Hundreds of Nigerian women die every day of complications arising from unsafe abortions, an international NGO, Ipas, disclosed on Sunday.
Country Director of Ipas (Nigeria), Lucky Palmer, spoke at a three-day ‘Media Training for Journalists on Women’s Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights/Global Gag Rule’ in Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Every eight minutes, a woman in a developing country dies from abortion related complications, Palmer said, noting that available figures were drawn from only those who visited hospitals for medical attention.
He further disclosed that out of about 85 million women who get pregnant annually, 40 million usually end up having abortions.
Developing countries, such as Nigeria, account for 98 per cent of the unsafe abortions.
Palmer added that Africa and Latin America accounted for the highest number of unsafe abortions globally.
He expressed sadness that Nigeria was yet to reform restrictive domestic laws and policies that placed women and girls’ health and lives at risk.
The IPAs country director revealed that in 2012 alone, 1.25 million Nigerian women had an abortion, doubling the number estimated in 1996.
He stressed that unless urgent steps were taken, the number would keep increasing because only 16 per cent of women of reproductive age in Nigeria use contraceptives.
Out of the 16 per cent, only 11 per cent apply modern contraceptive methods.
“That results in almost 10 million unintended pregnancies, of which more than half end in an induced abortion,’’ he said.
He urged the media to work closely with relevant organisations in curbing the menace of unsafe abortion.
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