BY: CHRISTOPHER FERNANDEZ

This story is about a 19-year-old Malay girl who got into an unwanted pregnancy out of wedlock. Under pressure, her unemployed 20-year-old boyfriend coerces her to go for an abortion at a private clinic in Kuala Lumpur in a red light district that caters mostly to sex workers.

The distraught couple borrows money from a loan shark for the operation and it is successful. In Malaysia stories like these are not the norm but it happens not just among Malays but the other races as well.

Abortion is murder in the womb. Just as suicide is the murder of self, abortion also is a form of murder. In an attempt to save babies from being aborted, the authorities acting in concert with certain non-governmental organizations, placed incubators in strategic locations.

This was a sound solution and helped save some babies in unwanted pregnancies. While some babies were saved by these incubators, it was not possible to save foetuses and medical experts state that a human life begins with the formation of a foetus.

This is why social activists and social workers are lobbying for a greater need to introduce sex education to the very young to alleviate the issue of abortion from burgeoning. Besides this the media should be used to create awareness and to educate the general public.

Abortion is a grievious wrongdoing and those who promote anti-abortion campaigns must take on the responsibility of taking care and bringing up the infant until they become a responsible adult able to take care of themselves. Otherwise the anti-abortionists are also just portraying themselves as hypocrites.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher