The Religious Consultation
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The Houston Chronicle, April 30, 2005 EDITORIAL: Women's Rights: Iran's Parliament approves abortions when the mother is in danger or the child would be disabled The debate is headed in another direction here. Who would have thought Iran, for decades synonymous with repression and religious fanaticism, could offer a beacon of sensible discourse for the United States? According to the government news service in Tehran, Iran's Parliament passed a law permitting abortions in cases of danger to the mother or severe disability in the fetus. It's the first time since the 1979 revolution that such a measure could be debated, let alone approved. As Iran inches toward democracy, it is no coincidence that one of its first achievements is increasing reproductive freedom. Some autonomy for half Iran's population is essential for a functional society. A woman's power over her reproductive system has been proved to be inextricably linked to her country's economic health. This point received unprecedented weight in the 2002 Arab Human Development report, conducted by Arab scholars for the United Nations. Although Iran is not an Arab country, its conservative Islamic culture qualifies it for many of the scholars' conclusions - including the devastating effect women's disempowerment has had. According to the report, restricted women's rights, combined with limits on political freedom and poor education, have kept the GDP of the entire Arab world lower than that of Spain alone. Judging from the few English-language press accounts, the Iranian Parliament's decision was strikingly rational in another way. The lawmakers avoided psuedoscience and political pandering and focused on the law and the rights of the disabled. According to Reuters, "Opponents of the bill argued many disabled people had played important roles in society and that the legislation was open to abuse. Proponents of the law underlined the financial drain of handicapped children on families." Meanwhile, in Texas, opponents of abortion rights resort to tactics such as the demonstrably false link between breast cancer and abortion. The so-called Right to Know Act requires even victims of rape, incest and fetal abnormality to receive pamphlets with this misinformation before receiving an abortion. This month, the Legislature is considering an array of bills that would further restrict or rescind women's rights to reproductive health care. In one pending bill, pregnant girls who feared physical abuse, rape or incest if they informed their parents prior to having an abortion would have to provide "clear and convincing evidence" that their fears were justified before they could get permission from a judge. Increased from the "preponderance of evidence," this standard would require girls to produce a paper trail or other evidence of their abuse. This week the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would make it a crime to assist patients under 18 to travel to another state to have an abortion without parental notification. In many areas of the country, the closest clinic and doctor willing to perform the procedure could very well lie in an adjacent state. Abortion is a serious matter, worthy of mature debate and responsibly crafted law. How ironic that Iran is moving forward toward this goal, while the United States is sliding backward. |