin, national coordinator of Family Planning and Field Services Delivery (FP- FSD) at the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP), told Dhaka Tribune most people in Bangladesh do not have a conservative view towards abortions. However, some healthcare workers are reluctant to provide this service, and some families pressure women to continue unwanted pregnancies if they have few male children.
“We have found some cases where healthcare workers do not want to perform MR after returning from hajj. However, I would say our government has made it easier for women to terminate unplanned pregnancies. We are doing quite well compared to some developed nations,” she told this correspondent.
In addition to health workers who had found religion, some female health workers are reluctant to provide menstrual regulation services if they have been unable to conceive babies themselves, the official added.
“These cases do not really show the whole picture. People in rural areas are more hesitant to go for pregnancy termination, but people in urban areas are mostly open to MRM and MR,” Khaleda Yasmin said.
Quazi Suraiya Sultana, executive director of RHstep, an organization providing MR and MRM services, told Dhaka Tribune clandestine abortions used to be common in Bangladesh, but the people of the country are now more aware of contraceptives and safe MRM services to keep family sizes small.
“We have found cases where the woman wants to do an MR or MRM but her in-laws and husband have forced her to keep the pregnancy, hoping she will have a boy this time,” she said, stressing that there is not much debate about terminating unplanned pregnancies when needed in Bangladesh.
Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) scholars have given a range of times during which they said it is allowed for a Muslim to have an abortion – from a few weeks of the start of the pregnancy to a few months, Al Jazeera reports.
The key reason the procedure is allowed at all is that verses in the Quran indicate that a foetus is not a life”until the soul is breathed into it, and that does not happen at conception but at some later time, the report added.
A BBC report says the Hindu religion is also more open to abortion than others due to the framework of reincarnation.
