Unsafe abortion

Soviet poster c. 1925. Title translation: "Abortion induced by either self-taught midwife or obstetrician not only maims the woman, but also often leads to death."

An unsafe abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by people lacking the necessary skills, or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards, or both.[1] An unsafe abortion is a life-threatening procedure. It includes self-induced abortions, abortions in unhygienic conditions, and abortions performed by a medical practitioner who does not provide appropriate post-abortion attention.[2] About 25 million unsafe abortions occur a year, of which most occur in the developing world.[3]

Unsafe abortions result in complications for about 7 million women a year.[3] Unsafe abortions are also one of the leading causes of deaths during pregnancy and childbirth (about 5–13% of all deaths during this period).[3] Most unsafe abortions occur where modern birth control is unavailable,[4] or in developing countries where affordable and well-trained medical practitioners are not readily available,[5][6] or where abortion is illegal,[7] with the more restrictive the law, the higher the rates of death and other complications.[8]

  1. ^ Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems. World Health Organization. 2003. p. 12. ISBN 9789241590341. a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skill or in an environment lacking the minimum medical standards, or both.
  2. ^ "Unsafe abortion: Global and regional estimates of the incidence of unsafe abortion and associated mortality in 2003" (PDF). World Health Organization. 2007. Retrieved March 7, 2011. The estimates given in this document are intended to reflect induced abortions that carry greater risk than those carried out officially for reasons accepted in the laws of a country.
  3. ^ a b c "Preventing unsafe abortion". www.who.int. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  4. ^ Singh S, Darroch JE, Ashford LS, Vlassoff M (2009). Adding it Up: The Costs and Benefits of Investing in Family Planning and Newborn Health (PDF). New York: Guttmacher Institute and United Nations Population Fund. If women's contraceptive needs were addressed...the number of unsafe abortions would decline by 73% from 20 million to 5.5 million. A few of the findings in that report were subsequently changed, and are available at: Facts on Investing in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn Health (PDF). Guttmacher Institute. 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-24.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Blas was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chaudhuri_2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Rosenthal E (October 2007). "Legal or Not, Abortion Rates Compare". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-30.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Haddad_2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).