Nigeria has the second highest maternal mortality rate in the world, in large part due to unsafe abortions carried out across the country, non-profit health organisation Ipas said on Friday.
Between 10 000 and 15 000 deaths out of 100 000 births annually are from unsafe abortions in Nigeria, the group said. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 500 000 women die yearly from pregnancy-related causes in Africa’s most populous country.
”Globally, 13% of the deaths and countless related injuries resulted from unsafe abortion,” Dr Ejike Oji, director of Ipas in Nigeria said in Abuja.
”The toll is high in the world’s poorest countries, where almost all the 19-million unsafe abortions that took place each year occurred,” he added.
”WHO estimated 4,2-million unsafe abortions in Africa each year,” Oji stressed.
He attributed the direct causes of maternal mortality to haemorrhage, abortion complications, pulmonary embolism, eclampsia, obstructed labour and infection.
Oji urged governments to provide universal access to high quality post-abortion care and other reproductive health services for women, listing socio-economic, political and cultural causes as being responsible for the complications.
He called for increased funding, reform of abortion law and challenged the media to be strong advocates in educating the public.
Ipas is dedicated to improving women’s lives through focus on reproductive health.
It concentrates on preventing unsafe abortions, treating its complications and reducing its consequences by increasing women’s access to a broad range of health services. — Sapa-dpa