Bernadette Soriano

What really is abortion?

At its simplest, abortion is the clinical termination of pregnancy. Within the practice of modern medicine, it functions not only as a procedure but as a medically indicated intervention—at times life-saving, at times psychiatric in nature, and often guided by clinical assessments of risk. Pregnancy is not universally survivable, nor is every fetus viable.


Though frequently debated in political or moral terms, abortion remains, in clinical contexts, a standard medical recourse, one long recognized in healthcare for its role in safeguarding physical health, psychological well-being, and, in certain cases, patient survival.

Why is pregnancy considered a medical risk?

Pregnancy is not physiologically passive or neutral; it initiates systemic changes affecting nearly every organ. These include:
While many pregnancies proceed without crisis, some result in complications that exceed medical manageability. In such cases, abortion may become the only clinically sound path to avoid irreversible harm or loss of life.

When does abortion become medically necessary?

Abortion isn’t just for “unwanted” pregnancies. In medicine, it is a response to emergencies like:
  • Ectopic pregnancies

    A fertilized egg that implants outside the uterus, most often in a fallopian tube, results in a non-viable pregnancy. If untreated, it risks rupture, internal hemorrhage, and maternal death. Abortion in these cases is not elective; it is life-preserving care.

  • Life-threatening complications

    Conditions such as severe preeclampsia, placental abruption, or acute cardiac strain may render pregnancy dangerous to maternal health. Here, abortion permits intervention before the condition reaches a fatal threshold.

  • Delayed care in restrictive settings

    In countries where abortion is criminalized such as El Salvador, Poland, or select U.S. states, medical care is often delayed until a patient is deemed legally eligible for intervention. These delays can escalate risk, leading to sepsis, organ failure, or death.
In the Philippines, where abortion remains outlawed in all cases, the law has not eliminated the practice but instead its safety. A 2013 Guttmacher report placed the annual estimate at 610,000 clandestine abortions, with over 100,000 women hospitalized and 1,000 fatalities. By 2020, NGOs warned of a surge beyond 1.1 million, intensified by poverty, violence, and pandemic restrictions. 

What about mental health? Is that a medical reason?

Both the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association affirm what medicine has long understood: mental health is not secondary to physical health—it is integral to it.

Clinical research consistently shows that forcing someone to carry an unwanted or traumatic pregnancy can precipitate a cascade of psychological harms, including:
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Postpartum depression
  • Worsened PTSD, especially in cases of sexual violence
What does science say about fetal development?
A common misconception holds that a fetus becomes fully human in its earliest stages. But neurologically; therefore experientially, personhood takes time to emerge. Fetal brain development is gradual, and that awareness arrives later than many assume:
  • Before 24 weeks, the fetal brain lacks the neural connections needed for either pain or consciousness. 
  • The cerebral cortex, governing thought, memory, and awareness, remains functionally undeveloped.
  • Sentience — the ability to perceive and respond, is not present in early fetal stages.
This means most abortions (occurring before 13 weeks) do not end a conscious life, but rather interrupt a biological process that has yet to form the capacity for experience.

When the body is kept alive for the fetus

Medical autonomy — the right to determine what occurs within one’s own body — is a core principle in clinical ethics. In the context of pregnancy, however, this principle is frequently limited or overridden.

In June 19, 2025, ABS-CBN News detailed the case of a 34-year-old woman in the U.S who was declared brain-dead after collapsing. She was maintained on life support for six months not for her own survival, her death was clinical and final, but to keep her body functioning long enough for the fetus to reach viability.

Nearly four decades earlier, in 1987, the Los Angeles Times chronicled a similar case: a 27-year-old California woman, rendered brain-dead following a car crash, was kept on life support for 84 days to sustain a fetus delivered by cesarean at 29 weeks.

In both cases, the women’s bodies were kept functioning long after death, transformed into incubators for fetal survival.

What does this mean for abortion laws?

Legal abortion enables physicians to act on science, not politics. When it’s banned or restricted:
  • Doctors delay care, fearing prosecution
  • Unsafe abortions rise, risking infection and death
  • Patients with fatal pregnancies are forced to endure preventable suffering
A widely cited study by the World Health Organization and the Guttmacher Institute, published in The Lancet, found that between 2010 and 2014, an estimated 25 million abortions, nearly 45 percent of the global total, were unsafe.

Unsafe abortion remains one of the leading, yet entirely preventable, causes of maternal mortality, accounting for approximately 13 percent of pregnancy-related deaths worldwide.

So… is abortion a moral issue, or a medical one?

It can be both. However, from a scientific standpoint, abortion is a component of healthcare, grounded in medical research, clinical ethics, and empirical evidence. Fundamentally, it concerns the survivability of the patient, the preservation of bodily autonomy, and the continuation of a medically viable life.

Medical care does not always aim to prolong life under all circumstances. In some cases, it involves assessing when further intervention may result in greater harm.

The uterus is a physiological organ, composed of tissue, muscle, and blood. It is subject to rupture, deterioration, and failure. These clinical realities exist independently of legal frameworks.