The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that around 73 million induced abortions take place across the globe each year. Six out of 10 (61 per cent) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29 per cent) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion.
While one might look at abortion as a matter of individual choice, it is also a public health issue that affects communities and countries.
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 their lives. Estimates from 2012 also indicate that in developing countries alone, 7 million women per year were treated in hospital facilities for complications of unsafe abortion, WHO reported.
What are the physical health risks associated with unsafe abortion?
Unsafe abortion techniques can result in incomplete abortion, that is, the failure to remove all pregnancy tissue from the uterus. Heavy bleeding, infection, and uterine perforation are seen in individuals.
Experts have also noticed damage to the genital tract and internal organs as a consequence of inserting dangerous objects into the vagina or anus.
The WHO report mentioned estimates from 2006 show that complications of unsafe abortions cost health systems in developing countries US$553 million per year for post-abortion treatments.
Apart from these physical risks, the individual also goes through deep mental trauma, which underscores the need to recognise abortion as a global health issue.
What stops women from accessing safe abortion?
Some of the factors include high costs, stigma for those seeking abortions and health care workers, and the refusal of health workers to provide an abortion based on personal conscience or religious belief.
Further, unsafe abortion finds its way in communities across the globe due to restrictive laws and requirements that are not medically justified, including criminalisation of abortion, mandatory waiting periods and restrictions regarding the type of health care providers or facilities that can provide abortion services.