or those with a disability
She revealed to Al-Iqtisadiah, Dr. Rawda bint Abdullah Bahayan, a consultant obstetrician and gynecologist at the Security Forces Hospital in Riyadh, that the laws and regulations in force in Saudi Arabia categorically prohibit the abortion of fetuses even if it is proven by a medical examination that they have a permanent disability such as paralysis or even the fetus Mongolia. She emphasized that her abortion is a violation that is punishable by law if doctors are involved in that.
Bahian added that hospitals in Saudi Arabia, whether private or governmental, do not have the right to perform abortions because the law prohibits and criminalizes this, as is the case in many countries. And it indicated that there are certain cases in which a pregnant woman is aborted when there is a risk of pregnancy on the mother''s life, and among the diseases that may call for abortion are heart and kidney diseases, cancerous tumors, or diseases that may affect the fetus, so that at least two consultants confirm that the fetus will die after birth. As in the case of severe and fatal malformations that affect the fetus in the brain or kidneys.
Bahia warned mothers against contrived abortion by which some pregnant women end the life of their fetus without a legitimate excuse or medical reasons, such as the desire not to have children or to prevent the continuation of an incestuous pregnancy and other cases, using popular prescriptions and mixtures such as pepper, rash and cinnamon, without consulting a doctor or introducing substances In the cervix and vagina, as in tubes or herbal suppositories.
Bahian indicated that the folk methods, in addition to the massages or the deliberate strong beating method on the abdomen, may lead to complications and side effects such as death, especially in cases of severe bleeding, noting that some resort to midwives or the so-called `` beginning '''' in addition to shops Unhealthy or using contaminated tools under the supervision of those who have no knowledge and experience of this thing, which exposes the life of the woman to a great risk that may lead to rotting of the uterus and the death of the mother and her fetus.
She indicated that the majority of Saudi women use Cytotec, whose scientific name is Misoprostol, for abortion, despite the Ministry of Health taking the necessary legal measures to prevent the sale of this drug in commercial pharmacies altogether, as it is only dispensed in domestic pharmacies in government hospitals with approved prescriptions under the supervision of a doctor, except The drug is widespread on the black market and is sold by perfumers, drug dealers, and some pharmacists in Saudi Arabia.
She said that the drug is mainly prescribed for stomach ulcer disease, where abdominal cramps occur, and from here its use has been modified in cases of fetal abortion, especially in the first three months of pregnancy by taking it directly or using it as vaginal suppositories, noting that some of the perfumer''s stores grind it and add it to herbal mixtures they claim to be A woman aborts safely, adding that the most important risk of bleeding that accompanies an abortion may lead in some cases to death, and hospitals usually do not inform or summon the security authorities in cases of pretended abortion, even if the woman is unmarried.
It is noteworthy that medical studies reported that the cases of induced abortions in Saudi Arabia reached about 47 thousand cases annually, of which 40 percent were aborted using Cytotec misoprostol, while doctors confirmed that 10 out of a thousand cases of fetuses exposed to this drug may be exposed. For birth defects if abortion is not successful.
