Unsafe abortions take toll

A team from Guttmacher Institute in New York has found that 68 000 women in developing countries die each year during unsafe abortions, and up to 5 million women wind up in the hospital with infections and other complications from botched procedures.

The study, which was funded by the pro-abortion Hewlett Foundation and published in the November 24 issue of The Lancet, looked at data from 13 countries. The final tally included both "back-street" pregnancy terminations and legal abortions.

"The most effective way of eliminating this highly preventable cause of maternal illness and death would be to make safe and legal abortion services available and accessible," lead researcher Dr Susheela Singh told the BBC. "A second, more immediately achievable, goal is to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place through improved contraception use."

However, Paul Tully, general secretary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, said the findings were guesses at best.

"The burden of the study is clearly to promote the killing of more unborn babies in poorer countries, regardless of the fact that women do not want abortions," Tully told the BBC.

In the study, the highest annual rate of hospital admissions was in Uganda, with 16.4 per 1 000 women, while the lowest hospitalisation rate was in Bangladesh, with 2.8 per 1 000 women. The study noted that complications from abortion procedures in developed countries were rare, while the average range in developing countries was 5 to 7 per 1 000 women. – (HealthDayNews)

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Abortions outside hospitals
Having an abortion

November 2006