Abortion in Nigeria is illegal and carries a heavy jail sentence–up to 14 years imprisonment unless it is performed to save the life of the pregnant woman. In 2012, about one-fourth of Nigeria’s 9.2 million pregnancies were unintended —a rate of 59 unintended pregnancies per 1,000 women aged 15–49. More than half (56%) of these unintended pregnancies ended in an induced abortion; 32% ended in an unplanned birth and 12% in a miscarriage. Eventually, one is led to ask one question. Of what use is a legislation that just not fails to deter deviants but also causes more burden on the health care system?
In that same year, an estimated 1.25 million induced abortions occurred. For all we know, we might have double or triple that number today. To make it clearer, 1 in 7 pregnancies ended in abortion that year. Today, unsafe abortion practices are a major contributor to the country’s high levels of maternal death, ill health and disability. The maternal mortality rate of the country happens to be one of the highest in the world. To a large extent, we have unsafe abortion and its numerous complications to thank for that. Even in the face of widespread publicity, contraceptive use nationally remains where we don’t really want it to be, still low. Despite the deeply stemmed religious and cultural beliefs that vehemently oppose the practice of abortion, we might really want to consider our options in the country.
Complications of unsafe abortion range from pain and bleeding to more serious conditions, including sepsis (systemic infection), pelvic infections and injury from instruments—and even death. About 40% of women undergoing abortion experience complications serious enough to require medical treatment. Why? The abortions are seldom carried out by qualified professionals. Even if they are, they are not carried out in the right conditions. Eventually, the complications have to be managed in the public health system, a system subsidized by the government. It’s no secret that unsafe abortion places a serious burden on the nation’s health system as well on the health and well-being of women and their families. Truth be told, a bigger question to answer would be ‘Should we focus on expanding the family planning programs or legalizing abortion?’. Certainly, a family planning program that includes counseling on a wide range of contraceptive methods and the ability to easily switch methods when needed will help to drastically reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. Even then, what will we do about the inevitability of unwanted pregnancies? After all, family planning fails sometimes. Eventually we still have to deal with the possibility of abortions.
In Nigeria, it’d be practically impracticable to totally decriminalize abortion, given our strong religious and cultural beliefs. Moreover, it doesn’t solve the problem of unwanted pregnancies and the risk associated with abortion, safe or unsafe. Better family planning is certainly the way to go. However, shouldn’t the abortion law be a tad flexible?
Reference: www.guttmacher.org
