Summary

Abortion is a public health concern besides being a sensitive issue with religious, moral, cultural and political dimensions. More than a quarter of the world’s people live in countries where the procedure is permitted only in cases of rape, incest, fetal abnormalities or to save the pregnant person’s life. Abortions still occur in these countries, nearly half of them are unsafe, performed by unskilled practitioners or in unhygienic conditions, or both.

An estimated 73 million abortions occur globally each year. Unsafe abortions accounts for up to 13 percent of deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide. Globally, at least 7 million women are treated every year for complications from unsafe abortions.

According to the World Health Organisation, roughly 73 million induced abortions occur worldwide each year. It says 61 percent of all unintended pregnancies and 29 percent of all pregnancies in general end in an abortion. The WHO also keeps a database of each country’s abortion laws, policies and levels of abortion support in the health care system.

The past 50 years have been characterised by an unmistakable trend towards a liberalisation of abortion laws, particularly in the industrialised world.

Access to safe abortion has been established as a human right in numerous international frameworks. At the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, 179 governments signed a programme of action that included a commitment to prevent unsafe abortions. The WHO first recognised unsafe abortion as a public health problem in 1967. In 2003, it developed technical and policy guidelines that include a recommendation that states pass abortion laws to protect women’s health. Almost 90 percent of abortions in countries with liberal abortion laws are considered safe, compared with just 25 percent of abortions in countries where abortion is banned. According to the WHO, approximately 5–13 percent of maternal deaths worldwide are due to complications from unsafe abortions, the vast majority of which occur in developing countries.

Source: www.thenews.com.pk