Did You Know – More than 25 Million Unsafe Abortions are Performed Each Year.
Access to safe abortion is a matter of human right and every woman must have access to knowledge related to the spectrum of women’s health issues, not only about her reproductive system but about all aspects of her body. Lack of access to safe, timely, affordable, and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.
Sexuality education—which includes information about abortion—is essential for young people to be able to make safe, fully informed decisions about their health
Access to abortion is therefore fundamentally linked to protecting and upholding the human rights of women, girls, and others who can become pregnant, and thus for achieving social and gender justice.
Everyone should be free to exercise their bodily autonomy and make their own decisions about their reproductive lives including when and if they have children. It is essential that laws relating to abortion respect protect and fulfill the human rights of pregnant persons and not force them to seek out unsafe abortions.
One of the non-governmental organizations that advocates, train, and raise awareness about unsafe abortion- THOMI Africa, recently conducted an opinion poll on Twitter if banning abortion prevent abortion from taking place, 94.1% t agreed that banning abortion doesn’t prevent abortions, but it does put women at risk of dangerous backstreet abortions, killing women in large numbers. As some west African countries still ban abortion, such as Nigeria where abortion is illegal and carries a heavy jail sentence-up to 14 years imprisonment- unless it is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman.
When I spoke to one of the advocates at THOMI AFRICA said the organization is in the process of developing effective strategies to build support for Safe Abortion Education & Advocacy (SAEA). She added on to say the strategy will come in handy in the form of a comprehensive Toolkit The Toolkit will be available in English and all other African languages. It will be especially helpful to other advocates and organizations working to implement innovative virtual or socially distanced programs that respond to young people’s needs pre and post-abortion.
She added on to say, ‘‘The toolkit will focus on how to advocate with governments to implement Safe Abortion Education (SAE) because if we want to see these programs at full scale—reaching as many young people as possible is crucial—we have to work with the government. We believe that this toolkit can help organizations form strong coalitions to advocate for sexuality education programs that are comprehensive.” Most importantly, our role is to empower girls, women, and communities at large to have access to safe, effective, affordable, and acceptable methods for the regulation of fertility.”
Access to safe abortion is indeed a basic human right because unsafe abortion brings about deaths and injuries commonly in countries where access to safe abortion is limited or prohibited entirely, as the majority of women and girls who need an abortion because of an unwanted pregnancy are not able to legally access one.
World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 25 million unsafe abortions take place each year, the vast majority of them in developing countries. Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year. Six out of 10 (61%) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29%) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion according to the WHO.
It is a sad story to learn that unsafe abortion is the third leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide and it leads to an additional five million largely preventable disabilities
It is more disturbing to note that, even in facilities that provide abortion services, various other barriers prevent women from accessing safe abortion. These include lack of confidentiality, and insistence on husband’s or relative’s consent, even though not mandated by the law. Several public health facilities are known to provide abortion services only on the condition that women adopt either sterilization or copper IUD after the procedure. Meanwhile, the cost of abortion services in private facilities is unaffordable for many women. Lastly, some facilities do not offer women a choice of abortion method, and several others prefer to use dilation and curettage with its attendant risks and admission requirements, hence women seeking medical abortion pills tend to avoid such facilities.
Access to Safe Abortion will only be achieved through strengthening health systems to reach and promote women’s access to safe abortion in the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, advancing maternal health, gender equality, and reproductive rights, and recognizing maternal mortality as a key indicator of health systems effectiveness.
Unsafe abortion is a leading – but preventable – cause of maternal deaths and morbidities. It can lead to physical and mental health complications and social and financial burdens for women, communities, and health systems.
Lack of access to safe, timely, affordable, and respectful abortion care is a critical public health and human rights issue.
There is a lack of adequate leadership for concerted and harmonized efforts in the response to safe abortion and in addition, there are serious information gaps to inform policies, decisions, and programming on safe abortion at both community and national levels. These frustrate efforts for achieving a universal position, joint voice, and common platform for safe abortion practices hence the need for Safe Abortion Education and Advocacy (SAEA) programs
It is estimated that three-quarters of maternal deaths can be prevented by increasing women’s access to comprehensive reproductive health services, including post-abortion care, postpartum care for mothers, and family planning.
Early engagement in sex, early marriage, and low use of contraceptives are key precursors to early childbearing, unsafe abortion, and low levels of female education. Also, the lack of financial resources is one of the key factors undermining progress towards providing universal access to safe abortion services in sub-Saharan Africa.
There is a big problem of backstreet unsafe clinics in South Africa. We have noted that one of the first steps toward avoiding maternal deaths and injuries is to ensure that people have access to sex education, can use effective contraception, have safe and legal abortions, and are given timely care for complications.
People with unintended pregnancies face barriers to attaining safe, timely, affordable, geographically reachable, respectful, and non-discriminatory abortion, they often resort to unsafe abortion.
Global estimates from 2010–2014 demonstrate that 45% of all induced abortions are unsafe. Of all unsafe abortions, one-third were performed under the least safe conditions, i.e., by untrained persons using dangerous and invasive methods.
Developing countries bear the burden of 97% of all unsafe abortions. In Africa, nearly half of all abortions occur under the least safe circumstances
Lack of access to safe, affordable, timely, and respectful abortion care, and the stigma associated with abortion, pose risks to women’s physical and mental well-being throughout the life course.
Inaccessibility of quality abortion care risks violating a range of human rights of women and girls, including the right to life; the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; the right to benefit from scientific progress and its realization; the right to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing, and timing of children; and the right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment.
Each year, 4.7–13.2% of maternal deaths can be attributed to unsafe abortion Estimates from 2012 indicate that in developing countries alone, 7 million women per year were treated in hospital facilities for complications of unsafe abortion
