Unsafe abortions rise as contraceptive funding is cut

[웃 910]

Unsafe abortions rise as contraceptive funding is cut

Global abortion rates have stopped falling, ending a period of rapid decline that began in 1995. However, the proportion of abortions that are dangerous continues to rise. Paradoxically, morally conservative US restrictions on foreign aid may have promoted the abortions they sought to restrict.

In 1995, 35 women of childbearing age out of every 1000 had an abortion; by 2003, the rate had dropped to 29 abortions per 1000 women. Now, Gilda Sedgh of the Guttmacher Institute in New York City and colleagues have compiled data on abortions around the world in 2008 and found that the rate then was 28 per 1000 women, little changed since 2003. However, because world population has grown, there were actually 2.2 million more abortions performed in 2008 than in 2003.

The proportion of those abortions that are dangerous is rising, though. Nearly all abortions performed in Africa in 2008 were deemed unsafe.

The increase in rates of dangerous abortions and the failure of total abortion rates to continue falling has previously been blamed on shortages of contraception – a link the new study makes too.

"Globally, abortion rates have plateaued, and we found that this plateau coincided with the level of contraceptive use," says Sedgh.

"We need to promote family planning and increase contraceptive availability," says Iqbal Shah of the World Health Organization, a co-author on the paper.

Policy backfire

The researchers say that over the past decade international aid for family planning in poor countries has been cut, not least during the years when US president George W. Bush denied government grants to aid agencies offering abortion services or even advice about abortion. "We can't make a direct link between the stall in what we found and that policy, but they did coincide," says Sedgh.

A separate paper published last September did draw that link. Eran Bendavidat Stanford University, California, studied abortion rates in 20 African countries affected by the Bush restrictions on funding. He found that – in contrast with the apparent intention of the restrictions – abortion rates were more than twice as high in countries heavily affected by the policy as they were in those that weren't.

The researchers say that to get abortion rates falling again, aid for family planning and contraception needs to be drastically stepped up. Beyond that, all countries should make safe abortions available. For example, in the six years after South Africa eased access, abortion-related deaths dropped by 91 per cent. In Nepal, where laws were liberalised in 2002, abortion-related complications dipped from 54 per cent of all maternal complications in 1998 to 28 per cent in 2009, and similar gains have been seen in Ethiopia since liberalisation in 2005.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21372-unsafe-abortions-rise-as-contraceptive-funding-is-cut.html

[Obama 2012 1,714]

gotta love the "blame the United States" for everything mentality here.

We'll help you with contraception and abortions, sure. Though it won't be in the form of a pill and will be with a thermo-nuclear weapon. That will clear your problem right up!!

[Danno 1,228]

"Contraceptive funding?"

This is the function of Govt, ... really?

If you are old enough to -git sum you are old enough to buy your own Trojans.

And to these people aborting their own flesh and blood, do you think I am concerned where she does it or how she does it?

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

gotta love the "blame the United States" for everything mentality here.

We'll help you with contraception and abortions, sure. Though it won't be in the form of a pill and will be with a thermo-nuclear weapon. That will clear your problem right up!!

[tmma 467]

"Contraceptive funding?"

This is the function of Govt, ... really?

If you are old enough to -git sum you are old enough to buy your own Trojans.

...............

[slim 1,530]

I work hard so people in Africa can get free stuff.

Makes sense.

[ScramJet 35]

gotta love the "blame the United States" for everything mentality here.

We'll help you with contraception and abortions, sure. Though it won't be in the form of a pill and will be with a thermo-nuclear weapon. That will clear your problem right up!!

I will frame this on my wall.