Unsafe abortions in low-income countries
The British medical journal The Lancet just reported that out of the 56 million abortions performed worldwide last year, about 25 million of them posed some threat to the health or the life of the mother. An overwhelming majority of these abortions-97% of them-come from developing countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, and typically, the 54% of abortions performed in these countries are defined as “least safe” by the World Health Organization. In contrast, approximately 1% of abortions performed in developed countries are deemed as such.
The WHO has three categories regarding abortions: safe, less safe, and least safe. Safe is defined as those done by an appropriate method- such as manual evacuation (which involves a syringe to apply suction), or medical abortion (using abortion drugs provided by a trained professional), whereas less safe abortions is when a trained or untrained worker uses an outdated method to perform an abortion. Examples include dilation and curettage (which is less safe than manual evacuation and requires anesthesia). The last category is least safe; it involves untrained workers using unsafe and inappropriate methods to perform an abortion. This usually involves the insertion of foreign objects such as twigs, broken Coke bottles, and ingesting toxic products such as cleansers. Approximately 6.9 million women in developing countries suffer from complications due to having undergone an abortion that was defined as “least safe”-and 23,000 women die annually.
Despite how widespread this issue is, there are developing nations that addressing this high rate of unsafe abortions. Two examples would be Nepal and Ethiopia. Both nations have relaxed their laws regarding abortions, have supported training more abortion providers, and have provided information about safe abortions its citizens.
Also, adopting safe abortions procedures in these developing countries is not out of reach. Manual evacuation is a simple procedure that midwifes and trained professionals can learn, and it doesn’t require expensive equipment nor a health care setting. Along those lines, the drugs used for medical abortions (mifepristone and misoprostol) are not costly nor require special equipment.
This report just goes to show that placing restrictions on abortions doesn’t prevent abortions from happening; it just prevents safe ones from happening. Abortion rates in countries with liberal laws on abortions are just as high as in countries with restrictive laws, and therefore, abortions are going to happen despite the law.