Stakeholders in the health sector have raised the alarm over the prevalence of unsafe abortions in Nigeria.
According to the experts who spoke on the matter, Nigeria records over 610,000 unsafe abortions annually, prompting the call for women in the country to opt for contraceptives instead of engaging in unsafe, unhygienic abortions .
This issue among other health related concerns dominated discussions in Abuja at a summit to commemorate the World Contraception Day.
The summit, which raised awareness on women’s Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights was organised by an NGO, Media, Health and Rights Initiative of Nigeria.
The theme of the conference highlighted women’s freedom to plan and choose when to get pregnant.
The Country Director, IPAs Nigeria Health Foundation, Dr. Lucky Palmer, in his opening address, stressed the imperative for Nigerian women to be enlightened enough to choose what they want.
According to him, most women are not able to express what they want and sometimes, they can’t even express their feelings when they get to the hospital.
He highlighted the plight of women with disabilities, citing a case of a woman with hearing impairment, who contracted sexually transmitted disease.
Dr. Palmer said the doctors attending to her had to invite her son to interpret her sign language, which she found embarrassing.
“This is the reality most of our women go through, maybe because of disability or financial constraints or both.
“Unplanned pregnancies are a great challenge but these pregnancies are preventable. We shouldn’t be having unplanned pregnancies if contraceptives are free.
“Nigeria contributes about 28 percent of maternal deaths in the world,” he stated.
He charged stakeholders in the health sector not to relent in their efforts in addressing the challenges, saying, “Contraceptives should not only be for married women.
“They should also be for young people. Other animals have sex for procreation but human beings have sex for pleasure. If we are to prevent unnecessary deaths among our women, it is imperative we have this conversation.”
According to him, of the 610,000 unsafe abortions carried out in the country annually, about 285,000 of the women experience complications.
He added that of the 285,000 that develop complications, about 20,000 of them die annually.
Citing unsafe abortions as a major contributor to the country’s high maternal mortality rate, the experts listed Nigeria among the highest in the world with 1,5000 women in every 100,000 cases.
They noted that only 16 percent of women of reproductive age use any form of contraceptives, with even fewer using modern methods with success rates.
According to them, 28 out of every 100 pregnancies in Nigeria are unintended with 48 percent of these pregnancies ending in induced abortion.
They attributed 72 percent of deaths among girls below the age of 19 to complications arising from unsafe abortions.”Despite legal restrictions, cases of induced abortions are quite common with an estimated 1.25 million abortions performed in 2012 alone,” they said.
