The Health and Social Consequences of Abortion

The Health and Social Consequences of Abortion

The debates on abortion and its legalization often emphasize a broader problem: that of public health, due to the high incidence of maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from complications of unsafe abortions usually performed clandestinely. The international community has acknowledged this fact in the Program of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD). This document highlights the need for women to have access to medical facilities where they can interrupt a pregnancy in the best possible conditions (Naciones Unidas, 1995). Likewise, the reduction of maternal mortality levels by two thirds by the year 2015 is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals. To achieve this goal, it is essential to improve the provision of reproductive health services for women, including abortion.

The World Health Organization estimates that in the year 2000, there were 3,700,000 unsafe abortions in Latin America and points out that the risks associated with these abortions are linked to the professional training levels of the persons that perform them, the conditions in which they are carried out, the methods used to interrupt pregnancy, the women’s health status and the stage of their pregnancy (World Health Organization, 2004); (Paxman et al., 1993)). At the same time, the scope of clandestine abortion in Latin American and Caribbean countries is reflected in the fact that in 1995, there were only 200,000 legal abortions, as opposed to the millions performed clandestinely that same year (Rocha and Andalaft Neto, 2003).

Limited access to abortion, even in countries where it is authorized in certain circumstances, is a telling reflection of prevailing social and economic inequalities, particularly in developing nations, where the victims of such inequalities are primarily women. It also indicates the lack of respect towards the free exercise of women’s rights, particularly their reproductive and sexual rights. As Llovet and Ramos point out (2001) “Documenting the high levels of morbidity and mortality associated with illegal abortion is crucial from the perspective of public health, as well as helping to answer the concern about the link between women’s social status, reproductive health indicators and the degree of validity of their human rights” (p.287). Likewise, according to the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy –currently the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR)– (2000) these consequences “not only affect women that decide to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, but also produce devastating results at the social, economic and cultural level in countries where access (to abortion) is restricted”.

Generally speaking, legality and safe conditions go hand in hand, as borne out by the fact that maternal morbidity and mortality levels due to abortion have declined drastically in countries where abortion has been made legal. Some authors consider the most important determinant of the impact of abortion on women’s health to be its legal status (Deidre, 1999; Anderson, 1998; Berer, 2004).

In a context of limited access to abortion, which encourages its clandestine practice, it is extremely difficult to have a precise overview of the interruption of pregnancy. Under these circumstances, it is virtually impossible to determine the exact consequences of abortion, which are reflected in the various spheres of the lives of women, their families and society as a whole (Yanda et al., 2003). This is why another consequence of the illegality of abortion is that it makes it difficult to conduct research on the issue and obtain reliable measures of the phenomenon. Moreover, the few indicators available are often estimates carried out on the basis of surveys undertaken on specific populations (Guillaume, 2004).

^ Top of page

Home | Summary | Acknowledgements |