How dangerous are unsafe abortions? WHO report paints a grim picture

A WHO report reveals that 73 million abortions occur annually, with unsafe procedures causing severe physical complications, mental trauma, and major public health burdens

Tisha Elizabeth Jacob
December 10, 2025

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that around 73 million induced abortions take place across the globe each year. Six out of 10 (61 per cent) of all unintended pregnancies, and 3 out of 10 (29 per cent) of all pregnancies, end in induced abortion.

While one might look at abortion as a matter of individual choice, it is also a public health issue that affects communities and countries.

Lack of access to safe, affordable, timely and respectful abortion care, and the stigma associated with abortion, pose risks to women’s physical and mental well-being throughout their lives. Estimates from 2012 also indicate that in developing countries alone, 7 million women per year were treated in hospital facilities for complications of unsafe abortion, WHO reported.

Continued: https://www.theweek.in/news/health/2025/12/10/how-dangerous-are-unsafe-abortions-who-report-paints-a-grim-picture.html

10.12.2025

News

abortion as public health issue

abortion stigma

maternal mortality

World Health Organization

Can India finally ensure stigma-free and safe abortion access?

The Abortion Rights Alliance will advocate for legal and policy reforms that expand access to safe, dignified abortion care without fear or delay

October 10, 2025

The Abortion Rights Alliance for Inclusion, Safety and Empowerment (ARISE), a national alliance of public health professionals, safe abortion providers, legal advocates, feminist and human rights organisations, was launched to demand urgent, coordinated action to ensure universal, stigma-free access to safe abortion services across India.

Despite the 2021 amendment to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, which has expanded conditional access to safe abortion services for a wider category of abortion seekers, access remains deeply uneven. In a landmark judgement in 2022, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy up to 24 weeks of gestation, within the context of the amended MTP Act, despite her marital status.

Continued: https://www.healthcareradius.in/awareness-and-promotion/abortion-pregnancy

10.10.2025

Abortion Rights Alliance for Inclusion Safety and Empowerment

abortion stigma

ARISE

Asia Safe Abortion Partnership

Dr Kalpana Apte

Dr Suchitra Dalvie

Family Planning Association of India

IPAS Development Foundation

Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act

Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act

Vinoj Manning

Kenya – Girls kick abortion stigma out in football tournament

Event marking International Safe Abortion Day affirmed life-saving healthcare

by TOM JALIO
03 October 2025

A strong message was sent last Sunday in the push to change the narrative on unsafe abortion.

Teen mums and adolescent girls faced off in a football match in Kajiado county organised by Usawa Reproductive Health Association and Youth Friendly Centre. The game was played at Kasoro Bahari Stadium in Embulbul, Ngong.

Usawa Teen Mums and Embulbul Girls did more than score goals, they kicked out abortion stigma.

Continued: https://www.the-star.co.ke/sasa/2025-10-03-girls-kick-abortion-stigma-out-in-football-tournament

03.10.2025

News

abortion stigma

African Population and Health Research Centre

International Safe Abortion Day

Jolly Mukangu

Usawa Reproductive Health Association

Abortion access in Kenya continues to be hotly debated, amid deaths

By Rédaction Africanews and AP
26/09/2025

This is where 25-year-old Mary Olouch was buried after dying from a botched abortion in Karabok, a village in western Kenya. Next door, her young son flips through photos of the mother he barely knew.

Community health volunteer Loice Ochieng believes Mary stayed silent out of fear of stigma. Speaking in Luo, Loice said Mary likely hid the truth because she knew abortion was illegal and feared rejection from her community.

Mary’s story is not unique. In Kenya, abortion is only legal in certain circumstances, such as when a woman’s life or health is at risk. However, the interpretation of what constitutes a health risk remains widely debated.

Continued: https://www.africanews.com/amp/2025/09/26/abortion-access-in-kenya-continues-to-be-hotly-debated-amid-deaths/

26.09.2025

News

abortion stigma

Africa Christian Professionals Forum

Why safe abortion access remains a struggle for Indian women

Abortion in India often proves to be a tumultuous experience for women, marked by pervasive social stigma, misinformation about legal rights, and exorbitant financial burdens, despite the country's progressive laws

By Tisha Elizabeth Jacob
August 31, 2025

Richa Saxena walked the hospital corridor, whispers trailing behind her—not of care or concern, but of judgment. She was at the health centre for an abortion. A doctor herself—a third-year resident in Maharashtra—she felt each gaze sear into her. She was unmarried. The news spread quickly among the nurses.

“I was six weeks pregnant,” she says. “I was mentally prepared, but not for the slut-shaming and the expense.” The hostility and comments from nurses and taunts from bystanders about her ‘missing husband’ left her humiliated—even within her own profession.

Continued: https://www.theweek.in/health/more/2025/08/30/abortion-india-stigma-cost-mtp-challenges.html

31.08.2025

Abortion drug could help reduce risk of breast cancer, group of medics says

Stigma around mifepristone is stopping studies, experts in reproductive health claim in Lancet opinion piece

Denis Campbell Health policy editor
Thu 14 Aug 2025

A drug used in medical abortions could help prevent women at high risk of breast cancer from developing the disease, according to an international group of doctors and scientists.

However, “stigma” around mifepristone is stopping pharmaceutical companies from investigating its potential as a new treatment doctors could offer to reduce the risk of breast cancer, they say.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/aug/14/abortion-drug-could-help-reduce-risk-of-breast-cancer-group-of-medics-says

Goethe immortalised the shaming of German women 200 years ago – we’re still at it

Abortion is criminalised and stigmatised – and now the right has found a new female scapegoat in its US-style war on bodily autonomy

Fatma Aydemir
Sat 19 Jul 2025

Every nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe’s play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is not the protagonist, but his “love interest”, Gretchen – a teenage girl groomed by the old man, impregnated and socially ostracised. Her solution? She drowns her “illegitimate” newborn child, accepts her death penalty and rejects Faust’s offer to save her from prison. In God’s mercy, the Christian girl seeks salvation and off goes Faust with the devil to new adventures in Faust, Part Two.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2025/jul/19/germany-goethe-shaming-women-abortion

19.07.2025

Opinion

abortion stigma

Alice Weidel

Alternative for Germany

Fatma Aydemir

Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf

Beyond decriminalisation: Why legal change alone won’t guarantee safe abortion in Nigeria

Women Empowering Women Initiative (WEWIN)
July 15, 2025

The conversation around abortion in Nigeria is slowly shifting. In Lagos State, the suspension of the Safe Termination of Pregnancy (STOP) guideline continues to highlight just how contentious and urgent the issue of safe abortion is. Across global platforms, there is growing advocacy for decriminalising abortion to reduce unsafe procedures and maternal deaths. These policy debates and calls for reform are essential, but they are only the beginning.

Decriminalising abortion or adopting progressive guidelines can remove the threat of prosecution. They can provide frameworks for hospitals to offer care without fear of sanctions. But laws on paper do not always translate to safety in practice. Without deliberate efforts to address stigma, health system readiness, community norms, and the broader socio-economic barriers that women face, legal change alone will fall short of ensuring that abortion is truly safe, accessible, and dignified.

Continued: https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/beyond-decriminalisation-why-legal-change-alone-wont-guarantee-safe-abortion-in-nigeria/

15.07.2025

News

abortion stigma

decriminalisation of abortion

Women Empowering Women Initiative

Uganda – Stop fearing “abortion merchants” and start empowering women

Unsafe abortion is not merely a legal issue; it's tied to gender-based violence, lack of access to healthcare, and gendered power imbalances. A holistic feminist model requires addressing these systemic factors.

Saturday, July 12, 2025
By Penelope Sanyu, Chief Steward FemmeForte

This is an analysis of the “Crack the whip on abortion merchants” editorial from the Daily Monitor of July 8, through the lens of FemmeForte Uganda’s feminist vision. The editorial strongly criticizes so-called “abortion merchants,” calling for enforcement of Uganda’s abortion laws. It frames abortion as criminal and morally reprehensible, pressing police to “crack the whip” on providers. It makes little allowance for nuance, even in cases vulnerable to unsafe abortion such as rape, extreme poverty, or health risks.

Continued: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/letters/stop-fearing-abortion-merchants-and-start-empowering-women-5114836

12.07.2025

Nigeria – Why are women still whispering about their bodies?

Women Empowering Women Initiative (WEWIN)
June 11, 2025

In Nigeria today, conversations about women’s bodies are still conducted in hushed tones. From menstruation to contraception, and especially when it comes to pregnancy decisions, silence and shame often shape the narrative. Behind closed doors, women talk. However, their needs are buried under stigma in public, policy, and healthcare settings.

This silence is not just cultural; it is deeply political. It affects how women access care, how they are treated when they seek help, and whether they live or die when faced with reproductive health crises. For many, the stakes of whispering are not just personal; they’re fatal.

Continued: https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/why-are-women-still-whispering-about-their-bodies/

11.06.2025