Unsafe abortions on the rise across the world – report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Unsafe abortions are on the rise across the world, according to a new global analysis by the Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization. And, after a period of significant decline in the global abortion rate as a whole, researchers found that those numbers had begun to plateau.

From 2003 to 2008, the abortion rate per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15 to 44) changed slightly, from 29 to 28 per 1,000. women. But the proportion of unsafe abortions that took place across the world rose 44 percent in 1995 to 49 percent in 2008, ABC News reported.

"The stall in the abortion rate coincides with a plateau in the level of contraceptive use, which had been increasing in prior years," said Dr. Gilda Sedgh, lead author of the study and senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute in New York. "Before the abortion rate stalled, it was declining, and contraceptive use was increasing. Also more abortions are unsafe because a growing proportion of abortions are taking place in the developing world."

Despite the decline in the overall abortion rate, the number of abortions increased, from 41.6 million in 2003 to 43.8 million in 2008 because of an increasing global population, according to the report.

While almost all reported abortions were deemed safe in North America and Europe, nearly all abortions (97 percent) in Africa were considered unsafe in 2008. Nearly all abortions were performed under safe conditions in East Asia, but 65 percent were considered unsafe across south central Asia.

Over the past three decades, about 20 percent of all pregnancies around the world have ended in abortion, according to the research.

Even in the U.S., where abortion is currently legal, access can be limited based on someone's insurance plan and where they live.

"Fifty percent of undesired pregnancies are due to failed contraception," said Dr. Lauren Streicher, assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "Of those unplanned pregnancies, 50 percent resolve in abortion, so the need for abortion is always going to be there. By criminalizing it, you're just increasing the amount of women who have poor and dangerous outcomes.