New study laments 1.2 million yearly abortions in Nigeria

New study laments 1.2 million yearly abortions in Nigeria

New study laments 1.2 million yearly abortions in Nigeria

DESPITE being highly restricted, abortion is still very
common in Nigeria, says a new study by Guttmacher
Institute and the University of Ibadan.
The study, released in Abuja yesterday, indicates
that an approximate 1.25 million abortions
occurred in the year 2012, up from 610,000 that
occurred in 1996.
The study entitled: “The Incidence of abortion in
Nigeria” attributed the increase to greater
population size and an apparent rise in the
abortion rate.
\According to the findings, the estimated
abortion rate was 33 abortions per 1,000 women
aged 15-49 in 2012. Although this rate is greater
than the 1996 rate (23 per 1,000), estimated in
the previous study, the most prudent conclusion
may be that the abortion rate has increased
slightly, as the two rates were calculated using
different approaches.
Researchers who conducted the study found that
Nigeria has low levels of contraceptive use,
stressing that as a result, about one-quarter of
the 9.2 million pregnancies that occurred in the
country in 2012 were unintended. They noted
that more than half (56 percent) of these
unplanned pregnancies ended in abortion.
One of the lead researchers, Prof. Isaac Adewole
noted: “When contraception is not used or fails,
the evidence suggests that women with
unwanted pregnancies often have unsafe
abortions that put them at risk for adverse
consequences. We hope these findings inform
discussions on the public health benefits of
allowing expanded access to comprehensive
abortion care for Nigerian women.”
The study highlighted how abortion rates vary
within Nigeria.
For instance, it found the highest rates in the
North East (41 per 1,000 women) and South
South (44 per 1,000 women) zones. The
researchers posit that the high rate in the North
East zone, including the states of Adamawa,
Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe, is
linked to particularly high levels of
contraceptives non-use, as more than 96 percent
of women in those regions do not use a
contraceptive method and thus face a high risk
for unintended pregnancy. In the South South
zone, which includes Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross
River, Delta, Edo and Rivers, the high rate of
abortion may be related to the combination of
women having a strong desire to control family
size and a relatively high level of unmet need for
contraception.
Director of International Research at the
Guttmacher Institute, Dr. Akinrinola Bankole,
stressed that abortion is legal in Nigeria only
when performed to save a woman’s life. “Still
abortions are common, and most are unsafe
because they are done clandestinely, by
unskilled providers or both,” he noted.