Dr Claire Fotheringham | abortion-news.info

Lack of safe abortion provision a global health issue
At least 22,000 women and girls die each year from unsafe abortions

Thu, Mar 7, 2019
Claire Fotheringham

Setting foot in the busy maternity hospital in West Africa in September 2011 , I was completely unprepared for what I found: women arriving on death’s door, with complications such as heavy bleeding and septic shock.

In the operating theatre, examining many of these women, I found trauma marks on the cervix, caused by objects such as sticks that had been inserted to terminate their pregnancies. Examples of unsafe abortion that had resulted in horrific injury.

Continued: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lack-of-safe-abortion-provision-a-global-health-issue-1.3816662

Africa: Unsafe Abortion - Neglected Emergency

Mar 4, 2019

Unsafe abortion still accounts for at least one in 12 maternal deaths globally. And, compared to reductions in all the other direct causes of maternal deaths since 1990 - severe bleeding, severe infection, blood pressure disorders and obstructed labour - there has been little improvement in the negative impact of unsafe abortion.

Unsafe abortion is a procedure for terminating an unwanted pregnancy either by persons lacking the necessary skills or in an environment lacking minimal medical standards or both, as defined by the World Health Organization. Abortion, whether safe or unsafe, is a common event worldwide: approximately one in four pregnancies ended in an induced abortion during the period 2010-2014.

Continued: https://allafrica.com/stories/201903040646.html