Abortion restrictions are deadly

A new study shows outlawing abortions doesn’t reduce them, but it does kill women

By SHERRY WOLF

THE FACTS are in: Restricting abortion kills women. The highly esteemed British medical journal, The Lancet, has released yet another groundbreaking report on “one of the greatest human rights dilemmas of our time”—access to abortion.

In their October 2007 global study, “Induced abortion: estimated rates and trends worldwide,” researchers compiled data confirming what abortion rights activists have been claiming for decades. In countries where women are prevented from obtaining safe and legal abortions, and denied access to contraception, they will be maimed and some will die—in the tens of thousands—from unsafe and illegal abortion procedures.

This study of worldwide abortion rates and conditions from 2003 data concludes that of the estimated 42 million induced abortions, 48 percent, or nearly 20 million women had illegal, often unsanitary procedures. Not surprisingly, 97 percent of those unsafe and illegal abortions took place in the developing world, mostly countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Approximately 67,000 women die every year as a result of complications from illegal abortions.

Contrary to what anti-abortion forces claim, the incidence of abortion doesn’t decline with illegality, but rather rises as abortion goes underground. In Africa, for example, out of the 5.6 million abortions women had in 2003, 5.5 million were under unsafe and illegal conditions. In Asia—aside from China where all 10 million abortions that year were legal and safe—25.9 million abortions were performed, yet 9.8 million were done under unsafe conditions. In fact, restricting abortion actually increases the rate of abortion in some regions. African women of child-bearing age have abortions at a rate of 29 out of every 1,000; whereas Western European women, who have access to safe, legal, and often free abortions have a rate of 12 out of every 1,000 women. Women in North America, including Canada, have an abortion rate of 21 out of 1,000.

Right-wingers’ claims that abortion, including in the United States, is inherently unsafe are also dismissed by these findings. In fact, of the 1.5 million American women who undergo legal and safe abortions every year, less than 0.3 percent of them have complications requiring hospitalization. Another recent study, by the UN, shows that women in the U.S. are far more likely to die in childbirth as a result of a lack of access to good-quality health and family planning services. In this study on maternal mortality rates that ranked 171 countries, the U.S. came in forty-first. Hardly a ringing endorsement of the for-profit, privatized health-care industry in the U.S.—to which 47 million Americans have no access.

In a preliminary report, The Lancet condemns the causes of this “preventable pandemic” of unsafe abortions in uncompromising terms. “The underlying causes of morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion today are not blood loss and infection but, rather, apathy and disdain toward women.” The journal’s editorial, “Women, more than mothers,” concludes:

The need is known as is the knowledge to fix it. More money exists than ever, and a range of existing global initiatives has yielded useful experiences and lessons. There can be no more excuses and no further delay. Women’s rights are worth fighting for; their lives can and must be saved.