(December 2006) The Population Reference Bureau’s recently updated guide, Unsafe Abortion: Facts & Figures 2006, sheds light on the public health impact of unsafe abortion. An estimated 68,000 girls and women die each year from unsafe abortions and millions more suffer complications that need medical attention.1
More than one-quarter of the world's people live in countries where the procedure is prohibited or permitted only to save the woman's life.2 Yet, regardless of legal status, abortions still occur, and nearly half of them are performed by an unskilled practitioner or in less than sanitary conditions, or both.3
And in 2006, two countries changed their abortion laws: Columbia relaxed its ban and Nicaragua expanded its ban.
In May, Colombia’s highest court overturned the country’s ban on abortion, allowing pregnancies to be terminated when a deformed fetus is not viable, when the pregnancy endangers the life or health of the mother, when artificial insemination or transfer of a fertile egg occurs without the consent of the mother, or when pregnancy results from rape or incest.4
In November, the president of Nicaragua signed into law a broader ban on abortions—even in cases when a woman’s life could be saved. Previous legislation allowed abortions if three doctors certified that the procedure was necessary to save a woman’s life, in the case of rape, or when the fetus was deformed and not viable. The new law would help protect the right to life, which is upheld in the constitution, according to a statement on the president’s website.5
No exceptions are allowed in cases of rape or to save a mother's life. With this shift, Nicaragua joined El Salvador and Chile as the only countries in the Western Hemisphere to place such a ban on abortion.
In developing countries, about one in six married women faces an "unmet need" for family planning. They would rather not become pregnant, but are not using any form of contraception. Reducing unmet need can help reduce unintended pregnancies, which lead to abortions and unwanted births.6
References
- World Health Organization (WHO), Unsafe Abortion: Global and Regional Estimates of the Incidence of Unsafe Abortion and Associated Mortality in 2000, 4th ed. (2004).
- Deborah Mesce and Erin Sines, Unsafe Abortion: Facts & Figures 2006 (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2006).
- Mesce and Sines, Unsafe Abortion: Facts & Figures 2006.
- Republica de Colombia Corte Constitucional, "Comunicado de Prensa Sobre la Sentencia Relativa al Delito de Aborto, 10 de Mayo de 2006"; and Juan Forero, "Colombia Court Legalizes Some Abortions," New York Times, May 12, 2006.
- Joseph B. Frazier, "Nicaraguan President Signs Abortion Ban," Associated Press, Nov. 18, 2006; and Republica de Nicaragua Casa Presidencial, "Notas de Prensa del Presidente," accessed online at www.presidencia.gob.ni, on Nov. 21, 2006.
- Lori S. Ashford, Unmet Need for Family Planning (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, 2003).