9 August 2025
By Akinnodi Francis, Ondo
A staggering 83 Nigerian women and girls die every year from preventable causes linked to poor access to family planning, experts have warned, as the country faces a deepening contraceptive shortage and massive funding cuts.
Also, every year, an estimated 6,321 Nigerian women undergo unsafe abortions, a grim indicator of the country’s deepening family planning crisis.
By Olubunmi Osoteku, Lagos
On Aug 30, 2024
A medical expert, Professor Adesegun Fatusi, has recommended the need for data-driven actions for bringing about tangible results in the promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). The expert disclosed that the fight against unsafe abortion and other sexual reproductive health issues remains a challenge due to conflicting voices on the matter.
… Highlighting that many individuals speaking out on abortion are driven by emotions, lack of data, misinformation, and imagination, Fatusi stressed that a shift towards evidence-based decision-making is crucial to addressing the challenge effectively. He said: “By allowing data to drive actions, interventions can be implemented with clear outcomes that everyone can understand.”
Continued: https://von.gov.ng/expert-recommends-data-for-promotion-of-sexual-reproductive-health-rights/
June 28, 2024
by Adekunle Yusuf
Across Nigeria, abortion remains a taboo subject, cloaked in stigma and silence in both northern and southern regions. Beyond the veil lies a stark reality: women face profound emotional scars, societal stigma and life-threatening risks due to heavily regulated and often unsafe procedures. Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF delves into the harsh realities of women’s experiences, navigating Nigeria’s complex cultural, religious and legal landscape, highlighting the urgent need for reforms to ensure safe and accessible healthcare for all women.
Ada’s story begins in the bustling city of Lagos, where the vibrant energy of the metropolis belies her inner turmoil. At 24, Ada found herself pregnant and unprepared, caught in the throes of an unplanned pregnancy with her boyfriend, who quickly vanished upon hearing the news. “I felt like I was drowning,” Ada recalls, her voice a fragile whisper. “Everywhere I turned, there was judgment, and no one to turn to for help.”
Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/voices-unheard-tales-of-stigma-suffering-of-women-seeking-abortion/
Yinka Adeniran, Ibadan
March 18, 2024
There have been complaints about the rate at which women and girls die as a result of unsafe abortions. To tame this silent killer, experts and stakeholders in the Sexual Reproductive Health sector converged on Ibadan, the Oyo State capital to ruminate on how to do more for women and girls. YINKA ADENIRAN looks at the issue and efforts to tame the menace of unsafe abortion among women and girls.
For months, Sola Oduwole (pseudonym) could not forgive herself. She felt guilty as she felt she had a role to play in what had befallen her family. She just lost a sister (Olawunmi) who underwent surgery to cut off one of her breasts after she was diagnosed of breast cancer. Painfully, she died weeks after the surgery.
Continued: https://thenationonlineng.net/unsafe-abortion-taming-a-leading-silent-killer/
by Sade Oguntola
August 31, 2023
INDUCED abortion is illegal in Nigeria, except when performed to save a woman’s life. Both the penal code, which is generally applied in the country’s northern states, and the criminal code, which generally applies in the southern states, allow this exception and the regions specify similar criminal penalties for noncompliance.
Yet, pregnancy terminations are quite common and because they are often performed clandestinely or by unskilled providers, they are sometimes unsafe. A recent survey indicated that unintended pregnancy and abortion are experienced by women worldwide.
Continued: https://tribuneonlineng.com/how-preventing-unwanted-pregnancies-can-reduce-abortion-deaths-experts/
By Olubunmi Osoteku, Ikeja
On Aug 26, 2023
Some Public health experts, including scholars and researchers, have decried the high rate of death resulting from unsafe abortion, especially among adolescents, in Nigeria and urged government to increase investment in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SHR).
The experts, who agreed that the lives of women and girls, aged 15-49, lost daily to abortion is worth more than the amount of funding required to provide the needed facilities and services to keep them alive, argued that comprehensive sexuality education should be provided for adolescents.
Continued: https://von.gov.ng/abortion-public-health-expert-decries-high-death-rate/
Dayo Ojerinde
25 October 2021
The Vice Chancellor, University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, has said unsafe abortion is the fourth leading cause of maternal death globally.
Fatusi, at a webinar organised by the Academy for Health Development, said safe abortion were procedures carried out using a World Health Organisation-recommended method appropriate to the pregnancy duration and done by a trained provider.
Continued: https://punchng.com/unsafe-abortion-fourth-leading-cause-of-maternal-death-vc/
October 19, 2021
by Chioma Obinna
With over half a million women in Nigeria suffer from complications from abortions annually; medical experts have lamented preventable deaths from abortions in Nigeria and other medium countries.
According to Guttmacher Institute 2020 report, an estimated 33 abortions occur annually per 1,000 women aged 15-49, with little variation across Eastern, Middle, Southern and Western Africa but the rate has remained largely unchanged over the past two decades.
Continued: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/10/experts-lament-high-rate-of-unsafe-abortions-in-nigeria/
By Stanley Akpunonu
17 December 2020
Scientists have urged the federal, state, and local governments to work with drug sellers associations to improve the quality of abortion medication services in the country, given their critical role in providing drugs to prevent severe morbidity and mortality caused by unsafe abortion procedures.
The scientists who made known to the media the findings of their study on Women’s Experience with Self-Managed Misoprostol Abortions in Lagos State said governments must take steps to train drug sellers to share key information on the safe and effective use of the World Health Organisation recommended abortion medication, Misoprostol, to protect women from dying from unwanted pregnancy and related conditions.
Continued: https://guardian.ng/features/training-drug-sellers-on-safe-abortion-to-reduce-maternal-mortality/
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