Unsafe, illegal abortions that kill women: feature or bug?
by digby
How many more women have to die?
Seven million women a year in the developing world are treated in healthcare facilities for complications following unsafe abortion, finds a study published today (19 August) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (BJOG).
Every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Unsafe abortion accounts for 8 - 15% of maternal deaths and remains one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide.[1] However, these figures do not take into account the number of women who are surviving but need hospital treatment.
This study, conducted by the Guttmacher Institute in the US, used data from official health statistics and scientific studies from 26 countries in the developing world to calculate the number of women attending hospital for treatment following an unsafe abortion. Data were adjusted to take into account women receiving treatment in the private sector and to exclude those who needed treatment after miscarriage.
Results found that the highest rate of treatment after unsafe abortion was in Pakistan, with rates of 14.6 per 1000 women aged between 15 and 44. The lowest treatment rate was found in Brazil with 2.4 per 1000 women.
The results indicate that the regional rate is highest in Asia (excluding Eastern Asia) at 8.2 per 1000 women (4.6 million women per year), driven largely by high rates in South-Central Asia. It is followed by Africa, with an average regional rate of 6.7 (around 1.6 million women per year), and Latin America and the Caribbean, with a regional rate of 5.3 (757 000 women per year).
In addition to the health burden for women, treatment for complications from unsafe abortion also results in substantial costs to both women, their families and healthcare systems. An estimated $232 million is spent each year by healthcare systems on post-abortion care in the developing world.
Dr Susheela Singh from the Guttmacher Institute and lead author of the study, said:
"We already know that around 22 million unsafe abortions take place each year, resulting in the death of at least 22,000 women[2]. Our study provides further evidence about the number of women who suffer injury as a result of complications due to unsafe abortion, often leading to chronic disability. These statistics represent only part of the problem as they do not include women who need care but do not visit health facilities.
I'm fairly sure that most "pro-life" people are happy to have these women suffer terrible pain and long term health consequences -- or death -- for having abortions. They won't admit this, instead pretending that women are little mentally disabled children who have no idea what they're doing, but it's fairly obvious in the way they speak of women in other contexts that they actually believe that women have plenty of agency and they routinely use it for evil ends. (Damn that Eve and her dastardly manipulations...)
What this study shows is that no matter how repressively religious a society is, no matter how terrible the social and legal consequences, no matter how overtly patriarchal the system, women will get abortions if they believe they need them and many suffer dire health consequences as a result.
Women have always had abortions, they always will. The only question is whether they are required to put their lives and health in danger to do it.
This is how it was in America before abortion was legal:
In 1963, domestic violence prompted Gerri Santoro to leave her husband, and she and her daughters returned to her childhood home. She took a job at Mansfield State Training School, where she met another employee, Clyde Dixon. The two began an extramarital affair — Dixon was also married — and Santoro became pregnant as a result.
When Sam Santoro announced he was coming from California to visit his daughters, Gerri Santoro feared for her life.[2] On June 8, 1964, six-and-a-half months into her pregnancy, she and Dixon checked into a motel in Norwich, Connecticut, under aliases. Their intent was to perform a self-induced abortion, using surgical instruments and a textbook, which Dixon had obtained from a co-worker at the Mansfield school. However, when Santoro began to hemorrhage, Dixon fled the motel. She died, at age 28, and her body was found the following morning by a maid.
Dixon was apprehended three days later. He was charged with manslaughter and "conspiracy to commit abortion" and sentenced to a year-and-a-day in prison. Police officers who worked on the case called this term "negligible"
This is the world they are consigning us back to, don't think they aren't. It's the world millions of women around the world have never left.
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