Women’s health and abortion

Jul 06, 2011 Editorial

A few years ago, a report compiled by several UN agencies, the findings of which have also been published in the British medical journal Lancet, presented an alarming picture about abortion, its legal/illegal status and its ramifications on women’s health in different countries.
Like other taboo subjects, abortion is also swept under the carpet, and everyone likes to believe that it simply does not exist. The data made available prove otherwise. Abortion is, undoubtedly, not an easy option or decision for any person or family.
Without going into the moral and ethical debate and concerns, it could be merely taken as a medical procedure, an option exercised because of resistance to using contraceptives, or simply as a matter of choice for women.
While abortion has been made legal in Guyana, there is not enough sustained and credible data collected yet to make definitive pronouncements, but there is no reason to believe that we are outside the experience of most third world countries. The available statistics in those countries are simply disheartening, and prove that the issue is directly related to maternal health, the low status of women in society, their absence in the decision-making process, a lack of control over their fertility, and extensive discrimination they face throughout their lives.
The report in question, the broadest international study of abortion ever undertaken, emphasises the fact that restricting abortion has little effect on the number of terminated pregnancies, as it still accounts for thirteen per cent of maternal mortality globally. Contrary to common perception, it drives women to seek illegal, often unsafe backstreet procedures, leading to an estimated sixty-seven thousand deaths a year. A further five million women require hospital treatment as an outcome of botched procedures.
Internationally, approximately twenty million unsafe abortions are carried out every year, of which nearly ninety-seven per cent are in developing countries. “The continuing high incidence of unsafe abortion in developing countries represents a public health crisis and a human rights atrocity,” the report adds.
In most of them, due to the patriarchal structure of their societies, including ours, there is more focus on its moral, ethical and religious aspects, ignoring the medical and structural inequalities and discrepancies. Contrary to the popular perception that links prostitution and extra-marital affairs to abortion, the fact is that ninety per cent of these cases involve married women with three or more children, complicated pregnancies or bad foetal health.
In such cases, induced abortion is used to limit family size with the husband’s concurrence. Still, owing to unsafe procedures, nearly two hundred and fifty thousand women suffer post-abortion complications by inept handling by unskilled healthcare providers, and some three thousand of them die annually with resulting complications.
It is also the case of simple economics for many families that opt for abortion. High inflation and rampant consumerism make it very difficult to support large families for many concerned.
Then, because of a mindset and an overbearing patriarchal set-up, many men oppose the use of contraceptives but agree to abortion, which does not affect their own health, even though it may prove fatal for women.
Seeking abortion reflects an unmet need for family planning. According to a survey report, although over ninety per cent of married couples have the knowledge about various contraceptive methods available, only twenty-two per cent use them with regularity. While there are several organisations that are disseminating information on family planning locally, more can be done, especially in the rural areas.
Coming to the measures that should be adopted to control the phenomenon, there is a need to understand that abortion is directly linked with the status of women in society. In order to save the lives of the women concerned, there is a need to educate and empower them, as well as include them in the decision-making process. Couples should be educated on the benefits of the norms of smaller families to promote the use of contraceptives. That is the safest way to avoid unwanted pregnancies.

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